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Don Van Vliet: Trout Mask Replica
Regarded by many fans as Beefheart's masterpiece,
Trout Mask Replica was--and remains--one of the strangest, most difficult albums in rock music history. The group rehearsed Vliet's difficult compositions for eight months, living communally in conditions drummer John French described as cultlike.
The 28 songs on
Trout Mask Replica drew on blues music,
Bo Diddley, free jazz, sea shanties and much more, but the relentless practice blended the music into an iconoclastic whole of conflicting tempi, harsh slide guitar, loping drumming, and honking saxophone.
Vliet's vocals ranged 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 wordplay, metaphor and all manner of references: music history, American and international politics, the shoah, Steve Reich, gospel music, conformity and much more.
(Matt Groening has stated his first thought upon hearing
Trout Mask Replica was that it was annoying, difficult and pretentious, but so unique that he could not stop listening to it. He now lists the album as one of his favorites.)
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 future experiments in rock surrealism, especially during the punk/new wave era."
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:41q67u50h0ja~T1
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