Editing Absolutely Free (section)

==Release and reception==
The album was eventually released on May 26, 1967. This was incidentally the same day as the UK release of ''[[Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band]]'', which also had the idea of printed lyrics and no gaps between its songs; had ''Absolutely Free'''s release not been significantly delayed by issues over its cover art and lyrics, it would have predated The Beatles on these innovations. The album fared much better overall than ''[[Freak Out!]]'', charting at #41 on Billboard and becoming a favorite of the underground.

In a contemporary review, ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' magazine wondered whether the band were putting their audience on, but concluded that the album would rack up huge sales.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Billboard Album Reviews|magazine=Billboard|date=1 July 1967|page=68|url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/60s/1967/Billboard%201967-07-01.pdf|access-date=22 June 2024}}</ref> Retrospectively, the album has received high praise as an early peak for Zappa's lyrical and compositional innovation, which had evolved considerably since ''[[Freak Out!]]''. [[AllMusic]] calls it a "fabulously inventive record, bursting at the seams with ideas"<ref name="Huey"/> while ''The New Rolling Stone Album Guide'' awarded four-and-a-half stars. [[Robert Christgau]] of ''[[The Village Voice]]'' was somewhat less charitable, claiming that "as rock and roll it's a moderately amusing novelty record, much too obvious in its satire."<ref name="Robert"/>

In the book ''Necessity Is...'', former [[The Mothers of Invention|Mothers of Invention]] band member [[Ray Collins (rock musician)|Ray Collins]] said that ''Absolutely Free'' is probably his favorite of the classic Mothers albums.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q9AkNKdIuEcC |page=51 |title=Necessity Is: The Early Years of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention |isbn=9780946719518 |last=James |first=Billy |year=2002 }}</ref>