CAPTAIN BEEFHEART "ICE CREAM FOR CROW"
1982, Virgin Records
1. "Ice Cream for Crow" – 4:35
2. "The Host the Ghost the Most Holy-O" – 2:25
3. "Semi-Multicoloured Caucasian" – 4:20
4. "Hey Garland, I Dig Your Tweed Coat" – 3:13
5. "Evening Bell" – 2:00
6. "Cardboard Cutout Sundown" – 2:38
7. "The Past Sure Is Tense" – 3:21
8. "Ink Mathematics" – 1:40
9. "The Witch Doctor Life" – 2:38
10. "81 Poop Hatch" – 2:39
11. "The Thousandth and Tenth Day of the Human Totem Pole" – 5:43
12. "Skeleton Makes Good" – 2:17
I first heard Trout Mask Replica about 7 years ago. I was mainly into stuff like Melt Banana, the Locust, Dillinger Escape Plan, Atari Teenage Riot, Babyland... stuff like that... stuff that blew my 8th- and 9th-grade mind at the time... I had an ICQ friend at the time (who went by the name Brent Cube...?!) who always reccomended me music, and I would special-order them from the record store, and I got records of the aforementioned bands and one day, he told me if I wanted something really bizarre, check out Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart. I downloaded a song on Napster, I think it was "Ella Guru". I went to the record store and ordered it, and I remember the guy behind the counter being shocked... I guess he'd heard it (or at least heard of it) unlike some of the other bands I'd listened to, and he said, "Well... that's a weird choice..." So, I paid $16 or however much for it, it arrived at the store, and I had my mom pick it up and after school I was doing my homework and put it on.. and I remember being shocked at how listenable it was. It didn't seem too WEIRD to me... just... it sounded wrong. I couldn't connect with it... it just didn't do anything for me. It was either the production (which I still hate) or the in-between song banter or the field recordings... something about the whole record just didn't connect with me. Still, I kept coming back to it, trying to discover what was so great about it. It didn't frustrate me or challenge me so much as just make me go, "wow, that's neat." but then kind of zone out (for the record, "Ella Guru" is still one of my favorite Beefheart tracks, and the instrumentals on Trout Mask are unbelievable). Years later, I look at it as an important, amazing piece of work, and I think most people will never comprehend exactly how amazing it is -- but as a whole, as an album, as a "product" and not just as an inspirational source and cultural milestone, it wasn't as good as it could've been. I blame Frank Zappa! (case in point: no other Beefheart album had such shitty production or so much filler... and yes, Trout Mask is FILLED to the brim with filler)
So, with my first taste of Beefheart being "well, that was good, but I was hoping for something else", I downloaded a few of his albums and I liked them all more... at the same time, I grew to appreciate Trout Mask more; it's not that I had a hard time following the songs, and I still think the guitar lines on that are amazing -- it just wasn't what I wanted, you know?
So, after wading through some albums that were amazing (Doc, Decals, the original Bat Chain Puller) and some that.. weren't.. (Strictly Personal, Bluejeans, Unconditionally), the last album I downloaded was Ice Cream for Crow. I listened to it one time, and I went, "That's it. That's the album I always wanted to hear from Captain Beefheart!" I went and ordered it online, and 2 or 2 1/2 years after first hearing Trout Mask, I'd finally found the Beefheart album I always wanted.
It's just amazing. It seems like no one ever talks about it... but... there's just something about that album.. after years of loving it, I finally found one other person who ranked it as his favorite... I don't really know how it COULDN'T be anyone's favorite. Pairing his most complex material ("Thousandth and Tenth Day of the Human Totem Pole", which is one of the most complex songs I've ever heard; check out the old version of this song if you think the guitarist is just making up the stuff as he goes along), his catchiest work ("The Ghost, The Host, the Most Holy-O" or whatever; I'm bad with titals), and his most challenging work ("Hey Garland I Dig Your Tweed Coat"), the album just feels... right. What REALLY strikes me as just how poppy some of the weird-ass guitar lines and melodies are. The title track has this beautiful 8-note sliding guitar line in the "chorus" that is amazing and also has a very straightforward blues riff/beat. The aforementioned "Ghost" has an amazing chorus and lots of ringing guitar chords. "Ink Mathematics" also strikes me as being ridiculously catchy. There are also a few instrumental tracks on this album, which have to be heard to be believed ("Evening Bell", in particular, is an amazing solo guitar track with so many amazing changes in it that it's unbelievable, and it's also more remarkable to note that the guitarist could play this thing again and again without ever making a mistake -- ?!). And the sole spoken word bit ("Poop Hatch") is endlessly fascinating.
My favorite track has to be "Cardboard Cut-Out Sun Down". There's a breakdown in the middle where everything falls apart and then comes back together and falls apart and comes back together like so many math rock bands have tried to emulate. "Angular" is not a term I like to use, but that's the only way it can be described.
Unfairly overlooked, I think most people who hear this have already had their minds blown by "trout Mask" or "Decals" or "Safe as Milk" (which I tend to find a bit overrated, though it DOES have "Electricity" on it, which probably has the best Beefheart guitar riff), but -- and I guess it seems like I'm being a bit unexcited about his material, and that's not what I'm trying to express at all; 75% of his work really does blow my mind -- this is the album in the Beefheart album that just makes me go, "holy shit." In my top 10 favorite albums ever, for sure. While it doesn't have so much of the "how the hell did he write these songs?" appeal of Trout Mask, it does have his best collection of everything that makes him so great. And to end your career at such a peak is remarkable. Amazing. Trout Mask may be his most important work (and I will definitely agree with it getting all the praise, simply because it was the first to do that kind of stuff), but this is his best.
Oh, and this album also has lots of cowbell. Which I love! Listening to it now, something I think a lot of people don't pick up on is that the lyrics and the overall tone of some of the songs are a bit darker and more depressing than anything Beefheart had done... hmm...
(oh, and something else I'd like to say: for any Beefheart info you'd ever want, go to beefheart.com; this is probably the best fan website I've ever seen for a band -- Jesus.. I've read just about everything on there, it's great)