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Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica (1969)

Track listing:
  1. Frownland 1:39
  2. The Dust Blows Forward 'n The Dust Blows Back 1:52
  3. Dachau Blues 2:21
  4. Ella Guru 2:26
  5. Hair Pie- Bake 1 4:58
  6. Moonlight On Vermont 3:57
  7. Pachuco Cadaver 4:39
  8. Bills Corpse 1:48
  9. Sweet Sweet Bulbs 2:21
  10. Neon Meate Dream Of A Octafish 2:24
  11. China Pig 4:00
  12. My Human Gets Me Blues 2:46
  13. Dali's Car 1:25
  14. Hair Pie- Bake 2 2:23
  15. Pena 2:33
  16. Well 2:07
  17. When Big Joan Sets Up 5:18
  18. Fallin' Ditch 2:08
  19. Sugar 'n Spikes 2:30
  20. Ant Man Bee 3:55
  21. Orange Claw Hammer 3:34
  22. Wild Life 3:08
  23. She's Too Much For My Mirror 1:40
  24. Hobo Chang Ba 1:59
  25. The Blimp (Mousetrapreplica) 2:04
  26. Steal Softly Thru Snow 2:17
  27. Old Fart At Play 1:51
  28. Veteran's Day Poppy 4:31

Notes

ZOOT HORN ROLLO: glass finger guitar, flute
ANTENNAE JIMMY SEMENS: steel-appendage guitar
CAPTAIN BEEFHEART: bass clarinet, tenor sax, soprano sax, vocal
THE MASCARA SNAKE: bass clarinet & vocal
ROCKETTE MORTON: bass & narration
DRUMBO: drums [not listed on original liner, only CD reissue]

CAPTAIN BEEFHEART plays tenor & soprano sax simultaneously on Ant Man Bee, simran horn & musette on Neon Meate Dream; ANTENNAE JIMMY SEMENS sing lead vocal on Pena & plays flesh horn on Ella Guru; special guest artist DOUG MOON plays guitar on China Pig;

Produced by FRANK ZAPPA
Arranged by DON VAN VLIET

Engineered by Dick Kunc
Album design: Cal Schenkel
Photography: Ed Caraeff/Cal Schenkel
Special electronic modifications on Captain Beefheart's band equipment by Dick Kunc
Most recent in a long series of contract negotiations leading to an actual signing: Neil C. Reshen

Trout Mask Replica is Captain Beefheart's masterpiece, a fascinating, stunningly imaginative work that still sounds like little else in the rock & roll canon. Given total creative control by producer and friend Frank Zappa, Beefheart and his Magic Band rehearsed the material for this 28-song double album for over a year, wedding minimalistic R&B, blues, and garage rock to free jazz and avant-garde experimentalism. Atonal, sometimes singsong melodies; jagged, intricately constructed dual-guitar parts; stuttering, complicated rhythmic interaction — all of these elements float out seemingly at random, often without completely interlocking, while Beefheart groans his surrealist poetry in a throaty Howlin' Wolf growl. The disjointedness is perhaps partly unintentional — reportedly, Beefheart's refusal to wear headphones while recording his vocals caused him to sing in time with studio reverberations, not the actual backing tracks — but by all accounts, the music and arrangements were carefully scripted and notated by the Captain, which makes the results even more remarkable. As one might expect from music so complex and, to many ears, inaccessible, the influence of Trout Mask Replica was felt more in spirit than in direct copycatting, as a catalyst rather than a literal musical starting point. However, its inspiring reimagining of what was possible in a rock context laid the groundwork for countless future experiments in rock surrealism, especially during the punk/new wave era.