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In: Magnetic Hands
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One day, every moment of existence will be available for endless re-examination on Deja-VD. The Past will enjoy a renewed period of exponential growth. The present will simply disappear, consumed by living memory boiled in esprit d’escaliers. In the future, when nothing will happen once and for all, quality control will become impossible. In the meantime, we can amuse ourselves with barrel-scraping exhumations of every event ever exposed to magnetic tape. This latest addition to the ever expanding Beefheart archive collects ‘field recordings’ made between 1972 and 1980, from seven English performances by different formulations of The Magic Band. The sound quality is variable inRead More →

Magnetic Hands cover

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In: Magnetic Hands, Magneticism - Live in the UK/USA 1972 - 81
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Track list Click Clack Old Black Snake Grow Fins Peon Golden Birdies Electricity Sugar Mama Orange Claw Hammer Gimme Dat Harp Beatle Bones ‘n’ Smokin Stones Dali’s Car Flavor Bud Living Nowadays A Woman’s Gotta Hit A Man Abba Zaba Hothead Safe As Milk Dropout Boogie Kandy Korn Tracks 1 – 3: Bickershaw Festival, 7 May 1972 Tracks 4 – 5: Free Trade Hall, Manchester, 1 April 1972 Tracks 6 – 7: Leicester University, 1 May 1973 Tracks 8 – 9: Knebworth Festival, 5 July 1975 Tracks 10 – 11: Guildhall, Portsmouth, 1 December 1975 Track 12: The Venue, London, 12 November 1980 Tracks 13Read More →

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In: Magnetic Hands, Magneticism - Live in the UK/USA 1972 - 81, Railroadism - Live in the USA 72 - 81
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Vinyl version Track list Side one Click Clack Old Black Snake Dali’s Car Nowadays a Womans Gotta Hit a Man Drop Out Boogie Kandy Korn Tracks 1 – 2: Bickershaw Festival 7 May 1972 Tracks 3: Guildhall, Portsmouth 1 December 1975 Tracks 4 – 6: Rotters, Liverpool 29 October 1980 Side two Abba Zabba Electricity Little Golden Birdies A Carrot is as Close as a Rabbit gets to a Diamond Veteran’s Day Poppy Big Eyed Beans From Venus Tracks 1 – 2: The Bottom Line, NYC 25 November 1977 (early show) Tracks 3: The Bottom Line, NYC 25 November 1977 (late show) Tracks 4: TheRead More →

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In: Unofficial releases
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Song List Disc One Abba Zaba Ashtray Heart Bass Solo Beatle Bones ‘n’ Smokin Stones Big Eyed Beans From Venus Old Black Snake Crazy Little Thing Dirty Blue Gene Electricity Flavor Bud Living Gimme Dat Harp Golden Birdies Grow Fins Disc Two Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles Hothead Bat Chain Puller (listed as My Human Gets Me Blues) Nowadays A Woman’s Got To Hit A Man One Man Sentence One Red Rose That I Mean Orange Claw Hammer Safe As Milk Dropout Boogie (listed as Sheriff of Hong Kong) Kandy Korn (listed as Suction Print) Sugar ‘n’ Spikes Abba Zaba Click Clack TracksRead More →

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Song List 1. Rockette Morton’s bass solo 2. Mascara Snake 3. When It Blows Its Stacks 4. Click Clack 5. Grow Fins 6. Hobo Chang Ba (instrumental) 7. I’m Gonna Booglarise You Baby 8. Old Black Snake 9. Peon 10. Abba Zabba 11. Alice In Blunderland 12. My Human Gets Me Blues 13. Steal Softly Thru Snow (instrumental) 14. Golden Birdies 15. Spitball Scalped A Baby Notes Ozit Publicity: Fantastic set from the Captain with full biographical CD booklet of the show. There are a few references to the Spotlight Kid throughout the show, a reference to the spotlight being played on the band from the lighting towerRead More →

