I bought a vinyl edition of this in 1986, but it wasn't until 11 years later - while I was driving 400 kms at night - that I started to get into it. Three years later I was hooked. Now I consider it a true masterpiece. For a long time I thought part of the acrimony between FZ and CB was a little jealously on Zappa's part on the basis that one of the BEST albums he ever produced was under the name of his erstwhile high school chum. Then I read John French's Through the Eyes of Magic and realised this was not the case. TMR wouldn't have been the album it was without Zappa's intervention, and he definitely didn't hijack it ... if anything, it highlighted not only Beefheart's eccentric brilliance, but FZ's generosity.
Comment
I bought a vinyl edition of this in 1986, but it wasn't until 11 years later - while I was driving 400 kms at night - that I started to get into it. Three years later I was hooked. Now I consider it a true masterpiece. For a long time I thought part of the acrimony between FZ and CB was a little jealously on Zappa's part on the basis that one of the BEST albums he ever produced was under the name of his erstwhile high school chum. Then I read John French's Through the Eyes of Magic and realised this was not the case. TMR wouldn't have been the album it was without Zappa's intervention, and he definitely didn't hijack it ... if anything, it highlighted not only Beefheart's eccentric brilliance, but FZ's generosity.