Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band - Drink Paint Run Run (1972)

Following the release of the classic 'Trout Mask Replica' album in 1969, Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band's (the first time the group were not referred to as 'His' Magic Band) follow-up had to be something special, and 1970's 'Lick My Decals Off, Baby' certainly continued in a similarly experimental vein. Appearing within the most experimental and visionary stage of the group's career, it was their most commercially successful album in the UK, spending twenty weeks on the Albums Chart and peaking at number 20. Art Tripp III, formerly of the Mothers of Invention, played drums and marimba on the record, along with a returning John French, who had been ejected from the group during the 'Trout Mask Replica' sessions. An early promotional music video was made of its title song, alongside a bizarre television commercial that included excerpts from 'Woe-Is-uh-Me-Bop', silent footage of masked Magic Band members using kitchen utensils as musical instruments, and Beefheart kicking over a bowl of what appears to be porridge onto a dividing stripe in the middle of a road. The video was rarely played but was accepted into the Museum of Modern Art, where it has been used in several programs related to music. The next record was just credited to Captain Beefheart, and the atmosphere of 1972's 'The Spotlight Kid' seemed more relaxed and fun. 

The music is simpler and slower than on the group's two previous releases, and this was in part an attempt by Don Van Vliet to become a more appealing commercial proposition, as the band had made virtually no money during the previous two years. The next record was released as by Captain Beefheart And The Magic Band, and 1972's 'Clear Spot' is rightly regarded as a high-point in the band's career. The production credit of Ted Templeman made AllMusic's Ned Raggett consider "why in the world wasn't it more of a commercial success than it was", and while fans of the fully all-out side of Beefheart might find the end result not totally to their taste, those less concerned with continually pushing back the borders enjoyed his unexpected blend of styles, tempered with a new accessibility. And, of course, it included that fantastically strange piece of aggression that was 'Big Eyed Beans From Venus'. While recording these three albums the group laid down many, many instrumental takes, while Van Vliet searched for that perfect recording over which to lay his vocals, and hours worth of them have survived, so here is a selection of the very best. As most of them are instrumentals, I've included a couple of alternate vocal takes of songs that did eventually end up on albums, just to give the album a bit of variety, but these are completely different versions.  

Track listing

01 Suzy Murder Wrist
02 U Bean So Cinquo
03 Drink Paint Run Run
04 Flaming Autograph
05 Love Grip
06 No Flower Shall Grow
07 Sun Zoom Spark (Take 3)
08 Best Batch Yet
19 Seam Crooked Sam (Take 1)
10 Dual & Abdul
11 Dirty Blue Gene
12 Open Pins
13 Semi-Multicoloured Caucasian

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Brown Star (1972)

When Captain Beefheart started thinking about his next album in 1971, he took the band into the studio and recorded about thirty-five tracks, of which ten were eventually chosen to become 'The Spotlight Kid' - Beefheart's only album to be released under just his own name. Said Bill Harkleroad "We just went in there in the typical way that we worked. Just take it, keep it, move on. Don was trying to use the studio more. (He thought) here we are, they’re paying for it, let’s get the most out of it and put some things down – unfinished licks and riffs that he thought were songs. It was a very incomplete, uncontrolled situation, like "What the hell’s going on, what are we playing and where does this go?" Even with tunes that were "done", and that people think are great, a lot of them were unfinished ideas with a part missing here and there." There are more out-takes for 'The Spotlight Kid' than any other album, and that might just be a lack of quality control for a brief period in history, but as the band was note perfect on arrival, and rehearsal space is not the big expense, they just played and recorded as soon as they arrived. 'Harry Irene' appears for some reason in a spacious, lilting, delicate version, close to the final take, yet a decade away from release. 'Funeral Hill' is also well represented; if the tapes are anything to go by, they played that more often than anything else. It's just possible to believe that it metamorphosed into 'There Ain’t No Santa Claus On The Evenin’ Stage', but an argument can also be put forward for 'Glider' as well. Beefheart obviously had great faith in both that and 'Little Scratch', although the latter at least changed cosmetically, becoming 'Natural Charm' before it finally achieved release as 'The Past Sure Is Tense', in a much changed format. The harmonica featured on 'Seam Crooked Sam' in a terrific introduction to the track, and the two takes of 'Pompadour' total 25 minutes of the band just enjoying themselves in the studio, and is a mile away from the 'Shiny Beast' version. 

