Captain Beefheart - Dachau Blues

Track #3 from the album Trout Mask Replica (1969)

[@jtaylor9562]

I work at a sofa retailer. Our manager allowed all the sales staff a choice of song to play whenever we booked a deal. I chose this. Nobody questioned the unknown song, with amusing title, but when it came on, Christ.

[@gilbertsalinas4522]

this comment made my day :)

[@basslinger]

Amusing title?

[@RetroHillTop]

This song sounds exactly like this comment.

[@jtaylor9562]

@@basslinger To them it was. We are talking Taylor swift and Stormzy fans, here.

[@johnpaulcross424]

I would have loved to work with you

[@davidwalker5054]

The music industry needs people like the captain who comes along every now and then and shakes the industry out of its complacency. Love him or hate him you can't say he's not original

[@wolfetteplays8894]

Toby Fox did a good job of that. He’s one of the few purely instrumental artists I know from the modern age who managed to succeed

[@LilypondMovie]

@@wolfetteplays8894 how did you manage to change this into a discussion about Undertale

[@bosniagaming7828]

@@wolfetteplays8894 toby fox literally just made like little 8bit songs for a videogame, its cool and good yeah but its nothing revolutionary like this album, Or Velvet Underground's first two albums, or even like Miles Davis' Bitches Brew

[@mikechad27]

theyre a sans meatrider@@LilypondMovie

[@landonhall1852]

yes but at what cost

[@swingAE86]

he sounds like hes 2 inches from my face

[@turq1824]

Lmao

[@jackmolloy9360]

@SavageBarney it was recorded with a tape recorder i think because when he stressed the last bit of the chorus his voice gates out a bit

[@tribudeuno]

Jack Molloy Zappa intentionally often used Van Vliet’s original recordings from small reel to reel tape recorder. I say that because cassette recorders didn’t exist yet, and there are other tracks without accompaniment where it’s really obvious. You hear Beefheart record a line, stop the machine and think, then record the next line...

[@kirbygene]

@@domenicraye8682 LOL

[@kirbygene]

LOL

[@yourunclejoe9500]

Best WWII documentary.

[@grantbratrud4949]

Fools don't grapple with Evil. They sop themselves with foolish media, especially TV, that slime oozin' out, and carbohydrate food. Gimme my chips 'n' my Kool-Aid!! They begin to believe OJ was innocent, Slick Willie did not sexually abuse that intern on paid time in his office, that Cankles is in good health and is innocent of National Security violations, just to begin with, moreover. And do not care what ex-Communist John Brennan's favorite Sura is.

[@Milktacheable]

Ww3 actually

[@mikehill7587]

It's just great 😀💯

[@halaman9500]

Yup

[@aakkoin]

They have to tell their children 'bout the burnings back in World War twhrees.

[@therealthiccupstandingciti1674]

I can smell this song

[@saturatedneowax]

smells like lemon cleaner

[@shizukaPNW]

smells like trout fish

[@michaelweiske702]

@@shizukaPNW it's fake

[@subscribetopizzatheonlyrea7322]

@@shizukaPNW It definitely does

[@mikehunt3688]

Great, now I can too, thanks

[@monomachi216]

You can never relive the experience of hearing this album for the first time

[@acmemasteri]

I can. I'm Finn

[@kerbygator]

Like one's first hit of crack or something....

[@classicpinball9873]

It’s so layered you gotta listen to it a few times to even absorb everything going on properly

[@AnEclecticMan]

Agreed!

[@jakeozzy4776]

You mean hating every second?

[@ahdbw8494]

I lost it when the bass clarinet came in

[@capn_l]

As soon as i read this the clarinet crept in 😂😂

[@bobmomgodbob]

@@capn_l same

[@twkotb]

And now, clearly, it’s time for bass clarinet lol

[@metallord4905]

xD

[@indywashere]

the stank face i make everytime that hits

[@realtalktime3920]

A song that sounds completely chaotic and improvised yet is actually highly composed and structured.

[@A_29886]

@Zouch no they actually did practice and write it down. Its meant to be this bad.

