I promised not to ask him about Don Van Vliet, and I did not. Everybody
always asks about Don and this is time to talk about John. But of course Captain
Beefheart influenced everyone so here it all is:
always asks about Don and this is time to talk about John. But of course Captain
Beefheart influenced everyone so here it all is:
The drummer establishes the music's foundation and Mr. French developed a strange
complex rhythmic sound that still amazes rock and roll lovers around the world.
In 1969 The Magic Band with Captain Beefheart had only two fans that mattered.
When they were performing most of the record buying public did not know what
to make of the strange rhythms and bizarre exaggerated barking and yodeling blues
vocals. Those two fans were Jann Wenner and John Peel. Wenner is the founder of
Rolling Stone Magazine, and John Peel was a radio personality, whose real name
was John Robert Parker Ravenscroft OBE, "the most important man in music for about
a dozen years" (says fellow DJ Paul Gambaccini) because he boldly featured emerging
musicians and genres including pop, dub reggae, punk rock and post-punk, electronic
music and dance music, indie rock, extreme metal, and British hip hop. He played stuff
he recognized as breaking open new territory and enjoyed the controversy of taking risks.
complex rhythmic sound that still amazes rock and roll lovers around the world.
In 1969 The Magic Band with Captain Beefheart had only two fans that mattered.
When they were performing most of the record buying public did not know what
to make of the strange rhythms and bizarre exaggerated barking and yodeling blues
vocals. Those two fans were Jann Wenner and John Peel. Wenner is the founder of
Rolling Stone Magazine, and John Peel was a radio personality, whose real name
was John Robert Parker Ravenscroft OBE, "the most important man in music for about
a dozen years" (says fellow DJ Paul Gambaccini) because he boldly featured emerging
musicians and genres including pop, dub reggae, punk rock and post-punk, electronic
music and dance music, indie rock, extreme metal, and British hip hop. He played stuff
he recognized as breaking open new territory and enjoyed the controversy of taking risks.
I first heard the name Captain Beefheart through Frank Zappa albums back in 1970 or
so and just had to hear whatever it was they were doing, I was a new vegetarian so the
name stuck in my head like a nightmare that I could not understand, but I could not stop
thinking about it. Sure enough the sound changed everything I had come to understand
about rock music. I knew the band was talking to me, mostly because everyone was so
freaked out about their sound, crazy convulsive rhythms and defiant references to other
pop phenoms like the Beatles: “Rather than I want to hold your hand I wanna swallow you
whole…” (Lick my Decals Off, Baby)
so and just had to hear whatever it was they were doing, I was a new vegetarian so the
name stuck in my head like a nightmare that I could not understand, but I could not stop
thinking about it. Sure enough the sound changed everything I had come to understand
about rock music. I knew the band was talking to me, mostly because everyone was so
freaked out about their sound, crazy convulsive rhythms and defiant references to other
pop phenoms like the Beatles: “Rather than I want to hold your hand I wanna swallow you
whole…” (Lick my Decals Off, Baby)
“In the July 26, 1969, issue of Rolling Stone, the legendary rock critic Lester Bangs called it
"the most unusual and challenging musical experience you'll have this year," and referred
to the lyrics as "an explosion of maniacal free-association incantations." Trout Mask Replica
is the most art-damaged, blues wailin', freak show ever committed to record. You can see
straights run and hide, teeny boppers cover their ears, and hippies crawl away in horror as
the sounds here are unleashed. A simple overview of the LP here cannot do it justice.
Whether you take it all as a serious artistic statement, or as a insanely ravaging assault, one
thing is for certain, there is no other record quite like it in the entire library of recorded
music.”
What have been your most important musical or artistic discoveries?
JSF: That you can’t really be “taught” art.
It’s something you’re born with. Yep, I took
music-reading lessons, but the real work is
learning to communicate your inward vision
with the outside world. People can teach you
the mechanics of an instrument, but they can’t
teach you how to bring the inside to the surface.
It’s something you’re born with. Yep, I took
music-reading lessons, but the real work is
learning to communicate your inward vision
with the outside world. People can teach you
the mechanics of an instrument, but they can’t
teach you how to bring the inside to the surface.
JULY 26, 1969 4:00AM ET
Trout Mask Replica
By LESTER BANGS
“Captain Beefheart, the only true dadaist in rock, has been victimized repeatedly by public
incomprehension and critical authoritarianism. The tendency has been to chide C. B. and
his Band as a potentially acceptable blues band who were misled onto the paths of greedy
trendy commercialism. What the critics failed to see was that this was a band with a vision,
that their music, difficult raucous and rough as it is, proceeded from a unique and original
consciousness.”
incomprehension and critical authoritarianism. The tendency has been to chide C. B. and
his Band as a potentially acceptable blues band who were misled onto the paths of greedy
trendy commercialism. What the critics failed to see was that this was a band with a vision,
that their music, difficult raucous and rough as it is, proceeded from a unique and original
consciousness.”
