Trout Mask Repica

[Hurdy Gurdy Man]

Listening to Captain Beefheart's both highly critically praised and thoroughly thrashed for being misunderstood by people whom fans of the avant garde piece claim merely "didn't get it".I ccertainly can comprehend the polarity in public reaction to the 1969 Frank Zappa produced released that usually ranks quite high among the greatest albums ever in the minds of the critics.I personally am particularly fascinated with Beefheart's own created universe of both excellently executed surrealism and boundless abstract expressionism,including the work's cover art,which I find to also exist in the "either you get it or you don't" arena.In my thoughts,there is no one way to "get it".That's usually what successful abstract art represents.It is what the listener of the music and viewer of the cover photo perceives it to bee.I think Beefheart highly succeded on both levels here..............

 

[JimJam]

Listening to Captain Beefheart's both highly critically praised and thoroughly thrashed for being misunderstood by people whom fans of the avant garde piece claim merely "didn't get it".I ccertainly can comprehend the polarity in public reaction to the 1969 Frank Zappa produced released that usually ranks quite high among the greatest albums ever in the minds of the critics.I personally am particularly fascinated with Beefheart's own created universe of both excellently executed surrealism and boundless abstract expressionism,including the work's cover art,which I find to also exist in the "either you get it or you don't" arena.In my thoughts,there is no one way to "get it".That's usually what successful abstract art represents.It is what the listener of the music and viewer of the cover photo perceives it to bee.I think Beefheart highly succeded on both levels here..............

Trout Mask is brilliant, one of those off-the-wall creations that was never going to appeal to a wide public - same as his other albums, a few of which are also amazing. With this double album we're talkin' 28 tracks and not one loser - even "Neon Meate Dream Of A Octafish" is pretty good!

I heard Beefheart before i ever heard Howlin' Wolf. But when i heard Wolf i could immediately hear where the Captain's vocals were coming from. And when i heard Wolf's "Do the Do" i heard Beefheart's herky-jerky rhythms. I heard "free jazz" sax players such as Coltrane and Albert Ayler before Beefheart and, again, i could instantly hear where the Captain was coming from with his sax excursions - "Hair Pie Bake 1" being the best example on this album. But it goes still further because Don Van Vliet was a poet and a painter and did not think like a typical musician. For all these comparisons, he is in the end like no one else.