Captain Beefheart

Even though Decals has more conventional-sounding rock sections than TMR, in all I think it's a more complex work. The amount of detail packed into "Doctor Dark" alone is mind boggling. I think the removal of the 2nd guitar opened things up a bit, allowing the bass to take a greater role in shaping the tune. I think Marc Boston is the unsung hero of this band--his lines on Decals and TMR are just sui generis, there is nothing else like them in rock.

As for production I think the debate is just a matter of taste. I think the squished sound of Decals fits the jam-packed nature of the compositions themselves. I wouldn't change a thing, except maybe removing the sax from "Flash Gordon's Ape".

think I always found straight rock music w/oomph as such to be kinda boring

Beefheart w/oomph = not straight rock music

But, yeah, fair enough if you're more into jazz/avant than rock/pop then I can understand where you're coming from

sooo... Sundazed has just reissued two of the Safe As Milk singles... in mono! I wanna buy them but otoh maybe I should just hope they eventually reissue the whole mono LP. I have fallen in love with that version, it is a revelation.

yeah it is the only version i listen to now!

You know what, I bought the original UK Pye single of "Yellow Brick Road", and an original UK promo of the same single..

for less than the price of the reissues, nice as they are..

.. on ebay.

huh, I don't think I've ever listened to the mono version (unless it's the Rhino or w/e version w/a clear spine that came out on CD w/bonus trax five years ago or so). I always think of Autumn's Child as one of those listen-to-it-when-you-get-a-new-pair-of-headphones jams that testifies to the aural satisfaction of dramatic-sixties-panning, like I can't really even imagine it in Mono (or can imagine it being different-different in a way I can't with like some new Beatles reish or w/e).

One of my great regrets is getting rid of my old mono Safe As Milk CD (I think the label was One Way Records) when the stereo Rhino CD reissue came out. I don't like the hard-panned approach they went with on that one.

this one?

http://www.discogs.com/Captain-Beefheart-Zig-Zag-Wanderer-The-O-Collection/release/1849216

Mark G, I am guessing that the singles you refer to are in stereo, not mono. The fact that these new ones are in mono is the main draw here.

This one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-CAPTAIN-BEEFHEART-SAFE-AS-MILK-ONE-WAY-RECORDS-CD-/150641808707

I unloaded it for next to nothing at the time. Could kick myself.

Did anyone pick up the "Bat Chain Puller" issued last year? I've yet to get it, mainly because it only appears to be available from the Zappa website and I'd rather pick it up for less money here in Europe. I've just spotted a copy on German eBay

I think the pye single(s) are mono. Also, the Marble Arch / pye album as well, will have to check.

i find myself appreciating beefheart way way more these days than I ever did. I think it has something to do with age, and also having listed to every other type of music to death and at the moment this is all that really makes sense.

Beefheart and Fahey are like fine wines, improving with age.

I dug out Trout Mask this week, was thinking that "Moonlight on Vermont" is probably the most accessible track on the album. Basically, it's the easiest to assimilate, it has a definite rock structure and a drum solo of sorts..

Basically, if you don't like that one, you probably never will like the album.

TMR is like a litmus test to me for whether someone can actually hear music or not.

(xp) Don't know exactly when "Moonlight on Vermont" was recorded but it predates all of the crazier stuff on the album, ditto "Sugar 'n Spikes" and "Veteran's Day Poppy".

Basically, if you don't like that one, you probably never will like the album.

That doesn't make sense, there are only a couple of other straight-ish Blues numbers on it, so actually if someone really likes Moonlight on Vermont and they want to hear more like it they will dislike this record.

"Really likes" means loving it.

Like, as in finds it interesting in a 'toe in the water' way.

"Frownland" is very "jump in the deep end which might scare someone new to it

Shame its the first track huh?

The cover should give a few clues as to what you might be expecting...don't mind me, I have little patience to sell someone to this record.

i'm not sure that slow acclimation is a good model for how people appreciate music, it feels like learning to eat your vegetables because they're good for you.

some people desire familiarity in art and some people thrive on the shock of newness, but to be honest a 40-odd year old record could be placed into either of those baskets, and it makes no odds to me

sometimes i get a vibe from ILM posts that there are people whose world of music has played out like Educating Rita

Basically agree: I wonder how I should "educate" someone onto For Alto. "The first track is only 43 seconds but it has a really nice melody you know.."

Sometimes I am opened up when I read interesting talk about a record, that's more random and far better.

I hate to agree with T-Bone about shit, lest I appear a rockist, but Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles is stunning, and probably the best thing he ever recorded.

I was playing Decals a couple of months back. Sounded great.

Haha akm, I had the same experience you did this year. After years of occasionally dipping into the Captain with nothing clicking, it all came together. I, too, have been searching for new sounds. Maybe it's my musical midlife crisis but I'm really happy to finally have him in my life.

I don't understand this equating musical curiosity with middle aged thing, but NV has already said it better I could. You should look at it as more of an epiphany rather than a 'crisis'.

keep thinking thread is called Captain Beetbort

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xaYFNhsjBY

this instrumental is kind of a revelation as to how accessible he was even @ the trout mask time

Agreed. That first chord to me sounds exactly like Sgt. Pepper's and then, because it's free of any vocal I'm all like "Oh, this is kinda like the Stones, only with a neurotic drum part instead."

