| Who Are the Brain Police? | |
| Cover: | FZWhoAreTheBrainPoliceCover.jpg |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | The Mothers of Invention |
| Album: | Freak Out! |
| B-Side: | Trouble Every Day |
| Recorded: | March 9, 1966 |
| Genre: | Experimental rock |
| Label: | Verve |
| Producer: | Frank Zappa |
| Prev Title: | How Could I Be Such a Fool? |
| Prev Year: | 1966 |
| Next Title: | Big Leg Emma |
| Next Year: | 1967 |
"Who Are the Brain Police?" is a Frank Zappa song, performed by The Mothers of Invention, released on the Mothers' debut album, Freak Out!. It was released by Verve Records as a single in 1966. Zappa said the song had a religious theme, according to one source.[1]
Zappa wrote about the song on the Freak Out! liner notes: "At five o’clock in the morning someone kept singing this in my mind and made me write it down. I will admit to being frightened when I finally played it out loud and sang the words."[2]
In a 1988 interview, Zappa added:
The song's structure was described in detail by AllMusic:
The song was stated to be a "direct defiance of top 40 radio". Repetitive lyrics were noted as part of this "defiance".[3] The song was also cited by Mojo magazine as "one of the scariest songs to ever emerge from the rock psyche". While comparing it to Kafka, Mojo described the song as "a vision of contemporary America where personal identity and individuality is erased".[4]
with: