"Van Vliet wanted the whole band to "live" the Trout Mask Replica album. The group rehearsed Van Vliet's difficult compositions for eight months, living communally in their small rented house in the Woodland Hills suburb of Los Angeles. With only two bedrooms the band members would find sleep in various corners of one, whilst Vliet occupied the other and rehearsals were accomplished in the main living area. Van Vliet implemented his vision by completely dominating his musicians, artistically and emotionally. At various times one or another of the group members was "put in the barrel," with Van Vliet berating him continually, sometimes for days, until the musician collapsed in tears or in total submission.[61] Drummer John French described the situation as "cultlike"[62] and a visiting friend said "the environment in that house was positively Mansonesque."[5] Their material circumstances were dire. With no income other than welfare and contributions from relatives, the group barely survived and were even arrested for shoplifting food (Zappa bailed them out). French has recalled living on no more than a small cup of beans a day for a month.[27] A visitor described their appearance as "cadaverous" and said that "they all looked in poor health." Band members were restricted from leaving the house and practiced for 14 or more hours a day.

Physical assaults were encouraged at times, along with verbal degradation. Beefheart spoke of studying texts on brainwashing at a public library at about this time, and appeared to be applying brainwashing techniques to his bandmembers: sleep deprivation, food deprivation, constant negative reinforcement, and rewarding bandmembers when they attacked each other or competed with each other. At one point Cotton ran from the house and escaped for a few weeks, during which time Alex Snouffer filled in for him and helped to work up "Ant Man Bee". French, who had thrown a metal cymbal at Cotton, ran after him yelling that he too wanted to come. Cotton later returned to the house with French's mother, who took him away for a few weeks, but he later felt compelled to return, as did Cotton. Mark Boston at one point hid clothes in a field across the street, planning his own getaway.

John French's 2010 book Through the Eyes of Magic describes some of the "talks" which were initiated by his actions such as being heard playing a Frank Zappa drum part ("The Blimp (mousetrapreplica)") in his drumming shed, and not having finished drum parts as quickly as Beefheart wanted. French writes of being punched by band members, thrown into walls, kicked, punched in the face by Beefheart hard enough to draw blood, being attacked with a sharp broomstick,[63] and eventually of Beefheart threatening to throw him out of an upper floor window. He admits complicity in similarly attacking his bandmates during "talks" aimed at them. In the end, after the album's recording, French was ejected from the band by Beefheart throwing him down a set of stairs with violence, telling him to "Take a walk, man" after not responding in a desired manner to a request to "play a strawberry" on the drums. Beefheart replaced French with drummer Jeff Bruschel, an acquaintance of Hayden. Referred to as 'Fake Drumbo' (playing on French's drumset) this final act resulted in French's name not appearing on the album credits, either as a player or arranger. Bruschel toured with the band to Europe but was replaced by the next recording."

(possibly via Endless Parade of Excellence)
- VB 9-11-2011 5:35 pm

That Wikipedia entry should be in the Guinness Book for "longest Wikipedia entry of all time." Another excerpt, and sadly the Tragic Band tour was the only one where I saw the Captain perform live:

Vliet was forced to quickly form a new Magic Band to complete support-tour dates, with musicians who had no experience with his music and in fact had never heard it. Having no knowledge of the previous Magic Band style, they simply improvised what they thought would go with each song, playing much slicker versions that have been described as "bar band" versions of Beefheart songs. A review described this incarnation of the Magic Band as the "Tragic Band", a term that has stuck over the years.[85] Mike Barnes said that the description of the new band "grooving along pleasantly", was "an appropriately banal description of the music of a man who only a few years ago composed with the expressed intent of shaking listeners out of their torpor".

Trout Mask Replica is one of those recordings you always see at a guy's house. I had zero interest in Captain Beefheart until I heard Tropical Hot Dog Night a couple years ago. Best song ever.
- L.M. 9-12-2011 2:59 am

Well, I guess the ultimate proof that it's a guys' record is that the band members were all beating the shit out of each other while making it.

Tropical Hotdog Night is great - I like the songs on Clear Spot and Spotlight Kid a lot too.
- tom moody 9-12-2011 6:34 am

I enjoy his casual bluesy music more than his serious stuff.

Random anecdote: when Vaclav Havel met Frank Zappa, he said: "I like your stuff, but I really like The Captain."
- VB 9-13-2011 1:27 am

Despite the anecdotes that the songs on Trout Mask Replica were thoroughly arranged and rehearsed, to my ears they really sounded like they were just loosely jammed out in the recording studio.
- VB 9-14-2011 2:08 am

I didn't know till years later that Vliet sang the words "come out to show them" on "Moonlight On Vermont" in homage to the famous Steve Reich tape-phase piece. (I think Trout Mask is great and really appreciate that the guys tortured each other so much for our listening and thinking pleasure.)
- tom moody 9-14-2011 4:31 am

Wow, that bit of trivia is something else. I don't see a nice version of "Come Out" on Y-T, so here is a silent version of someone doing an interpretive dance to it. I could have put on a dance mix, but maybe the silent version is better.
- VB 9-15-2011 1:59 am

Excellent YouTube video of Captain at his tripped-out best:


- alex 9-27-2011 12:48 am