During 1971 Beefheart had unprecedented access to studio time, presumably courtesy of Reprise, and so a lot of the rehearsals, jams etc. seem to have been recorded, as preparations for recording 'The Spotlight Kid', 'Brown Star' and 'Clear Spot' albums, and while the first and last of these did make it out of the studio, 'Brown Star' has long remained a legendary unreleased album. Apparently Beeheart realised that 'Brown Star' wasn't happening and aborted it; then had a rest and had another go which Ted Templeman moulded into 'Clear Spot', but there are enough unused tracks left over, even after removing the 'Spotlight Kid' and 'Clear Spot' rehearsals, to piece together an album that could have slotted in between those two in 1972. Of the songs that you might recognise, 'Circumstances' is a completely different take to the 'Clear Spot' version, so I've included that here, alongside that aforementioned jazzy take of 'Harry Irene', as that was originally recorded at these sessions'. 'Pompadour' is edited down from the two 13-minute jams, eventually becoming 'Suction Prints', 'Grow Fins', and 'Flaming Autograph', and 'Well Well Well' was an out-take from 'Lick My Decals Off, Baby', and I'm adding it in here as it is apparently the only thing from that 'Decals' session which was mixed down for inclusion but was then rejected. The rest is a mixture of the best instrumentals and vocal tracks recorded at the 1971 sessions, and while I'll admit that 'Clear Spot' and 'The Spotlight Kid' used the best songs, there is still some stuff on here which is worth hearing. 

Track listing

01 Pompadour
02 Little Scratch  
03 Campfires        
04 Funeral Hill
05 The Witch Doctor Life 
06 Kiss Me My Love 
07 Well Well Well 
08 Your Love Brought Me To Life
09 Circumstances
10 Seam Crooked Sam 
11 Harry Irene

Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band - Bat Chain Puller (1976)

After recording the album 'Bongo Fury' with Frank Zappa, Don Van Vliet formed a new Magic Band and began recording 'Bat Chain Puller' for DiscReet and Virgin Records. Zappa described the proposed album as Beefheart's best since 'Trout Mask Replica', but when Zappa discovered that Herb Cohen, DiscReet's cofounder and Zappa's business manager, had paid for the album's production costs with Zappa's royalty cheques, he ended their business partnership. Cohen and Zappa each demanded to be paid an advance by Virgin, leading to Zappa withholding the master tapes, and resulting in Cohen suing Zappa. Due to the lawsuit, Beefheart re-recorded the 'Bat Chain Puller' tracks for Warner Bros. Records under the title 'Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)'. In 1982, Cohen settled his lawsuit with Zappa, while at the same time Beefheart was recording 'Ice Cream For Crow', for which he'd intended to use half of the tracks from the original 'Bat Chain Puller'. Zappa, however, refused his request, and so 'Ice Cream For Crow' ended up comprising almost all new material, the one exception being the a cappella track '81 Poop Hatch', which he included from his own copy of the 'Bat Chain Puller' tape. Copies of the original album have since been issued on numerous bootlegs, but this particular dub was made from an ANA(1) copy given to a record company employee by Beefheart himself. This same tape has been bootlegged with excessive noise reduction, but this fresh new transfer is completely unedited, and is the best quality copy around. If you're a Beefheart fan you will have probably heard most of these tracks already, although there are a couple of exclusives, but obviously these are different recordings to those which eventually appeared on 'Shiny Beast', and so are worth hearing just for that.

Track listing

01 Bat Chain Puller
02 Seam Crooked Sam
03 Harry Irene
04 Poop Hatch
05 Flavor Bud Living
06 Brickbats
07 Floppy Boot Stomp
08 A Carrot Is As Close As A Rabbit Gets To A Diamond
09 Owed T'Alex
10 Odd Jobs
11 The 1010th Day Of The Human Totem Pole
12 Apes-ma

Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band - Amazing Sounds (1967)

Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band should need no introduction, suffice to say that they were one of the most innovative and ground-breaking bands of the 60's and 70's. But like all bands, they had to start somewhere, and when they first formed they made their living by playing clubs around the San Francisco area, with a set list comprising carefully picked covers sprinkled with a few original compositions. This albums captures some of those performances, alongside some early studio demo recordings from around 1966 and 1967, just before the release of the classic 'Safe As Milk' debut album. Some of these songs later turned up on the 'Grow Fins' box set, and are great quality recordings showing the emergence of the band's unique style even from their very earliest incarnation. 

Track listing

01 Obeah Man (Demo 1966)

02 Just Got Back From The City (Demo 1966)

03 I'm Glad (Demo 1966) 

04 Triple Combination (Demo 1966)

05 Here I Am I Always Am (Demo 1966)

06 Somebody In My Home (Live 1966)

07 Tupelo (Live 1966)

08 Evil Is Going On (Live 1966)

09 Old Folks Boogie (Live 1967)

10 Call On Me (Demo 1965 )

11 Yellow Brick Road (Demo 1967)

12 Plastic Factory (Demo 1967)

13 Diddy Wah Diddy (Single 1966)

14 Who Do You Think You're Fooling (b-side of 'Diddy Wah Diddy')

15 Moonchild (Single 1966)

16 Frying Pan (b-side of 'Moonchild')

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