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In: Buddah Years
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Track list Sure Nuff N Yes I Do Zig Zag Wanderer Dropout Boogie Electricity Yellow Brick Road Abba Zaba Plastic Factory Big Black Baby Shoes Safe As Milk Gimme Dat Harp Boy Trust Us Kandy Korn Tracks 1-9: Safe As Milk (1999 remastered) Tracks 10-12: Mirror Man (1999 remastered) Album overview from Steve Froy When I first heard about this I thought, oh no, not yet another collection of tracks from Safe As Milk and Mirror Man. However, this one has a bit of a twist to it. A short (47 minutes), sharp compilation of tracks from the remastered releases of Safe As Milk and TheRead More →

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Track list Safe As Milk Upon The My-O-My Son of Mirror Man – Mere Man Party Of Special Things To Do The Floppy Boot Stomp Tropical Hot Dog Night Hot Head This Is The Day You Know You’re A Man Ice Cream For Crow Pompadour Swamp Suction Prints Semi Multicolored Caucasian Gimme Dat Harp Boy Making Love To A Vampire With A Monkey on My Knee Sheriff Of Hong Kong The Witch Doctor Life Tracks 1, 3, 14: Strictly Personal (1968) Tracks 2, 8: Unconditionally Guaranteed (1974) Tracks 4, 11: Blue Jeans & Moonbeams (1974) Tracks 5, 6, 9, 12: Shiny Beast (1979) Tracks 7,Read More →

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In: Best Of The Virgin and Liberty Years
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Track list Safe As Milk Gimme Dat Harp Boy Kandy Korn Upon The My-O-My New Electric Ride Party Of Special Things Twist Uh Luck Blue Jeans & Moonbeams The Floppy Boot Stomp Bat Chan Puller Run Paint Run Run Hot Head Ashtray Heart Ice Cream For Crow The Past Sure Is Tense The Witch Doctor Life Tracks 1-3: Strictly Personal (1968) Tracks 4-5: Unconditionally Guaranteed (1974) Tracks 6-8: Blue Jeans & Moonbeams (1974) Tracks 9-10: Shiny Beast (1979) Tracks 11-13: Doc At The Radar Station (1980) Tracks 14-16: Ice Cream For Crow (1982) Album overview from Steve Froy The cover says ‘The Best Of Captain BeefheartRead More →

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Track list Sure ‘Nuff ‘N Yes I Do 2:16 Zig Zag Wanderer 2:39 Dropout Boogie 2:30 I’m Glad 3:29 Electricity 3:05 Yellow Brick Road 2:25 Abba Zaba 2:41 Plastic Factory 3:07 Trust Us 7:15 Beatle Bones N’ Smokin’ Stones 3:10 Moody Liz 4:31 Big Black Baby Shoes 4:49 Gimme Dat Harp Boy 3:35 Dirty Blue Gene 2:40 Tarotplane 19:04 Kandy Korn 8:02 Album overview from Graham Johnston Another compilation featuring material from the Magic Band’s early years, containing a selection of pre-Trout Mask tunes. If you already have these songs then just forget it. If you don’t already have them then you should still forget itRead More →

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In: A Carrot Is As Close As A Rabbit Gets To A Diamond
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Track list Sugar Bowl The Past Sure Is Tense Happy Love Song The Floppy Boot Stomp Blue Jeans and Moonbeams Run Paint Run Run This Is the Day Tropical Hot Dog Night Observatory Crest The Host, the Ghost, the Most Holy-O Harry Irene I Got Love on My Mind Pompadour Swamp Love Lies Sheriff of Hong Kong Further Than We’ve Gone Candle Mambo Light Reflected off the Oceands of the Moon A Carrot Is as Close as a Rabbit Gets to a Diamond Album overview from Graham Johnston Compilation of mid-to-late / Virgin-era Beefheart with a track list which seems to have been chosen at random.Read More →

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In: It Comes To You In A Plain Brown Wrapper
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  Track list Side 1 Gimme Dat Harp Boy Dirty Blue Gene Beatle Bones ’n’ Smokin’ Stones Pt. 1 & 2 Trust Us (take 9) Side 2 Safe as Milk (take 12) Moody Liz (take 8) On Tomorrow Side 3 Big Black Baby Shoes Flower Pot Korn Ring Finger Side 4 Safe as Milk (take 5) Trust Us (take 6) Moody Liz (take 16) Recorded November 1967 at TTG Studios, Hollywood, California 2-LP set on high definition vinyl Sundazed publicity Mastered directly from the original analog tapes and featuring a wealth of unedited takes never before on vinyl, Sundazed’s stunning gatefold double-LP release of this infamouslyRead More →

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Many thanks to Borin for sending this along. It originally appeared in Sun Zoom Spark issue 4. You can visit Borin’s homepage. This image is available for sale as a full colour, A3, signed and numbered, limited edition print… Encapsulated in clear plastic to protect print (unless specified otherwise). UK price: £35.00 (USA $49.50) inclusive of stout packaging and postage. (We may also be able to provide colour prints of other images at www.borinvanloon.co.uk; send an email to address below to enquire.) To place order, please email: borin@borinvanloon.co.uk (c) Borin Van Loon. Used by kind permission.Read More →

