How To Buy...Captain Beefheart by Rob H.
People new to the wonderful world of Don Van Vliet aka Captain Beefheart often jump feet first into his most famous album "Trout Mask Replica" and then many will dismiss him and wonder what all the fuss is about. Hopefully this guide will help you find the gems and the best way of approaching the Beefheart discography!
Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band - Safe As Milk (1967)
Throughout his musical career two things were always certain, firstly he would sign a series of bad contracts which would prevent him from capitalising on any momentum a previous tour or album might have had and secondly the Magic Band membership was always in flux!
As a debut album it certainly makes its mark although it doesn't quite know where it is stylistically vering from electric Blues through Sixties pop and psychedelia. Singles wise this allowed them to showcase their different sides with the pop of "Yellow Brick Road" and the psychedelic blues tinged "Plastic Factory" both solid numbers but far from the best the album had on offer.
Standout songs include : "Sure 'Nuff 'n' Yes I Do", "Zig Zag Wanderer" and "Electricity" which was the song that reportedly got them dropped by A&M after the labels co-owner declared it "too negative" for his teenage daughter to listen to. It also has an amazing drum beat and a theremin weaving in and out, this is possibly the song that is most indicative of where the Magic Band would be heading.
Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band - Strictly Personal (1968)
After recording demos for the follow up to "Safe As Milk" Beefhearts label Buddah declined to release the album then called "It Comes To You In A Plain Brown Wrapper". So after one album Beefheart would move on to his third label (having been signed to A&M prior to Buddah).
"Stictly Personal" is an odd one and often divides opinion as the material has been released on four or five albums in different foms. Buddah would take their tapes and release the excellent "Mirror Man" in 1971 which I'll come to in a few days which then was extended into "The Mirror Man Sessions" but one of the big bones of contention with "Strictly Personal" is the production.
Essentially it's produced like a psychedelic album with heavy use of phasing and reverb which does the material no favours. The album takes the material written earlier but re-records it which wouldn't be the last time Beefheart would be forced into that situation.
A lot of the album just sounds murky and doesn't allow the material or performance to shine, take "Son of Mirror Man - Mere Man" as a case in point, it's like listening to audible sludge but you can hear the performance would be great if it sounded cleaner.
Standout songs include : "Safe As Milk", "Beatle Bones 'n' Smokin' Stones" and "Gimme Dat Harp Boy" which allows Beefheart to highlight his harmonica skills.
My recommendation would be to skip this album in favour of "The Mirror Man Sessions".
Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica (1969)
Beefhearts masterpiece or a hot mess that's hard to understand? The truth in all honesty lays somewhere inbetween. It's an iconic album and as such has probably drawn many people to listen to it only to immediately disregard it!
So album number three and label number four! This time signing to Frank Zappa's Straight (although some copies made it out on the sister label Bizarre). Zappa and Beefheart had been childhood friends and the concept was to record the Magic Band and give them total artistic freedom. A house was rented and Beefheart mercilessly rehearsed the band for fourteen hours a day for eight months so remember when you listen to the album where you might think it's a bit of a cacophony of random notes that this was tightly rehearsed and it is how the music was written. To be fair if you have a background in free jazz you'll probably cope better!
The band were also all given new names which you will hear refered to in various spoken word parts on the album so with Beefheart and Drumbo the members became Antennae Jimmy Semens, Zoot Horn Rollo, Rockette Morton and The Mascara Snake.
Zappa's idea (he was also producing the album) was to record the band in their rented house until Beefheart insisted on going into a studio, you can hear the difference in the quality of the "field" recordings.
"Trout Mask Replica" is twenty eight fairly short songs and was a double album. It features multiple time signatures, spoken word passages, pounding drums and picked guitar runs and also introduces us to the phrase "fast and bulbous"! There's also a few songs that just feature Beefheart singing which accentuates the offbeat nature of his lyrics/poetry but what is now absent is the feeling of a blues based band.
However challenging it may be on first listen there is plenty to appreciate and it keeps you coming back exploring the multi-layed depths. It would be a massively influential album for many and it's easy to see it as a blueprint for Mark E. Smith and The Fall and Peter Murphy and Mick Karn named their Dali's Car project after one of the albums instrumentals. The album cover designed by Cal Schenkel, who was responcible for many Zappa covers, has become iconic and has been parodied in work such as on the Robert Rankin book "Sprout Mask Replica". It's also worth noting the Trout Mask of the cover was actually a carp for all you trivia fans!
