Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band

[nosebone]

Been digging into and enjoying the Captain's catalog as of late.

I put the following albums in my iphone:

Clear Spot
Doc at the Radar Station
Lick My Decals Off, Baby
Safe As Milk
Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)
The Spotlight Kid
Strictly Personal
Trout Mask Replica

I also have Ice Cream For Crow on order.

I'm really getting a kick out of his stuff. Some hysterical lyrical poetry like " Tropical Hot Dog Night, like two flamingos in a fruit fight" from Shiny Beast and Blabber and Smoke from The Spotlight Kid.
Some beautiful ballads strewn about also

Captain conversation anyone?

[StarThrower]

I'm sure you'll enjoy Ice Cream For Crow. I never really got into Trout, but I dig Shiny Beast, Clear Spot and Spotlight Kid.

[jazz2896]

Yeah I started a Beefheart thread here a couple years ago, I'm sure it's still floating around on here. But yeah, go for all of em honestly, I think theres something to enjoy in all of em (save for the Blue Jeans and Unconditionally albums, which I honestly haven't really listened to). My personal favorites are Decals and Doc, Decals is almost pretty despite how fractured the music is, and Doc is pure aggression, and is one of my favorite mellotron albums.

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[Mister Triscuits]

Blabber and Smoke from The Spotlight Kid.

One of my favorites; this one actually got a bit of radio play back in the day. (As did "Big Eyed Beans" from the next album.) Oddly, the lyrics are credited to Beefheart's wife Jan, although they sound very much like his own.

[nosebone]

Yeah I started a Beefheart thread here a couple years ago, I'm sure it's still floating around on here.

got it , thx - http://www.progressiveears.org/forum...tain+beefheart


Btw, there's a decent documentary on Amazon Prime Video called Captain Beefheart - Under Review (2006)

It basically goes thru each album with former bandmates interviewed.

[chalkpie]

got it , thx - http://www.progressiveears.org/forum...tain+beefheart


Btw, there's a decent documentary on Amazon Prime Video called Captain Beefheart - Under Review (2006)

It basically goes thru each album with former bandmates interviewed.

Nice - thanks - I'll check out.

[JKL2000]

I read some of the Wikipedia entry on Beefheart just last night. Pretty interesting character - sounds like he made Frank Zappa seem pretty normal! BTW, I read it after watching a Frank Zappa appearance on on early David Letterman show. I need to finish it, but it's worth watching. Not sure if he actually played any music, but fortunately he was polite with Letterman and seemed to enjoy the interview.

[Zappathustra]

There are people who made incredible music.

But Captain Beefheart transformed the incredible into music. That's different.

Trout Mask Replica changed music forever. Its repercussions still have not reached us. But Lick my Decals is even better. Accidents become fate in this one. You cannot trace this work into any source. And that's the beauty of truly high art.

[GuitarGeek]

I read some of the Wikipedia entry on Beefheart just last night. Pretty interesting character - sounds like he made Frank Zappa seem pretty normal! BTW, I read it after watching a Frank Zappa appearance on on early David Letterman show. I need to finish it, but it's worth watching. Not sure if he actually played any music, but fortunately he was polite with Letterman and seemed to enjoy the interview.

I believe Frank appeared on Letterman a coupel times. Once, he was there to promote Thing Fish, saying he was gonna do it Broadway (he never did). I don't think he played any music either time.

I've lately been thinking I need to re-investigate Beefheart. I remember hearing a few things back in the late 80's, on college radio and other places, and being put off by his voice. But I've been listening to Howlin' Wolf lately. Wolf had a similar voice (in fact, I take it Beefheart was influenced by Wolf), and initially I didn't care for his voice, either, after hearing his version of Spoonful on the Grateful Dead Hour once.

So I'm thinking, maybe if I'm getting used to Chester Burnett, maybe I might be ready for Don Van Vliet now.

[Dave (in MA)]

One of my fave Beefheart tracks, not found on any of his albums (unless you count the Dust Blows Forward anthology):



Not a Magic Band track, though:

Bass Guitar – Tim Drummond
Drums – Jim Keltner
Effects – Michael Boddicker
Guitar – Jesse Ed Davis, Ry Cooder
Percussion – Milt Holland
Piano – Stan Szelest (supposedly, though I've seen Jack Nitzsche listed as pianist)

[nosebone]

^ I believe that's a real old track. Ry Cooder left the band after one gig .

