Trout Mask Replica - Captain Beefheart (1969)

This is mostly for people who think the most bizarre of Frank Zappa’s 60s and 70s work is just too conventional. Beefheart was a frequent Zappa collaborator, and Zappa facilitated this more or less unedited look into the mind of an oddball visionary musician.

It’s almost guaranteed you won’t like the whole thing, but if you stick with it you’re likely to find something interesting to take away. My personal favorites are the more deliberate blues tracks, like Moonlight On Vermont and Dachau Blues. But there’s plenty that sounds nothing like that, or nothing like anything. That’s kind of the essence of the album: a little of everything, and you can take it or leave it. This is exactly the record he wanted to make, and he didn’t give a damn what you think.