Album: Trout Mask Replica
Pop music has thrown up some true originals over the years, from the likes of Mark E Smith to PJ Harvey, but nobody quite like Don Van Vliet (aka Captain Beefheart). Like his friend and this album's producer, Frank Zappa, Beefheart always stood slightly aloof and apart from the pop mainstream, exploring an entirely original fusion of growling blues singing, jazz atonality, eccentric instrumentation and surrealistic songwriting. All this makes for a difficult listening experience. Guided by John Peel's devotion to Beefheart's music, I took the plunge during my student days and bought copies of Trout Mask Replica and Mirror Man. The title track of Mirror Man (recorded in '67) has this great groove based around a few simple blue chords, and clocks in at over 15mins; on Trout Mask Replica, all the tracks (28!) are much shorter and mostly lack any obvious sense of rhythm. I tried playing the album on a family car trip today and about 4-5 songs into the album, Ruth asked if she could turn it off as it was making her tense and little angry. Many fans of the album agree that you really have to persevere with Trout Mask Replica, and though that's true, I can understand why many are not willing to make that investment of time.
Artist: Captain Beefheart
Born: Glendale, California
Released: June 1969
Genre: Psychedelic Blues
Influenced: Sex Pistols, The Fall, Tom Waits, PJ Harvey, Beck
Like many intellectuals or avant-garde artists, Beefheart was working against "bourgeois" trappings like syncopation and tempo and, in the process, creating his own language. His experimental approach, mixing core elements of the blues and free-form jazz, has been highly influential on many of pop's innovators. Over the years, when I've felt daring, I've put the album on to try and deepen my appreciation, but this is still a work in progress. One track that I've grown to love is China Pig, a really primitive blues song, which actually sounds like it was recorded in the era of Robert Johnson. The demented Veteran's Day Poppy is another favourite of mine, especially the sound of Zoot Horn Rollo's Fender Stratocaster guitar. Moonlight In Vermont is also notable for its menacing harder rock sound, completely bizarre drumming and brilliantly surreal lyrics. The recording of Trout Mask Replica alone is like nothing else in pop history (8 months of rehearsing in a remote house that few people left for any sustained amount of time while subsisting on little or no food). Tread carefully, but give it a go.
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