[polmico]

(save for the Blue Jeans and Unconditionally albums, which I honestly haven't really listened to).
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They are far from his highest moments, but both have more than enough moments to warrant their purchase.

[Steve F.]

^ I believe that's a real old track. Ry Cooder left the band after one gig .

It’s a 70s recording where Ry did it with Don ‘one last time’.

[pb2015]

I believe Frank appeared on Letterman a coupel times. Once, he was there to promote Thing Fish, saying he was gonna do it Broadway (he never did). I don't think he played any music either time.

Checking online, Zappa appeared on Letterman once in 1982 (w/Moon Unit) and twice in 1983. No music from him in any of those.

[Mister Triscuits]

^ I believe that's a real old track. Ry Cooder left the band after one gig .

It does not date from Cooder's time with Beefheart's band. It was specially written and recorded for the 1978 film Blue Collar. Nitzsche corralled Beefheart to do this song because they wanted someone with a "terrible voice."

[nosebone]

It does not date from Cooder's time with Beefheart's band. It was specially written and recorded for the 1978 film Blue Collar. Nitzsche corralled Beefheart to do this song because they wanted someone with a "terrible voice."

[gryphs also]

I love Safe As Milk, Shiny Beast, Doc At The Radar Station, but Trout Mask Replica is still is too fucked up for me.

[GuitarGeek]

I remember reading that Zappa wanted to record Trout Mask Replica at the band house, where the Magic Band were living, using portable recording equipment. I gather Frank's idea was that they would have been making a "field recording", like when people like Alan Lomax went out and recording cotton pickers singing field hollers and such. But Don vetoed it, as he thought Frank was just being cheap. So they recorded the album in the studio, instead.

[alucard]

I remember reading that Zappa wanted to record Trout Mask Replica at the band house, where the Magic Band were living, using portable recording equipment. I gather Frank's idea was that they would have been making a "field recording", like when people like Alan Lomax went out and recording cotton pickers singing field hollers and such. But Don vetoed it, as he thought Frank was just being cheap. So they recorded the album in the studio, instead.

There are quite detailed notes about the recording of TMR by John 'Drumbo' French in the booklet of Grow Fins plus some more in the Zappa autobiography .My favourite ones, that Beefheart didn't want to use headphones in the studio and recorded his vocals by hearing only the leakage of the band sound through the studio window and that he put cardboard on the cymbals to get rid of the high end frequencies which according to Zappa produced a muffled claustrophobic sound.

[Steve F.]

I remember reading that Zappa wanted to record Trout Mask Replica at the band house, where the Magic Band were living, using portable recording equipment. I gather Frank's idea was that they would have been making a "field recording", like when people like Alan Lomax went out and recording cotton pickers singing field hollers and such. But Don vetoed it, as he thought Frank was just being cheap. So they recorded the album in the studio, instead.

It was recorded, sans vocals, and the tape survived, and it appears on the Grow Fins box.

[GuitarGeek]

It was recorded, sans vocals, and the tape survived, and it appears on the Grow Fins box.

Beg pardon, I didn't know they actually had recorded anything at the band house. I just remember Frank bringing it up in his last big interview (the one that the publishers of Keyboard and Guitar Player put in that special magazine they put out about a year before he passed away). I just remember Frank sayign that Don thought he was being a cheapskate and demanded they be allowed to record the album in a proper studio.

I'm gonna have to look for that Grow Fins set. I imagine it's probably out of print by now, isn't it?

[pb2015]

"Hair Pie - Bake 1" from TMR is from the house session, I think.

[Mister Triscuits]

"Hair Pie - Bake 1" from TMR is from the house session, I think.

Yes, hence the conversation with the curious passers-by. ("It's a bush recording. We're recording the bush.") There are also some non-band tracks recorded at the house: "China Pig," and the ones where Don is reciting into a portable tape recorder which he stops and starts between lines.

[SunshipVoyager1976]

I have all of Beefheart's stuff- even the very suspect commercial ones- and love it all.

It remains so very fast and bulbous. Tight, also.

[trondis23]

My favourites are Trout Mask, Lick My Decals Off and Bat Chain Puller (the original version). The latter hasn't been mentioned here, but it is really good. IMO much better than Shiny Beasts.