http://www.loc.gov/rr/record/nrpb/registry/nrpb-2010reg.html

"Trout Mask Replica." Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band. (1969)

"Trout Mask Replica" lp jacket

This unclassifiable melding of country, blues, folk and free jazz filtered through Captain Beefheart’s feverishly inventive imagination remains without precedent in its striking sonic and lyrical originality. Captain Beefheart (the stage name of Don Van Vliet) and the Magic Band—Bill Harkleroad, Jeff Cotton, Victor Hayden, Mark Boston and John French—had spent months sequestered in a house in the Los Angeles foothills, rehearsing and re-rehearsing the compositions to meet Van Vliet’s exacting standards before they entered the studio, to be recorded by Frank Zappa. Upon its release, the album, by no means universally embraced, nonetheless garnered raves from many influential music critics. Scores of pop, new wave, punk and post-punk artists claim Beefheart as an influence, including The Gang of Four, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Minutemen, Pere Ubu, The Fall, Tom Waits, The Red Hot Chili Peppers and The White Stripes.