[@morganwalker9789]

@@A_29886 I admittedly like the instrumentals, as I know hard work and months of time were put into them. Beefheart, however, is fricking terrible.

[@A_29886]

@@morganwalker9789 he's not tho, listen to safe as milk.

[@generationhome7005]

It sounds like multiple well made blues pieces are all jammed together and Beefheart "sings" over the *amalgumation* I'd purposely call it

[@swaaws]

@@A_29886 I feel like maybe he was referring to the part where he would beat the band members and forced them to practice for hours a day and didn’t let them leave the house they were in

[@mountzod]

this song is so awesome. the layers of instrumentation is boggling...

[@philipSilverstone]

@Jack Burton the playing was not random but highly rehearsed and accurate. The result is what they wanted. Read Zoot Horn Rollo's autobiography

[@fallinditch8886]

too bad you cant hear it.

[@phantomspaceman]

55 years later and he's still right.

[@clawdylawdy]

Managed to pick up an original copy of TMR this week. Found it unlistenable first play, but now can’t stop playing it.

[@josephtravers777]

There are about 1000 songs jumbled together on it. That's the allure of it all. Every time you listen, you hear something different.

[@saulorocha3755]

Basically Tom Waits said: I’m gonna make this sound coherent and less crazy.

[@mustardsquatchdog]

I think Tom and Don both lived near each other. For a spell at least....tamales bay? Something like that...north bay.

[@lindseymckirdy1830]

I am speechless. This is the first time I have listened to this album… it’s incredible…what vision!

[@animepoliticalexpert1281]

When I was a kid, my Grandma always had a glass jar on the mantle filled with candy. I assumed other people did this as well. At a sleepover at my friends house, I noticed a fancy looking ceramic jar on their mantle. I thought the fine powder inside might be some weird pixie stick flavor. I got kicked out for consuming human ash.

[@damienf.7543]

Oh Jesus that's ridiculous

[@qdfxrg]

what a cool story

[@HereFromThere]

I saw this vinyl in a record collection video I've never heard of the band or the singer but thought the art looked weird.. I didn't know why the collecter thought it was an amazing find so I decided to look it up and watch this video......well now i understand why

[@Denis.Collins]

“Sweet little children with doves on their shoulders. Eyes rolled back in ecstasy”. Surprisingly (or maybe not) a reference to the Marian apparitions at Garabandal 1961.

[@theo9952]

I think this was inspired by the Nazi propaganda films, showing ''pure Arian'' German children happily cheering for the Führer, while the "undermenchen" were dying in the gas chambers and burning in the ovens.

[@Joannegmurphy]

I played some Captain Beefheart for my daughter when she was 5. After about five minutes she said, "Mom, can we listen to some real music now?" Uh, okay.... I love this song!

[@jturon9184]

Out of the mouths of babes...

[@andyq1968]

Powerful evocation of a time and circumstances rarely, if ever, touched on in popular music.

[@randysantana9174]

Classic greatness! This album put it on and just let it play!

[@psychokitty444]

Lyrics: sobering Instrumentation: hilarious

[@rabidhog4912]

Have I just walked into guitar center?

[@bddrex]

Now that's a very funny comment. Thanks for making me laugh.

[@JacobLoneWolfin]

this is monumental and gorgeous in its own way. so domineering the captain was yet the bassists and other musicians really really got a chance to shine as fantastic performers. just not in any sort of normalcy

[@not_emerald]

this song is so blessed

[@BenDover-lu4pw]

pls stoo

[@tupaclives5848]

CURSED

[@HoovyTube]

This is probably the most unpleasant piece of art I have ever heard. Not bad by any means. Crazy considering how Safe As Milk has some of the catchiest music ever.

[@pizzibarbarodellamaremma3179]

Try everywhere at the end of time

[@leemeyer748]

But it feels so better when it’s done

[@tzeentchvonsheo9868]

Uh, seriously? You find THIS very unpleasant? Are you like 12 years old? Song is great btw.