Standout tracks include : "Ella Guru", "Pachuco Cadaver" and "The Blimp (Mousetrapreplica)" the latter featuring a phone recording of guitarist Jeff Cotton (aka Antennae Jimmy Semens) reading the lyrics of a song down the phone to Zappa as Beefheart was too excited to do it as legend goes. Zappa then put this over a song The Mothers of Invention were working on called "Charles Ives" which accounts for why musically that song sounds different to the rest of the album.
So approach with caution and keep coming back!
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band - Lick My Decals Off, Baby (1970)
Following "Trout Mask Replica" was always going to be interesting and "Lick My Decals Off, Baby" follows the same musical style with time signatures galore and an almost discordant sound but here it is softer, less stark and Beefheart's vocal is more to the fore.
You may also have noted that for the first time the Magic Band are billed as the Magic Band rather than His Magic Band, this would continue on future albums which the exception of "Mirror Man" which was an historical recording. The line up had also changed with the departure of guitarist Jeff Cotton (Antennae Jimmy Semens) and Victor Hayden (The Mascara Snake) and the arrival of Art Tripp (Ed Marimba) from The Mothers of Invention on marimba and percussion.
For those still tracking labels this was released both on Straight and it's parent company Reprise.
Standout tracks include : "Lick My Decals Off, Baby", "I Love You, Big Dummy" and "The Smithsonian Institute Blues (Or The Big Dig)".
Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band - Mirror Man (1971)
After the critical success of "Trout Mask Replica" and the commercial success of "Lick My Decals Off, Baby" former label Buddah went back to the tapes that had been intended to form the second album "It Comes To You In A Plain Brown Wrapper" and put out "Mirror Man" reducing the proposed double album to just one.
"Mirror Man" consists of four songs inclucluding the near twenty minute "Tarotplane" and fifteen minute title track and is the bluesy psych sound that you'd expect given it was recorded four years prior to it's release. It was re-issued many years later in an expanded form as "The Mirror Man Sessions" which featured more of the material that would be re-recorded for the "Strictly Personal" album but without the controversual production that had split opinion so.
"Mirror Man" is great, it's an essential part in any Beefheart collection and also a good starting point as it immerses you in the music and Beefhearts harmonica playing as much as his singing.
Standout tracks include : "Tarotplane", "25th Century Quaker" & "Mirror Man".
Captain Beefheart - The Spotlight Kid (1972)
The first of two albums released in 1972 and the only album to be released solely under the name of Captain Beefheart despite the Magic Band being on the album.
"The Spotlight Kid" differs substantially from the preceding albums and is seen as Beefhearts attempt at being more accessible. The songs are noticiably slower in tempo and far less complex in structure and it's reported that it wasn't well liked by the band who also featured former Mothers of Invention guitarist Elliot Ingber on two songs.
Standout songs include : "I'm Gonna Booglarize You Baby", the Tom Waits-esque "The Spotlight Kid" and the harmonica laden "Click Clack".
Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band - Clear Spot (1972)
The second album to be released in 1972 "Clear Spot" continues the more commercial path started on "The Spotlight Kid" but has arguably better material. There was a re-shuffle in The Magic Band with Drumbo leaving meaning Art Tripp becoming drummer and percussionist, Rockette Morton switched to guitar and bass and yet another former Mothers of Invention member was bought in with the now disgraced Roy Estrada joining on bass from Little Feat.
There's a diversity of styles from the sparsly accompanied poetry of closer "Golden Birdies", the ballads of "My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains" and "Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles" to the more driven "Low Yo Yo Stuff" and "Sun Zoom Spark".
Standout tracks include : "Low Yo Yo Stuff", "My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains" and "Big Eyed Beans From Venus"
Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band - Unconditionally Guaranteed (1974)
The first of two albums released in 1974 and another label change leaving Reprise for Mercury in the US and Virgin in the UK. "Unconditionally Guaranteed" is generally considered the weakest of the Beefheart albums in so much that it really doesn't sound much like Beefheart, it has more of a Dr John or even Joe Cocker vibe about it.
