Captain Beefheart's "Trout Mask Replica"

In 1969, Captain Beefheart (aka Don van Vliet) released the album many consider to be his masterpiece, Trout Mask Replica.  Produced by childhood friend Frank Zappa, the album is a complex and unique blend of rock, blues, folk, psychedelic, free jazz, and other music traditions.

The sounds on this album can probably be best described as "striking."  Grooves that just barely hang together in tracks like "Frownland" and "Moonlight on Vermont" are juxtaposed with field-recording imitations like "The Dust Blows Forward 'n' the Dust Blows Back" (which was supposedly improvised on the spot; you can hear the tape recorder switch on and off between each line of the song as Beefheart thinks up the next one).  Free improvisations on woodwind instruments on which the performers have no classical training also appear throughout the album. Combine this with Beefheart's gigantic vocal range, which allows him to sound like several different people, and you've got a sound (or a variety of sounds) that CANNOT be reproduced.  For better or for worse.

Another reason why Trout Mask Replica sounds so unique is the album's production process. Beefheart took accomplished musicians, sequestered them, and basically made them re-learn their approach to their instruments according to his specifications.  He taught them the tunes on the album by rote, which caused the process to take approximately 8 months.  During recording, musicians were separated in different rooms and had to listen through walls to line up with each other, creating a sense of (probably not unplanned) disjunctness in the resulting grooves.

As for the lyrics, Beefheart runs the gamut from serious political issues ("Dachau Blues," Veteran's Day Poppy") to social commentary ("Moonlight on Vermont") to sex ("Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish") to the downright absurd (the song "Pachuco Cadaver" begins with the line "A squid eating dough in a polyethylene bag is fast and bulbous.  Got me?").

Trout Mask Replica is a deceptively entertaining album that is very much in line with the traditions of twentieth-century music.  To the casual listener, it sounds like so much amateurish garbage.  However, a little investigation into Beefheart's methods reveals a fascinating array of carefully-chosen sounds.  I love the album (in small doses), and for those of you who haven't heard it, I highly recommend it.  For those of you familiar with it, I'd love to hear your thoughts.