Everything you need to know about Revenant's box set of rare Beef.

The Grow Fins sleeve. Beautiful, isn't it?

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band set rock on its ear from 1965 until 1982, when leader Don Van Vliet retired from music. Engineering a mutant strain of musical DNA (tuff-ass garage punk R-n-B, extraterrestrial field hollers, austere "classical" miniatures, loping sea shanties, scorched-earth delta blues, free-blowing skronk, fat-bottom groove and post-everything clangor all found their way into the soup), CB&HMB are now regarded as one of the most original and consistently compelling bands ever waxed. The closest to a Best Of collection as we are likely to see, this career-spanning set corrals rare tracks from a variety of sources (band members' personal archives, live tracks, demos, worktapes, radio spots) along with over 30 minutes of Enhanced CD footage of live performances, 112 pages of text and never-before-published photos, the complete Trout Mask Replica house sessions, and John 'Drumbo' French's "colorful" history of the band. Hear a captain and his truly magic band. If you got ears, you gotta listen.

"Beefheart & His Magic Band were the first rock group to truly blow me away."
-David Fricke, from the liner notes

"What Beefheart inspired was not a reproduction of his Delta atonality or famous multi-octave range, but a willingness to rethink rock from the bottom up."
-Spin Alternative Record Guide

The 5 CD box set contains a 112 page hardcover book featuring John French's notes, rare photographs and a wealth of other information.

A special vinyl edition was also released on Table Of The Elements containing 6 LPs, a a poster and a 24 page libretto. For full information about the vinyl editions, head towards the Grow Fins on vinyl page.

Designed specially to get you drooling all the way to the nearest record shop, the Radar Station is proud to present a selection of promotional items for the Grow Fins set:

• The April 1999 issue of The Wire featured a two-page special about the box-set written by Mike Barnes. For the ultimate appetiser, read The Bathroom Tapes now! Many thanks to Mike for permission to feature this.
• Revenant's colour A4 Grow Fins advertisment, featuring the sleeve and other info.
• Revenant have produced a beautiful monochrome promotional adveristment in addition to the one above, featuring a Cal Schenkel photograph.
• There is also a Grow Fins promotional sampler CD which was released by Revenant in March 1999.
• Revenant's Grow Fins retail Promotional Flyer
• Who are Revenant anyway? Find out in these two articles: Resurrection Shuffle by Byron Coley and The Weirdest, Coolest Reissue Label In The World by Mark Coleman.
• Order the CD set now from Amazon - every purchase through this link helps fund the Radar Station.
• Orders for the vinyl set can be placed at Diverse Vinyl. Click on 'vinyl news' for details about Grow Fins. Please note that the first pressing has now sold out. For full news and information about the vinyl editions head towards the Grow Fins on vinyl page.

• My Ears Stand Up When I Hear That Sound by Graham Johnston - the Radar Station's review for Grow Fins.
• Byron Coley's review for Grow Fins taken from the May 1999 issue of The Wire. Many thanks to Byron for his permision to feature it here.
• Cosmic Soldier Back In The Fray With New Discs by Tom Moon. This review looks at all the Beefheart discs issued in 1999 (Grow Fins, The Dust Blows Forward, Safe As Milk and The Mirror Man Sessions) and was taken from the 27th June 1999 Philidelphia Inquirer.
• Grow Fins (Rarities 1965-1982) by Ramsay Pennypacker. Taken from the 30th June edition of the Philadelphia Weekly, 1999.
• Bully for Beef by Sean O'Hagan. Taken from the 16th July edition of The Guardian's Friday Review.
• Hungry and Weird by Richard Gehr, taken from the 20th July 1999 Village Voice.
• Monica Kendrick's review from the Chicago Reader - used by kind permission.

Reviews from elsewhere:

• The NME's Grow Fins review
• Nature Boy at the Nashville Scene website.
• Oh Captain My Captain by David Bowerman, at salon.com.
• Rolling Stone magazine's review.
• Collection Sinks Under Its Own Weight - the sonicnet review
• Captain Beefheart Reissues Spark Reflections - the Addicted To Noise review.
• Sugar 'N' Spikes - the La Weekly review.
• There's Magic In The Madness - the City Paper review.

If any of these links become broken, or if you spot other reviews elsewhere, please let me know.

