Difference between revisions of "Talk:Trout Mask Replica"
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Revision as of 15:03, 23 May 2008
Hi. Thought I'd have a go at syntaxing the Trout Mask Replica album page to wiki style.
Rather than face 'public humiliation' resulting from drastic editing on the page proper by those more knowledgeable than me, I thought I'd grab a bit of metaphorical 2x4 and shove it falteringly to center stage from the wings for discussion/edits/whatever. (Can you see the join, hear the roar of the greasepaint & smell the crowd?)
Maybe the uncredited players should have gone in notes at the foot, but I thought it relevant to 'clear up' who is actually who in the bandlist asap- identifying ALL the players at the start so that they can be sourced in the wiki (without discovering them later at the foot)?
To keep it wiki I've looped back to FZ interest at the foot with the cross-polinating band members. Probably more internal/external links needed too.
PS: I don't have CD reissue/haven't researched, just repeated album list for now. My page suggestion:(--Tonefish 10:30, 22 May 2008 (PDT))
Your tracklist as well as the rest of the article looks better than the old one ;-)
One question, do you own the LP? If yes, may I suggest you to write the timings printed on the LP cover in the LP column, I can put the actual CD timings in the CD column (see also the remarks after the Talk:Freak Out!#Tracks Timing tab).
Regarding Duncan's comments, I could not find "Beefheart's House" or the "bottleneck style of playing" mentionned in my CD liner notes.
Maroual 13:13, 22 May 2008 (PDT)
1) Yes, have the album. Have already transcribed correct timings as printed on sleeve. If you have the CD we're there!
2) Regarding 'perhaps'...If you look at current page, I simply adjusted 'leader text' that was already there & trying not to step on toes of whoever wrote it originally. I did want to replace it with something said of the album at the time. I will address it.
3) Players list looks good- very neat & tidy. I get the picture now... update it to what is currently known of past events and qualify at foot if necessary.
4) "Beefheart's House"...again, I took this from orig notes on existing page. However, it's theoretically correct as the album was developed in Beefheart's house on Ensenada Drive, Woodland Hills, CA (also referred to as the Magic Band house). None of this is on sleeve notes, but elsewhere-eg the booklets in CDs I'd referred to as source. Leave it with me, I'll tweek.
Is it OK to use daggers† or is this practice considered sloppy††?
†no daggers in the wiki. ††leave 'em well alone.
Also think it's important to use that useful editorial tool the 'square box/parenthesis' to indicate: [editorial 'interference' here, applying/adding a meaning/extra-info/context to the isolated item etc]...
5) Bottleneck. Yep, should be in next section, not Liner. (Thought it pertinent- I was going to fire the link to suitable source)
6) Gary Marker. Was in the house (developing tracks with CB/JF/BH & still in Rising Sons) up to the 'Big Recording' of 26 tracks. He laid down his 2 tracks (about 8 months?) earlier with FZ. Also relevant for overview of/with FZ & Rising Sons appearing in same gigs etc, plus external link opportunities to the Ry Cooder/Beefheart conflicts. I think it (or something similar) needs to be there for 'background',...maybe qualifying No 4 above as well? However, think you're right about the other bit on Magic members going to other page.
7) There ARE already 3 album reviews at foot of current page. Think they're ideal there & should stay. Didn't put them in example here 'cos I took it as read they'd stay, in the same manner that album reviews appear at album footers elsewhere. I assume you think it might all get cluttered? How about just inserting 'tempting tidbits' with links to full reviews & calling section Media Comments?
8) Looked for syntax info on order of listing Players, couldn't find, but assumed it to be Alpha by Last Name with exception of FZ [or Bandleader] at head- (the style I used in listing the Tours/1982 members elsewhere) your thoughts on this?
9) Finally, any chance of a cover photo in thingy-box top right?
This was just a first thrust. I'll have another go with my honer & put a 2nd 'clean' version (without comments) below first- so we can compare in one view & list new comment/s above it. Thanks --Tonefish 08:35, 23 May 2008 (PDT)
- Go for the full article page we can always tweak it a bit if needed [Yeah! - Maroual 15:03, 23 May 2008 (PDT)]. Replace reviews (which albums have reviews?) with...
