― LoneNut, Friday, 13 January 2006 11:12 (eighteen years ago) link
― js (honestengine), Friday, 13 January 2006 14:52 (eighteen years ago) link
― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Friday, 13 January 2006 14:54 (eighteen years ago) link
Don't get me wrong, I've got TMR on cd and had it on vinyl way back, too. But when I reach for the Cap'n more likely I'll put on Safe as Milk, Lick My Decals Off, Mirror Man, Strictly Personal, and, yes, the Clear Spot/Spotlight Kid twofer before I put on TMR.
np: Michael Blake, Kingdom of Champa
― J Arthur Rank (Quin Tillian), Friday, 13 January 2006 14:56 (eighteen years ago) link
― Growfins, Friday, 13 January 2006 14:58 (eighteen years ago) link
― TRG (TRG), Friday, 13 January 2006 15:13 (eighteen years ago) link
As far as pop culture bizarro bombs go, nothing really matches it until PiL's Second Edition.
You might re-read James Joyce's Dubliners more frequently, but Ulysses is clearly his (more difficult, less frequently accessed) masterwork. I feel the same way about TMR in relation to the rest of Beefheart's output.
― Edward III (edward iii), Friday, 13 January 2006 16:35 (eighteen years ago) link
― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Friday, 13 January 2006 16:47 (eighteen years ago) link
― Growfins, Friday, 13 January 2006 16:54 (eighteen years ago) link
Funny, I used Joyce in a similar but different way in explaining it for the Beefheart tribute in Perfect Sound Forever several years back.
Though I grew up with the album and it obviously made an impact on me, I currently rate it my third favorite after Lick My Decals and Doc at the Radar Station. It barely beats out Clear Spot and Shiny Beast. It's just too bad that TMR is the only token Beefheart album that gets attention in album polls.
For those interested, here's the real story on how Mr. Van Vliet got his nickname and came up with the "fast 'n' bulbous" joke.
― Fastnbulbous (Fastnbulbous), Friday, 13 January 2006 18:23 (eighteen years ago) link
― xgurggleglgllg (xgurggleglgllg), Friday, 13 January 2006 23:18 (eighteen years ago) link
― Rombald, Friday, 13 January 2006 23:39 (eighteen years ago) link
Also, I think "Party of Special Things to Do" (off "Bluejeans and Moonbeams", and previously covered by the White Stripes) is one of his best tracks. So fuckin bluesy.
― Erock LAzron, Saturday, 14 January 2006 18:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― zappi (joni), Sunday, 15 January 2006 03:32 (eighteen years ago) link
― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Sunday, 15 January 2006 16:25 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 15 January 2006 16:39 (eighteen years ago) link
― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Sunday, 15 January 2006 16:53 (eighteen years ago) link
― Wax Cat (Wax Cat), Sunday, 15 January 2006 19:58 (eighteen years ago) link
Does anyone have the 180 gram reissue of this? I can get a fairly good deal on it through today, but it's still rather pricey. I know a couple of my vinyl reissues suck as far as sound goes (as discussed on other threads), but I wanted to check on this one since it's basically my favorite album of all time.
― Reatards Unite, Sunday, 20 April 2008 14:42 (sixteen years ago) link
I haven't, but I *can* tell you that the original vinyl sounds *miles* better than the CD....
― Stewart Osborne, Monday, 21 April 2008 14:02 (sixteen years ago) link
Blimey, does notifications still work on threads?
― Mark G, Monday, 21 April 2008 14:09 (sixteen years ago) link
...and yet the "Clear Spot/Spotlight Kid" CD is still FAR worse!
― Myonga Vön Bontee, Monday, 21 April 2008 20:53 (sixteen years ago) link
yeah, Spotlight Kid/Clear Spot's remastering is way too low and a disgrace. Even at his mildest the Cap was pretty commanding. For some reason, a lot of those Reprise records from around that time are the same way, like Randy Newman's 12 Songs is mastered way too dimly.
