The main Beefheart content from "Frank Zappa: From Straight to Bizarre" (Documentary 2012). Keep in mind that the context for this stuff is a documentary about Zappa's Straight and Bizarre labels.
First listened to Troutmask back in ‘72 when I was 14 years old. I still think it’s magical, one of the truly great albums. I saw them live a couple of times in the UK in the mid-seventies. Chaotic and amazing.
I knew just one track in 1972, “Ella Guru”, from the Warner Brothers compilation “The Big Ball”. I was sixteen, and it was just a fun novelty for me. I did have a sort of friend from school who owned the complete Beerheart albums. The following year I briefly played in a rock group with that friend and stayed over at his house once with other friends, but I never actually saw the record collection. It was reputed to be large. The idea in those days was that Zappa and Beefheart fans were especial “heads”, the headest “heads” (in other words, the hippest hippies.) I retrospect that seems wrong. In any case, I jumped directly out of the hippie movement after that one night,
@@jeffryphillipsburns Only “Troutmask” is truly weird, a lot of their other material was a funky rock style (like on the album “Clear Spot”) and when playing live they could really rock.
@@jeffryphillipsburns interesting since always remembered reading how captain & the bois where toonweird for hippies, so youre friends must have felt like "heads" being fan of such strange duo.
Duality of man. Both are true unfortunately. Sometimes accidental genius, sometimes hot mess. Polarizing album for a reason, it really is scratching at something bigger but is a bit bloated and insane. Decals is the better album experience imo, concise yet dense and still flavored as a true sequel to Trout Mask
What you can't argue is the influence not only to Don and the band's trajectory but music history. The context of math rock and post rock and all of experimental rock, it is a simple call out to do whatever pleases you on your own terms
The cult stuff didn't really make it up to Idaho. Neither did the intellectual underpinnings, the Diggers and so on .. there did come to be, if not huge, present, waves and wavelets .. the wonderful, fine, great, absorptive thing of all this - cult and counterculture - is that it took place and not only recharged many batteries but gave huge wave after wave, tsunami like to our country .. oh, how we need another one now .. oh how we need another one now ..
