Captain Beefheart - Trout Mask Replica (1969) (eac-log-cover)

Captain Beefheart - Trout Mask Replica (1969)

rock, blues, avantgarde | 1cd | eac-flac-cue-log-cover | 500MB

Reprise

Allmusic:Trout Mask Replica is Captain Beefheart's masterpiece, a fascinating, stunningly imaginative work that still sounds like little else in the rock & roll canon. Given total creative control by producer and friend Frank Zappa, Beefheart and his Magic Band rehearsed the material for this 28-song double album for over a year, wedding minimalistic R&B, blues, and garage rock to free jazz and avant-garde experimentalism. Atonal, sometimes singsong melodies; jagged, intricately constructed dual-guitar parts; stuttering, complicated rhythmic interaction -- all of these elements float out seemingly at random, often without completely interlocking, while Beefheart groans his surrealist poetry in a throaty Howlin' Wolf growl. The disjointedness is perhaps partly unintentional -- reportedly, Beefheart's refusal to wear headphones while recording his vocals caused him to sing in time with studio reverberations, not the actual backing tracks -- but by all accounts, the music and arrangements were carefully scripted by the Captain (aided by John "Drumbo" French), which makes the results even more remarkable. As one might expect from music so complex and, to many ears, inaccessible, the influence of Trout Mask Replica was felt more in spirit than in direct copycatting, as a catalyst rather than a literal musical starting point. However, its inspiring reimagining of what was possible in a rock context laid the groundwork for countless future experiments in rock surrealism, especially during the punk/new wave era.

Tracks
-01. "Frownland" 1:41
-02. "The Dust Blows Forward 'n the Dust Blows Back" 1:53
-03. "Dachau Blues" 2:21
-04. "Ella Guru" 2:26
-05. "Hair Pie: Bake 1" 4:58
-06. "Moonlight on Vermont" 3:59
-07. "Pachuco Cadaver" 4:40
-08. "Bills Corpse" 1:48
-09. "Sweet Sweet Bulbs" 2:21
-10. "Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish" 2:25
-11. "China Pig" 4:02
-12. "My Human Gets Me Blues" 2:46
-13. "Dali's Car" 1:26
-14. "Hair Pie: Bake 2" 2:23
-15. "Pena" 2:33
-16. "Well" 2:07
-17. "When Big Joan Sets Up" 5:18
-18. "Fallin' Ditch" 2:08
-19. "Sugar 'n Spikes" 2:30
-20. "Ant Man Bee" 3:57
-21. "Orange Claw Hammer" 3:34
-22. "Wild Life" 3:09
-23. "She's Too Much for My Mirror" 1:40
-24. "Hobo Chang Ba" 2:02
-25. "The Blimp (mousetrapreplica)" 2:04
-26. "Steal Softly thru Snow" 2:18
-27. "Old Fart at Play" 1:51
-28. "Veteran's Day Poppy" 4:31

Personnel
* Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart) – vocals, tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, musette, simran horn, hunting horn, jingle bells

The Magic Band

* Bill Harkleroad (Zoot Horn Rollo) – "Glass Finger Guitar" (slide guitar using a glass slide), flute
* Jeff Cotton (Antennae Jimmy Semens) – "Steel Appendage Guitar" (slide guitar using a metal slide), vocals on "Pena" and "The Blimp"
* Victor Hayden (The Mascara Snake) – bass clarinet, additional vocals
* Mark Boston (Rockette Morton) – bass guitar, narration on "Neon Meate Dream Of A Octafish" and "Old Fart At Play"
* John French (Drumbo) – drums, percussion (uncredited on the original release)

Additional musicians

* Doug Moon – guitar on "China Pig"
* Gary "Magic" Marker – bass guitar on "Moonlight on Vermont", "Veteran's Day Poppy" (uncredited)
* Frank Zappa – speaking voice on "Ella Guru", "The Blimp", and "She's Too Much For My Mirror"; credited as album producer
* Roy Estrada – bass guitar on "The Blimp" (uncredited)
* Arthur Tripp III – drums & percussion on "The Blimp" (uncredited)
* Don Preston – piano on "The Blimp" (uncredited)
* Ian Underwood and Bunk Gardner – alto and tenor saxophones on "The Blimp" (uncredited)
* Buzz Gardner – trumpet on "The Blimp" (uncredited)

sample & buy: Trout Mask Replica