Editing Captain Beefheart (section)

=== ''Trout Mask Replica'' ===
[[File:VH_02_copy.jpg|thumb|Victor Hayden (aka [[the Mascara Snake]]) at the house where ''[[Trout Mask Replica]]'' was rehearsed and recorded in 1968]]
Critically acclaimed as Van Vliet's [[Masterpiece|magnum opus]],<ref name="rollingstone.com">{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/artists/captainbeefheart/biography |title=Captain Beefheart: Biography |magazine=Rolling Stone |access-date=February 11, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080924040000/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/captainbeefheart/biography |archive-date=September 24, 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> ''[[Trout Mask Replica]]'' was released as a 28-track [[double album]] in June 1969 on [[Frank Zappa]]'s newly formed [[Straight Records]] label. A school-age portrait of Van Vliet appears on the front of this sheet, while the cover of the gatefold shows Beefheart in a modified [[capotain|Pilgrim hat]].<ref name="Coloy1999">{{cite magazine |last1=Coley |first1=Byron |title=SPIN |date=December 1999 |magazine=SPIN |publisher=SPIN Media LLC |page=167 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HJbW_6l-uRUC&pg=PA167}}</ref> The inner spread "[[infra-red]]" photography is by [[Ed Caraeff]], whose Beefheart vacuum cleaner images from this session also appear on Zappa's ''[[Hot Rats]]'' release to accompany "Willie The Pimp" lyrics sung by Vliet. 

Alex St. Clair had now left the band and, after Elwood Madeo from the Blackouts was considered, the role was filled by [[Bill harkleroad|Bill Harkleroad]].<ref>French, John. ''Beefheart: Through The Eyes Of Magic'', p359. {{ISBN|978-0-9561212-1-9}}</ref> Bassist Jerry Handley had also departed, with [[Gary Marker]] stepping in–he was soon replaced by [[Mark Boston]]. Thus the long rehearsals for the album began in the rented house in [[Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California|Woodland Hills]] that would become the Magic Band House.<ref>Harkleroad, Bill. ''Lunar Notes'' p22-23. {{ISBN|0-946719-21-7}}</ref> 

The Magic Band began recordings for ''Trout Mask Replica'' at [[TTG Studios]];<ref>''Grow Fins'' CD box set booklet p.51 [also in vinyl set booklet].</ref> it was completed at the [[Lorin Whitney|Whitney Studios]], with some [[field recording]]s made at the house. Van Vliet assigned nicknames to his band members, so Harkleroad became ''[[Zoot Horn Rollo]]'', Boston became ''[[Rockette Morton]]'', John French assumed the name ''[[John French (musician)|Drumbo]]'', and Jeff Cotton became ''[[Antennae Jimmy Semens]]''. Van Vliet's cousin Victor Hayden, ''[[the Mascara Snake]]'', performed as a bass clarinetist.{{sfn|Barnes|2011|p=97}} Vliet's girlfriend Laurie Stone, who can be heard laughing at the beginning of "Fallin' Ditch", became the [[audio typist]].

Van Vliet wanted the band to "live" the ''Trout Mask Replica'' album. The group rehearsed his difficult compositions for eight months, with everyone living in the two-bedroom house. Van Vliet implemented his vision by completely dominating his musicians, artistically and emotionally. He would berate a musician continually, sometimes for days, until the musician collapsed in tears or in total submission.<ref>[http://vpinterviews.blogspot.com/2005/04/magic-band.html The Magic Band], ''vanity project interviews'', April 2005.</ref> Bill Harkleroad complained that his fingers were a "bloody mess" as a result of Beefheart's orders that he use heavy strings.<ref>Gore, Joe. "Zoot Horn Rollo: Captain Beefheart's Glass-Finger Guitarist". Guitar Player Jan. 1998 : 39–40, 42, 44. Print.</ref> French described the situation as "cultlike"<ref name="Lewis">{{cite web|url=http://www.beefheart.com/datharp/drumbo/paullewis.htm|title=Burundo Drumbi! — John French's Series of Q&As, 2000/1|access-date=December 9, 2007|publisher=The Captain Beefheart Radar Station|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071213094110/http://www.beefheart.com/datharp/drumbo/paullewis.htm|archive-date=December 13, 2007}}</ref> and a visitor said "the environment in that house was positively [[Charles Manson|Manson]]esque".{{sfn|Barnes|2011|p=110}} Their material circumstances were dire. With no income other than [[Welfare (financial aid)|welfare]] and contributions from relatives, the group barely survived and some were  arrested for shoplifting food.<ref>From Straight to Bizarre – Zappa, Beefheart, Alice Cooper and LA's Lunatic Fringe, DVD, 2012</ref> French recalled living on no more than a small cup of beans a day for a month.<ref name="artist formerly known"/> A visitor described their appearance as "cadaverous". Band members were restricted from leaving the house and rehearsed for 14 or more hours a day.

In his 2010 book ''Through the Eyes of Magic'', French describes how, when he did not finish drum parts quickly enough, he was punched by band members, thrown into walls, kicked, and attacked with a sharpened broomstick.<ref>French, p. 7</ref> Beefheart punched him in the face and threatened to throw him out a window. He admits complicity in similarly attacking his bandmates during Beefheart's "talks" aimed at them. In the end, after the album's recording, Beefheart ejected French from the band by throwing him down a flight of stairs, telling him to "Take a walk" after French did not properly respond to a request to "play a strawberry". Beefheart replaced French with drummer Jeff Burchell, a roadie with no drumming experience whom Beefheart called "Fake Drumbo". French's name does not appear on the album credits.