With another shuffle in The Magic Band Alex St. Clair returned to the band on guitar, Roy Estrada left and Rockette Morton switched back to bass but musically it again follows a more overtly commercial direction. The album is viewed a bit as a money grab which Beefheart doesn't hide by being pictured on the cover clutching wads of cash but things were all too much and the entire Magic Band quit after the recording of the album.
It's not a bad album by any stretch but it's simply not Beefheart and I'll only be picking two standout tracks instead of my usual three these are the excellent opener "Upon The My-O-My" and closer "Peaches".
Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band - Bluejeans & Moonbeams (1974)
The second album to be released in 1974 and The Magic Band on the album are that in name only after the entire Magic Band quit following the recording of the previous album "Unconditionally Guaranteed" many of whom formed the band Mallard. For "Bluejeans & Moonbeams" Beefheart used session musicians for a pretty straight album.
Standout songs include : "Party of Special Things To Do", "Pompadour Swamp" & "Rock 'n' Roll's Evil Doll".
Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band - Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) (1978)
Out of contract with Mercury after the disappointments of both "Unconditionally Guaranteed" and "Bluejeans & Moonbeams" Beefheart was invited to tour with Frank Zappa which resulted in the part live / part studio album "Bongo Fury" as well as some unofficial live albums from radio broadcasts such as "Muffin Man Goes To College".
After that tour Beefheart formed a new Magic Band and recorded the "Bat Chain Puller" album in 1976 for the DiscReet label founded by Zappa and his manager Herb Cohen. Zappa discovered that Cohen had funded the album out of Zappa's royalty checks without his knowledge which lead to a breakdown of their relationship, legal action and ultimately the master tapes of "Bat Chain Puller" being withheld. They wouldn't be released until 2012 two years after Beefheart had passed away.
Just like the "Strictly Personal" album had re-recorded material that the Buddah label chose not to release Beefheart decided to re-record some of "Bat Chain Puller" and release the excellent "Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)" album with a different line up of the Magic Band than the one that recorded the source album which included Bruce Fowler from the Zappa band, guitarist Jeff Moris Tepper and drummer Robert Williams.
In the subsequent years between "Shiny Beast" and the eventual release of "Bat Chain Puller" a few semi official albums were released which were purported to be taken from Beefhearts original tapes of the session as "Dust Sucker" and "Son of Dust Sucker".
"Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)" marks the long return of something more akin to the classic Magic Band sound and it's an incredible album that should feature in any Beefheart collection.
Standoud songs include : "The Floppy Boot Stomp", "Tropical Hot Dog Night" & "Bat Chain Puller".
Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band - Doc At The Radar Station (1980)
Now on the Virgin label globally and with another reshuffle in the ranks of The Magic Band which saw the return of John French (Drumbo) as a multi-instrumentalist as well as the introduction of guitarist Gary Lucas (who would have a larger role on the following album "Ice Cream For Crow" two years later).
Standout songs include : "Hot Head", "Ashtray Heart" and "Sue Egypt".
Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band - Ice Cream For Crow (1982)
The final album before Beefheart retired from music to spend time on his painting continues in the same vein as "Doc At The Radar Station" in that it draws largely on unfinished songs. As you'd expect there was more changes in the Magic Band most importantly Gary Lucas playing a more prominant role.
The legal issues with "Bat Chain Puller" had been resolved and the plan was to include three songs from the unreleased album but Zappa refused for these to be used as the owner of the rights to the album. Although Beefheart used his original tape of "'81 Poop Hatch" and reworked "Human Totem Pole" into "Skeleton Makes Good".
Standout songs include : "Ice Cream For Crow", "The Host The Ghost The Most Holy-O" and "Ink Mathmatics".
Don Van Vliet (aka Captain Beefheart) would pass away in 2010 never returning to music, "Bat Chain Puller" would finally be released two years later in 2012 released by Zappa Records. The Magic Band would reform a few times to tour and release some live albums. There are also a number of official and unofficial Beefheart live albums of varying quality available, of the official releases both "Live 1974" and "Amsterdam '80" are well worth hearing.
No comments:
Post a Comment