MGM

When they first heard us
We were working at a club in Hollywood
Called the Whisky à Go-Go, and the A&R man
Uh, producer, Tom Wilson, came in, he heard
Us play one song
It was the Watts riot song and that's sort of
A R&B type thing
So, he figures, "Oh, topical R&B
Group! Just what we need!", you know?

So, he phones up the company
"yeah, we got one, " da
Dat dat da we get into the studio, you know
Two months later we go into the studio
To record and they didn't know what
Was happening he got on the phone, we, first
We did "Any Way The Wind Blows, " that was
The first thing we recorded
And the second thing
We did was "Who Are The Brain Police?
" and by the time we finished "Brain Police
" his head was going around like this, you
Know, and he says, "Wait
What happened to that other one that
I heard at the Whisky à
Go-Go?" and he called back to New York and
He said, "We got something
Strange happening here, "
And the whole project
Just expanded incredibly, you know
Everybody got real thrilled all of a sudden
They thought they really had a
Hot item on their hands

Then the cost of recording Freak
Out! kept booming, it, uh Instead of
Starting off saying, "Well, you guys, uh
You guys are real swell
We're gonna give ya twenty-thousand dollars
Which is approximately four times the cost
Of the average rock and roll
Album to manufacture and, uh
You're going to turn out one
Heck of a good album, " instead
They kept trying to keep the budget
Down, but it expanded up to twenty-thousand
Dollars they reached that point, they
Didn't wanna spend any more and
Figured, "Well, it'll sell
We'll spend five thousand
Dollars promoting it" So when it was
Finally put on the stands
Our promotion budget on the album
Was what you'd call peanuts

Absolutely Free had a promotion budget of
Twenty-five thousand dollars
And, consequently
Got up to about number 20 on
The charts freak Out! never
Got up to number 20 on the charts
But it's still selling
After about a year and a
Half and it sells, regularly
Between four and eight thousand copies a
Week and it won't stop