Essential? Captain Beefheart – Trout Mask Replica
Courtesy of Carsten Petersen – a controversial and strange piece of flesh
*The views of this review do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editor
Finally, the day has come. I have been looking forward to it for so long! Finally, in my 29 years of living, I get the opportunity and I wanna thank everybody who make this possible, mum, dad, my friends, my buddy, Alejandro De Luna, who did this site and of course Captain Beefheart. It is finally the time: I can tell a Chuck Norris joke and people will read it! So here we go…let me limber up first, ok, here we go: Chuck Norris has listened to Trout Mask Replica of Captain Beefheart all the way through! ONCE! WITHOUT A PAUSE!
Now, let’s get serious, because this ones a whopper! And I mean the kind of whoppers that are hard to chew! It is Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart, an album that has received both praise and complete damnation. Why don’t I start this review by saying that I..well…don’t like the record?! I don’t outright hate it, but you see, as a fan of Frank Zappa, weird Pink Floyd stuff, freaked out Peter Gabriel etc. I thought nothing could beat me, but this album did. It is cruel on the ears, ugly beyond words, it is random, chaotic and just completely unenjoyable. No kidding…Why couldn’t I just keep reviewing Springsteen? You see, I asked our editor who runs this site to review Stevie Wonder…And what do I get?A white, ugly, bastardized, ear-destroying, freezing, freaky version with a mustache…and not even a cool mustache like good old Frank…
Captain Beefheart was born and raised as Don Glen Vliet and he grew up in the distance of the deserts of California. The rest of his story is typical for a future fucked up musician. Van Vliet grew up as a pretty isolated young dude, with girls being as far away from him as the cup of coffee I need so very badly now. He became friends with Frank Zappa and well, if Frank Zappa is the only friend of yours, you know you did something bad. Calling himself Captain Beefheart, the guy started to record his first albums in the underground music scene. His sound from the very beginning was a very dirty, loud and raw version of the blues with a singing style that was basically deep growling, to imagine his singing, just think of an earlier version of Tom Waits. After a while, he formed a band that was simply called his “Magic Band”. After my introductory paragraphs, it shouldn’t come as a big surprise that despite the name, this band did not produce the typical Summer of Love Sound.
READ ‘THE CREAM OF ZAPPA’
Now, before getting into the album, it is pretty important to tell you, what working with the Captain was like. Basically, he was a mean, bitter, angry and paranoid dictator. His musicians, his magic band, had to work day and night, they were completely forbidden of partying and when doing or saying something wrong, they were sure to be a victim of Beefheart´s vicious attacks. No, the guy wasn’t an easy fellow to get along with, apparently he was one of these people who needed to be liked pretty badly but you know how it is, as soon as they suspense someone to jump ship, things can turn really ugly.
How was the album recorded? Well the thing is, Beefheart recorded the album separate from his musicians! Beefheart was in the studio, singing whatever stuff came into his mind and later on put his ramblings to the music recorded by the band, no matter if these two fit together or not. Second, Beefheart wrote every frigging note of the record but it was his goal that each and every musician played something completely different at the very same time and do NOTHING that would even closely resemble structure or a traditional approach at songwriting, melody or playing. The result, as you can guess, is a real mess, something for the true die hard music freak.
Basically the album consists of two types of songs. One is the song where the whole Magic Band plays all sorts of gruff, distorted, dissonant riffs with rhythm changing every two seconds and Beefheart howling madly over this chaotic mess. It should be noted that Beefheart was a great fan of the Blues Singer Howlin´ Wolf who sang like he was called. The Captain just howls, yells, gruffs and grunts his way through the dissonant jungle of metallic guitars and broken rhythms, being completely out of rhythm with the music that is completely out of rhythm and needless to say, even the rhythm is completely out of…well…you know the rest, and the rest is completely out of rhythm too.
The second part of songs is basically just Beefheart solo, reciting his mad lyrics over no music at all. To be honest, I simply do not know what the hell he is rambling about, you go figure it out…If I should describe the sound of the record, well, you see, Beefheart grew up in the deserts of America and this is what his music sounds like! In a way, it goes along well with the colors of the album cover, just a very dry sound that makes you think of whirling sand and glowing bowls of dust. With the late afternoon, burning hot, deep red sun shining on what is left of vegetation in this forsaken place. Shut down huts, somewhere in the middle of a sand storm, if you see a cactus, just make sure, it is not you hallucinating. And if you are looking for an oasis with colours of green and blue, well, goodbye to you…
Songs? Individual songs? Man, I would love that, but I am no Chuck Norris, so no, I will not explain every frigging of these 28 tracks, but maybe it will just keep you from killing me…However, there are indeed tracks, that make this whole mess into, well, something fascinating. Take “Ella Guru” for example. It is sort of the “Hit Single” of the record, meaning, it actually has a CHORUS, you know, you kind of predict that something will happen and that does not happen a whole lot on the record. The chaotic guitars are plain fun, the chorus just a pure delight and the whole chaos for once is not irritating but simply cool.
