国籍：美国
简介：The Mothers oflnvention were led bycomposer, guitarist, singer, andbandleader FrankZappa, a singular musical figure during a performingand recording career that lasted from the 1960s to the'9Os. Hisdisparate influences included doo wop music and avant-gardeclassical music; although the Mothers were called a rock & roll band formuch of their years together, Zappa used them to create a hybrid stylethat bordered on jazz and complicated, modern serious music. As if hismusic were not challenging enough, he overlayit with highly satiricaland sometimes abstractly humorous lyrics and song titles that markedhim as coming out of a provocative literary tradition that included Beatpoets like Allen Ginsberg and edgycomedians like Lenny Bruce,Nominally, he was a popular musician, but his recordings rarely earnedsignificant airplayor sales, yet he was able to gain control of hisrecorded work and issue it successfully through his own labels whilealso touring internationally, in part because of the respect he earnedfrom a dedicated cult of fans and manyserious musicians, and alsobecause he was an articulate spokesman who promoted himself into amedia star through extensive interviews he considered to be a part ofhis creative effort just like his music.
从艺历程：The band came together in 1964 when Zappa moved fromCucamonga,California to Los Angeles, and joined a band called theSoul Giants that featured his friend, singer Ray Collins, along with bassplayer Roy Estrada and drummerJimmyCarl Black. In short order, heinduced the group to play his original compositions instead of covers,and to change their name to the Mothers (reportedly on Mother's Day,May 10, 1965).
In Los Angeles, the Mothers were able to obtain a manager, HerbCohen, and audition successfully to appear in popular nightclubs suchas the Whiskey Go-Go by the fall of1965.There they were seen byrecord executive Tom Wilson, who signed them to the Verve Recordssubsidiaryof MGM Records on March 1, 1966. (Verve required that thesuggestive name "The Mothers" be modified to "The Mothers ofInvention.") The contract called for the group to submit five albums intwo years, and theyimmediately went into the studio to record thefirst ofthose albums, Freak Qut! By this time, Elliot Ingber had joinedthe group on guitar, making it a quintet.An excess of material andZappa's agreement to accept a reduced publishing royalty led to thehighlyunusual decision to release it as a double-LP, an unprecedenteoindulgence for a debut act that was practically unheard, much less foran established one.(Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde appeared duringthe same period, but it was his seventh album.)
Freak Out! was released on June 27, 1966.lt was not an immediatesuccess commercially, but eventually entered the Billboard more thansix months later. During the summer of 1966, Zappa hired drummerDenny Bruce and keyboardist Don Preston, making the Mothers ofInvention a septet, but byNovember 1966, when the Mothers ofInvention went back into the studio to record their second album.Absolutely Free, Bruce had been replaced by Billy Mundi; Ingber hadbeen replaced byJim Fielder: and Zappa had hired two horn playersBunk Gardner on wind instruments and Jim "Motorhead" Sherwood onsaxophone, bringing the band up to a nine-piece unit.The album wasrecorded in four days and released in June 1967. lt entered the chartsin Julyand reached the Top 50.
