Responsible for Tom Waits, PJ Harvey, and dozens of careers indebted to his amalgam of Delta Blues, sixties jam tendencies, Beat poetry, and an American affection for the grotesque, Don Van Fliet recorded several albums I respect but don’t play much because I worry about paint scraped off my walls. The legend around Trout Mask Replica hasn’t meant much to me — I prefer Doc at the Radar Station, purchased at a Barnes & Noble in the mid nineties; or even Clear Spot, produced by Warner Brothers henchman Ted Templeman as an Earth-3 version of Doobie Brothers soul. I haven’t listened to Mirror Man or Unconditionally Guaranteed.
What makes Beefheart an American to his toenails is his adolescent attitude toward sex; he can’t write about it without distorting it, himself, the object of desire. There is no object of desire, just a series of guitars evoking one, and we know to what degree those notes sound like anything recognizable. For Beefheart, content is form: the lyrical puns and forcebeat rhythms signify on their own terms. Which means I can’t grow old with someone so obstinate about thinking young.
1. Ashtray Heart
2. My Human Gets Me Blues
3. Sue Egypt
4. Harry Irene
5. I Love You, You Big Dummy
6. Nowadays a Woman’s Gotta Hit a Man
7. You Know You’re a Man
8. Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles
9. Hot Head
10. I Wanna Find a Woman That’ll Hold My Big Toe Till I Have to Go
11. Too Much Time
12. Evening Bell
13. Sweet Sweet Bulbs
14. I’m Glad
15. Telephone
16. Lick My Decals Off, Baby
17. Dali’s Car
18. She’s Too Much for My Mirror
19. The Past Sure is Tense
20. Sugar Bowl
21. Dropout Boogie
22. Ice Cream for Crow
23. Pena
24. Tropical Hot Dog Night
25. I’m Gonna Booglarize You Baby
Humanizing The Vacuum 
Very good Beefy playlist, this is. I think you’re probably in the right, to question or even reject any pop musicians “mythos”. A dubious construct on the face of it.
I’d add garage rock to the amalgam. Look at the titles of those songs !
While I will never understand a Captain’s best list that does not include ‘When Big Joan Sets Up’, ‘Pachucho Cadaver,’ and especially ‘Dirty Blue Gene,’ I respect that it is your list sir, and I appreciate the inclusion of ‘Tropical Hot Dog Night.’
It’s a list. It’s personal. Best.
Sure!
I like your thoughts regarding Beefheart’s albums. I know that Trout Mask Replica is the “important” one and will make the Best Albums of All Time lists. But after my initial fascination wore off I don’t listen to it as much. I have to be in the proper mood. Instead I can put on Doc At The Radar Station any day. The “bones” may be the same and Beefheart’s patented weirdness is still in full display, but by 1980 he was no longer considering a steady rhythm “the enemy”.
I also dig Clear Spot (your description of it as “an Earth-3 version of Doobie Brothers soul” hits the mark) and probably listen to that album the most. It’s accessible and has great tunes, but it’s still undeniably Beefheart. And while you didn’t mention it, I appreciate the sludgy songs of The Spotlight Kid.
I listened to Unconditionally Guaranteed and Bluejeans and Moonbeams for the first time the other day. Both albums have their defenders, but I can see why they’re considered the worst. I didn’t find them awful, but I couldn’t find much to like.
Thanks for reading. Those two albums you mentioned: he coats his song in a diaphanous obscurity that produces no fruitful tensions between his striving for a hit and his art. They’re nothing.
You are welcome!
The thing that fascinates me the most about these two albums is not how “bad” they are–Beefheart seemed to have contempt for any music that wasn’t his, so he probably thought “dumbing it down more” would reward dividends. (Nevermind that Clear Spot, with accessible tunes recorded by a “hit” producer, was his best chance for the charts.) Nor was it that he would be conned by a would-be impresario. I’ve seen that mentality in a band I worked with, where the right combination of desperation for success by the artist, mixed with liberal ego stroking by the manager, will cause artists to make bad decisions. No, I’m most fascinated by the manager who led Van Vliet astray. How could he think that Beefheart would be his ticket to success? Wasn’t there enough unknown wannabe rockers in the mid-70’s with more commercial appeal that he could tie his wagon to? Unless Andy DiMartino was doing it due to the “goodness in his heart,” which I find hard to believe.