Trout Mask Replica - Legacy

Legacy

Since its release, Trout Mask Replica has been acknowledged not only as Captain Beefheart's masterpiece, but as one of the greatest albums of all time. BBC disc jockey John Peel said of the album: "If there has been anything in the history of popular music which could be described as a work of art in a way that people who are involved in other areas of art would understand, then Trout Mask Replica is probably that work." Critic Robert Christgau gave the album a positive rating of B+, saying that Trout Mask Replica's "weirdness" prevented him from granting it a higher grade. He commented that it was "... great played at high volume when you're feeling shitty, because you'll never feel as shitty as this record." Critic Steve Huey of Allmusic writes that the album's influence "was felt more in spirit than in direct copycatting, as a catalyst rather than a literal musical starting point. However, its inspiring reimagining of what was possible in a rock context laid the groundwork for countless experiments in rock surrealism to follow, especially during the punk/new wave era."

Included in The Mothers Of Invention's Uncle Meat gatefold was a small book including references to the songs "Pachuco Cadaver" and "Moonlight on Vermont."

The album's unconventional nature often alienates new listeners. Cartoonist and writer Matt Groening tells of listening to Trout Mask Replica at the age of 15: "I thought it was the worst thing I'd ever heard. I said to myself, they're not even trying! It was just a sloppy cacophony. Then I listened to it a couple more times, because I couldn't believe Frank Zappa could do this to me – and because a double album cost a lot of money. About the third time, I realised they were doing it on purpose; they meant it to sound exactly this way. About the sixth or seventh time, it clicked in, and I thought it was the greatest album I'd ever heard". John Harris of The Guardian later discussed the idea that the album requires several listens to "get it", concluding that it "still sounded fucking awful" after six listens. Filmmaker David Lynch has called Trout Mask Replica his favorite album of all time, and John Lydon has also listed the album as one of his favourites, noting, "The first time I played that album, I laughed all the way through."

In 2003, the album was ranked fifty-eighth by Rolling Stone in their list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (60th on the 2012 list): "On first listen, Trout Mask Replica sounds like raw Delta blues", with Beefheart "singing and ranting and reciting poetry over fractured guitar licks. But the seeming sonic chaos is an illusion ... Tracks such as 'Ella Guru' and 'My Human Gets Me Blues' are the direct predecessors of modern musical primitives such as Tom Waits and PJ Harvey". In his 1995 book The Alternative Music Almanac, Alan Cross placed the album in the #2 spot on his list of "10 Classic Alternative Albums". In 1995, Mojo put the album 28th on their "The 100 Greatest Albums Ever Made" list and 51st on their list of "The 100 Records That Changed the World". Many regard Trout Mask Replica as the best rock album of all time.

On April 6, 2011, the album was added to the United States National Recording Registry for the year 2010 by the Library of Congress. On January 13, 2012, as part of its "Inside the National Recording Registry" series, the public radio program Studio 360 broadcast a tribute to the album featuring drummer John French, biographer Mike Barnes, and Beefheart devotee Tom Waits.