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In: Zoot Allures
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Produced by Frank Zappa Sleeve design by Cal Schenke Track list Wind Up Workin’ In A Gas Station 2:29 Black Napkins 4:15 The Torture Never Stops 9:44 Ms Pinky Find Her Finer 4:07 Friendly Little Finger 4:17 Wonderful Wino 3:38 Zoot Allures 4:13 Disco Boy 5:09 Album overview from Graham Johnston This Zappa album features Don on one tune, “Find Her Finer”, on which he plays harmonica. Don does not appear on this original version of “The Torture Never Stops” despite his vocal contribution to the live version on You Can Do That On Stage Anymore Volume 4 and Cheap Thrills. Releases (to be completed!) 1976Read More →

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In: Bongo Fury
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1975 US Original on DiscReet DS 2234       The details of the album were not printed on the front cover instead they were included on a plastic label stuck to the shrink-wrap which meant the label would be easily lost or damaged! 1975(?) US Limited Edition on RCA Music Service Record Club R114523 Issued ‘under licence’. 1975 UK on DiscReet K 59209 marketed by WEA Never released in the UK due to contractual disagreements between Herb Cohen’s DiscReet and Richard Branson’s Virgin labels. Only test pressings were made, seven of which are known to exist. 1975 Japan on DiscReet P-10093-D Made in Japan withRead More →

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In: Bongo Fury
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Track list Debra Kadabra Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy Sam With The Showing Scalp Flat Top Poofter’s Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead 200 Years Old Cucamonga Advance Romance Man With The Woman Head Muffin Man Live in concert at Armadillo World Headquarters, Austin, Texas 20th & 21 May 1975 Plus Selected Studio Wonderment Musicians Frank Zappa – lead guitar, vocals Captain Beefheart – harp, vocals, shopping bags George Duke – keyboards, vocals Napoleon Murphy Brock – sax, vocals Bruce Fowler – trombone, fantastic dancing Tom Fowler – bass, also dancing Denny Walley – slide guitar, vocals Terry Bozzio – drums, moisture Chester Thompson – drums (200 Years OldRead More →

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In: Hot Rats
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Track list Peaches En Regalia Willie The Pimp Son Of Mr. Green Genes Little Umbrellas The Gumbo Variations It Must Be A Camel Recording details Date – July – August 1969 One of the first albums to be recorded on 16 track. Recorded at T.T.G., Los Angeles (probably where Mirror Man was recorded), Sunset Sound, Los Angeles and Whitney Studios, Glendale. Album overview from Graham Johnston When I first bought this album I danced around my bedroom with glee while listening to it and then took it out with me that evening to force everyone else I knew to marvel at it too (a surprisingly mixed response ifRead More →

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In: Singles
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Track list Ice Cream For Crow Tropical Hot Dog Night Run Paint Run Run Light Reflected Off The Oceands Of The Moon Album overview from Graham Johnston This oddity is a Virgin Records ep from 1982 (VS 534-12). It contains four tunes, the first three of which are readily available on Beefheart’s last three albums. The last tune, Light Reflected Off The Oceands Of The Moon first appeared on this ep and is really an instrumental version of Hey Garland I Dig Your Tweed Coat but with Don’s sax splattered all over the place and a splendid new title. It is now available on The DustRead More →

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Press release from Sundazed: Upon signing with A&M Records, Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band debuted loudly, recording two singles in 1966, cementing their image as Sunset Strip “blues fiends” and paving the way for what was to become one of the most original careers in rock history. The band’s cover of Bo Diddley’s “Diddy Wah Diddy” garnered significant regional attention & considerable radio play courtesy of the Captain’s unreal howl & Jerry Handley’s deep, thundering bass sound, while the driving delta tributes “Who Do You Think You’re Fooling” & “Frying Pan” sharply displayed the Captain’s early songwriting prowess. While the Magic Band’s musical courseRead More →

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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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In: Hot Head (compilation)
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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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In: Electricity
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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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In: The Dust Blows Forward
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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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In: The Lost Episodes
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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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In: Bat Chain Puller
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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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In: Grow Fins, Music articles and interviews, The Dust Blows Forward, The Legendary A&M Sessions
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It takes an outsize ego to make great art. By all accounts that was the case with Don Van Vliet, a.k.a. Captain Beefheart, leader of the quintessential cockeyed rock ‘n’ roll band. Creators of perhaps the most obscure critically revered rock record of all time, 1969’s “Trout Mask Replica,” California’s Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band epitomized rock’s version of art for art’s sake. Misunderstood – even openly reviled – in its day, the band has been an inspiration for such disparate musicians as PJ Harvey, Joan Osborne, Tom Waits and the late Jeff Buckley. This month, Revenant Records, a small, meticulous reissue label inRead More →

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In: 1971 Detroit Tube Works, Grow Fins, Multimedia
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Hmmm… is this the very best surviving clip of Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band? I think it could be. Copies of this amazing footage have circulated for many years amongst collectors but the quality has not been the best. Now that Reelin In The Years have gained ownership of the film they have made it available but you have to put up with their watermark throughout … it’s definitely worth it for the superior quality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUa5DcDmc48 Recorded on 15 January 1971 at WABX Studio, directed by Chuck Reti. (Incorrectly dated on the video). Available on the enhanced disc of Grow Fins but not in suchRead More →