Frank Zappa’s Freak Out! Hot Spots Map Is Now Available Online
The printed guide to Los Angeles countercultural hot spots has gone digital to mark a 60th-anniversary reissue of Zappa’s debut with the Mothers of Invention.
In celebration of the 60th anniversary of Freak Out!, the debut record from Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention, a famous map of Los Angeles associated with the album has gone digital for the first time.
The Freak Out! Hot Spots Map was initially introduced as a mail-order promotion in support of the 1966 record. Inside the front cover of early copies of the double-LP, a small advertisement encouraged fans to pay $1.00 to receive a printed copy of the “Freak Out! Hot Spots” map, a guide to some of the most important landmarks in the city’s ‘60s counterculture. (The advertisement also promised to show “where the heat has been busting frequently, with tips on safety in police-terror situations,” and offer “no commercial potential.”)
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For decades, the map has been available only in extremely rare paper form—but no longer. Now any interested party can explore the guide from the comfort of their home, navigating LA through Zappa’s off-kilter lens. Notable venues mentioned across the map are the Blue Grotto Cafe (“used to be nice and quiet until it got busted in the middle of the night”); the restaurant Canter’s (“THE TOP FREAKO WATERING HOLE AND SOCIAL HQ”); TTG Recordings (“where we cut our album”); and many more. The online version also features additional information on how each location has evolved over the past 60 years.
The online revival of the map is part of a wider reissue campaign marking 60 years of Freak Out! An anniversary box set, complete with 5 separate discs, is out on September 25. Included in the new edition are a remastered version of Freak Out!’s 1966 stereo mix, a previously-unreleased pre-master mix, a mono-master mix, a live recording of a 1966 show at the Fillmore in San Francisco, and a full LP of bonus material. An accompanying booklet also gathers rare photos, essays, and a printed edition of the original Freak Out! Hotspots Map.
Shop the 60th anniversary editions of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention’sFreak Out! here.