Finally watched the Captain Beefheart Under Review DVD from 2006. Best part is there's more original footage of the band than I'd ever seen before. Lots of interviews with Magic Band members, Clinton Heylin and Mike Barnes interviews were fine, but Alan Clayson and Nigel Williamson came off as pretentious tw@ts.

Multiple people in this talked about how much better the original Bat Chain Puller sessions sounded compared to Shiny Beast, which I always thought sounded great. The BCP bootlegs I heard sounded like ass, but have not yet gotten ahold of the reissue from last year, which was apparently properly mastered by Ludwig in 2010. It's already selling for ridiculously high prices.

Is it not still available from the Zappa website?

It feels like its gonna be a Beefheart summer.

Bat Chain Puller still $20 from the Zappa site. Anyone heard the new Trout Mask CD they're also selling?

Did anyone pick up the "Bat Chain Puller" issued last year? ... I've just spotted a copy on German eBay

― Duke, Saturday, 5 January 2013 17:46 (5 months ago) Permalink

I didn't win the CD on German ebay..

Can anyone comment on this issue?

Thanks for the reminder.

Note: We here at UMRK determined that the TMR Master was damaged somewhere in the years of it's return orbit. The Vaultmeister created almost in its entirety a new Master from our own Vault safety copies. And as if that wasn't enough chocolate for your Sunday sundae, we had Bob Ludwig remaster the Work for you. What you now have available to you is the definitive TROUT MASK REPLICA. Be the judge. Be the jury. Be the bongo. Be the fury!!!

Looks like I'll be spending another $40+, *sigh*. I wonder if Lick My Decals is next? I'm listening to a DL of Bat Chain and it sounds pretty great, def. way better than the bootlegs.

I'm really feeling "Bluejeans & Moonbeams" right now.

It feels weird having the captain and the band attempting to do something lush and sexy but in a way it's also so damn right.

They should never do disco, though.

Everyone should do disco

In Mojave Desert, disco does you.

I'm sorry but "Captain's Holiday" is embarrasing. The rest of the album is quite alright with me.

There's a chain of thought that "Captain's Holiday" involves no magic band or Don input at all, and is some master they found in the studio.

So: that Trout remaster any good?

xp, plus "the magic band" on this record shared no members with any other incarnation of the group.

No, but.

I didn't think they were so bad, "Upon the My O My" whistle test, for example. Nothing wrong there!

You know what's amazing? The live album recorded at My Father's Place.

I'm sorry but "Captain's Holiday" is embarrasing. The rest of the album is quite alright with me.

Well yes that song is terrible, also I really hate "Rock 'n Roll's Evil Doll", the rest is fine.

nice business card, 1968

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h6UIQmV02Yk/Teev87avw2I/AAAAAAAADPk/xRlgUHwYGjk/s400/img340.jpg

posted on the Arthur magazine Facebook, via http://galacticramble.blogspot.com/2011/06/being-something-of-beatles-fan-i-have.html

Remastered ‘Lick My Decals Off, Baby‘, ‘The Spotlight Kid‘ and ‘Clear Spot‘ on their way:

http://www.beefheart.com/new-boxset-to-be-released/

Warners have been digging in their archives and are about to release a FOUR disc collection on the Rhino label – ‘Sun Zoom Spark: 1970 to 1972‘.

Due for release on 11 November 2014 this set will include remastered versions of ‘Lick My Decals Off, Baby‘, ‘The Spotlight Kid‘ and ‘Clear Spot‘ (but with no bonus tracks). The fourth disc is a collection of fourteen outtakes which have not been previously released legitimately.

These are the outtakes:

01 Alice in Blunderland (Alternate Version)
02 Harry Irene
03 I Can’t Do This Unless I Can Do This/Seam Crooked Sam
04 Pompadour Swamp/Suction Prints
05 The Witch Doctor Life (Instrumental Take)
06 Two Rips in a Haystack/Kiss Me My Love
07 Best Batch Yet (Version 1)
08 Your Love Brought Me To Life – Instrumental
09 Dirty Blue Gene (Alternate Version 1)
10 Nowadays a Woman’s Gotta Hit a Man (Early Mix)
11 Kiss Where I Kain’t
12 Circumstances (Alternate Version 2)
13 Little Scratch
14 Dirty Blue Gene (Alternate Version 3)

As many fans will already know there are many more outtakes from this time that could have been included so to see only a few is a bit of an anticlimax.

However, it’s good to see ‘Decals‘ finally getting a release after only being available on CD in limited editions and being pretty much unavailable for years. Hopefully the remastering will be done sympathetically to make it shine alongside ‘The Spotlight Kid‘ and ‘Clear Spot‘.

What’s more it’s great that this release has been put together with Jan van Vliet’s involvement, with previously unseen artwork being made available.

‘Sun Zoom Spark‘ will be released as a 4 CD set (at a reasonable price) and a 4 disc vinyl set (at twice the price!)