― whisperineddhurt, Monday, 21 April 2008 21:33 (sixteen years ago) link
So any road up, I play a bit of "Trout Mask Replica" to Amber and Alice (Alice's middle name is Ella..) just to see what they think..
A few days later, Alice comes in with a set of fridge magnets, front and back halves of animals.
She picks the front of the elephant and the back of the kangaroo, puts them on the fridge, and says "EleGaroo!"
Damn.
― Mark G, Tuesday, 1 December 2009 13:26 (fourteen years ago) link
The Captain would love that
― E Poxy Thee Thule (Tom D.), Tuesday, 1 December 2009 13:30 (fourteen years ago) link
It seems so obvious now!
― Mark G, Tuesday, 1 December 2009 13:31 (fourteen years ago) link
The men don't know but the little girl understands...
― E Poxy Thee Thule (Tom D.), Tuesday, 1 December 2009 13:32 (fourteen years ago) link
It's a play on "allegory" though, isn't it?
― E Poxy Thee Thule (Tom D.), Tuesday, 1 December 2009 13:33 (fourteen years ago) link
lol that's brilliant
― sonderangerbot, Tuesday, 1 December 2009 14:37 (fourteen years ago) link
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y161/MarkGrout/elegaroo.jpg
― Mark G, Wednesday, 2 December 2009 09:58 (fourteen years ago) link
hahaha "Alice in Blunderland!"
― Race Against Rockism (Myonga Vön Bontee), Wednesday, 2 December 2009 14:25 (fourteen years ago) link
― Mark G, Tuesday, December 1, 2009 1:26 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark
mind=blown
― tectonic p (latebloomer), Wednesday, 2 December 2009 19:48 (fourteen years ago) link
holy shit that is the greatest mark g post ever
― a. cole, u thic (acoleuthic), Wednesday, 2 December 2009 19:50 (fourteen years ago) link
and that jpg...i will never be able to listen to that song again without seeing it
― a. cole, u thic (acoleuthic), Wednesday, 2 December 2009 19:51 (fourteen years ago) link
This is obv the wrong thread for it but I just want to say that my lp of The Spotlight Kid has been getting serious play lately and I think it is sometimes unfairly overlooked. "White Jam" is one of the best moments in the Beefheart discography.
― Trip Maker, Wednesday, 2 December 2009 19:53 (fourteen years ago) link
It's a play on "allegory" though, isn't it?― E Poxy Thee Thule (Tom D.), Tuesday, December 1, 2009 5:33 AM (Yesterday)
― E Poxy Thee Thule (Tom D.), Tuesday, December 1, 2009 5:33 AM (Yesterday)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_yellow
― vlogger working on a thinkpiece about the gastro-truck revolution (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 2 December 2009 20:03 (fourteen years ago) link
Funny - I just finished reading the 331/3 book on TMR last night (which was entertaining, but not the best of the series, IMO) and am currently blasting disc 5 of Grow Fins.
Lick My Decals.. has to be my personal fave.
xpost The Spotlight kid is sometimes unfairly overlooked.
― Duke, Wednesday, 2 December 2009 23:08 (fourteen years ago) link
Right, there's a single-disc remaster on the way..
Apparently, the cd available now was using a damaged master so they have gone back to Frank's safety copies of the original master. Hray!
and it is £23, according to Spin's website
EH???
― Mark G, Thursday, 18 April 2013 21:33 (eleven years ago) link
Hm. Safety tapes could mean lower fidelity though. Hm.
― brad palsy (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 18 April 2013 22:22 (eleven years ago) link
i have only ever owned this album on cassette weirdly enough.
― tylerw, Thursday, 18 April 2013 22:24 (eleven years ago) link
Actually, if you buy direct from Frank's "Barfco" website, it's $20, which is reasonable.
― Mark G, Friday, 19 April 2013 08:26 (eleven years ago) link
I ordered it, I'm curious, if a little skeptical. I have a Straight/Bizarre press of the lp, will be curious to compare the masters. The Zappa Family Trust vers of "Bat Chain Puller" from last yr was pretty great.