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Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band in Great Britain Song List Disc 1 Track list (as on cover) Track list (as it really is) Blows It Stacks Orange Claw Hammer Dali’s Claw Nowadays A Woman’s Hot Head Abba Zabba Woe is Up Me Bop Sax Duet/Drums Sam With The Shining Scalp Flat Top Improvisation Drop out Boogie One Man Sentence Doctor Dark Flavor Bud living Sheriff of Hong Kong Safe as Milk More Sugar ‘N’ Spikes Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles Moonlight On Vermont I’m Gonna Booglarise You Baby Electricity Big Eyed Beans from Venus Suction Prints When It Blows Its Stacks When It BlowsRead More →

Railroadism - Live in the USA 72 - 81

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In: Magneticism - Live in the UK/USA 1972 - 81, Railroadism - Live in the USA 72 - 81
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Track list Old Black Snake King Bee The Blimp/Air Bass-Soft Shoe(Sax Improv) I’m Gonna Booglarize You Baby A carrot is as close as a rabbit gets to a diamond China Pig / Railroadism I Love You You Big Dummy (short quote only) Grow Fins Floppy Boot Stomp Harry Irene The Dust Blows Forward ‘n’ The Dust Blows Back Ashtray Heart Dirty Blue Gene Smithsonian Institute Blues One Red Rose That I Mean Veteran’s Day Poppy Big Eyed Beans From Venus Avalon Blues Tracks 1: Fenway Theatre, Boston 22 January 1972 Tracks 2: Town Hall, NYC 24 February 1973 Tracks 3 – 4: The Roxy, LARead More →

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There wasn’t a live album officially released during the lifetime of the band. However, Mirror Man was recorded live (albeit in the studio) and some shows were recorded with a view to releasing an album – the 1974 London and 1981 Reseda shows for example – but nothing official came of it. Thirty two years after the event Virgin finally decided to release their recording of the Drury Lane, London show of 1974. Otherwise the closest we have to official live albums are the Rhino release of the 1978 My Father’s Place show (released with Warner’s backing) or the 2006 release of Amsterdam ’80 whichRead More →

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In: Art Tripp, Blog, Life articles and interviews, Magic Band people
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The Radar Station is pleased to present this fascinating article by Art Tripp, aka Ed Marimba, aka Ted Cactus, drummer and percussionist for both Zappa’s Mothers of Invention and Beefheart’s Magic Band. Here he gives his take on what it was like to work for both these very different musical geniuses. Thanks to Kitty Marimba for helping to make this happen. ————————————————————————————— Zappa vs. Beefheart: What Were They Really Like? by Art Tripp “Hi, Art, this is Dick Kunc here. I was telling Frank about you, and we’re wondering if you could come down to Apostolic Studios on Friday?” “Sure, Dick. What should I bring:Read More →

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In: 1980 Beacon New York
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Personnel: (Beefheart & Magic Band) Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart): vocals, harmonica, Chinese gongs, soprano sax; Jeff Moris Tepper, Richard Snyder: guitars; Eric Drew Feldman: electric bass, synthesiser, keyboards; Robert Arthur Williams: drums; Gary Lucas: guitar on Flavor Bud Living. (Ulmer Quintet) Ulmer: guitar; Julius Hemphill: saxes; Olu Dara: trumpet; Amin Ah: bass; Calvin Weston: drums. Inspired is a word which is frequently misused, particularly when applied to an event or a concept. Yet the pairing of Don Van Vliet (a.k.a. Captain Beefheart) and James “Blood” Ulmer can be described in no better fashion. Performing before a capacity crowd one chilling night after Thanksgiving, BeefheartRead More →

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  Name: Alexander Zatsch From: Rheinbreitbach/Germany Friday, December 30, 2005 6:23 PM For the first time I heard about Captain Beefheart in 1970. A friend showed me the album “Mirror Man”. I never heard such a stuff before – and after. My favourite is “Tarotplane”. This is one of my favourite songs. Name: Lupus From: Skjold, Norway Wednesday, December 28, 2005 11:28 AM An old fan. Just discovered this site: Wonderful!! Name: mike From: germany Friday, December 23, 2005 1:36 PM hi. Nice Site. Greetings from Germany. Name: Tom Hartley From: Bristol, UK Thursday, December 22, 2005 1:51 PM Hi Don loads of love TomRead More →