Absolutely Free

Recorded in November 1966 at TTG Studios in Los Angeles, then edited and mixed at MGM in New York, and released by Verve. Wilson is credited as producer, but Zappa was in de facto control. Only Brown Shoes Don't Make It has outside orchestration, with two violins, a viola, a cello, a trumpet and a contrabass clarinet added; the Mothers played their own backgrounds elsewhere. The band had grown since Freak Out! with Bunk Gardner, Don Preston, Billy Mundi and Jim Fielder, though Fielder left before release and his name was removed from the credits.

The record is laid out as two oratorios. The two sides are titled Absolutely Free and The M.O.I. American Pageant. The lyrics were not printed on the album; instead an advert in the gatefold offered a libretto booklet by mail for one dollar. It came out on the day Sgt. Pepper was released in Britain and reached 41 on Billboard. Billboard's contemporary review wondered whether the band were putting the audience on but predicted huge sales.