Album: Trout Mask Replica
Artist: Captain Beefheart
Year: 1969
Information: Captain Beefheart was making weird music. He and his Magic Band were on a label that was rapidly becoming an exclsuive"bubble-gum" pop company, called Buddah (sic.) Obviously, his label eventually decided that the Captain wasn't right for their company/image and had him dropped from their label. Frank Zappa, a high school friend of Van Vliet's, picked him up and signed him to his label, Straight. From there, Zappa acted as his producer in the way that Andy Warhol acted as The Velvet Underground's producer: he gave them a place to record and gave them full, creative control. Van Vliet rented a small apartment and had his band locked up in it for eight months. He began to assert complete dominance over his band mates by forcing him into eventual submission, usually through a process of verbal and physical abuse. He also forced his band to constantly practice his compositions (reportedly up to fourteen hours a day,) so that during the first session, twenty musical tracks were knocked out in the studio in six hours. Out of all of this came the fabulously weird Trout Mask Replica.
First Listen: Alright, this is interesting. "Frownland" is almost a conventional rock song, other than the disjointed guitar licks. Why wouldn't they edit the mistakes in his reading? "Dachau Blues" seems a bit tasteless. "Ella Guru" has an oddly catchy chorus. I have no idea what's happening in "Hair Pie," but I want it to stop. I enjoyed "Moonlight on Vermont," maybe I wasn't listening very closely. Some of these songs began to blend together, until I reached "China Pig." I liked it, I could understand it. I let the songs keep playing, without keeping tabs on names, until I reached something truly awful. I hit another narrative, but with music behind it. In fact, the only reason I know the name of this song is because I wanted to make a mental note to never listen to it again. The song is called "Pena" and it is frightening. "She's Too Much For My Mirror" is a clever title. "The Blimp" is another narrative set upon an unrelated Mothers of Invention musical bed. I don't know why this is happening to me, but it is. Who was that on the other end of the phone that said "That was good, I'm just gonna play that back in the studio?" Was that Frank Zappa? Why Frank, why? I like the poetic, pretty title of "Steal Softly Thru Snow."
Second Listen: Frownland doesn't make anymore sense to me, I still just don't know. "I have a girl named Bimbo. Limbo. Spam." Seriously? "Hair Pie: Bake 1" even with it's clever title just sounds awful. I remember being fond on "Moonlight on Vermont." Not this time, it goes on too long. "Pachuco Cadaver" is actually a pretty good, (mostly) instrumental song. No, I do not get you, Mr. Beefheart. The trio of "Bill's Corpse," "Sweet, Sweet Bulbs," and "Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish" still seem to mix together for me. "China Pig" is like blending Tom Waits and Robert Johnson into one, unseemly smoothie. "My Human Gets Me Blues" is an interesting electric blues number that I don't understand and I don't believe Van Vliet did, either. "Hair Pie: Bake 2" finished with the sounds of sleigh bells being abducted by aliens.
Here goes.. "Pena." What the hell? Seriously, you're never the same person after listening to this song. This song is actually frightening. And it hurts. It hurts so much. How did they find this person? Did they hire him to be awful? I don't...
"Well" is a God-send. It's a simple reading, it seems to cleanse the palette of two and a half minutes of the audio version of madness. "When Big Joan Sets Up" appears to be about four different songs connected by an odd solo on a brass instrument. All the lyrics are incomprehensible screams and, later, another brass instrument makes the sound of a muffled scream. It resembles the sound that someone would make if you were to go to their house while they were sleeping, found their CD player, and began playing this album at full blast for at them. And then proceeded to punch them in the stomach. The next few songs are some slightly-normal blues songs. However, "Sugar 'n Spikes" gets to a breakdown point which sounds to be about 10 tapes of drums placed on top of each other, which then dissolves into some scat blues.
During "Wild Life," I had this sweeping feeling of relaxation and comfort. I looked at the cover with Beefheart holding a fish (not actually a Trout) and wearing his Quaker-style hat (is that a shuttlecock?) and everything seemed to make sense. I get "Wild Life." It makes sense now. I can't say the same for "Hobo Chang Ba." That still sounds horrible. "Steal Softly Thru Snow" actually seems to not just have a great title going for it, but the song also seems to be very poetic. "Veteran's Day Poppy," an acid-rock song, closes out the album and it's another, nearly-normal song.
Now that I've finished my second listen, I'm not sure how much longer I can do this.
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In closing, I imagine that the "revelation" I spoke about in "Wild Life" will be a recurring thing after a while. Like many people say, to fully understand this album, you must repeatedly listen to it.
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For some reason, I keep wanting to listen to this album. I'm confounded by it, but I just want to keep on coming back. Maybe it's the fact that it's so weird. It eludes me, leaving me something to look for. Leaves me something to try to understand, which good music should do. It should make you question what you're listening to. It takes you out of your place of comfort and takes you to a new, foreign land where you must find your grounding. And you'll keep listening. Eventually putting the pieces together, but always finding new questions, never sure if they'll be answered. But maybe that's the point. Trout Mask Replica is an album of insurmountable mystery. How can something that sounds so horrible at first sound so great after a few listens. How does it "click" like it does? With every listen, you're provided with a new puzzle piece to add to your collection. But, with this album, there will always be a few lost pieces.
I encourage everyone to listen to this album at least once.
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