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Freak Out Hot Spots Map - Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention - 1966/67
Here is your opportunity to own a beautiful copy* of theFreak Out! Map from 1967. With the release of Freak Out!, The Mothers' debut LP, listeners could send in a dollar and get this map of LA's counter-culture. This one-sided version of the map was slated for inclusion in the album Absolutely Free.
This item that will look great framed. Note that the maps are folded for easy mailing, but still look fantastic on the wall.
Original 1st Editions (for the Freak Out! LP) were double-sided, these are one-sided. Those originals sell from $1,000 to more than $10,000! Here is the next best thing.
The map depicts a large slice of Los Angeles between Hollywood and Laurel Canyon in the north and Beverly Boulevard a few miles south, and from Doheny Drive in the west to Vine Street several miles east, perhaps eight or nine square miles in all. Three dozen locales are numbered (from 1-35 and, in a nice Zappa-esque touch, 69), all described in long text columns flanking the map. They include clubs (such as The Troubadour, “stunning in its concept” and the Red Velvet, “HQ for the plastic & pompadour set”); places to eat (Nikki’s Too, among others, offering “surprisingly good hamburgers” “in the company of a lot of really creepy people”); motels (including the Tropicana, “a groupie’s paradise”); and police stations (like the West L.A. Sheriff’s Station, a “moral arsenal” where one can hear “bold Aryan operatives rave about long hair freakos and the last John Birch meeting”).
The anti-authoritarian tone is much enhanced by the small orange icons of explosions and mushroom clouds indicating the many busts and “police-terror situations” near known freak “hotspots”; a facsimile of “a cop-out card carried by finks for protection during a routine investigation”; a photo of three cops manhandling a suspect; and a subscription form for theL.A. Free Press,“cognoscenti HQ, beacon of truth, champion of teen & otherwise justice, nice people and more”. The “freak sanctuary” of Laurel Canyon is shown at upper left, surrounded by bright-orange[?] trees and mercifully free of police presence. In a nice counterpoint, a “cultural desert” is shown in the opposite corner, populated by faceless people and dotted with identikit houses.
*Note: I do not sell the items with a certificate of authenticity since I do not have the expertise to do so. Because I cannot authenticate the items, I sell them at reproduction rates. Certified copies of this item go for up to $1,000.
