bass clarinet, vocals, illustration [on insert sheet] The Mascara Snake
bass guitar, narrator Rockette Morton
design [album design], photography by [cover] Cal Schenkel
drums [uncredited], translated by [music score, uncredited] John French
engineer, technician [electronic modification of equipment] Dick Kunc
liner notes [insert sheet poem] Don Van Vliet
music by, lyrics by, written-by Captain Beefheart
photography by [inside & back cover] Ed Caraeff
producer Frank Zappa
slide guitar [glass finger guitar], flute Zoot Horn Rollo
slide guitar [steel appendage guitar] Antennae Jimmy Semens
vocals, tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone [saxophones played simultaneously] Captain Beefheart
Recorded At Sunset Sound Recorders
Recorded At Whitney Recording Studios
Recorded At The Magic Band House
Mastered At Customatrix
Pressed By Columbia Records Pressing Plant, Pitman
Copyright (c) Beefheart Music Co.
[l447694] pressing variant denoted by a P stamp in runouts.
1st press USA issue, with auto-coupled discs,
'Straight' labels with a '2' prefix to STS 1053 cat# & the 'Straight'/'Bizarre' address on label radius text.
Vinyl in black 'Straight' liners with 'Bizarre' address.
6-page, 2-fold white paper insert printed single-color black (folds to 12x12), lyrics within. Front has half-tone photo of school-age Don Vliet inside a panel, with legend; Trout Mask Replica - Captain Beefheart. Back & inner spread has line illustrations by The Mascara Snake [Vliet's cousin]. Inside facing-page has handwritten 'Manta Ray' poem which is under-signed 'Don Van Vliet'.

Works all contained in unlaminated gatefold sleeve.
(Pasted, no internal glue-tabs)

Errata on labels vs sleeve:
Moonlight On Vermont is printed wrongly as Moonlight In Vermont on label.
The Blimp is printed The Blimb (wrongly) & has (Mousetrapreplica) suffix on label.
[The intro voice is that of Zappa, recorded via a telephone link to Zappa's studio - with Antennae Jimmy Semens narrating from Vliet's script over the 'phone from the 'Magic Band house'. A field-to-studio recording, on which was resident on a tape channel the members of The Mothers performing the drum-passage to Charles Ives aka Didja Get Any Onya?]

Track A4: Flesh Horn is a Vliet affectation for the 'cupped hand'-to-the-mouth (hence flesh), used to create a 'vocalized horn' effect.
Tracks A6 & D8 recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders
Remaining tracks later recorded at Whitney Recording Studios (and within 'The Magic Band House')

Drummer, John 'Drumbo' French, was not credited on this album. (It is now accepted that his transcription of Beefheart's concepts/score for other band members was fundamental in its production. See notes in 'Grow Fins' box set).

One known official single was released from this album in France: Pachuco Cadaver

Rights Society: BMI
Matrix / Runout: 2-STS-1053-1 P (A-Side runout, variant 1)
Matrix / Runout: 2-STS-1053-2 P (B-Side runout, variant 1)
Matrix / Runout: 2-STS-1053-3 P ? (C-Side runout, variant 1)
Matrix / Runout: 2-STS-1053-4 P (D-Side runout, variant 1)
Matrix / Runout: o 2-STS-1053-1 P A 1 (A-Side runout, variant 2)
Matrix / Runout: 2-STS-1053-2 o P A (B-Side runout, variant 2)
Matrix / Runout: o 2-STS-1053-3 P P A1 (C-Side runout, variant 2)
Matrix / Runout: o 2-STS-1053-4 P A (D-Side runout, variant 2)