How old were you and what were you listening to around that time? What did you think and how long did it take you?

I was 15 and heavily into PiL. I read the John Lydon biography, where he bragged about listening to Can and Beefheart as a teenager, and wanting to be so precocious myself (as well as wanting to hear whatever could have produced Metal Box), I bought a copy.

I won't go into how it sounded -- I think the confusion reaction is pretty universal, if that's your reaction -- but it took me 5 or 6 listens to get it. On that listen, though, I sat next to the record player doing nothing else. Like magic. For some reason, it just suddenly made sense. I started feeling inklings of that feeling listening to Dali's Car the first couple of times, but it didn't compare to this.

I knew what I was getting into and liked what I was getting into. I was 14. That was 16 or so years ago. The first time I ever groped tits and fingered vagina was to this record! Seriously! That was a couple weeks after I got it! My highschool sweetheart came over and I put on Trout Mask Replica and she eventually attacked me on the couch! I'm not kidding. It was make-out music in a small Wisconsin town, at one time. Trout Mask Replica does sound like teenage sex -- the fumbling around, the improvisation, but ALL FOR A SUBLIME PURPOSE!!! I'll never forget it... I even crawled under the cushions, being a bit shy, and she still got to me. THANK YOU CAPTAIN BEEFHEART AND THE MAGIC BAND!!!

The actual "laying" didn't take place til' much afterward, and it was soundtracked by Devo's "Are We Not Men? We Are Devo!" album (on cassette!). The cassette case got... soiled...

KeithV wrote: The first time I ever groped tits and fingered vagina was to this record!

You win.

You can associate that magical moment with a great record. Me, I'm stuck with the back row of a small town theater debuting Romancing the Stone.


EDIT: Anyway, I think one of my many reactions to this record was to drop out of college. My major was "Jazz Performance". If I had "groped tits" and "fingered a vagina" when I was 14 to this record, I would have never majored in a subject that was essentially training me to make a living in a wedding band.

I've still never heard it.

I bought this album when I was 16, because I was going through a period of buying "classic" albums in a naive and arbitrary yet ultimately worthwhile attempt to discover new music (pre-internet days!) I tried listening to it once and got about half way through it. It sounded like a godawful racket to me.

I tried again a couple of times over the next five years, and although it slowly started to sound less incoherent and annoying to me, I still didn't get it,

Then one day, I took it with me on a long bus journey. It clicked from the first few seconds onwards, and listening to it all the way through was honestly one of the most enjoyable listening experiences of my life.

I only listen to this record about twice a year, and sometimes it still annoys me. Sometimes it sounds like the best thing ever.

Weird bloody thing.

first reaction was
WTF - though i liked ella guru

remember sending an email to Mark Prindle longggg back, thanking him for his good work & asking him how he could give that piece of junk/shit/out of tune crap a 10 star rating. He answered the few questions that I had asked...... leaving the beefheart one.

No problem with the captain now. Don't know if any person liked it on their first listen. It's seems to be a regular amongst the hipster name checks, a bit annoying, similar to the people who salivate when talking about Radiohead - OK Computer as the album of the mllenium/milky way as if musical nirvana has been attained.

It's just the people whom I am complaining about. IMO, he's one of the brilliant many many many artists...brave to do what he did during his time

His art supposedly fetches huge prices...

I was probably about 15 or 16 and I heard it for the first time sitting on the floor of my room with the Manga film Akira on mute on the TV. It freaked the shit out of me.

As an aside, here's my copy with the credits sorted out properly!

I didn't listen to it properly until I was in my early twenties ... Iknow, I know. I'd always had him roped in with Zappa who's music I really disliked. Once I did I was fascinated and annoyed at the same time. Couldn't listen to anything else for about a week. It reminded me of listening to the Fall and the Birthday Party for the first time when I was about 14. But these people can't play in tune! how dare they make a record ... back to Sabbath and AC/DC. Then ... lets listen to that shit again ... wtf etc. Soon you're ruined and can't go back.

I still do listen to it. Bought the 180g reissue of Lick My Decals a few months back and had a Beefheart few days. If I was being honest I think I prefer Doc at the Radar Station/Shiny Beast. Kind of a head and heart thing. If I had to chose one song to introduce someone to his stuff though it would be steal softly thru snow ... the black paper between a mirror breaks my heart is a beautiful line.

I actually prefer beefheart ballads, like 'this is the day' for example.

i just thought it was really funny, and i liked the line about blotting out the sun "like a big black shiny bug". and i thought moonlight on vermont and ella guru rocked. i didn't like the hobo interlude things though "the wind blew forward and the wind blew back". i couldn't listen to the whole thing straight through.

i pretty much hold the same opinions now.