― chr1sb3singer, Friday, 19 April 2013 14:53 (eleven years ago) link
I am wondering about how the Zappa's can release this? Doesn't Warners/Reprise own the rights? Obv that could have changed, but seems like they would be unlikely to give up the rights to such a "name" record, even one that hasn't sold many copies...
― chr1sb3singer, Friday, 19 April 2013 14:56 (eleven years ago) link
I thought TMR was around as a mid priced cd as it was. Has that gone out of print?& is Decals due on cd?
― Stevolende, Friday, 19 April 2013 15:27 (eleven years ago) link
It's available in every branch of "That's Entertainment" for £5 or so.
Having said that, Amazon has 'new' copies of the old CD for £24, old/second-hand ones for £8
No news on "Decals"
― Mark G, Friday, 19 April 2013 15:56 (eleven years ago) link
Ok wait wait. The reissue for which Mark G bumped the thread. Is it Decals or Trout Mask?
― brad palsy (Jon Lewis), Friday, 19 April 2013 16:02 (eleven years ago) link
Trout Mask.
― my mental killfile seems to be working (sleeve), Friday, 19 April 2013 16:03 (eleven years ago) link
LOL I am dumb.
― brad palsy (Jon Lewis), Friday, 19 April 2013 16:04 (eleven years ago) link
Did anybody shell out for Trout Mask from "Barfco" or whoever?
Any Good? Any Different?
― Mark G, Sunday, 23 June 2013 23:39 (ten years ago) link
?
― Mark G, Monday, 24 June 2013 09:23 (ten years ago) link
Richard Brautigan is still good, dunno about the 60s stuff, but So The Wind Won't Blow It All Away is devastating.
― Wuhan!! Got You All in Check (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 17 April 2020 14:52 (four years ago) link
xpost"B" last names and the word "trout"
― chr1sb3singer, Friday, 17 April 2020 14:54 (four years ago) link
“you either love or hate this album” no you don’t. it’s ok
― fuck it (Left), Friday, 17 April 2020 15:02 (four years ago) link
Yes, I hate that 'love or hate' thing. Or maybe I love it.
― The Corbynite Maneuver (Tom D.), Friday, 17 April 2020 15:09 (four years ago) link
So The Wind Won't Blow It All Away is devastating.
― walking towards the sun since 2007 (alex in mainhattan), Friday, 17 April 2020 15:44 (four years ago) link
fuck it, i'm in a rambling mood today so i just made my latest response to this thread into a blog post
https://weirdthingsonbetamax.blogspot.com/2020/04/on-richard-brautigan.html
doesn't have shit to do with "trout mask replica" anyway. which is a good record i think. a little overlong, a little uneven, but some good songs on it.
― Kate (rushomancy), Friday, 17 April 2020 16:26 (four years ago) link
xpost"B" last names and the word "trout"― chr1sb3singer, Friday, April 17, 2020 10:54 AM (one hour ago
― chr1sb3singer, Friday, April 17, 2020 10:54 AM (one hour ago
― Three Hundred Pounds of Almond Joy (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 17 April 2020 16:27 (four years ago) link
rushomancy, that's great, I agree with you almost completely, the other novel I was going to list was The Abortion, only thing tou didn't mention which I love about it is like half the book is just their walk from the library to the car. If I share something it will usually be that or Hawkline Monster, which has dated a bit but is the most fun to read. IWS and TFIA are odd choices and I think put a lot of people off. From a biography I read I remember Brautigan was actively anti-Hippie, there's a short story or a chapter in one of his books about telling a girl not to go to Haight-Ashbury (of course she doesn't care)
― Wuhan!! Got You All in Check (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 17 April 2020 16:39 (four years ago) link
i could listen to the guitars on “veteran’s day poppy” on a loop for hours. what a way to close a record.
― budo jeru, Friday, 17 April 2020 19:15 (four years ago) link
LOL at the turn this has taken, I very nearly wrote "be honest, how old do I look?" in place of the Brautigan remark. I chose this thread I guess because TMR is purportedly atypical of "60's music", posting that to the Ultimate Spinach thread would have been a bit hollow, way less ridiculous.
last names and the word "trout"
Really tho?
