The Official Captain Beefheart Thread

[Cuthbert]

Originally Posted by Cenotaph

Yes, you're definitely over-thinking it. Beefheart himself said to just experience the album and let it sink into your brain subconsciously.

However, I could say rather bluntly and superficially that there was absolutely nothing like Trout Mask Replica before and after its release in not only rock music, but music in general. He completely changed the idioms in which he worked with, and since you're trying to appreciate his work... it's best to consider the time period. (Although, I still find his work incredibly ahead of its time... even today).

There's a saying that goes something like... "It takes about six or seven listens to Trout Mask Replica until you begin to enjoy it." It really only took me two, but I've found that the former is more common.

Ah man this post is so helpful. I will persevere with this album then, and post again when I think I've absorbed it.

[Goofle]

Whilst you will probably end up liking the album, I wouldn't waste too much time if it doesn't seem to be clicking. You might "get" it right now, but just not like it anyway.

[TockTockTock]

Originally Posted by Goofle11

Whilst you will probably end up liking the album, I wouldn't waste too much time if it doesn't seem to be clicking. You might "get" it right now, but just not like it anyway.

This.

Don't force it upon yourself. You might end up enjoying it/appreciating it later. I spent a few months trying to enjoy the Talking Heads' music at one point. It didn't work. However, one day when I was listening to their album, More Songs About Buildings and Food, while I was vacuuming, it clicked and I became a huge fan.

[Frownland]

Originally Posted by Fluffy Kittens

Can somebody explain to me why Captain Beefheart is so highly regarded please? Why is his music 'avant garde'?

Appreciate any help. Cheers.

It's important to consider the time when the album was released. For 1969, this is incredibly out of ordinary. What the album Trout Mask Replica did was break rules that many hadn't even considered yet.

It's fairly common to not like the album for the first several listens, but after several listens and that chance to "get" the album, you'll see the layers more clearly. I'm especially a fan because no one really has the same sound that Trout Mask Replica resonates with. In some cases, other groups have come close to the Beefheart sound (Pere Ubu and other bands come to mind, but they were greatly influenced by Beefheart, methinks). Remember that this isn't improvised (apart from China Pig and the woodwinds on Hair Pie: Bake 1) and is meticulously structured based off of Don Van Vliet's piano musings. He would also whistle tunes to the instrumentalists at hand and they would learn it on the spot.

Trout Mask Replica is a beast of energy and the album has a magic about it that few albums match. Some don't like the album, even when they get it, which is fine. It's important to understand the influence of the album on avant-garde music as a whole, since he gained a cult following over the years.

Listen to all of his albums if you have a chance. They can be difficult and even grating at first, but after the challenging nature of the music is less shocking through repeated listens, it's extraordinarily rewarding. If you don't like Beefheart too much on your initial listens, be sure to hold on to the album. If you do this, you can revisit the piece when your iTunes is on shuffle or something else and maybe you'll find that the music is easier to understand now that you've had more exposure to it.

If you can't tell by now (or if you didn't notice my username), I'm a huge Beefheart fan. He's what I consider my favourite artist

[Cuthbert]

Thanks guys.

I was trying to get some Pere Ubu albums as well actually.

I will give Beefheart's discog a listen then. Thanks for the help Frownland.

[dublin]

A busker I know usually does pretty straight laced music . He did this the
other day and blew my mind . Its about the captain and yer man sounds like his
love child .
I have a few albums Im not a specialist . Plastic factory and apes ma are my favourites .
Im new here am I allowed link it ? Id be interested in what the specialists think.
I just got talking to him one day because he sits where I smoke on my breaks .

[Scarlett O'Hara]

Originally Posted by Fluffy Kittens

Thanks guys.

I was trying to get some Pere Ubu albums as well actually.

I will give Beefheart's discog a listen then. Thanks for the help Frownland.

I've been following these last few pages and I am also grateful for the advice too. I'm also going to listen to Beefheart's discog as I'm really enjoying what I've heard so far.

I feel like there is so much amazing music that I really haven't heard yet and I'm dying to develop my music tastes and get away from a lot of the basic music that I've listened to in the past. One thing about me is that I adapted to a large range different musical styles at a young age which has allowed me now to eventually mature.

[TockTockTock]

Originally Posted by Vanilla

I've been following these last few pages and I am also grateful for the advice too. I'm also going to listen to Beefheart's discog as I'm really enjoying what I've heard so far.

I feel like there is so much amazing music that I really haven't heard yet and I'm dying to develop my music tastes and get away from a lot of the basic music that I've listened to in the past. One thing about me is that I adapted to a large range different musical styles at a young age which has allowed me now to eventually mature.

I really respect that. If you need any help at all, then just ask.

[Scarlett O'Hara]

Originally Posted by Cenotaph

[/B]

I really respect that. If you need any help at all, then just ask.

Thanks Cenotaph, I really appreciate your support, I will certainly be going to you for advice. Is there any other artists that I should check out initially?

So far I've got the discog of Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa () and A Place To Bury Strangers. All of which I'm really enjoying, I wish I'd gone to them sooner!

[Lord Larehip]

The first Beefheart thing I ever heard was in 1970 when I was 12, whipped on pot and acid, laying on my bed listening to WABX here in Detroit which was a radical underground station and they played "My Human Gets Me Blues" off Trout Mask and I was instantly hooked--instantly.

I eventually bought the album and played it start to finish several times in a row without pausing. It was like Beefheart was packing notes of different colors into bags and then tossing them from a 100-story window and letting them splatter randomly on the sidewalk and then taking blurry snapshots of what he'd just created.

At first, it seemed to me to be anti-music but by the 10th listen in a row, I was thinking of it more as extremely non-conventionally musical. But was it like a musical version of Videodrome? Ever see that movie about the sexually sadistic pirate TV signal that infects of minds of those who watch it? It was a scathing indictment of television but years before that came out, I was wondering if Beefheart was secretly deconstructing the minds of listeners and putting them back together his own way and what was blatantly anti-music suddenly sounds musical in a totally weird way. Was I infected, I wondered.

At times, the stuff on Trout Mask seemed to approach actual music--like "China Pig" is pretty close to real blues. But I would picture Son House or John Lee Hooker listening to it. What would they think? Was the fact that it was pretty much a straight blues Beefheart's way of saying that blues was already deconstructed and could not be further twisted or modified?

"The Dust Blows Forward and the Dust Blows Back" made me think of those film clips of houses getting annihilated in nuclear bomb blasts. You'd see the dust move one way and then the other and the house, which hung together at first, would burst into pieces. Was Beefheart giving us the music of a post-nuclear war? Some lonely guy sitting out in the desert by himself with no civilization left to get away from singing into a little cassette recorder. And was there a parallel between the destruction of the planet and destruction of my pre-Beefheart musical knowledge and beliefs? "Dachau Blues" seemed to confirm that there was.

Were phrases as "fast and bulbous" some kind of viral code that rewired my brain and was this good or bad? What did this album do to me? Was it like Beefheart's own little MK-ULTRA program? Occasionally, I pull Trout Mask out and listen to it from start to finish. All these years and literally thousands of listenings later, I'm still not sure what to make of it. I probably never will. Did Beefheart even really know what he was creating while he was doing it?