With Understanding Comes Appreciation
“Fast and bulbous!
That's right, The Mascara Snake, fast and bulbous!
Also, a tin teardrop!
Bulbous also tapered?
That's right”
—Pena, Track 15.
I wanted to start with this quote, because it is a classic dialog among fans, which shows a sort of camaraderie and a “sense of belonging” when you start exchanging this apparently “nonsense," specially with another unknown fan. Knowing the later, somehow says that you are “special” and “belong” as well to the Captain's beautiful bizarre absurdness. Trust me, in the comments of every review of Trout Mask Replica, you’ll inevitable see fans exchanging these lines.
This album is memorable for me in so many ways, but specially because it opened me a new brand world musically speaking —Civilization Phase III by Frank Zappa, Disaster by Amon Düül, Unlimited Edition by Can, The Maria Dimension by The Legendary Pink Dots, Schwingungen by Ash Ra Temple, Cobra & Game Pieces by John Zorn, the whole “Island Records” Albums by Tom Waits and a bunch more of the so called “the weird” ones.
In addition of reviewing this piece of art, I wanted to share my two cents since this masterpiece has been largely misunderstood, underrated, and bashed without an apparently fair reason by plenty of people, who don’t really understand or realize what is behind this gem. It's probably the weirdest thing you will ever hear. No, it has no keyboards if you are prog-rock fan. Heck, do not expect anything which could come with a label in music as you know it. It is jagged, sharp, dirty, impenetrable, questionable, disgusting, odd, and dissonant. It may sound like a bunch of idiots bashing their instruments into the wall against a growling and howling vocal by a drunken crackpot, but it really isn't. Behind all that disgusting weirdness is actual music, trust me. I'm not saying this just to "show off my tolerance" or say Captain Beefheart is making some artsy point here which "mere humans can not understand" or some crap like that. I'm talking about actual music. It just takes a little effort and an open mind. This music isn't improvised or recklessly done. It is well planned out and executed. The way the guitars, bass, drums, horns and sax interlock, can not be improvised. This sounds much weirder than anything could possibly be if it were improvised, actually.