Ska Lagos Jew Sun Ra

I went with Zappa. In a lot of ways, I adore Captain Beefheart, but feel his influence/personality often outweigh the quality of his musical output. Beefheart was a true original, and a genius in many ways, but basically hit his limitations early on.

Essentially, Beefheart had his thing that he perfected for Trout Mask Replica, and polished with Lick My Decals Off, but I think he really failed to go anywhere from there. As ingenious as a lot of the subtle values of his work, once you get past those it's all just basically all just off timed blues with abstract lyrics.

Zappa consistently changed his sound from year to year to year and seemed to have a pretty good grip on what he was doing. He has his great albums, and his stinkers, but he continued to evolve his sound throughout. Beefheart's only attempt at evolution after "Lick My Decals Off" was a failed attempt at a commercial sound for years ended in just a reversion to the Trout Mask Replica sound. (Bat Chain Puller I believe was actually all material written between Trout Mask Replica and Lick my Decals off, Baby.")

Plus, I've never been keen on Beefheart's ridiculous ego, and insane obsession with having to mix the instrument tracks down to nothing so his, admittedly awesome, voice could be heard.

Both geniuses, both innovators, but I feel Zappa is a significantly more poignant musician who would only be overshadowed by Beefheart due to his underdog value.

TockTockTock

Explain please...

While I will not deny that Frank Zappa had a far more eclectic discography than Beefheart, I will have to disagree with you on the "off timed blues" comment. I think there's a little more to albums like Doc at the Radar Station and Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) than that... but we're all entitled to our own opinions... Ice Cream for Crow, on the other hand, was rather unimpressive (to me that is).

Except for the fact that TMR didn't have the punkish abrasiveness of Doc at the Radar Station, nor the more controlled sound of the instrumentals of Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller). Not to mention, I feel that Shiny Beast had more variety in terms of his use of different instruments as well as the album's overall song composition.

I guess the two albums just have different atmospheres than Lick My Decals Off Baby and Trout Mask Replica (I can't completely put my finger on it).

Zappa had a hell of an ego, too... don't forget that. However, I do agree with you on how Beefheart mixed some of the music. He somewhat stopped that with his last three releases, though.

Also, I thought you didn't care about the artist, but more about the art itself? (Remember our chat about Charles Manson and Joe Meek?)


How is it not opinion? Music is entirely subjective... and just because someone prefers one musician over another doesn't mean they're wrong... nor should they feel embarrassed.

By the way, I took the time to bold the comments that I felt didn't make any sense and completely took me by surprise...

Ska Lagos Jew Sun Ra

True, but that's why I point it out, though. I feel a lot of people might unfairly lean towards Beefheart for the reason that he has a hipper stigma to him.

Beefheart has his advantages over Zappa, definitely. Especially in terms of having a lot more subtlety. Still feel that Beefheart hit his limitations after Lick my Decals Off. Frankly, his bag of tricks just ran out.