1969
was a seminally important year for popular music, specifically rock music.
Albums like Abbey Road by The Beatles,
Led Zeppelin II by Led Zeppelin, and Tommy by The Who were released by bands
that had helped define 1960’s rock music as well influencing the types of rock
that would be popularized in the early 1970s. These and other artists
eventually created sub-genres like psychedelic rock, garage rock, and art rock with
other bands taking to these sub-genres and expanding on what rock music could
be. Of these sub-genres, one of the more out there styles sonically that become
prominent was experimental rock with Frank Zappa and The Velvet Underground
being two of its early pioneers. However, in the playground that is
experimental rock, Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band created one of the
weirdest, confusing, and avant-garde sounding rock albums ever. This album is
known for its unique, and at times, bad sound, but also hailed for its
importance in experimentation of song structure, instrumentation, and lyrics.
With its odd legacy, the album Trout Mask
Replica is 1 hour and 14 minutes of adventure into the sonic unknown that should be experienced at least once by any listener of music.
Before even getting into the description
of the music, the lore surrounding this album’s creation should be addressed. The
band rehearsed the songs in Los Angeles for months during 1968 in a small
rented house with Beefheart taking complete artistic control of the process. He
was known for berating the band members with even going as far as acting violent
towards them whenever the rehearsals wouldn’t go to his liking. The band’s
financial situation wasn’t any better. The group was always strapped for cash,
and on one occasion, resorted to stealing food with fellow avant-garde musician
and producer Frank Zappa covering the bail for said members. This style
continued into the following year once Beefheart and his Magic Band entered the
studio to record Trout Mask Replica.
Once in the studio, the album’s
recording took place in short sessions in March of 1969. The Magic Band recorded
20 instrumental tracks in a six-hour session, which is insane in a contemporary
recording context with many bands taking years to record a 12-track album. From
this sporadic instrument tracking, Beefheart overdubbed vocals but not in
traditional sense, obviously. Instead of wearing studio headphones, he would
record vocals with hearing the tracked instruments through the windows of the
vocal booth. When asked the reasoning behind this creative choice, Beefheart stated
that he wished for a chaotic type of recording process because “That’s what
they do before a commando raid, isn’t it?” This unconventional process of
recording helps to understand as to why the music was revolutionary in
experimental rock.
From my first time listening to this
album to the 5th or so time going over it, I always end up pondering
the harsh collision between Beefheart’s vocals and the ensemble of
instrumentation that are chaotic but charming. In almost every song, the band
and the vocalist are engaged in some type of sonic warfare to see who would
come out on top in the mix. This creates a tension that, at times, made me
laugh at the shouting match between Beefheart’s vocals and the band in a song like
“Moonlight on Vermont,” with its nail scratching chalkboard lead guitar
accompanied by one of the weirdest rock rhythms I have ever heard. This
fearlessness of the unknown is exhibited in the lyrical writing as well, which lends the lyrics to be read by a master of decoding or ciphers to understand what Beefheart
means when he sings, “Hope
lost his head ‘n got off on alligators Somebody's leavin’ peanuts on the curbins.” These
musical elements in this one song are continuous throughout the other 27 songs, which made my first time listening so memorable.
 |
| Captain Beefheart |
I’d like to thank my friend Kyle Silva for recommending this album to me.
Let me know in the comments your thoughts on this album or other weird music you have heard before!
Link to the song "Frownland": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9lpLm7jwQY
Link to the entire record: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zdLfPN6F-o&t=824s
Sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58nPEe-TU-w&t=127s
http://vpinterviews.blogspot.com/2005/04/magic-band.html
From Zig Zag magazine, No. 8, 1969 (as cited by M. Barnes in Captain Beefheart)http://www.ew.com/article/2010/12/17/captain-beefheart-dies/
No comments:
Post a Comment