“This became dramatically apparent with their last album. Since their music derived as
much from the new free jazz and African chant rhythms as from Delta blues, the songs
tended to be rattly and wayward, clattering along on wierdly jabbering high-pitched
guitars and sprung rhythms. But the total conception and its execution was more in the
nature of a tribal Pharoh Sanders Archie Shepp fire-exorcism than the ranting noise of the
Blue Cheer strain of groups.”
much from the new free jazz and African chant rhythms as from Delta blues, the songs
tended to be rattly and wayward, clattering along on wierdly jabbering high-pitched
guitars and sprung rhythms. But the total conception and its execution was more in the
nature of a tribal Pharoh Sanders Archie Shepp fire-exorcism than the ranting noise of the
Blue Cheer strain of groups.”
“Thus it’s very gratifying to say that Captain Beefheart’s new album is a total success, a
brilliant, stunning enlargement and clarification of his art. Which is not to say that it’s in
any sense slick, “artistic,” or easy. This is one of the few bands whose sound has actually
gotten rawer as they’ve matured a brilliant and refreshing strategy. Again the rhythms and
melodic textures jump all over the place (in the same way that Cecil Taylor’s do), Beefheart
singing like a lonesome werewolf screaming and growling in the night. The songs clatter
about given a superficial listening, they seem boring and repetitious. It’s perhaps the
addition of saxophones (all played by the five men in the band) that first suggests what’s
really happening here and always has been happening in this group’s music.”
brilliant, stunning enlargement and clarification of his art. Which is not to say that it’s in
any sense slick, “artistic,” or easy. This is one of the few bands whose sound has actually
gotten rawer as they’ve matured a brilliant and refreshing strategy. Again the rhythms and
melodic textures jump all over the place (in the same way that Cecil Taylor’s do), Beefheart
singing like a lonesome werewolf screaming and growling in the night. The songs clatter
about given a superficial listening, they seem boring and repetitious. It’s perhaps the
addition of saxophones (all played by the five men in the band) that first suggests what’s
really happening here and always has been happening in this group’s music.”
Is music a good choice of vocations, or is it a compulsion?
JSF: It’s not really a vocation.
It’s not either a compulsion.
It is a desire, and it often outweighs the practical.
The gifted are often exploited.
It’s not either a compulsion.
It is a desire, and it often outweighs the practical.
The gifted are often exploited.
REVISITING CAPTAIN BEEFHEART’S MASTERPIECE, ‘TROUT MASK REPLICA’
DAVE SWANSON ROLLING STONE June 16, 2015
“Trout Mask Replica is one of the weirdest and wildest albums ever to be released. Landing on record store shelves on June 16, 1969, Captain Beefheart's masterpiece amazed, confused, irritated and enthralled anyone who dared listen to it. While certainly not the most listenable of Beefheart's albums, it remains his most well-known and most captivating, losing none of its distinct charm or fire over the years.”
“On first listen, Trout Mask Replica sounds like a wild, incomprehensible rampage through the blues. Don Van Vliet (a.k.a. Captain Beefheart) growls, rants and recites poetry over chaotic guitar licks. But every note was precisely planned in advance – to construct the songs, the Magic Band rehearsed 12 hours a day for months on end in a house with the windows blacked out. (Producer and longtime friend Frank Zappa was then able to record most of the album in less than five hours.) The avant-garde howl of tracks such as "Ella Guru" and "My Human Gets Me Blues" have inspired modern primitives from Tom Waits to PJ Harvey.”
Are you able to bring music back from your nocturnal dreams?
JSF: Was in a play once, and there were lyrics I was
supposed to sing, but no music. I dreamed I sang
the lyrics and awakened with the melody. The
human mind is amazing.
supposed to sing, but no music. I dreamed I sang
the lyrics and awakened with the melody. The
human mind is amazing.
From Rolling Stone’s 1970 Cover Story:
“When I bought Trout Mask Replica, entirely on faith — encouraged by the affordable price,
especially for a double LP, and the association with Beefheart’s high school friend Frank
Zappa, who produced the record and issued it on his Straight label — I listened at first in
shock, then embarrassment, as if I lacked the hipness to ride this atonality. But I refused to
quit, playing at least one side a day and studying the six-page lyric insert like homework until
I felt some connection, if not equilibrium. I came to realize that I didn’t need to understand
the music; it was enough to lose yourself in it, to enjoy the sheer audacity and secret-society
appeal — here was a record that wasn’t going to let just anyone inside — and let the restlessly
moving parts congeal in their own time.”
