Throughout my teens and twenties Beefheart was god. He worked rather well as a deity and for me substantially preferable to the one on offer in mainstream western culture.

In 1974 I listened to Trout Mask Replica for the first time and that was my moment of conversion. So much is so right about TMR. The apparent madness of the music is all meticulously planned and played, which brings a unique sincerity to the sound and valorises the unconventional. The lyrics demonstrate an understanding on behalf of the author of what actually is going on in rock and roll. The words are used like paint, but always seem to mean something powerful and to which you can relate. On the other hand the words very rarely actually really mean something in a literal sense, but, so often you feel a great empathy for the lyric line, you know exactly what he means, but you can’t say what it is.

His vocal was a montage of blues voices. He would be always picking from a palette of blues vocal expression I think he had learned from listening to so many blues and jazz records as a child.

The organised madness of the music works as a backdrop to this amazing vocal lyrical performance. The music mood swings continuously as it wrestles to understand the world.

That incomprehension of the world and fear of the consequences of comprehending the world, of then becoming part of the world, lies at the heart, I think of all the rebellion in popular youth music.

For me Trout Mask Replica is the greatest creation in popular music. It is unparalleled, unprecedented and yet totally authentic.

Hanne Stinson, from the British Humanist Association is reported as saying “People can lead a happy, enjoyable and rewarding life without religion”, how very true!