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That's essentialy correct, although you're either getting Zoot Horn Rollo confused with Drumbo or getting Trout Mask Replica confused with Lick My Decals Off Baby.
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Saturday, 15 April 2006 17:27 (eighteen years ago) link
the blog linked above, that's nice. I'd like to think about what Don could've done with Lauro Nyro, you know. but that kind of analysis, it goes on too long for my tastes.
anyway, I have been listening to Trout Mask so long, I don't perceive it as all that difficult, or hard to figure out. I mean it's a skein of drumming and there's some stuff hung on it--when I first listened to this record, it sounded dirty to me, not obscene, but vaguely musty, or like something just recently dead. I'm amazed he made as much of it work as it he did--it all works, for me, except some of the comedy shit which is better than Zappa's comedy music. the best is "Pachuco Cadaver" which kinda sums up what's great about this record, nobody has ever done anything that swings quite like that. as I always say, every time I talk about Beefheart, the essence of it is swinging/not-swinging at the same time, with those locked-in sections of...whatever, they're almost not even "riffs"--being the point, and the moss or whatever Beefheartian nacheral-world signifier you want to use, hanging over it. whether this was all DVV, all John French, both, who knows?
so, a record I don't listen to much any more--I still like to hear "Decals," "Clear Spot" and "Doc at the Radar." doesn't beat Howlin' Wolf but he comes close in his way, and of course beats Wolf and everybody, still to this day (TMR is hardly a buncha tired ol' beatnik/hippie shit, altho that's part of it, since that shit was tired in '69), in sheer egocentric bravado--right up there with James Brown or the Meters in my book-o-rhythm...
― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Saturday, 15 April 2006 17:38 (eighteen years ago) link
"whether this was all DVV, all John French, both, who knows?"As far as I'm aware John French has always been pretty clear that "all" that he contributed to the process was basically to recognise the validity and significance of what Don was trying to achieve and to give himself over pretty much entirely to making it happen in whatever way he could. That's not to say that I believe that it would or could have happened without him - and I'm certain that it wouldn't / couldn't have happened in quite the same way without him.
All the guys involved in making that album went through some pretty severe privations during the 8-or-so months that they were basically locked up in that house in Laurel Canyon on starvation rations rehearsing that album over and over and over again and generally having their heads fucked.
Antennae Jimmy Semens actually tried to escape a couple of times and the rest of the band had to go after him and bring him back!
In his autoboiography, Zoot Horn Rollo otoh does seem to want to claim some credit for his part in the creative process - and whilst I wouldn't want to deny him that, it must be said his 2001 solo album doesn't seem to have much in common with The Magic Band.
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Saturday, 15 April 2006 18:03 (eighteen years ago) link
the thing about Don Van Vliet that people never seem to grasp is how fucking stiff a human being he really is, despite his apparent charm and his hipness. it's really fucking stiff and dry music, which is what he intended, I guess. I always figured he was juicing up some stuff he wanted to act like he didn't believe in , just like Zappa.
I really think "TMR" and that music is as much French as anyone--he's what makes it all happen. he saw how stiff Don was, really, and being a good Christian he decided to give him his head...
― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Saturday, 15 April 2006 20:50 (eighteen years ago) link
In fact, I'm not sure when he does sound stiff. Maybe when he was yelling. Then, his body got rigid? Or that staccato singing on "When Big Joan Sets Up" ("Uh turquoise scarf 'n uh sleeve Rolled up over uh Merc Montclair") - that's kind of herky jerky.
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 15 April 2006 21:11 (eighteen years ago) link
There was certainly a sort of rigidity of purpose about the way Don drilled the TMR band, although he never seems to have applied that level of discipline to himself (and it's certainly not evident in his painting!). To me one of the most extraordinary things about the music is the way it still manages to swing despite the extreme precision involved in the structure - and a great deal of the credit for that must go to Drumbo. Compare Drumbo's style with later Magic Band drummer Robert Williams, who's a great drummer but plays like a robot compared with Drumbo.
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Sunday, 16 April 2006 08:48 (eighteen years ago) link
eleven years pass...