[@URAYULI]

@@tzeentchvonsheo9868 imagine unironically not seeing how TMR can be unpleasant

[@returns8108]

That's a great album, but not unpleasant

[@jacksonfritts2988]

Probably the funniest song I have ever heard. Subject matter is dark of course, but those vocals and and the fucked up chaos that are supposed to be instrumentals had me in stitches.

[@fractuss]

"Supposed to be instrumentals", heh.

[@chrishenniker5944]

Alexander Meehan It's black humour.

[@ddr2074]

Funny? Holy shit this song talks about Holocaust and u call it funny???

[@MeMeMcsplosion]

Yes, It's perfectly reasonable to find humor in this song due to its bizarre composition and subject matter.

[@marcus_marcus]

@@levipoe2150 maybe cause it's not humane to find something so sinister funny

[@julicoole]

one of the last songs on the album I got really into after exploring it in depth. it's place early on is deceptive almost, the composition is really quite beautiful.

[@forcedintofemininity]

Damn this song is more relevant than ever sadly.

[@jimmyl27]

best anti war ballad i’ve ever heard

[@MrMeatballYT]

This sounds like swamp primus

[@jimsmethurst6113]

Dear captain where art thou? What a great song.

[@mikem8497]

Tom Waits liked the captain..

[@indiemovie4life427]

His wife introduced him to Beefheart's music when they got married. It inspired his next album, Swordfishtrombones, which has changed his whole musical style for the rest of his career.

[@carnolasluggs5417]

@@indiemovie4life427 It's worth pointing out Tom was every bit as influenced from all kinds of other elaborately specific musical/literary/cultural sources from Swordfishtrombones onward as he was in particular Beefheart's music. He's definitely paved his own original way since then in a manner that suggests it wasn't just being turned onto (the undeniable genius that is) Beefheart that signaled his change in style. Even as far back as his album Blue Valentine Waits was hinting at a distinctive interest in revamping his overall sound.

[@indiemovie4life427]

@@carnolasluggs5417 I wasn't trying to suggest that listening to Beefheart was the sole cause of the change in his music, but it certainly accelerated it. I also don't feel that Tom plagiarized the Captain in any way; he's in a class of his own.

[@crunchu2361]

How much ketamine before I start “appreciating the music”? I just wanna get high, man....

[@dylanc6174]

Crunchu under rated comment 😂

[@CarlTheTacticalHoser]

I spelled my whole name in big capital letters....

[@dylanraffaelli5204]

The vocal clip at the very end sounds so incredibly ahead of its time..we take that kinda stuff for granted now

[@APPEALtoFEAR]

I cast this to my mom's TV in the other room and I can just barely hear it which makes it even more hilarious 😂

[@witchduck2230]

A dancefloor hit

[@aligator9552]

You have to a real Beefheart fan to appreciate this song!

[@thedisabledmarcgasol1458]

Honestly wtf is going on

[@thedisabledmarcgasol1458]

Yo my nephew could of made this album

[@abanana2561]

Dying by the dozen

[@thiweygulber3138]

Welcome to the party pal

[@jan_Travis]

What is going on is some of the most intricate music that one mind could conceive. I'm not the biggest fan of Trout Mask Replica but the music on here is mind blowing! The band rehearsed this stuff for over a year! Listen to a song like Frownland and then listen to its live performances, it's almost like the studio cut! And no, your nephew couldn't have composed this album, only Beefheart could have made such a bizarre yet masterpiece of an album.

[@unagjac890]

@@thedisabledmarcgasol1458 You don't get it. There's a secret rhythm you can feel. It's planned and it's art.

[@gregoryberrycone]

one of those songs that was really funny to me the first couple times i heard it, but now i find it incredibly poignant. its still got a comedic element due to the chaotic composition and almost mock blues style of the singing, but the lyrics are at once beautifully poetic and a sort of bluntly prophetic warning to future generations about humanity is capable of. the line about the children with doves on their shoulders and eyes rolled back evokes imagery of some renaissance marble relief or something, very impressive writing

[@SolamenteVees]

The Captain's take on the 13 1/2 bar Blues.