Did your parents make you practice?
JSF: No, I made myself practice.
Usually about 1 ½ hours a day.
Usually about 1 ½ hours a day.
ROLLING STONE JUNE 15, 2019 9:11AM ET “On Trout Mask Replica, breaking through the
limits of coherence and cohesion already reset in the wide-open liberty of rock in the late
Sixties, Van Vliet and his greatest Magic Band — guitarists Bill Harkleroad and Jeff Cotton,
bassist Mark Boston, clarinetist Victor Hayden and drummer John French — established new
margins of personal, idiosyncratic expression, much as the Velvet Underground did for drone,
minimalism and literary transgression. But even Van Vliet — who continued to press his
singular, soulful dada onto records as varied and inspirational as 1970’s Lick My Decals Off,
Baby; the near-pop of 1972’s Clear Spot; and his true triumph, 1980’s Doc at the Radar
Station — never made another album as foreign and raw as Trout Mask, maybe because
it was too dangerous to go back there.”
limits of coherence and cohesion already reset in the wide-open liberty of rock in the late
Sixties, Van Vliet and his greatest Magic Band — guitarists Bill Harkleroad and Jeff Cotton,
bassist Mark Boston, clarinetist Victor Hayden and drummer John French — established new
margins of personal, idiosyncratic expression, much as the Velvet Underground did for drone,
minimalism and literary transgression. But even Van Vliet — who continued to press his
singular, soulful dada onto records as varied and inspirational as 1970’s Lick My Decals Off,
Baby; the near-pop of 1972’s Clear Spot; and his true triumph, 1980’s Doc at the Radar
Station — never made another album as foreign and raw as Trout Mask, maybe because
it was too dangerous to go back there.”
What would you tell a youngster about getting ideas for composing?
JSF: Listen for your inner music.
Communicate it via voice to a recording.
Process the idea later. It’s often difficult to do the
mechanics of composing when in creative mode.
Communicate it via voice to a recording.
Process the idea later. It’s often difficult to do the
mechanics of composing when in creative mode.
Rolling Stone: DAVID FRICKE June 15, 2119 “Released 150 years ago, on June 16th, 1969,
Trout Mask Replica — the third studio album by Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band —
still sounds like a tomorrow that has not arrived, a music created at a crossroads of sound
and language so far distant it continues to defy definitive summation and universal
translation. Guitars jut out at improbably severe angles in ice-pick treble, like broken bones
slicing through skin. The drumming comes in a rush of agendas, U-turn spasms of loose-limbed
time and tempo under melodies which, in turn, feel like they are yet only partially born, still
evolving in sense and structure. The singing is another primal logic altogether, an extreme
in octaves and sustain that goes from hellhound bass to wracked falsetto, the pictorial
cut-up frenzy of the lyrics run through archaic Delta-blues vernacular.”
Trout Mask Replica — the third studio album by Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band —
still sounds like a tomorrow that has not arrived, a music created at a crossroads of sound
and language so far distant it continues to defy definitive summation and universal
translation. Guitars jut out at improbably severe angles in ice-pick treble, like broken bones
slicing through skin. The drumming comes in a rush of agendas, U-turn spasms of loose-limbed
time and tempo under melodies which, in turn, feel like they are yet only partially born, still
evolving in sense and structure. The singing is another primal logic altogether, an extreme
in octaves and sustain that goes from hellhound bass to wracked falsetto, the pictorial
cut-up frenzy of the lyrics run through archaic Delta-blues vernacular.”
Does the album cover come about during or after the music has been imagined?
JSF: It’s totally different with
different artists, so there is no
“stock” answer.
different artists, so there is no
“stock” answer.
Here is The Book:
Beefheart: Through the Eyes of Magic
Paperback – 2013 by John "Drumbo" French (Author)
Publisher: Proper Music Publishing ISBN-10: 095612125X ISBN-13: 978-0956121257
1987 Crazy Backwards Alphabet
1987 Live, Love, Larf & Loaf
1990 Invisible Means
1994 Waiting on the Flame
1998 O Solo Drumbo
2000 Grow Fins
2007 Crazy Backwards Alphabet II
2008 City of Refuge
Interviews
interview 10.9.10
The Trap Set interview
Rough Trade East interview
The making of TMR interview by Samuel Andreyev
More John French goodies
https://vimeo.com/56639869
French Frith Kaiser Thompson -- Drumbo ogie
https://vimeo.com/99931941 Magic Band Live at Band on the Wall
https://vimeo.com/99931941 Magic Band Live at Band on the Wall
“To the Loft of Ravenscroft”
The Magic Band 2013
Drumbo Solo 2012
Drumbo Solo 2011
Click Clack
Moonlight On Vermont
On Tomorrow
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