In the spring of 1969, the inauspicious release of Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band's Trout Mask Replica, a double-album featuring 28 stream-of-consciousnes

A no-holds barred account of working with Beefheart drawing on new reminiscences and interviews with all the key players from inside and around the Magic Band a

In 1978, Greil Marcus asked twenty other writers on rock—including Dave Marsh, Lester Bangs, Nick Tosches, Ellen Willis, Simon Frith, and Robert Christgau—a

“Barnes gets the story, and with the full participation of those brave musicians who attempted to interpret Beefheart's sometimes otherworldly methodology”

Recounts the career of the rock music performer.