[@Contextcatcher]

Why is 'Dachau Blues' acceptable as most dark topic for a song? It's because the extraordinary bluesy atmosphere of the songs before and after this one. 'The dust blows forward n' the dust blows back' with the lines: "And the wind blows black thru the sky And the smokestack blows up in suns eye What am I gonna die" preludes perfectly the real heavy stuff that's coming next. And after 'Dachau Blues' the man telling a story... etc It's this context of songs and fragments of normal people talking and the Flower Power (the far out moon lovers) of 1969... The first lp side ending with 'Moonlight on Vermont', the unique otherness of it all, made it only possible to bring on 'Dachau Blues' as a song. That's an one of a kind achevement. One of the many reasons why 'Trout Mask Replica' is a masterpeace (of guts).

[@deVon30241]

The lyrics sound like he's simultaneously truly sympathetic for holocaust victims, and also mocking them.

[@richardseibert9291]

imagine igf you will wolfman jack and then try imagining him doing some other wacko songs man the possibilities are endless

[@whyoregon]

This stuff makes me feel more like myself.

[@saturatedneowax]

I love this

[@KennethClaar]

This is something Ellis from L4D2 would enjoy

[@AndrewHillis_2024]

GALLOWS HUMOUR AT IT'S BEST ! ! !👍

[@MinamuTV]

I actually used Audacity to make a version of this track where it is mostly the drums and guitar that are audible (you have to separate the stereo tracks, then invert the bottom track and make both of them mono). This background is actually wonderful, and I think that if he had mostly stuck to it, the song could have been a beautiful composition, equaling “My Human Gets Me Blues” or “Steal Softly Thru Snow”. The annoying thing is that it is virtually impossible when listening to the album version to understand its greatness because of the ridiculous bass clarinet. Fans seem to more often than not like the clarinet and to feel that it makes the song quite funny, but my take is more that Vliet really was trying to do something deep, and that he unfortunately lessens the impact with the clarinet. Great artists don’t always have the best judgment of what they’re supposed to do. Even Mozart thought that K452 (which is not well-known at all) was the most important work he had created up to that point. The low-clarinet version of “Dachau Blues” can be found on KZbin, though.

[@musik350]

You're - probably incorrectly - assuming that Vliet's intention was to make something "beautiful", and that by adding distracting layers, the "objective value" - a term so ill-defined that discussing it would be a waste of time - is fundamentally decreased

[@tomasvanecek8626]

What a useless exercise - and for WHAT exactly ? Who cares about your messing with the original.. Christ 🤑

[@poems089]

This is what music sounds like when you're having a bad trip

[@Hola-tq4pg]

I'm feeling suicidal

[@fieryfenderz589]

hope things got better for you friend

[@Hola-tq4pg]

@@fieryfenderz589 it's actually worse

[@HoldenCommaAllen]

@@Hola-tq4pg Hang in there my friend, I want to act like I can give advice to help you but I can't. I hope everything will get better for you with time, just don't give up, because if you give up you'll never know if it does.

[@dogmanbitehurt8243]

@@Hola-tq4pg lol

[@nightcrawler9607]

how are you feelin now?

[@jaxdowell2570]

0:47 oh no that had to bring a woodwind into this

[@sethjohnston2331]

Bass Clarinet I believe

[@morrisseysghost]

Went to Dachau and BLASTED THIS song, sorry couldn't resist.

[@hankmarlboro7309]

just fucking incredible. one day it makes me laugh because of the insane excess and gaucheness of it all. the next day it makes me weep because how else can you talk about it? death camps, the vietnam war, the misery and terror of it all, how else can you talk about it but in this agressive, grotesque, clownishly blunt way? man's inhumanity to man shatters the mind over and over and it happens to you from cradle to grave, whole weeks when you think it'd be better if we were all evaporated by the sun, so much suffering and pain the world feels like a hate factory. there's beauty in there somewhere but often it's hard to see. i can't even describe the ways this album makes me feel, it's pure truth from start to finish and if it seems horrific and unreadable at first it's because it was always a mirror for a horrific and unreadable world. but none of these songs are without a laugh, none of them are hopeless. it's like the music is alive, it's like i'm listening to a different and new song every single time. i can't believe this got made.