― Deflatormouse, Friday, 17 April 2020 20:22 (four years ago) link
I enjoyed coming across this:https://brautigan.cybernetic-meadows.net/tiki-index.php?page=Sorrentino+1968+Review+of+The+Galilee+Hitch-Hiker
― Three Hundred Pounds of Almond Joy (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 17 April 2020 20:52 (four years ago) link
xp could you be more clear about you’re trying to say tho ? i’m actually curious to know.
i could see somebody regarding both brautigan and beefheart as being early touchstones for aspiring young intellectuals, later set aside in place of more “mature” pursuits. is that the joke ?
― budo jeru, Friday, 17 April 2020 21:09 (four years ago) link
The "joke" was responding to your post as though the implication in it was "it's not the music that grew old (it's the vocals)". I am now considering the horrifying/hilarious possibility that this is what you actually were implying, and this whole thing has been a trainwreck of misinterpretation 😂
― Deflatormouse, Friday, 17 April 2020 21:31 (four years ago) link
The statement that I can't listen to 60's music anymore because it's too old wan't humorless, but wasn't entirely insincere either. There's an earthy masculinity about it that feels utterly remote at this point, particularly in earnest and absent of campiness and much of the 'exceptional' music of the period is unexceptional in this regard, etc.
The comparison to Brautigan was basically superficial, along the lines of "reactionary hippie". I've only read TFiA/the pill/IWS and I thought the similarities to Beefheart were apparent enough (zany, surrealist imagery, pastorial utopian idealism/dystopic disharmony) though Brautigan's masculinity is more aggressive.
Am I mistaken? It's been 15 years since I read it and also years since I've listened to TMR in full. When I want to listen to Beefheart I usully go for 'Decals' or 'Grow Fins' and I can't even remember the last time I played either of those.
― Deflatormouse, Friday, 17 April 2020 22:58 (four years ago) link
1. brautigan as "reactionary hippie"? he was neither. brautigan's work, particularly his '60s work, is certainly suffused with what we can call the "male gaze", though his perpetuation of it, to my sensibilities, has more similarities to, say, mayo thompson's "corky's debt to his father" than it does to "trout mask replica", and like "corky's debt to his father" there's considerably more to it than paeans to women he would like to fuck.
2. brautigan's '60s work is also, as mentioned upthread, nowhere near to a complete repesentation of his work.
3. lack of camp? i don't even know where to begin with this. i mean, yeah, he's dead serious in "frownland" and "dachau blues", yeah, "hair pie" is a crude and tasteless song title, but "ella guru" sounds to me not terribly far from walk on the wild side, his celebrations of women not terribly far from lou reed's. "pachuco cadaver", "pena", these aren't miniskirted hippie girls with creamy thighs. christ, we're talking about the album where, on one of its iconic tracks, he out and out envisions god as gender non-conforming! if this is what "earthy masculinity" looks like i figure we ought to have more of it.
4. but of course it is also terribly old and remote, he's from that generation of music that's informed by the harry smith anthology, he's got the spirit of hoyt "floyd" ming and his pep-steppers just as much as the holy modal rounders do, and why on earth would that be a reason to not listen to it? not everything has to be contemporary or relevant, you know.
― Kate (rushomancy), Friday, 17 April 2020 23:37 (four years ago) link
not familiar with Brautigan really (I think I read Venus On The Half Shell decades ago?) but really feeling #3 and #4 there, thanks Kate
this is like my least favorite Beefheart album aside from Bluejeans & Unconditional and uh maybe Decals cuz I do love "Orange Claw Hammer" to death, more than "I Love You You Big Dummy".
This album inspired a lot of proggy Euro nonsense that I have zero time for, as well as informing the least memorable aspects of the RIO movement. Fight me.
― zoomer death circus (sleeve), Friday, 17 April 2020 23:51 (four years ago) link
When I want to listen to Beefheart I usully go for 'Decals' or 'Grow Fins''
Really avoiding the TMR soundworld altogether there I must say.