The high point of our relationship (according to Rolling Stone -- and aren't they some kind of authority on these matters?) was making the Trout Mask Replica album together in 1969. Don is not technically oriented, so, first I had to help him figure out what he wanted to do, and then, from a practical standpoint, how to execute his demands. I wanted to do the album as if it were an anthropological field recording -- in his house. The whole band was living in a small house in the San Fernando Valley (we could use the word cult in here). I was working with Dick Kunc, the recording engineer on Uncle Meat and Cruising with Ruben & the Jets. To make remote recordings in those days, Dick had a Shure eight-channel mixer remounted in a briefcase. He could sit in a corner at a live gig with earphones on and adjust the levels, and have the outputs of the briefcase mixer feeding a Uher portable tape recorder. I had been using that technique with the M.O.I. for road tapes. I thought it would be great to go to Don's house with this portable rig and put the drums in the bedroom, the bass clarinet in the kitchen and the vocals in the bathroom: complete isolation, just like in a studio -- except that the band members probably would feel more at home, since they were at home. We taped a few selections that way, and I thought they sounded terrific, but Don got paranoid, accused me of trying to do the album on the cheap, and demanded to go into a real recording studio. So we moved the whole operation to Glendale, into a place called Whitney, the studio I was using at that time -- owned by the Mormon church. The basic tracks were cut -- now it was time for Don's vocals. Ordinarily a singer goes in the studio, puts earphones on, listens to the track, tries to sing in time with it and away you go. Don couldn't tolerate the earphones. He wanted to stand in the studio and sing as loud as he could -- singing along with the audio leakage coming through the three panes of glass which comprised the control-room window. The chances of him staying in sync were nil -- but that's the way the vocals were done. Usually, when you record a drum set, the cymbals provide part of the 'air' at the top end of the mix. Without a certain amount of this frequency information, mixes tend to sound claustrophobic. Don demanded that the cymbals have pieces of corrugated cardboard mounted on them (like mutes), and that circular pieces of cardboard be laid over the drum heads, so Drumbo wound up flogging stuff that went "thump! boomph! doof!" After it was mixed, I did the editing and assembly in my basement. I finished at approximately 6:00 A.M. on Easter Sunday, 1969. I called them up and said, "Come on over; your album is done." They dressed up like they were going to Easter church and came over. They listened to the record and said they loved it. The last time I saw Don was 1980 or '81. He stopped by one of our rehearsals. He looked pretty beat. He had gone back and forth with some contracts at Warner Bros., and it just hadn't worked out. I suppose he is still living in Northern California, but not recording anymore. He bought some property up there -- someplace where he could see whales swim by.
Duncan 12:22, 23 May 2008 (PDT)
Trout Mask Replica
A Side Project in collaboration with FZ as executive producer, Trout Mask Replica is perhaps one of the best-known and most acclaimed of Captain Beefheart albums. An incredible mix of influences crammed into a double LP, with a sound that seems to exist outside of most musical styles.
- Comment: we don't do "perhaps" and "seems". It either is or is not. Why is it "incredible"? But we do not need an introductory comment anyway.
Contents
Players
- Zoot Horn Rollo (Bill Harkleroad) - glass finger guitar, flute
- Antennae Jimmy Semens (Jeff Cotton) - steel-appendage guitar, vocal on Pena
- Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet)- bass clarinet, tenor sax, soprano sax, vocal
- The Mascara Snake (Victor Hayden) - bass clarinet & vocal
- Rockette Morton (Mark Boston) - bass & narration
- Doug Moon - guitar on China Pig
Uncredited
- Drumbo (John French) - drums, House track engineering & transcripts
- Gary Marker - bass guitar on Moonlight & Veteran
- FZ (comments on The Blimp)
Tracks
Double LP
Side One
Side Two
Side Three
Side Four
|
CD
|
Release Notes
Recorded at Whitney Studios, Los Angeles, CA; April 1969
Released 1969 (US Original) on Straight Records (STS 1053)
Produced by Frank Zappa
Arranged by Don van Vliet
Engineered by Dick Kunc
(Tracks 1:6 & 4:8 recorded & engineered by FZ at TTG Recorders, Los Angeles, CA; late 1968)
(Tracks 1:2, 1:5, 2:5, 3:3 & 4:1 recorded at Beefheart's House, Woodland Hills, CA)
- Comment: is it actually called Beefheart's House on the cover?
(Track 2:5 produced & engineered by Don Van Vliet)
(Track 4:1 produced by Don Van Vliet & engineered by John French)
Album design: Cal Schenkel
Photography: Ed Caraeff/Cal Schenkel
Special electronic modifications on Captain Beefheart's band equipment by Dick Kunc
Most recent in a long series of contract negotiations leading to an actual signing: Neil C. Reshen
Reissue CD design and restoration: Tom Recchion
All songs written by Captain Beefheart © 1969 Words & music copyrighted for the world by Beefheart Music Co. BMI
Liner Notes
'Glass finger guitar' suggests the bottleneck style of playing, brought to prominence by early blues musicians who literally used the neck of a broken bottle on their finger to create sustained sound-effects by oscillating it on the strings.
- Comment: "suggests"? Is this an actual Liner Note?
Background Information
- Comment: Does this have anything to do with the article Trout Mask Replica? Move to Magic Band page.
At the time of recording Gary Marker was the bass guitarist of The Rising Sons, fronted by Ry Cooder who had previously sessioned with the Magic Band.
Other than Captain Beefheart there is a lineage of Magic Band members who have also had a working relationship in FZ bands: Elliot Ingber (aka Winged Eel Fingerling), Art Tripp (aka Artie Tripp III/Ed Marimba/Ted Cactus), Roy Estrada (aka Orejon) & Denny Walley (aka Feelers Reebo).
Conceptual Continuity
Versions
Trout Mask Replica Album Reviews
No reviews. If they have anything interesting to add - Interview with Zappa - make a separate article page for them and link back to this page.
