Captain Beefheart

Trout Mask House Sessions (Grow Fins Volume 2) - 1969

Captain Beefheart was once quoted as saying that he composed the entirety of Trout Mask Replica in an eight hour burst of creative genius. In truth, it was created over a period of about 8 months, during which Beefheart holed up the Magic Band in a small house in the LA suburbs, blacked out the windows, handed out rations of lima beans and forced them into marathon rehearsals that would average 12 hours a day. But before the Magic Band took their creation into the studio to lay it down in an incredible single-day session, Frank Zappa recorded the entirety of Trout Mask Replica in its natural environment; the house in which it was created over those eight grueling months. The result is tighter, tougher, more assured than the studio album, and completely instrumental, since Beefheart intended to overdub his vocals in the bathroom at a later date. Interspersed with fly-on-the-wall chatter among the band, Zappa, random guests and neighbors, plus the constant tap of a typewriter, it's a field recording in the truest sense and an indispensable document for lovers of the creative process. God bless the Captain.