Writing the review for Trout Mask Replica is in one way the most important assignment concerning Beefheart week. TMR is very rightfully where most potential fans first turn for exposure to one of the great geniuses of the 20th Century. For many, TMR will always remain the only Beefheart they know. It's Beefheart's masterpiece. One of the most important records ever recorded. So who am I to say it should be me to be chosen to hunt down this woolly mammoth to provide the meat for the whole tribe? Well, there's a reason why it could be any of us. There's nothing any of us can say that hasn't been said a thousand times a thousand times better. All I can share with you is my personal relationship with this record. In other words, what it means to me. Yes, it sits alongside A Love Supreme, Rocket to Russia, Astral Weeks - greatness that can't be overstated, flawless, deservingly deified. It's a litmus test record. Those that haven't heard it need to get back to class. It's not a hipster thing; it's an understanding thing.
Here's how my relationship with this record developed. It was the late '80's and I was off to college. My future best friend had a booth set up asking students what band they would most like see play on campus. I was a southern boy who headed out west for college. I stood by the booth and insisted in my southern drawl that everyone who walked by stop and vote for Sonic Youth.
The next day my new bestie called and said my name was picked by a random draw and my prize was a free album. He said he would pick me up from the dorms and I could choose my record at the local shop. I was surprised when he took me to an all classical record store. I told him I wanted some music from the early Renaissance but he had other plans for me. He bought me a double album version of Stockhausen's Hymnen. I still have it, mint condition vinyl- one of the most overlooked recordings I know of. And it turned out I didn't really win the contest. He said he just chose me because I struck him as so funny, some weird hillbilly obsessed with Sonic Youth.
This was pre-Internet. I grew up listening to college radio and reading Creem magazine. I knew my punk from Black Flag to the Butthole Surfers. I had all kinds of cassettes of college radio playing stuff that sounded like Borbetomagus and Kaoru Abe. But there were huge holes in my knowledge. Bands that have been part of my life for so long I couldn't imagine not knowing. But back then, at 19, I didn't know.
He made a mix tape for me. Imagine this: It included Suicide, Ornette Coleman, MC5, The Stooges, and Captain Beefheart- and I had never heard of any of them before hand! Life-****ing-changing! Hello Big Leagues! Of course, I own all those records now. But I bought the Beefheart records and the Ornette- tied for first- on the same day.
The Beefheart songs he included were Big Eyed Beans from Venus (a track from Clear Spot, the other album I'm reviewing) and the astonishing Frownland from Trout Mask Replica.
Frownland is one of the universally greatest songs I've ever heard. It's the perfect song to bug out to dancing spastically drunk as a monkey. It's the perfect song to put on repeat and space out on its brilliance wigged out on mushrooms. It's the perfect song to study in complete sobriety. It's fantastically chaotic, and grooves. Beautiful lyrics.
"My spirit’s made up of the ocean
And the sky ‘n’ the sun ‘n’ the moon
‘n’ all my eyes can see...It’s not too late for me
To find my homeland
Where a man can stand by another man
Without an ego flying
With no man lying
‘n’ no one dying by an earthly hand"
Another friend of mine loved the a capella The Dust Blows Forward 'n the Dust Blows Back. He could sing it straight through. He committed suicide at 23. I miss him and always think of him when I hear this song.
Another close friend especially loved The Blimp (mousetrapreplica). Read about it; listen to it. He saved his money for years working for right around minimum wage and bought a nice tenor sax that he could play well, a bass and a big two piece bass amp, a drum kit, and he had well over 500 records back when you had to pay for them. All of it was stolen in one fell swoop. It was shortly after our mutual friend mentioned above killed himself. We lost touch. I don't do Facebook but I heard he's not on it.
I'm not doing some kind of song for song thing but Dachau Blues freaks me out more than any other song on the album.
Dachau blues those poor Jews
Dachau blues those poor Jews
Dachau blues, Dachau blues those poor Jews
Still cryin’ ’bout the burnin’ back in World War Two’s
One mad man six million lose
Down in Dachau blues, down in Dachau blues
The world can’t forget that misery
‘n the young ones now beggin’ the old ones please
t’ stop bein’ madmen
‘fore they have t’ tell their children
’bout the burnin’s back in World War Three’s
War One was balls ‘n powder ‘n blood ‘n snow
War Two rained death ‘n showers ‘n skeletons
Dancin’ ‘n screamin’ ‘n dyin’ in the ovens
Cough ‘n smoke ‘n dyin’ by the dozens
Down in Dachau blues
Down in Dachau blues
Sweet little children with doves on their shoulders
Their eyes rolled back in ecstasy cryin’
Please old man stop this misery
They’re countin’ out the devil
With two fingers on their hands
Beggin’ the Lord don’t let the third one land
On World War Three
On World War Three
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