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Mike Barnes follows the pioneering trail blazed by Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band. Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart, was born in Glendale, a suburb of Los Angeles, in 1941. 16 years after his last record was released, he is still one of the most talked about musicians of his generation. His most famous work, the double album Trout Mask Replica, inevitably makes an appearance in any chart purporting to feature the best albums of all time (most recently it featured in Channel 4’s Music Of The Millennium) and he is still cited as an influence and inspiration by musicians of all persuasions, fromRead More →

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The Legendary A&M Sessions Pop-flavoured R&B from the Californian outback, these rare mid-60s sides are nevertheless notable for the Captain’s Wolf-like growl and harmonica squeals. Some wonky slide guitar, and one or two odd time changes hint at the Magic Band’s wayward future. Safe As Milk Not as psychedelic as its ’67 vintage might suggest, “Safe As Milk” instead provides a thrilling new take on garage-blues. The arrangements are stranger, the voice booms with intimidating authority, and the guitars start to revel in the new rock-era freedoms. Mirror Man Not recorded live in 1965, as the sleeve legend has it, but a live–in-the-studio set datingRead More →

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For the first time in the seventeen years since the musical career of Captain Beefheart drew to a close a comprehensive retrospective collection has been released honouring his work. I am not normally one to buy ‘greatest hits’ albums, but the conspicuous absence of a good Magic Band compilation probing his recorded history has been surprising. Plus the fact that Captain Beefheart never had so much as a whiff of a hit is bound to make this a more interesting collection, especially if you are new to his music. It is a whopping collection as well – two CDs filled with 45 tunes – andRead More →

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Rating: **** Excellent DEAD rock star in interesting new recording shock! `This album is not available to the public,’ sneers a voice on Tiger Roach [Don Van Vliet’s voice]. `Even if it were, you wouldn’t want to listen to it.’ Unlike most of the other dead rock stars currently releasing new material, Zappa knew he was heading for his last encore and worked on this album of out-takes, studio tomfoolery and unreleased tracks in the years before he died in 1993. The result is a stimulating addition to the bulging FZ catalogue and one of the best introductions to his music. Highlights include his 1979Read More →

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In: Bat Chain Puller
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Few rock artists as washed up – and seemingly past it – as Captain Beefheart was in 1974 have come back with new music as dazzling as that on Bat Chain Puller. Having flirted disastrously with commercialism, the nadir of which was Bluejeans and Moonbeams, he took a lengthy sabbatical, returning two years later, aged 35, with an album legendary for the wrong reason – it has never been released. Occasionally it harks back to the complexities of Trout Mask Replica but is more measured, with a vivid, plangent, colourful sound. The remit is as wide as anything Beefheart had attempted before: pop songs, poeticRead More →

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This is the Beefheart album very few people are going to hear unless the record and management companies involved with the Captain get moving. It sees Don Van Vliet returning to an area somewhere between ‘Trout Mask Replica’ and ‘Clear Spot’, undoubtedly his most satisfying period. Possibly to prove the claim that he created the sound of his original Magic Band, the Captain has found himself an unidentified band and – guess what! They sound just like a Magic Band. Not the Magic Band, but they go a long way to rediscovering the drive from years past. The album opens with the title track ‘BatRead More →

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In: Bongo Fury
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A classic Cal Schenkel cover surrounds one of the most listenable Zappa / Mothers records since the old days, but anyone coming to this set to hear Beefheart will be semi-disappointed. Semi because he does a lot of singing on Bongo Fury, but what he’s singing are the same old Zappa lyrics, which deal with the same old Zappa hang-ups. It’s a strange experience to listen to the album’s first cut, “Debra Kadabra,” and hear Beefheart singing like Beefheart, but realize a little way into the song that he’s singing what is essentially a continuation of that ridiculous schtick about the poncho. Beefheart singing aboutRead More →

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Art answered a few questions via the Fire Party discussion list which I thought I’d include here for more fans to read. Derek Laskie asked: Was your stage headgear a trophy of some sort, or was it personally styled for you by DVV? I thought the panties would be both suggestive and practical. One ponytail hanging out each leg hole, and one out where the crotch would be. It also kept my hair from flapping around too much. It remains one of the most favorite stage costumes I used. No trophy. The first pair were from my girlfriend. Subsequent ones were store bought. Elliot RogersRead More →

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At last, I’m pleased to present an interview with Art Tripp that I thought several times might never get finished. When I originally asked Art if he’d be willing to do this he was happy to do so – he said he ‘an open book’ and I could ask what I wanted. Then, before I could begin asking any questions Art and his partner Kitty were forced to evacuate their home in Gulfport when Hurricane Katrina hit. Luckily, they were safe and unharmed but their home and business premises suffered wind damage although it did escape any flooding. I, of course, put the interview onRead More →

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DH: Don, it’s been five years since you last came to England and played. What have you been doing since? DVV: Trying to get the right group to play my music. DH: Aha – you had a lot of trouble? DVV: It wasn’t that much trouble, it was just a lot of childish nonsense, you know, like, uh, with the other group – I mean it takes a long time to get to play what I do. Now I have the perfect thing. Wait till they hear this group. DH: You reckon this band is better than any band you had before? DVV: Best, ohRead More →