Editing Absolutely Free (section)

==Background and recording==
''[[Freak Out!]]'' cost Verve $20,000 to make, more than double the cost of a typical album at the time. When it struggled to sell, the record company only allowed a budget of $11,000 for the follow up, which was recorded on four-track over just four days from November 15–18, 1966 at TTG studios in Los Angeles, with additional mixing and editing at MGM in New York City a week later.<ref name="libretto">''Absolutely Free'' libretto</ref> [[Tom Wilson (record producer)|Tom Wilson]] again sat in the producer's chair, although it is generally agreed that he took a hands-off approach and let Zappa have full creative control. Unlike ''[[Freak Out!]]'', which used extensive orchestration, the budget this time only allowed for orchestral additions to "Brown Shoes Don't Make It", with the band playing virtually live in the studio for most tracks. Since many of the songs were complex multi-sectional pieces, the group would do up to 30 takes of each specific section of a track, which were then strung together in editing.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.afka.net/Articles/1993-summer_Ptolemaic_Terrascope.htm|title=The Mothers Tapes (Spool Three)- Don Preston|access-date=22 June 2024}}</ref> According to Zappa, the group had "one day with 15 minutes per tune to do all the vocals on that album. That's right. It's called 'sing or get off the pot'."<ref>{{cite magazine | last = Fricke | first = David | date = April 1979 | title = Bad Taste is Timeless: Cruising Down Memory Lane With Frank Zappa | url = https://www.afka.net/Articles/1979-04_Trouser_Press.htm | magazine = Trouser Press | access-date = 22 June 2024}}</ref>