# The Shaggs, Captain Beefheart, Wild Man Fischer and more!



## Xenakiboy (May 8, 2016)

Who's a fan of this side of jazz, blues and rock 'n roll?


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## 38157 (Jul 4, 2014)

Beefheart and The Magic Band created the most stimulating music I've ever played, in that it's so visceral and primal (even more so than the delta blues classics, probably because of its angularity), yet it's simultaneously interesting from a theoretical standpoint (listen to almost any track on Trout Mask Replica - there is little to no reference to conventional harmony, the tensions instead being created through intense cross-rhythms, which are resolved when everyone finally lands back on the same beat. The individual parts alone are often quite simple and repetitive once you've figured them out, but the challenge as an ensemble is to successfully put all these parts together - for example, the middle section of "My Human Gets Me Blues", in which all the parts are in different meters). My favourite composer is and I imagine will remain Zappa, whose music made much more sense theoretically, but Beefheart and The Magic Band (who are still touring, and are better than ever) taps into something that no other musician I've listened to can - there's nothing quite like ripping the air around you to shreds with an ugly, distorted slide guitar line.

The Shaggs were interesting listening at first, and their tale seems to be quite a dark and abusive one from what I understand, but really, I don't think it's worth listening to more than a few songs of theirs - the music is so surreal (in that you can hear it trying to be like "normal" music, but being so spectacularly different at the same time), but you get the idea quite quickly, and once you do, it's just downhill from there, in my opinion. The difference between the Shaggs and Beefheart is that Beefheart's musicians were great blues and jazz players and were able to shape Beefheart's vision into something very tight, as unusual as it was, whereas The Shaggs sounded weird solely because they didn't know what they were doing, which is why I think they soon wear thin.

Fischer was, in my opinion, merely a jester in Zappa's court - some people may disagree, but I don't think there's anything remotely interesting about his insane howling and rambling. He was basically a very ill man, whose idiosyncrasies (maybe "symptoms" would be a more accurate term) were callously exploited by Zappa (ethical issues aside, maybe a song or two may have been interesting - but a double album was certainly completely unwarranted...).


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I love Beefheart! Especially Clear Spot, Spotlight Kid, Ice Cream For Crow, and Bat Chain Puller. And Willie The Pimp is one of the great heavy rock tunes of the late 60s. I'm a big fan of Bongo Fury as well. Debra Kadabra is a favorite.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

I don't understand lumping Beefheart in with Fischer and The Shaggs.


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## Guest (May 15, 2016)

Big Beefheart fan here not so much of the other two.


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## Xenakiboy (May 8, 2016)

Crudblud said:


> I don't understand lumping Beefheart in with Fischer and The Shaggs.


This is not limited to those three groups but based more on the idea of what they term "outsider music" and those like me who are quite fond of some of it.


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

I'm a Zappa and Beefheart fan. What other outsider music on this side of jazz, blues and rock 'n roll do you have in mind? 
If you mention Pere Ubu - outsider music but with less blues and rock 'n roll in the mix - I'm all with you.


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