― The Corbynite Maneuver (Tom D.), Friday, 17 April 2020 23:51 (four years ago) link
lol
plz also note that by "least favorite" I mean something more akin to "least amazing"
― zoomer death circus (sleeve), Friday, 17 April 2020 23:54 (four years ago) link
not everything has to be contemporary or relevant, you know.streaming has sort of flattened and destroyed time for me wrt music, I start to just flip around through history and nothing seems really fixed
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 18 April 2020 00:00 (four years ago) link
I think I read Venus On The Half Shell decades ago?
too much trout itt as it is, sleeve
― budo jeru, Saturday, 18 April 2020 00:01 (four years ago) link
Lol
― Three Hundred Pounds of Almond Joy (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 18 April 2020 00:24 (four years ago) link
I'm reading through the TMR lyrics booklet now with Kate's post in mind.
First thing I notice: "Well, I put down my bush. And I took off my pants and felt free. The breeze blowin' up me and up the canyon. Far as I could see. It's night now and the moon looks like a dandelion" would not sound at all out of place in TFIA or IWS.
― Deflatormouse, Saturday, 18 April 2020 00:31 (four years ago) link
ella guru" sounds to me not terribly far from walk on the wild side
This might be a stretch, but I think it's quite perceptive.
― Deflatormouse, Saturday, 18 April 2020 00:38 (four years ago) link
It's tempting to read the moon in "moonlight on vermont" as a symbol of the (divine) feminine. He says "gimme that old time religion" over and over again, Lifebuoy's pistol showin, etc. I think this is comparing female attractiveness to the Transylvania effect.
― Deflatormouse, Saturday, 18 April 2020 01:05 (four years ago) link
Point definitely taken about Paucho cadaver
― Deflatormouse, Saturday, 18 April 2020 01:09 (four years ago) link
― zoomer death circus (sleeve)
you talking like etron fou leloublan? i always thought of them as being distinctly gallic. i don't know how much prog music there is that i'd classify as being genuinely inspired by trout mask replica. Michael Maksymenko if you want to count that, and honestly i think he's pretty alright, particularly the tunes about ice hockey.
― Kate (rushomancy), Saturday, 18 April 2020 01:21 (four years ago) link
The line about God dressing you because he never had a doll is wonderful.
― Deflatormouse, Saturday, 18 April 2020 02:00 (four years ago) link
...it's also quite heavy. I'm not going to finish all of this tonight, it's heady and dense, and i'm not sure i find it campy (is he Lou Reed or PT Barnum on Pachuco Cadaver? I can't tell, this is walking some inimate/sensation tightrope) but it's been rewarding to read through it slowly and carefully.
― Deflatormouse, Saturday, 18 April 2020 02:32 (four years ago) link
*sensational
xps nah I can hang with Etron Fou, I was specifically thinking of Dunaj and related Czech stuff like Uz Jsme Doma and even carrying through to Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, the kind of hammering relentlessness that I find overwhelming, even the Art Bears sometimes.
― zoomer death circus (sleeve), Saturday, 18 April 2020 03:20 (four years ago) link
Kate, great post above. (:
― timellison, Saturday, 18 April 2020 05:36 (four years ago) link
an earthy masculinity about it that feels utterly remote at this point...and much of the 'exceptional' music of the period is unexceptional in this regard
What kind of exceptionality are we looking for? Obviously, something greater than "Under My Thumb," and I know there are plenty of other problems. But I will say that, growing up in the '70s/'80s, an awareness of rock music going back to the '60s was a significant thing for me in seeing suggestions of a more feminine way of being for those born male.
― timellison, Saturday, 18 April 2020 05:50 (four years ago) link
All I'll say is they know how to do breakfast TV in Sweden.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-kH_aNnNiA
― Fronted by a bearded Phil Collins (Tom D.), Friday, 18 November 2022 13:35 (one year ago) link
I wasn't aware of that iteration of the Magic Band. Who needs coffee when you have music like that?
― o. nate, Friday, 18 November 2022 17:25 (one year ago) link