The Mothers of Invention – “Lonely Little Girl” (1967) Review | There Will Come a Time When Everybody Who Is Lonely Will Be Free to Sing and Dance and Love

Kronomyth 2.5: We’re only in it for the Man Rays.

The counter-culture of the Sixties produced several notable court jesters, notably George Carlin and Frank Zappa. Both are now dead, but through the magic of technology their outrage lives on. Having earlier opined that beauty counters brutality by rising above it, I would add that parody meets brutality at its own level. The danger is that parody can quickly become a proxy for public outrage. We live in a time where comedians make jokes about dictators and criminals, and public ridicule becomes their punishment. Which might be effective if dictators and criminals cared what you think about them, but they don’t. Unwittingly (though often quite wittily), comedians placate the public and, in doing so, castrate our penal system. Which I realize has little to do with music on the surface, but the Mothers of Invention were never really in the business of making music so much as they were making fun of the music business. On this single (an early taste of We’re Only in It for the Money), the Mothers present Lonely Little Girl, which here also includes “What’s the Ugliest Part of Your Body” (see comment below, since my brain and fingers apparently weren’t on speaking terms when I wrote this) and some extra sounds at the end. It’s brilliant satire that turns the music of the older generation (doo wop) against the young culture. Mother People is more of an artistic statement, juxtaposing noisy psychedelic rock with classical music while this time defending the freaks.

The Product

A1. Lonely Little Girl (Frank Zappa) (2:44)
B1. Mother People (Frank Zappa) (2:30)

The Plastic

Released on 7-inch single in November 1967 in the US (Verve, VK-10570).