It’s a record that’s equal parts rock, free jazz, blues and experimental music. All mind-roastingly tasty, even for 1969. Produced by Beefheart associate Frank Zappa, Trout Mask Replica had nearly all of its music recorded in a single six-hour session — and that’s the least abnormal set of circumstances surrounding the recording. While strong bandleaders have been known to do everything from punching their players in the face (Mingus) to holding 8-to-12-hour rehearsal days (Greg Ginn), Beefheart exceeded the excess by mixing physical violence, long rehearsal days and unyielding, cultlike levels of personal control.
He started with corralling his band for two-thirds of a year in a small house that no one was allowed to leave unless it was to shoplift food. It wasn’t uncommon for Beefheart to break his band members down with 14-hour rehearsals, beatings and denial of the aforementioned stolen food. All justified by a variety of paranoid conspiracy theories, all of which worked their way into the record in one form or another.
But regardless of the record’s disturbing provenance, the 28 songs on what used to be called a “double album” caused the late, great BBC disc jockey John Peel to say of the finished product, “If there has been anything in the history of popular music which could be described as a work of art in a way that people who are involved in other areas of art would understand, thenTrout Mask Replica is probably that work.”
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Don Van Vliet (born Don Glen Vliet; January 15, 1941 – December 17, 2010) was an American musician, singer-songwriter, artist and poet known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. His musical work..
Don Van Vliet (born Don Glen Vliet; January 15, 1941 – December 17, 2010) was an American musician, singer-songwriter, artist and poet known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. His musical work..
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