The Dust Blows Forward: 'Trout Mask Replica' at 50

In 1969, the deeply strange musician known as Captain Beefheart released an album that is still ahead of its time a half-century later. PopMatters spoke with musicians and writers about this landmark work of art and why it continues to fascinate.

                                      
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        Counterbalance: Captain Beefheart's 'Safe As Milk'
    
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The Dust Blows Forward: 'Trout Mask Replica' at 50

In 1969, the deeply strange musician known as Captain Beefheart released an album that is still ahead of its time a half-century later. PopMatters spoke with musicians and writers about this landmark work of art and why it continues to fascinate.

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Zappa himself might have appreciated this work, which doesn’t attempt the usual tricks of trying to create or dispel a myth but instead focuses on the character of its subject, the richness of his work, and the beauty of his mind.

1967 and the Prog-Rock Progenitors

If 1967 characterizes a high point where rock music could be appraised as Art, it also initiated an explicit realignment of what was henceforth possible.

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It's hard to tell where the chops end and the jokes begin on these comedy-rock reissues.

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Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica is like a squid eating dough in a polyethylene bag—it’s fast and bulbous and bound to end badly. Eric Klinger and Jason Mendelsohn try to clean up the ensuing mess in this week's Counterbalance.

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