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1 Burnside Music- 33 1/3 Series
6 Local Warehouse Music- History and Criticism
4 Remote Warehouse Music- History and Criticism

Captain Beefheart: Trout Mask Replica (33 1/3 Series)

by Kevin Courrier

Captain Beefheart: Trout Mask Replica (33 1/3 Series) Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

In the spring of 1969, the inauspicious release of Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band's Trout Mask Replica, a double-album featuring 28 stream-of-consciousness songs filled with abstract rhythms and guttural bellows, dramatically altered the pop landscape.

Yet even if the album did cast its radical vision over the future of music, much of the record's artistic strength is actually drawn from the past. This book examines how Beefheart's incomparable opus, an album that divided (rather than) united a pop audience, is informed by a variety of diverse sources. Trout Mask Replica is a hybrid of poetic declarations inspired by both Walt Whitman and the beat poets, the field hollers of the Delta Blues, the urban blues of Howlin' Wolf, the gospel blues of Blind Willie Johnson, and the free jazz of Ornette Coleman. This book illustrates how Trout Mask Replica was not so much an arcane specimen of the avant-garde, but rather a defiantly original declaration of the American imagination.

Review:

"It was only a matter of time before a clever publisher realized that there is an audience for whom Exile on Main Street or Electric Ladyland are as significant and worthy of study as The Catcher in the Rye or Middlemarch. The series... is freewheeling and eclectic, ranging from minute rock-geek analysis to idiosyncratic personal celebration." The New York Times Book Review

Review:

"Ideal for the rock geek who thinks liner notes just aren't enough." Rolling Stone

Review:

"One of the coolest publishing imprints on the planet." Bookslut

Review:

"These are for the insane collectors out there who appreciate fantastic design, well-executed thinking, and things that make your house look cool. Each volume in this series takes a seminal album and breaks it down in startling minutiae. We love these. We are huge nerds." Vice

Review:

"A brilliant series... each one a word of real love." NME

Review:

"Passionate, obsessive, and smart." Nylon

Review:

"Religious tracts for the rock 'n' roll faithful." Uncut

Review:

"We... aren't naive enough to think that we're your only source for reading about music (but if we had our way... watch out). For those of you who really like to know everything there is to know about an album, you'd do well to check out Continuum's 33 1/3 series of books." Pitchfork

Synopsis:

33 1/3 is a series of short books about a wide variety of albums, by artists ranging from James Brown to the Beastie Boys. Launched in September 2003, the series now contains over 50 titles and is acclaimed and loved by fans, musicians and scholars alike.

About the Author

Kevin Courrier is the author of several books, including Dangerous Kitchen: The Subversive World of Zappa, and Randy Newman's American Dreams. He has been a writer/broadcaster and film critic for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) since 1990.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
JohnnyC, August 3, 2007 (view all comments by JohnnyC)
This is a great study of an under-recognized classic in music history. Courrier has done a wonderful job at bringing the musical and contextual history together in order to understand this complicated album and its creator, Don Van Vliet. The author's style is personal, informative and insightful with a dash of constructive criticism. One of the best in the entire series.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780826427816
Author:
Courrier, Kevin
Publisher:
Continuum
Subject:
Composers & Musicians - Rock
Subject:
History and criticism
Subject:
Rock music
Subject:
History & Criticism - General
Subject:
Genres & Styles - Rock
Subject:
Rock music -- 1961-1970.
Subject:
Captain Beefheart
Series:
33 1/3
Publication Date:
April 2007
Binding:
Paperback
Language:
English
Pages:
148
Dimensions:
6.58x4.76x.33 in. .28 lbs.

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