10 Albums Which Almost Destroyed Their Creators

Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart, stands as one of the most enigmatic and brilliant figures in popular music. In the late sixties, backed by a crack band, on the albums Safe As Milk (1967) and Strictly Personal (1968), Beefheart thrillingly fused shambling roots rock and blues with a distinctive, experimental edge. Both these records, although not commercially successful at the time, have grown in acclaim over the ensuing decades.

For his third album, 1969s Trout Mask Replica, Beefheart brought in another legendary maverick, Frank Zappa, as producer. The band retired to a small and secluded communal house in Los Angeles for eight months of rehearsals. It is at this point that the lines between myth and reality become blurred, not helped by Beefheart's own tendency to fan the flames of fiction.

Those eight months, for the assembled musicians, were, at the least, intense and psychologically challenging. If you believe the wildest tales (which may very well be true) it was more akin to a cult/hostage situation, with Beefheart laying down bizarre rules and doing everything possible to destabilise the band. The results are as divisive as they come. Trout Mask Replica, depending on your point of view, is either an avant garde masterpiece, or a shambling wreck.