[@insertnamehereplease]

simply wonderful

[@DaddyWarbucksunlimited]

U need a tissue missy marlbo maam?

[@ivyhallquist3159]

This song really encapsulates the chaos that the Jews were feeling during the Holocaust.

[@franciscokiaolohmek8156]

Copante como siempre !!..that's cleopttshěrě !!

[@goofballskouf5494]

This is as far as I got. Three songs in and I need to quit. Not because I think its bad, but because this album is better than me, it is the true alpha.

[@ariefnafly8062]

It's 4 am

[@worlore1651]

the fact it goes from frownland to dust blows then DACHAU BLUES is so funny to me

[@johncollier9280]

I took a day trip from Munich to Dachau in 1975 because this song had brought to my attention the atrocities that had happened 'n I wanted to know more. I was struck by the intent o' Germany to expose honestly what had occurred. Still, the landscape was so beautiful I snapped touristy photos.

[@redape6870]

my buddy jason in high school turned me onto this album when i was 17. he described it as offbeats that were hard to play. he said go buy the album. the first time you listen to it you'll be like "WTF IS THIS??", the second time you listen to it you'll be like "eeeeeh, i dunno....", the the third time you listen to it you'll be like "YEAH!". so i ordered the album on cassette from the only music store in town. a week or two later when the tape showed up at the store i went to pick it up and one of the older kids from my high school was at the counter next to me. he grabbed the tape, looked at the cover, looked at the song list then said "MAN, THAT LOOKS REALLY STONEY!". "i hope so" i said. the cassette version of the album starts off with pachuco cadaver then goes into bills corpse, sweet sweet bulbs, neon meate dream of a octafish, china pig, etc. the vinyl record starts with frownland. had i gotten that version first i'm not sure i would've made it thru the first side. but after i was warned about this album i liked it immediately, though some parts sounded like an elementary school band stumbling thru their first attempt at a new piece of sheet music they've never rehearsed before. even to this day some parts of this album are just too dissonant for me, but i still laugh out loud at some of the tracks and this is one of them.

[@geordiejones5618]

Is anyone brave enough to listen to the whole record on acid? I tried and I made it here before I freaked the fuck out and switched to Electric Ladyland

[@worlore1651]

Honestly considering reporting this playlist so some lucky KZbin employee has to listen to this

[@latinostuck]

Damn, speedway by black midi sounds cool!

[@stephenbrooks6174]

Has noone here ever heard of Howlin' Wolf? He certainly had.

[@mattendahl2236]

'And old Walt thought he was gonna get killed...'

[@coolmark4851]

All of the songs are in a Major key

[@lucasflaherty8588]

Did everyone just tap out after Frownland?

[@Svm777]

You can smell the booze in his breath.

[@Denis-tg6jw]

what a pompous, puritanical remark.

[@Svm777]

@@Denis-tg6jw Cigarettes, then? =)

[@Denis-tg6jw]

Svm777 yes, cigarettes. I apologise for my pompous outburst.

[@Svm777]

@@Denis-tg6jw As long as it's not crack, everything's fine!

[@skoto8219]

0:20 i don’t think you can get that low without a couple of decades of whisky and cigarettes.

[@generalissimospergo9371]

So this is what Sabaton would sound like if they got wasted

[@sourcandyxxx]

They wish

[@secretidentitynetwork6218]

Huge Beatles fan, blah blah blah, this is the absolute best album ever.

[@strangeloveesq]

That riff sounds like something off a Daughters album. This is noise rock - ahead of its time.

[@ThePowerpointMaster]

If you want 60s noise rock: The Velvet Underground - European Son, I Heard Her Call My Name and Sister Ray.

