CAPTAIN.BEEFHEART.&.MAGIC.BAND.-.TROUT.MASK.REPLICA Trout Mask Replica is the third studio album by Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band, released in June, 1969. The album was produced by Frank Zappa, a friend and former schoolmate of Beefheart, and was originally released on Zappa's Straight Records imprint. Combining blues, avant-garde, free jazz and other disparate genres of American music, Trout Mask Replica is regarded as an important work of experimental music and a major influence in alternative rock. A widely recognized and acclaimed composition, Trout Mask Replica appears at number fifty-eight on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". The compositions on Trout Mask Replica draw their inspiration primarily from blues and free jazz but also include elements of genres ranging from folk music to the current avant-garde of classical music to sea shanties and beyond. All this was blended into an iconoclastic whole of conflicting tempi, harsh slide guitar, extraordinarily complex drumming, and honking saxophone and bass clarinet. Van Vliet's vocals range from growling blues singing to frenzied falsetto to laconic, casual ramblings. His lyrics often seem impenetrably strange and nonsensical, but closer examination reveals complex poetic use of word play, metaphor and all manner of references: music history, American and international politics, the Holocaust, love and sexuality, Steve Reich, gospel music, conformity, and man's impact on his surroundings. The famous BBC disc jockey John Peel said of the album: "If there has been anything in the history of popular music which could be described as a work of art in a way that people who are involved in other areas of art would understand, then Trout Mask Replica is probably that work." Peel's playing of the record on late-night radio in Britain was largely responsible for its reaching 21 in the UK charts. Critic Steve Huey writes that the album's influence "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 experiments in rock surrealism to follow, especially during the punk/new wave era." Matt Groening has written that his first reaction to Trout Mask Replica was that it was "the worst thing [he]'d ever heard", but now lists the album as one of his favorites. In his 1995 book, "The Alternative Music Almanac", Alan Cross placed the album in the spot on the list of '10 Classic Alternative Albums'. In 1995, Mojo put the album 28th on their "The 100 Greatest Albums Ever Made" listand 51st on their "The 100 Records That Changed the World" list TRACK LISTING All songs written by Van Vliet. Side one: "Frownland" – 1:41 "The Dust Blows Forward 'n the Dust Blows Back" – 1:53 "Dachau Blues" – 2:21 "Ella Guru" – 2:26 "Hair Pie: Bake 1" – 4:58 "Moonlight on Vermont" – 3:59 Side two: "Pachuco Cadaver" – 4:40 "Bills Corpse" – 1:48 "Sweet Sweet Bulbs" – 2:21 "Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish" – 2:25 "China Pig" – 4:02 "My Human Gets Me Blues" – 2:46 "Dali's Car" – 1:26 Side three: "Hair Pie: Bake 2" – 2:23 "Pena" – 2:33 "Well" – 2:07 "When Big Joan Sets Up" – 5:18 "Fallin' Ditch" – 2:08 "Sugar 'n Spikes" – 2:30 "Ant Man Bee" – 3:57 Side four: "Orange Claw Hammer" – 3:34 "Wild Life" – 3:09 "She's Too Much for My Mirror" – 1:40 "Hobo Chang Ba" – 2:02 "The Blimp (mousetrapreplica)" – 2:04 "Steal Softly thru Snow" – 2:18 "Old Fart at Play" – 1:51 "Veteran's Day Poppy" – 4:31 MUSICIANS: Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart) – vocals, tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, musette, simran horn, hunting horn, jingle bells The Magic Band Bill Harkleroad (Zoot Horn Rollo) – "Glass Finger Guitar" (slide guitar using a glass slide), flute Jeff Cotton (Antennae Jimmy Semens) – "Steel Appendage Guitar" (slide guitar using a metal slide), vocals on "Pena" and "The Blimp" Victor Hayden (The Mascara Snake) – bass clarinet, additional vocals Mark Boston (Rockette Morton) – bass guitar John French (Drumbo) – drums, percussion (uncredited on the original release) Additional musicians Doug Moon – guitar on "China Pig" Gary "Magic" Marker – bass guitar on "Moonlight on Vermont", "Veteran's Day Poppy" (uncredited) Frank Zappa – voice (not vocals) on "Ella Guru", "The Blimp" Roy Estrada – bass guitar on "The Blimp" (uncredited) Arthur Tripp III – drums & percussion on "The Blimp" (uncredited) Don Preston – piano on "The Blimp" (uncredited) Ian Underwood and Bunk Gardner – alto and tenor saxophones on "The Blimp" (uncredited) Buzz Gardner – trumpet on "The Blimp" (uncredited) 1969

[ Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:58:50 GMT ]

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