According to Van Vliet, the 28 songs on the album were written in a single {{frac|8|1|2}}-hour session at the piano, an instrument he did not play. Band members have stated that the songs were written over the course of a year, beginning around December 1967. It took them eight months to mold the songs into shape, with French bearing primary responsibility for transposing and shaping Vliet's piano fragments into guitar and bass lines. <ref name="Miles 2005 pp. 182">[[Miles, Barry]] (2005). ''Zappa: A Biography'', Grove Press, pp. 182–183.</ref> Harkleroad recalled: "We're dealing with a strange person, coming from a place of being a sculptor/painter, using music as his [[idiom]]. He was getting more into that part of who he was instead of this blues singer.{{sfn|Barnes|2011|p=98}} The band had rehearsed the songs so thoroughly that the instrumental tracks for 21 of the songs were recorded in a single four-and-a-half-hour session.<ref name="Miles 2005 pp. 182"/> The album's cover shows Van Vliet wearing the raw head of a carp  fashioned into a mask by photographer [[Cal Schenkel]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.united-mutations.com/s/cal_schenkel.htm |title=United Mutations interview with Schenkel |publisher=United-mutations.com |access-date=February 11, 2010}}</ref>

{{listen|
|filename = Moonlight_On_Vermont.ogg
|title = "Moonlight on Vermont"
|description = "Moonlight on Vermont" from ''Trout Mask Replica'', that well illustrates the album's sound and composition.
|format = [[Ogg]]
|filename2 = PenaCaptainBeefheart.ogg
|title2 = "Pena"
|description2 = "Pena"; An example of the album's avant-garde instrumentation and bizarre lyrical content.
|format2 = [[Ogg]]
}}

''Trout Mask Replica'' incorporated a wide variety of musical styles, including blues, avant garde/experimental, and rock. The relentless practice prior to recording blended the music into an iconoclastic whole of [[contrapuntal]] [[tempo]]s, featuring [[slide guitar]], [[polyrhythmic]] drumming (with French's drums and cymbals covered in cardboard), honking saxophone and [[bass clarinet]]. Van Vliet's vocals range from his signature [[Howlin' Wolf]]-inspired growl to frenzied [[falsetto]] to laconic, casual ramblings.

The instrumental backing was recorded live, while Van Vliet overdubbed most of the vocals in only partial sync with the music by hearing the slight sound leakage through the studio window.<ref name="Chusid">[[Irwin Chusid|Chusid, Irwin]] (2000). ''Songs in the Key of Z: The Curious Universe of Outsider Music'', pp. 129–140. London: Cherry Red Books. {{ISBN|1-901447-11-1}}</ref> Zappa said of Van Vliet's approach, "[it was] impossible to tell him why things should be such and such a way. It seemed to me that if he was going to create a unique object, that the best thing for me to do was to keep my mouth shut as much as possible and just let him do whatever he wanted to do whether I thought it was wrong or not."<ref name="artist formerly known"/>

Van Vliet used the ensuing publicity, particularly with a 1970 ''Rolling Stone'' interview with [[Langdon Winner]], to promulgate a number of myths. Winner's article stated, for instance, that neither Van Vliet nor the members of the Magic Band ever took drugs; Harkleroad contradicted this. Van Vliet claimed to have taught Harkleroad and Boston to play their instruments from scratch; in fact, both were accomplished musicians before joining the band.<ref name="Chusid"/> Lastly, Van Vliet claimed to have gone a year and half without sleeping. When asked how this was possible, he claimed to have only eaten fruit.<ref name="beefheart.com"/>

''[[AllMusic]]'' 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 re-imagining of what was possible in a rock context laid the groundwork for countless experiments in rock surrealism to follow, especially during the [[punk (music)|punk]] and [[New wave music|new wave]] era."<ref name="Huey">{{cite web | url={{AllMusic|class=album|id=r3289|pure_url=yes}} | title=Trout Mask Replica | access-date=March 17, 2007 | last= Huey |first= Steve | website=Allmusic}}</ref> In 2003, the album was ranked sixtieth by ''Rolling Stone'' on its list of [[Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time|the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time]]: "On first listen, ''Trout Mask Replica'' sounds like raw [[Delta blues]]", with Beefheart "singing and ranting and reciting poetry over fractured guitar licks. Tracks such as "Ella Guru" and "My Human Gets Me Blues" are the direct predecessors of modern musical primitives such as [[Tom Waits]] and [[PJ Harvey]]."<ref name="Posted Nov 01, 0003 12:00 AM"/> Guitarist [[Fred Frith]] noted that during this process "forces that usually emerge in [[Musical improvisation|improvisation]] are harnessed and made constant, repeatable".<ref name="Fred Frith"/>

Critic [[Robert Christgau]] gave the album a B+, saying, "I find it impossible to give this record an A because it is just too weird. But I'd like to. Very great played at high volume when you're feeling shitty, because you'll never feel as shitty as this record."<ref name="robertchristgau.com">{{cite web| url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist2.php?id=222 |title=CG: Artist 222 |publisher=Robert Christgau |date=December 1, 2006 |access-date=February 11, 2010}}</ref> John Peel said of the album: "If there has been anything in the history of popular music which could be described as a work of art in a way that people who are involved in other areas of art would understand, then ''Trout Mask Replica'' is probably that work."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.furious.com/Perfect/beefheart/troutmaskreplica3.html |title=Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band: ''Trout Mask Replica'' |access-date=December 9, 2007 |last=Barnes |first=Mike |date=February 1999 |publisher=Perfect Sound Forever |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111120133945/http://www.furious.com/Perfect/beefheart/troutmaskreplica3.html |archive-date=November 20, 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> It was inducted into the United States [[National Recording Registry]] in 2011.