[@abanana2561]

Nihilist spasm band aswell ^

[@ThePowerpointMaster]

There´s also The Parable of Arable Land, Black Monk Time and The Stooges ''Asthma Attack''

[@ThePowerpointMaster]

@@abanana2561 Holy fucking shit dude, I didn't read this at first, so I didn't know what you were referring to, then I think a week after you mentioned these guys I discovered their album ''No Record'' and I was absolutely obsessed with the band, I even watched a documentary about them called ''What about me?'' and watched their performance in Japan and listened to their album called vol. 2 that came out in 1979, phenomenal band, I'm still listening to a lot of their improvised music and shows

[@ThePowerpointMaster]

@@abanana2561 No Record was so fucking good, that I couldn't listen to music for like 2 days because nothing else came close to it

[@Goatchild90]

Dark af

[@josephtravers777]

Somebody gets it.

[@notfunny8701]

Actually haunting

[@marteveith]

I bust my ass laughing at 0:52 every time

[@didyoufow9770]

Same

[@MelBee128]

This guy makes Tom Waits sound like a good singer.

[@gregoryberrycone]

tom waits was inspired by beefheart, you can hear it clearly on swordfishtrombones and rain dogs

[@piratesfan1995able]

This guy is actually a great singer. Listen to I'm glad, autumn child, too much time, blabber and smoke.

[@ruthdixon7807]

a vocal so intense you barely notice the music.

[@marktyers1248]

This is why artists should never have complete control of studio recordings.

[@andrewmartin6217]

Is this the ADL’s theme song?

[@blackcrimezmatter]

Best comment here

[@Stefanio64]

Most evil song in the world but also most freespirited. How can we console those differences?

[@blackcrimezmatter]

Why? For perpetuating this fairy tale?

[@notveryniceatall]

​@@blackcrimezmatterAin't nobody falling for that lol

[@blackcrimezmatter]

@@notveryniceatallExactly. Anyone with an iq above room temp sees their fairytale for what it is.

[@makyo1974]

STILL, BEYOND ,TODAY

[@observedot7490]

God this shit is incredible

[@ThePowerpointMaster]

This is the saddest song on the album

[@richardseibert9291]

love to hear colonel sanders singing htis over a bucket of cicken telling black chil.lin tales of the south.

[@bigguys45s29]

American History X can’t beat this shit.

[@rockonthestone4907]

0:45 🕺🕺🕺

[@unagjac890]

Even better the second time.

[@MrJeffphoto]

Very appropriate .

[@jesusmontes2075]

Black Midi- Speedway??

[@johna6767]

This is like a rock-n-roll version of The Shaggs.

[@jaquan123ism]

this sounds like tripping up a down hill

[@theo9952]

Still better than the Shaggs. lol I love Trout Mask Replica but only in 10 minute doses. This is how long I can endure listening to this, with relative safety.

[@MarcoBeatles]

Lalalalala down Dachau blues

[@MarcoBeatles]

Is it a clarinet at the.end of the composition?

[@jakereber9613]

Marco Di Caprio it might be a soprano saxophone, not sure though

[@sterkoks1673]

Marco Di Caprio The entire album features an oboe. No clarinet, as far as I can tell.

[@Claconn]

Bass Clarinet

[@BenDover-lu4pw]

Alexander Meehan bingo!

[@jonmeltzer1361]

That's The Mascara Snake on bass clarinet.

[@aprendizdebrujo100]

NO hay por donde coger esto... XDDDD. me gusta este tio, me gusta el primer disco, me gusta "Clear Spot" (big eyed beans from venus es una obra de arte), me encanta el tema "Ice cream for Crow". pero este disco hay que tener las pelotas del tamaño de un rinoceronte para fumarselo entero... XDDD

[@ministryoumora]

Новая песня Пророка Санбоя звучит шикарно

[@bjorn-jameshanrahan8183]

I hope Kanye covers this

[@oreo3740]

This is what Victorian era funeral homes taste like at 14am while you shave your chair.

[@richardseibert9291]

how about BIdet serenading greta thundberg with this numkber while trying to get sharia law passed

[@troutunderscore3]

why does this make me laugh hysterically

[@cbjgdicad1]

more like carp mask

[@tomasvanecek8626]

we all know that... try somethng original

[@cbjgdicad1]

​@@tomasvanecek8626Ooooh SweetCheeks, you calm yourself down, right now!