Then there is “Moonlight on Vermont”, gruff guitars and a GREAT vocal of Beefheart, just completely out of control but still singing some memorable lines here and there, really “howling” into the moonlight, making the title of this track really fitting and giving us a captivating performance. Violent, desperate, weird, screaming all those fucking cool guys with sunglasses into the freakin´ ground! Yeah, I like this song, and maybe this is what is the supposed greatness of the record. “It’s good enough for me..” Is it?
Otherwise…”Frownland” right away welcomes us in his bizarre wonderland that would have probably prompted Alice to grow up as quick as possible if she ever entered it. “The Dust Blows Forward N The Dust Blows Back” is the first of Beefheart´s a-Capella recitings. Kind of funny actually, like an old, weird but strangely likable grandfather reading to you. ‘Me and my girl named bimbo, limbo’, sings Beefheart and is a nice summary of what the Captain’s lyrics are like. And there is a song like “Dachau Blues” to remind us that being politically correct wasn’t one of Beefheart´s strong points.
Did I mention that Frank Zappa himself produced the record? Bet, he really tried to put the Captain straight…Now, what I just wrote, is just the first side! And the beat goes on…”Hair Pie: Baked I and II”: Dissonant, screaming, screeching, out of tune saxophone that leaves the sex and sticks to being phony, when suddenly some nice, dirty blues riffs darken up the proceedings.
“Pachuco Cadaver”: Scary title, but hey, that is almost a happy song. Funny rhythm, nice rapping from Beefheart. “China Pig” is blues, pure blues. Beefheart stands in an old dusty bar with only his greatest admire Frank Zappa listening to him, moonlight shines through the broken windows, Beefheart howls over the unsteady rhythms of drunken guitar.
“Dali’s Car”…wait, didn’t I already hear this song? No, but halfway through the album, even Chuck Norris can’t tell them apart anymore. Lemme tell you, the song titles are the most harmless part of this friggin´ record. Even if one of them is “Neon Meate Dream of A Octafish”. Could be my favorite song title ever…the song is a mess of course, the metallic guitars and screaming bass and stomping, falling down the stairs drum, play less of a rhythm than usual, and of course it is out of rhythm…
You see? apart from a few cool moments, I just can’t get into the album, it just strays way too far away from my personal tastes and well…I never quite understood, why this album was so great. Or do I? Just listening to the album and thinking that just maybe… but really? Should I be honest? I listen to the whole album right now, yes, right now, so this review probably will end up just as rambling as the Trouted Mask itself.
Nah, don’t know, maybe that is the beauty of record… After a while, some structure and some nice riffs will appear out of the dusty, afternoon sun-drowned nowhere…But maybe it is just a migraine. Trout Mask Replica definitely was revolutionary, no doubt about that, nothing could even hope to sound like this in the summer of 1969! It certainly predicted the ugliness of the punk sound circa 10 years before it happened along with The Stooges. But still, apart from a few tracks, if I want a giant mess, I will just stay in my room staring at it…
I guess, what can be said is, that Trout Mask Replica is the album of a man who WASN’T SCARED. A guy who really did not care what people would think (despite him being a needy guy, but I guess by now you understood that the guy wasn’t simple) and simply did it. He went the opposite direction of the hippies and flower people. He walked with his face in the wind, spit against it. He had his idea of music and did not give up even at gun point. And we all know, if you don’t like it, you will at least respect it. That is my relationship with the Captain. 1% Enjoyability, 99% Respect, even Zappa would get slightly over 15% enjoyability…
Captain Beefheart died in December 2010 of multiple sclerosis, living alone with his wife in Northern California, having retired from the music industry for already 30 something years, having become a painter. He was 69 years old. Rest in Peace, Captain. But then again, you probably won’t…
Wow, after looking at Wikipedia, I just realized that I wrote a whole article on the Captain without using the word “avant-garde”, greatest achievement of my life.I need a sandwich…
LISTEN TO THE FULL ALBUM:
