features in: Album Chart of 1969 ● Album Chart of the Decade: 1960s ● 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die  |
The line up at the time of release in June, 1968 was Don van Vliet (28, vocals, tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, musette, simran horn, hunting horn, jingle bells) and his captive band of impressionable housebound slaves: John 'Drumbo' French (20, drums, percussion), Jeff 'Antennae Jimmy Semens' Cotton (20, guitar, steel guitar, flesh horn), Bill 'Zoot Horn Rollo' Harkleroad (20, guitar, slide guitar, flute), Mark 'Rockette Morton' Boston (19, bass guitar), Victor 'The Mascara Snake' Hayden (19, bass clarinet). Coming into this album - had I lived the period - my position would have been that I trusted Beefheart completely; he had proven himself to have the right feel for the blues, and his appetite for messing around with genre-defying techniques was a healthy one. I'm guessing that nothing quite prepared fans for what they actually received when they picked up their copies of “Trout Mask Replica”; a surreal sensory onslaught, decidedly avant-garde, wilfully beyond genre, a world away from what had gone before. As far as my subjective feeling goes, it's extraordinarily good in places, but I've never experienced a whole sitting which I'd class as thoroughly enjoyable; it seems to irritate and delight me in equal measure. Just when I’m getting into a bit of it, the band are off on another nightmarish freeform-jazz-attack, and that’s me alienated. I should point out that my dislike of this form is borderline pathological, so you can make of that what you will. He's intense, I'll give him that. And had I been around at the time I'd have been exceedingly curious to find out what on earth he was going to do next…
The Jukebox Rebel
23–Mar–2007
| Tracklist |
| A1 | [01:41]  Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Frownland (Don Van Vliet) Avant-Garde |
| A2 | [01:53]  Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - The Dust Blows Forward ‘n The Dust Blows Back (Don Van Vliet) Alternative Folk |
| A3 | [02:21]  Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Dachau Blues (Don Van Vliet) Proto-Punk |
| A4 | [02:26]  Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Ella Guru (Don Van Vliet) Prog |
| A5 | [04:58]  Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Hair Pie: Bake 1 (Don Van Vliet) Avant-Garde |
| A6 | [03:59] Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Moonlight On Vermont (Don Van Vliet) Alternative Rock |
| B1 | [04:40]  Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Pachuco Cadaver (Don Van Vliet) Alternative Rock |
| B2 | [01:48]  Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Bills Corpse (Don Van Vliet) Avant-Garde |
| B3 | [02:21]  Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Sweet Sweet Bulbs (Don Van Vliet) Prog |
| B4 | [02:25] Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Neon Meate Dream Of A Octafish (Don Van Vliet) Avant-Garde |
| B5 | [04:02]  Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - China Pig (Don Van Vliet) Blues / Rhythm n Blues |
| B6 | [02:46]  Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - My Human Gets Me Blues (Don Van Vliet) Prog |
| B7 | [01:26]  Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Dali’s Car (Don Van Vliet) Lo-Fi |
| C1 | [02:23]  Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Hair Pie: Bake 2 (Don Van Vliet) Avant-Garde |
| C2 | [02:33]  Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Pena (Don Van Vliet) Avant-Garde |
| C3 | [02:07]  Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Well (Don Van Vliet) Poetry |
| C4 | [05:18]  Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - When Big Joan Sets Up (Don Van Vliet) Avant-Garde |
| C5 | [02:08]  Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Fallin’ Ditch (Don Van Vliet) Alternative Rock |
| C6 | [02:30]  Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Sugar ‘n Spikes (Don Van Vliet) Alternative Rock |
| C7 | [03:57] Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Ant Man Bee (Don Van Vliet) Alternative Rock |
| D1 | [03:34]  Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Orange Claw Hammer (Don Van Vliet) Alternative Folk |
| D2 | [03:09]  Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Wild Life (Don Van Vliet) Avant-Garde |
| D3 | [01:40] Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - She’s Too Much For My Mirror (Don Van Vliet) Avant-Garde |
| D4 | [02:02] Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Hobo Chang Ba (Don Van Vliet) Avant-Garde |
| D5 | [02:04]  Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - The Blimp (Mousetrapreplica) (Don Van Vliet) Prog |
| D6 | [02:18]  Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Steal Softly Thru Snow (Don Van Vliet) Prog |
| D7 | [01:51]  Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Old Fart At Play (Don Van Vliet) Avant-Garde |
| D8 | [04:31]  Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Veteran’s Day Poppy (Don Van Vliet) Prog |
