The Smiley Smile Message Board

am i the only one who doesn't get this guy? i must've listened to trout mask replica about 10 times and don't get what's so great. can someone explain it to me. what the hell is so great about him

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqRHr5pEIFU

Dude if you have to ask...  ::)

Try "Safe As Milk". It eases you into the whole Beefheart experience a little more gently.

It doesn't matter. If the greatness of music has to be explained to you, it probably isn't great for you. That doesn't make it less great or you less intelligent / tasteful / discerning / whatever. There's no such thing as objectively great music.

What I like about Captain Beefheart--and I think he has put out a few of the best couple hundred records ever, which is really saying something if you think about it--is that a) he was hilarious; b) he was clever; c) some of his band members could really play, encompassing blues, R&B, and some avante garde styles.

In the past, I have told people the worst thing you can do with Beefheart is think too much about it. I don't find it to be "thinking music" at all. To me, there is something very natural about most of his better stuff.

Listen to it completely WASTED and you'll get it. (only kidding)
Besides Safe as milk you could also give his mid 70s albums a try. Beefheart himself hated those albums, but there's nothing wrong with them, fine pop/rock records, easier to digest than his more challenging stuff.

What makes Trout Mask Replica so good is that it's structured chaos. It's meant so sound ramshackle and hastily put together, yet when you listen close (and also read up on it), you realize just how meticulously put together the whole thing is....like a well written symphony with only trash cans and car horns as instruments. Just a truly incredible experience that was nothing like anything that had been released before and something that still holds up well today alongside similar, fractured do-it-yourself artists like Guided By Voices.

There is an appreciation thread here:

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,94.0.html

But you're hardly the only one that doesn't like the guys music, I'd say you'd be in the majority there.

For me, Beefheart is a true original , his work bursts out with incredible vitality. Beefheart said he didn't write songs but spells. He's by far my favourite expressionist artist. There would be something missing in the world if he'd never created his amazing preposterous works.

Trout Mask is actually one of the albums of his I listen to least. It was really important as it was a break through album in his artistic development, but I preferred the albums where he consolidated his artistic space particularly:

Shiny Beast Bat Chain Puller: The first album of his I got, what a revelation, full of fruity brass and percussion and an amazing collection of songs The Floppy Boot Stomp, Ode to Alex, Bat Chain Puller. I also loved the drawings that came with it on the original lyric sheet.

Clear Spot: Really joyful, not nearly as jarring as Trout Mask. Big eyed Beans from Venus has some of the most amazing guitar work ever recorded, that is one steaming hot song!

Doc at the Radar Station: Startling, his voice has lost some of its suppleness, but these songs are MAGIC to me, his band were amazing. This is music from a different world.

But if you don't get it you don't get it. That's the way it works, I can accept Tom Waits is an amazing artist but I just don't appreciate his work. Each to their own.