Trout Mask Replica

Trout Mask Replica

Trout Mask Replica has the reputation of being the greatest Rock album ever released. The Marcel Proust/James Joyce of Rock music. I certainly thought so when it came out and I still do.

I was already a huge fan of Beefheart’s. I had been to concerts and lapped up all the previous albums. I adored Strictly Personal. As far as I was concerned Beefheart was the best.

I managed to pick up a copy of Trout Mask Replica before it was released in Britain. It had come out in America and this record shop had bought in a bunch that they were selling for a staggering ten pounds each. It was a double album but that was still absurd. But even so I was sorely tempted.

In the end I bought a damaged copy. One of the albums had been cracked in transit. The crack went through the first two tracks but amazingly it still played. There was just a minor click as the stylus went over the crack. They sold it to me for £4. That was still a lot. I did not usually buy albums at that price but in this case I made an exception.

As it was the American pressing it came with a lyric sheet. That was extremely handy. Anyone who is familiar with Don Van Vliet’s poetic coruscations and delivery will know how hard it is to decipher all the lyrics. The lyric sheet, complete with little drawings, was extremely useful. I pawed over it.

I also devoured the album and never let it off the turntable. I absorbed every note, every word and feasted on the cover. Far from being annoying the click of the cracked disc did nothing to detract from the brilliance of the music. Imagine how bemused I was when I later heard an undamaged copy of the album and discovered that some of that clicking, that I’d though was due to the cracked vinyl was actually on the record. It was the sound of Don turning the tape recorder off and on.

The music on Trout Mask Replica was a major step change from anything Beefheart, or anyone else, had ever done. The music was intricate and complex with interweaving guitars, strange polyrhythms and incredible poetry. I hadn’t heard anything like it before. Nobody had heard anything like it before. Forget your Sgt Pepper’s – this was the apotheosis of Rock music. I was blown away.

Well I took the lyric sheet into college to show a friend and instantly had it stolen. But by then I’d memorised the words.

Shortly afterwards the record was released in Britain for a special sixty three shillings. I’d paid more than that for my damaged copy! But there was no lyric sheet with this one! They were cutting corners.

A lot of people found it a difficult album to get into. They felt the music was jerky, atonal and discordant. It is a bit at first listening.

I think with Beefheart you have to get your ear tuned in with the early albums and live performance. Once it clicks there is nothing discordant about it. It is merely different, intricate and layered.

To this day I have heard nothing that compares to the Magic Band in full flight.

Personally I’m not convinced that Trout Mask Replica is the Best Rock album ever. I think I prefer the follow-up ‘Lick My Decals Off’.

It matters little. Trout Mask Replica was a blazing beacon of brilliance that still shines as brightly nearly fifty years on.