CD 1 Just Got Back From the City (1965-67)

1. Obeah Man (1966 demo) (2:46)
2. Just Got Back From the City (1966demo) (1:55)
3. I'm Glad (1966 demo) (3:43)
4. Triple Combination (1966 demo) (2:50)
5. Here I Am I Always Am (early 1966 demo) (3:17)
6. Here I Am I Always Am (later 1966 demo) (2:33)
7. Somebody In My Home (live Avalon '66) (3:03)
8. Tupelo (live Avalon Ballroom '66) (4:15)
9. Evil (live Avalon Ballroom '66) (2:33)
10. Old Folks Boogie (live Avalon Ballroom '67) (3:15)
11. Call On Me (1965 demo) (3:04)
12. Sure 'Nuff 'n Yes I Do (1967 demo) (2:11)
13. Yellow Brick Road (1967 demo) (1:45)
14. Plastic Factory (1967 demo) (2:57)

1. Electricity (live at Cannes 1968)
2. Sure Nuff (live at Cannes 1968)
3. Rollin n Tumblin (Kidderminster 1968)
4. Electricity (Kidderminster 1968)
5. You're Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond (Kidderminster 1968)
6. Kandy Korn (Kidderminster 1968)
7. Korn Ring Finger (1967 demo)

1. hobo chang ba and dachau blues tuning up
2. "bush recording"
3. HAIR PIE (BAKE 1)
4. HAIR PIE (BAKE 2)
5. noodling
6. HOBO CHANG BA
7. hobo practice
8. Hobo Chang Ba take 2
9. DACHAU BLUES
10. OLD FART AT PLAY
11. noodling
12. PACHUCO CADAVER
13. SUGAR N SPIKES
14. noodling
15. SWEET SWEET BULBS
16. Frownland take 1
17. FROWNLAND
18. noodling
19. ELLA GURU
20. silence
21. SHE'S TOO MUCH FOR MY MIRROR
22. noodling
23. STEAL SOFTLY THROUGH SNOW
24. noodling
25. MY HUMAN GETS ME BLUES
26. noodling
27. WHEN BIG JOAN SETS UP
28. silence
29. Candy Man
30. CHINA PIG

1. Blimp playback
2. "Herb Alpert"
3. "Septic tank"
4. "We'll overdub it 3 times"

1. Cannes Beach live '68 ("Electricity" and "Sure Nuff")
2. Paris Bataclan live '73 ("Click Clack")
3. 'Detroit Tubeworks' program, winter of late 1970/early 1971. ("Big Joan," "Woe Is Me," "Bellerin Plain")
4. Amougies live '69 ("Too Much For My Mirror," "Human Gets Me Blues")

1. My Human Gets Me Blues (live Amougies '69) (4:02)
2. When Big Joan Sets Up (live 'Detroit Tubeworks' 1971) (6:30)
3. Woe Is Uh Me Bop (live 'Detroit Tubeworks' 1971) (2:26)
4. Bellerin Plain (live 'Detroit Tubeworks' 1971) (3:24)
5. Black Snake Moan I (KHSU '72) (approx 1:00)
6. Grow Fins (live Bickershaw '72) (5:11)
7. Black Snake Moan II (WBCN '72) (approx 1:24)
8. Spitball Scalped Uh Baby (live, Bickershaw '72) (9:30)
9. Harp Boogie I (WBCN '72) (approx 1:20)
10. One Red Rose That I Mean (Town Hall '72) (2:12)
11. Harp Boogie II (WBCN '72) (approx :40)
12. Natchez Burning (WBCN '72 (approx :42)
13. Harp Boogie III (1972 radio phone in) (approx :52)
14. Click Clack (Paris, '73) (2:50)
15. Orange Claw Hammer ('75 from radio with Zappa on accoustic guitar) (4:25)
16. Odd Jobs (Don piano demo, '76) (5:05)
17. Odd Jobs (full band demo '76) (5:10 )
18. Vampire Suite (1980 worktapes / live) (3:48)
19. Mellotron Improv (live '78) (approx 1:25)
20. Evening Bell (Don piano demo '81) (1:00)
21. Evening Bell (Lucas worktape '81) (2:15)
22. Mellotron Improv (live '80) (approx 4:00)
23. Flavor Bud Living (live '81) (1:10)

total = approx 78:00

For the track listing and other information about the vinyl sets, please head towards the Grow Fins on vinyl information page.

From John French:

Apologies to Gary Lucas:

In the Grow Fins booklet, I made a small but misleading error regarding Gary Lucas, on page 42 I wrote: "Meanwhile, Gary Lucas, a young college student in Syracuse NY," which should have actually read "young high school student." Gary actually wasn’t in college for several years and actually went to Yale University. Because he was walking on a college campus during the moment to which I was referring, I somehow mistakenly twisted the words, making it appear that Gary was a few years older and also that he was going to Syracuse University.

Also: Revenant Records wishes to apologise to Gary regarding the live version of Making Love to a Vampire with a Monkey on my Knee." Mr. Lucas actually should be credited with Bass on that live performance and somehow it was overlooked. Thanks to Gary Lucas for all your help!

-John French and Dean Blackwood.

You can order the Grow Fins CD set from the Radar Station's Online CD store, and I would recommend contacting Diverse Vinyl for the vinyl set.

Interested in how this box-set came together? Find it all in the Revenant Beefheart Boxset Update Archive