Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica

by Courrier, Kevin

  As the 60s came to a close, there were two unrelated events that had that power to break those existing laws. I like to believe that, in some conceptual way, they mirrored each other. In the same summer month that Trout Mask Replica was released, a celebrated astronaut named Neil Armstrong stepped where no other man had ever walked before—on another desert island known as the moon. As Armstrong took his one small step for mankind, viewers marvelled at the brave new world unfolding before them. Meanwhile, a group of oddball musicians were about to deliver, unto an unsuspecting public, an album that just as easily could have come from Mars. Everyone drinks from the same pond indeed.

  Bibliography

  BOOKS

  All Music Guide to Rock: The Definitive Guide, 3rd Edition (Backbeat Books, 2002).

  Ball, Hugo. Flight Out of Time (University of California Press, 1996).

  Barnes, Mike. Captain Beefheart: The Biography (Cooper Square Press, 2002).

  Chusid, Irwin. Songs in the Key of Z: The Curious Universe of Outsider Music (a cappella, 2000).

  Courrier, Kevin. Dangerous Kitchen: The Subversive World of Zappa (ECW Press, 2002).

  Delville, Michel & Andrew Norris. Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart and the Secret History of Maximalism (Salt Publishing, 2005).

  James, Billy. Lunar Notes: Zoot Horn Rollo’s Captain Beefheart Experience (SAF Publishing, 1998/2000).

  _____. Necessity Is … The Early Years of the Mothers of Invention (SAF Publishing, 2001).

  Lawrence, D.H. Studies in Classic American Literature (Penguin Paperback Edition, 1971).

  Marcus, Greil, ed. Stranded: Rock & Roll for a Desert Island (Knopf, 1979).

  _____. Ranters & Crowd Pleasers: Pop in Punk Music, 1977–92 (Doubleday, 1993).

  Miles, [Barry]. In His Own Words: Frank Zappa, ed. by Barry Miles (Omnibus Press, 1993).

  Watson, Ben. Frank Zappa’s Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play (St. Martin’s Press, 1993).

  Winner, Langdon. Essay on Captain Beefheart’s Trout Mask Replica. (see Marcus, Greil. Stranded: Rock & Roll for a Desert Island [Knopf, 1979]).

  Zappa, Frank with Peter Occhiogrosso. The Real Frank Zappa Book (Poseidon Press, 1989).

  ARTICLES

  Bangs, Lester. “Trout Mask Replica review,” Rolling Stone, July 26, 1969.

  Bianchi, Paolo. “The Painting of Don Van Vliet,” Stand Up to Be Discontinued exhibition catalogue. Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, September 3–November 3, 1994.

  Boucher, Caroline. “Zappa Stole My Ideas, Says the Captain,” Disc, March 25, 1972.

  Bowman, David. “Sharps & Flats,” Salon, June 23, 1999.

  Carey, Robert. “Captain Beefheart Pulls a Hat Out of His Rabbit,” New York Rocker, January 1979.

  Carr, Roy. “Svengali Zappa and a Horrible Freak Called Beefheart,” New Musical Express, January 1, 1973.

  Coley, Bryon. “The Strangest Album Ever Sold: The Making of Trout Mask Replica,” Spin, December, 1999.

  Duke Alex, and Rob DeNunzio. “Our Day with Zoot Horn Rollo,” The Captain Beefheart Radar Station, November 1997.

  French, John. “Letter from John French,” Mojo, 1994.

  _____. “Behind Trout Mask,” Resonance, Vol. 6. No. 1, 1997.

  _____. “The Ultimate Out There! Album,” Mojo, March 2005.

  Froy, Steve. “The Challenge of Trout Mask Replica,” Beefheartologist in the U.K. Internet site.

  Groening, Matt. “Plastic Factory,” Mojo, December 1993.

  Harkleroad, Bill. “Zoot Horn Rollo—A Captain’s Tale,” Record Collector, April 1998.

  Johnston, Graham. “Clicks and Klangs: Gender and the Avant-Garde,” Radar Station, August 2000.

  Keepnews, Peter. “Interview with Captain Beefheart,” Downbeat, April 1981.

  McKenna, Kristine. “A Crossover of a Different Color,” Los Angeles Times, July 29, 1990.

  McKnight, Connor. Zig Zag, February 1973.

  Miller, Jim with Janet Huck. “Captain Courageous,” Newsweek, October 20, 1980.

  Ohrt, Roberto. “The Painting of Don Van Vliet,” Stand Up to Be Discontinued exhibition catalogue. Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, September 3–November 3, 1994.

  Page, Tim. “Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart),” Washington Post, December 12, 1999. (Also, collected in Tim Page on Music: Views and Reviews [Amadeus Press, 2002]).

  Peacock, Steve. “Beefheart the Visionary,” Sounds, January 1971.

  Spencer, Neil. “Ravaged Blues on Canvas,” The Observer, August 28, 1994.

  Wald, Eliot. “Conversation with Captain Beefheart,” Oui magazine, July 1973.

  Ward, Ed. Review of Lick My Decals Off, Baby, Rolling Stone, December 10, 1970.

  Winner, Langdon. “The Odyssey of Captain Beefheart,” Rolling Stone, May 14, 1970.

  Zappa Frank. In conversation with Don Menn, “The Mother of All Interviews,” from Zappa! tribute issue from the publishers of Keyboard and Guitar Magazine, 1993.

  RADIO AND TELEVISION

  Captain Beefheart: Under Review. A DVD documentary (Sexy Intellectual, 2006).

  Marcus, Greil. In conversation with Geoff Pevere, Prime Time, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1993.

  Zappa, Frank. In conversation with Nigel Leigh, The Late Show Special on BBC2, December 17, 1993.

  CD LINER NOTES

  Alfonso, Barry. Interviews with Captain Beefheart, Bill Harkleroad and John French included in liner notes for The Dust Blows Forward (An Anthology): Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band (Rhino, 1999).

  Beefheart, Captain. In conversation with Rip Rense, quoted in liner notes to the CD release of Frank Zappa’s The Lost Episodes (Rykodisc, 1996).

  Cooder, Ry. Liner notes of CD release, A Carrot Is as Close as a Rabbit Gets to a Diamond (Virgin Universal, 1993).

  French, John. “There Ain’t No Santa Claus on the Evenin’ Stage,” liner notes to CD box-set, Grow Fins: Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band: Rarities [1965-1982] (Revenant, 1999).