Captain Beefheart Discography

Bootlegs

An Ashtray Heart

Song list:

  1. Nowadays a Woman's Gotta Hit a Man 4.03
  2. Abba Zaba 3.10
  3. Hot Head 4.14
  4. Ashtray Heart 3.16
  5. Dirty Blue Jean 3.41
  6. Best Batch Yet 5.13
  7. A Carrot is as Close as a Rabbit Gets to a Diamond 2.14
  8. Doctor Dark 2.58
  9. Bat Chain Puller 5.45
  10. Sheriff of Hong Kong 6.46
  11. Kandy Korn 4.51
  12. Big Eyed Beans from Venus 5.34

    Bonus Tracks:
  13. When Big Joan Sets Up 6.18
  14. Woe-Is-Uh-Me-Bop 2.23
  15. Bellerin' Plain 3.48
  16. Orange Claw Hammer 4.19
  17. Hot Head 3.41
  18. Ashtray Heart 3.45

Tracks 1-12: (FM Broadcast Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver 17.1.81)
Tracks 13-15: (Tubeworks WABX TV Detroit, 15.1.1971
Track 16: (FM Broadcast 1975)
Tracks 17-18: (Saturday Night Live, November 1980)

Radar Station Overview

Leftfield Media specialise in releasing live shows broadcast on the radio or TV. They appear to be exploiting a loophole in EU copyright law which means that they do not need to get premission from the sound recording copyright owner to release the material (in the countries where it can be released). The loophole allows them to exploit pre-1992 radio broadcasts that emanate from non-signatories of the 1992 EU Copyright Convention. Lawyers of some artists already released by them - Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne and Richard Thompson - are not best pleased.

Despite saying 'Toronto' on the front cover this is the January show from Vancouver's Commodore Ballroom that was broadcast on FM radio on 28 February 1981.

A good sound quality stereo show that's been circulating amongst collectors for many years. I'm pretty sure the concert was edited before being broadcast, because at around 50 minutes it does seem a bit short for shows of that tour.

The band are in great form ... as they were pretty much throughout this tour, as a number of other recordings testify. This particular show was two days after the legendary Don's 40th birthday show in Seattle. Don stumbles over some lyrics, which was quite a regular occurance at the time ... parts of 'Abba Zaba' cause him problems, but overall he's spot on although his voice sounds rough at times.

Stand out tracks for me are a stonking 'Hot Head', and a wonderfully playful 'Doctor Dark'.

The disc has been filled with an assortment of bonus tracks. Nothing of particular rarity here. All of them have appeared on various other bootleg releases over the years. The Saturday Night Live tracks sound a bit thin in comparison to the rest of the songs on here apart from the Tubeworks tracks which are similarly lacking in sound quality.

It would have been a better option to have just included the Vancouver concert and not bothered with the filler. The sudden change ffom the last fading notes of 'Big Eyed Beans' to 'Big Joan' is too jarring and spoils the mood already set up.

Otherwise though not a bad release and pretty cheap to pick up too.

Releases

  • 2011 Leftfield Media LFMCD514

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