David Bowie
Elvis Costello

ok, i have never listened to anything by Captain Beefheart. what do you guys think is his best album?

Definitely these guys plus Mike Watt.

he isn't my all time favorite, but in the last few years i've grown a huge appreciation for Tom Petty.

dude just keeps chugging along doing his thing, writing great songs, making people happy, following his muse.

he too had a blip of being huge in the 80's with full moon fever (15-20 years into his career) and then scaled back and made simple songwriging for songwriters style albums.


and he's a laid back cool dude.
and really ugly.

they don't make stars like that anymore.

Makes No Sense At All would probably say Trout Mask Replica, I like Safe As Milk.

Trout Mask Replica is his crowning achievement and a truly singular album, but you should probably start with something like The Spotlight Kid or Doc at Radar Station.

Safe As Milk was Beefheart's debut. It's his "normal" album, made when Ry Cooder was still in the band, and it contains songs that stick fairly close to conventional (ie: ballads, blues, and you'll hear traces of both Howling Wolf and Otis Redding in his approach).

Trout Mask Replica has gained a reputation as his default classic, but it suffers from a wretched mix. I prefer Lick My Decals Off, Baby from that period, but both are pretty out there and kind of hard to describe (um, herky jerky tempo-shifting art blues?).

IMO, the best place to start with Beefheart is the CD two-fer of the underappreciated Spotlight Kid and Clear Spot. Both were released just after Trout Mask, and they show the Captain attempting to "commercialize" (that's the word they used in the '70s) his sound. Of course, there's nothing commercial about 'em, but the mix and production are great and the songs, though still out there, are generally melodic. "Too Much Time" even harkens back to the Otis Redding r'n'b of Safe As Milk. I ignored both albums for a long time because they were always regarded as two of Beefheart's lesser efforts, but when I finally bought the CD last year I was totally blown away. At the very least, they're a great introduction to Beefheart.

Wretched mix? No way. I love the mix and just about everything else on that album.

definitely David Bowie. If it weren't for him, where would Madonna have gotten her shtick? Seriously though, to go from folkie to transgender glam rocker to Philadelphia soulman to German heroin addict to alien to 80s hitmaker to Burroughs disciple to electronic freak and back to somewhat folk-rocker roots-- the guy has done it all and done it well in my opinion. He's influenced so many bands and artists, and he's still doing it.

His early songs really spoke to me, in that angsty teenage "I don't fit in here" way, and his storytelling was exciting.

edit: plus I can't deny the excitement I still feel when I hear that opening "Ziggy Stardust" riff.

Trout Mask Replica defines unlistenable.

John Reiss.

Drive like Jehu, RFTC, Hot Snakes.

Abslolutely love the way this guy plays guitar.

You might want to thank Mick Ronson for that instead of Bowie.

If we are talking about respect, I'll throw out Frank Zappa, Phish, and Pearl Jam because they all managed to be successful without compromising their ideals but were smart enough to still make some $$$ in the process.

Also respect for Otis Redding because.....well, he wrote the song and all.

"That girl stole my song."-Otis ribs Aretha

Steve

the worst.

Ha! I've actually never heard it, but now I feel like I have to!

Steve

knowing your taste you'll probably find it a work of "genius".

I don't have Spotlight Kid, but I can definitely vouch for Clear Spot being a good starter. If you can find that 2-fer, definitely pick it up. I used to see it in used bins, and I'm still kicking myself for never having grabbed it.

I started with Trout Mask Replica, and it took me a long time to get into it. The first several times I listened to it, I thought all the musicians were playing different songs at once. It eventually started to make more sense to me, but I think Beefheart's more conventional stuff like Safe as Milk and the above albums are better starters.

Oh, and for this thread I'd say:

Neil Young
David Bowie
Tom Waits

I was gonna say Springsteen, and as far as integrity I think he's tops, but Tunnel of Love and that "double" album he released made me think twice.

of the soul guys there's too many to throw on this list. Otis Redding should own this list. I was gonna call him the Roberto Clemente of music, but I think it's way beyond that. Also, Just because they were both nice young guys who died in plane crashes doesn't mean I should compare them.

The Blues guys...well they were bastards for the most part and I think that's why I like them.

High five!

Because it is. It's an insanely creative AND complex album that at first sounds like a bunch of mismatched instruments playing at once, but with many repeated listens sounds perfectly structured. There's a reason that it took a year for the musicians to learn these songs, you know.

Two pages and nobody has mentioned....

David Byrne

For shame.

There's several dozen we coulda named, but it's more funner to be shamed.