(From Chapter 1)
I’m not a music critic, and (truth be told) I’m probably not even qualified to be writing about music, just ask my friends who react to whatever I’m playing when they come over the house, or ride in my car, or just stand near the fence out back. Usually, they get found a two week old slimy, smelly, wet dead fish. I get it. I know this look on their face like they just reached into their pocket and my music’s not for everybody
If you know anything about me, you know I’m a writer of books. Books that nobody buys and poems that very few get.
For me, poetry (when it works) is like riding a unicycle on the edge of the impossible. Maybe that’s why for my entire life I’ve been drawn to, and fascinated by, Trout Mask Replica, an album that nobody bought and very few people even understand.
There’s a kind of wild synchronicity in that. Beefheart (real name Don van Vliet) did his thing and didn’t give a holy flying fuck what anyone thought about it or even if anybody cared.
To me, that’s cool. That’s art. That’s something that gets my attention and makes me want to learn more. For Beefheart and his music…I’m the guy.
I’ve read a good number of books about Trout Mask replica: yes, there’s been several books written about this crazy album that nobody claims to have heard and nobody admits to like, and they all talk about the how of the album. Where it was recorded. How it was recorded. Who played on it, and all that other happy crap. But nobody really gets into the viscera of it and talks about the why of it.
First off, there’s that cover…Beefheart is seen holding the front half of a dead fish up to his face. The story goes that the thing smelled to high heaven, but it’s what The Captain wanted for the image, and so that’s what he did…stood there (presumably smiling), with the ass end of a dead fish smack up against his face.
One look at that cover, and you know that what you’re getting will be nothing like the usual kind of music done by musicians who during that time chose to pose on the cover of their albums looking wise or cool or thoughtful, soulful or rich or any combination of all of those things. No, here was a guy with a fish on his face saying this is the music I’ve made and if you have the balls to listen to it, it just might make sense and it just might even change your life.
Music, like any artistic endeavor, is about being different…it’s about standing out from the crowd. It’s about being an outsider. And, for me, Captain Beefheart is the ultimate outsider. Of course, he didn’t always sound like Howlin’ Wolf, or look like he got his clothes out of piles of thrift store rejects. I mean, everybody starts out in the world being normal, before they figure out who they are, and what they want to do. Don’t they?
(From Chapter 14)
I remember when I first bought this album.
It was 1969 and vinyl was the only thing there was. It was two records. A double album, and I bet it didn’t cost more than four dollars. Five at most. And I remember sitting there in the middle of the night, on the floor in front of the stereo.
And I had it opened up on my lap, and I stared and stared at the pictures, trying to get a grip. Trying to see just what was going on.
Remember, this was the end of the 60s, and it was kind of the thing to put little clues and hints into the images that went on the covers and inside the sleeves of albums. Sgt. Pepper had to be the most famous example…but, they all did it. And some were phony and some were real.
There was one album, by Donovan, a singer/songwriter who was wrongly described as a Dylan clone…he had an album called From A Flower To A Garden (remember, this was the 60s, and Peace, Love, Dove and Friendship and Happiness were all over the place) and on the album art they showed him standing in a field in front of a castle, and there was a dog next to him in the grass and he was holding a flower, and I thought how cool, how wonderful, how fantastic is that?
And I wanted to be like Donovan and I wanted the castle and I wanted the dog and the flower and the field, and it was years later I read an interview Donovan gave (his full name was Donovan Leitch) and he was talking about his career and that particular album, and he destroyed all my dreams when he said the castle wasn’t his and the field wasn’t his and not even the dog was his. It was all just a pose that somebody thought was gonna look good with the music.
But, I remember looking at the photos in Trout Mask Replica…back then, in that room where I sat on the floor…and even today…
A photo of a bunch of crazy guys, wearing top hats and long coats with fur collars…and one of them had on a dress, and the Captain was holding a lamp with no shade, pointing it at the camera and I knew, right then and there, 60 years ago…and I know it now, that those guys were serious about their art.
They knew that the world would never understand.
That it didn’t matter.
That the only thing they really had was art.
And they had
to hold on tight.
***
