Unpop Culture: Captain Beefheart ‘Trout Mask Replica’
1969 proved a tumultuous year for pop culture; Charles Manson, murder, amphetamines, all of which inform the elements that make up the incredible ‘Trout Mask Replica’ album.
“I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea.”
Deep in the Hollywood Hills, an inconspicuous relic beguiles under a twist of renovation. Within this real-estate curio, ghosts shriek a maudlin rhythm, lending credence to the legend of deprivation and sweat-shop tyranny. Let us afford some gratitude, for this is the house where Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band birthed the audacious Trout Mask Replica.
“The environment in that house was positively Mansonesque.”
For eight months in 1968, Don Van Vliet aka Captain Beefheart, and a calamitous ensemble known as the Magic Band, rehearsed and recorded the most brazen collection of tracks ever documented. Despite a ranking of #60 in Rolling Stone’s top 500 albums of all time, Trout Mask Replica is still considered a novelty. Described by Mojo as a consommé of free jazz, avant-garde, sea shanty blues, the album does provide a challenging listen to virgin ears.
“The situation was cultlike.”
Van Vliet ruled the Magic Band with an iron fist, asserting artistic, emotional, and physical dominance, berating his musicians to the point of breakdown. The band was starved, and survived on soybeans and water. Barred from leaving the house, members were forced to practice for fourteen hours per day. The document was so well-rehearsed, that when the time arrived to record, the list of 28 tracks took just eight hours to put down. The Magic Band was a regimented, battle-hardened outfit.
“Intensely selfish people are always very decided as to what they wish. They do not waste their energies in considering the good of others.”
For those ready to put ego aside and embrace the rectal disfigurement that is Trout Mask Replica, here is a comprehensive guide to ensure the experience a pleasurable one:
• Take an opioid—mainline heroin is preferable, but if you’re one of those new-fangled Pfizer groupies, Oxycontin is a viable substitute.
• Remain standing—do not sit or lay down at any cost. Doing so may result in seizure.
• Be patient. You will be tempted to change the record to Springsteen’s Nebraska, but don’t. These brave soldiers suffered for your sins. Witness the album to completion. The opioid is your buffer.
• Wait 24 hours.
• Rinse and repeat with a reduced opioid dose. It’s time to wean.
• Wait 24 hours.
• Listen sober. Sweatiness, irritability, and nausea may endure, however, meditation can minimise such symptoms. This is not withdrawal, merely the adverse effect of Trout Mask Replica. Allow negative feelings to run their course.
• By day 7 you should be cured of all altruistic tendency. Trout Mask Replica will be your co-pilot. Amid modern chaos, you will rise above empathy, and the opposite sex will start paying attention.
“There is power in sacrifice.”
© Chuck Hagen
