Nominated by
Bulldog.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
So, I've decided to go ahead and nominate Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band for a richly deserved place in the MB Hall Of Fame. Maybe another fairly safe choice, but it's one that I'm surprised has been overlooked 'til now. Basically, Beefheart's discography is, for me, a bottomless treasure trove of avante-garde delights which it took me a while to truly appreciate (I'd owned
Trout Mask Replica on CD for about 3 or 4 years before it finally clicked with me). What at first seemed to me like 28 tracks of people yelling, thumping and twanging things eventually turned into one of the most beautiful and blissful albums I've ever had the pleasure of listening to.
From his beginnings as a rambling, psychotic bluesman to the end of his recording career as someone whose videos were 'too weird' for MTV, Beefheart's been responsible for some of the most important and influential music of the past 40-50 years. Good old John Peel does a nice job of summing my feelings on the matter;
"If there has ever been such a thing as a genius in the history of popular music, it's Beefheart…I heard echoes of his music in some of the records I listened to last week and I'll hear more echoes in records that I listen to this week."
The most important and influential of his twelve albums would probably be the double salvo of
Trout Mask Replica and its followup,
Lick My Decals Off, Baby. Both albums are two of the most impenetrable and difficult albums you're likely to hear (unless you count
Having Fun With Elvis On Stage as music), and did so much to show the listening world (or at least those that were willing to listen) the kinds of things could be accomplished within the confines of the rock band format. This pushing of music's boundaries to breaking point, this bridging of the gaps between rock, psychedelia, blues and jazz not only laid the groundwork the countless, surreal experiments in music to come, but also influenced artists as diverse as John Lydon, the Fall, the Clash, Tom Waits and even Franz Ferdinand and John Frusciante.
If you haven't already, for chrissakes, find yourself a copy of
Decals and
Trout Mask, listen to them 6 or 7 times and see if you don't experience something akin to spiritual enlightenment. Oh, and vote yes dammit!