Trout Mask Replica and Me

Let's get real gone, fellas.

I'm going through a Trout Mask Replica thing lately. It pretty much started when I noticed the rip I had done of my old CD copy of it a few years back had all sorts of crappy snaps in some of the songs. So I wandered over to iTunes and promptly bought the bastard again. Not that I minded since it's an album I can't do without.

I suppose everyone has their story regarding this work, whether or not they're a fan. I already covered my initial history with it right here in this previous post, so I won't go over all that again. I'm just not quite sure why the album has sparked my interest again so feverishly lately.

I was driving around yesterday with Beefheart's Strictly Personal album playing. After a bit, I shuffled the iPod to random stuff, not quite feeling any of it until a cut from Trout Mask Replica showed up. It was the only thing that was going to sound good. So I pulled up the album proper and started listening from "Hair Pie: Bake I" through "Moonlight on Vermont" to "Pachuco Cadaver" and then zipped up to "Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish" and "China Pig." It was as captivating as it was the very first time I heard those tunes.

So what's to say that hasn't been said? Nothing, really. You can listen to the songs and come up with your own conclusion. I remember writing a couple tunes back in my high school days and recording them with my friend Adam, telling him to play his guitar like they did on Trout Mask. I did my best to emulate John French's drumming style. But what we failed to realize was that The Magic Band had been rehearsing those classic tracks for months on end. Adam and I were just doing these one take things.

Just goes to show you what a moon can do.

Still, that's inspiration. I mean, if an album like that can make a person want to try and make music like that. Music, that, by and large, still alienates the public at large. It inspired me and my friends in all sorts of ways, though. I remember when I was a senior in high school our art class teacher, Ms. Caruthers, would often play tapes while we doodled away. Usually she made us listen to dreck like the soundtrack to Dances with Wolves.

I made a copy of Trout Mask Replica for my best friend Tom who also appreciated its oddball appeal. I told him to take it into art class, tell Ms. Caruthers it was the soundtrack to the PBS special The Civil War and see if she'd play it. Sure enough she did.

Tom and I didn't have art class at the same time, so at lunch I excitedly asked how it went down. As I expected, it didn't go down well at all.

"They turned it off pretty fast!" Tom told me.

He said that everyone just looked bewildered and in a last ditch effort to keep the songs playing, Tom exclaimed, "But wait! This is the part where they're rolling the cannons across the field!"

I was satisfied enough, knowing that these small town Tennessee hicks were at least exposed to "Frownland" and whatever else might have gotten played that day. That wouldn't have happened otherwise. Remember, this was around the time when Warrant was on the charts with "Cherry Pie." Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band must have seemed like a complete nightmare to those kids.

We also wound up shooting a couple videos to the Cap's tunes. One was just an extreme closeup of me trying not to crack up as "When Big Joan Sets Up" blared from my stereo in the background. I finally cracked and kept flashing the Trout Mask longbox in front of my face. After that there was another video, albeit for "Woe-Is-A-Me-Bop" from Lick My Decals Off, Baby. In that one, my dad's dog brought my friend Mark a magic coin that embedded itself into his forehead.

Suffice it to say Trout Mask Replica inspired and continues to inspire me in various ways. And really, I think that's the best thing about it. Because it's the sort of album that could inspire only the most creative types of stuff, really. Perhaps in another hundred years the thing will finally be certified Gold.