Most of this information originally appeared at Justin Sherill's Home Page Replica. Many thanks to Justin for passing it along.

1. Tarotplane
2. Kandy Korn
3. 25th Century Quaker
4. Mirror Man

Justin Sherill:

This album is a little rough around the edges, but it holds the first signs that the Magic Band was leaning towards a more radical blues/rock interpretation.

The songs are very long, so this may be difficult listening for a first/second purchase. If you are a blues fan, it makes an excellent choice. My preference is to listen to it while driving.

Graham Johnston:

Four long, rough, distorted, rambling warped blues workouts make up the Magic Band's second album (though not released until 1971, some time after it was recorded). In a poll conducted on the Fire Party discussion list Mirror Man was overlooked by members voting for their favourite Beefheart albums, something which provoked numerous astonished messages from horrified fans of this album. While it may not be my favourite, I wouldn't live without it. If you want to hear the Magic Band at their bluesiest, listen to this, you'll love it.

A 1999 re-issue features massively improved mastering and packaging, and also includes a selection of hard to find outtakes from the Plain Brown Wrapper / Mirror Man sessions.

• Mirror Man by Lester Bangs, from 1st April 1971 Rolling Stone.

• 1971 US Original on Buddah BDS-5077. There are four distinct issues here:
  
  
  1. Multi-colored label, die-cut cover
  2. Multi-colored label, no die-cut cover
  3. Reissue on regular Buddah label, die-cut cover (pictured)
  4. Reissue on regular Buddah label, no die-cut cover

scan very kindly sent along by Chris Perry

• 1971 UK Original on Buddah 2365 002 (black Buddah label and g/fold sleeve)
  
  
• 1982 UK Re-issue on PRT NCP 1002 - two versions exist of this with slightly different layout on back (Export version?)
  
  
• 1986 UK Re-issue on EDSEL 184 with more appropriate artwork - alternative Cannes Beach Publicity Shot on the front cover, photograph of the band from the inner Strictly Personal sleeve on the back, and redone sleeve notes - no "recorded one night in 1965" which, as we all know, it wasn't. The only fault is that the mis-spelling of 'fails' in the 'One Nest Rolls' poem hasn't been corrected nor has 'Simmons' instead of 'Semens'.
  
  
  
  
  
  Thanks to DeeDee Petschl for the Edsel cover scans.
  
  
• 1987 US Re-issue on Performance BDP 156
  
  
  
  
• 1988 Japanese CD on Buddah Records Inc. 28CP-22 - Manufactured by TEICHIKU RECORDS CO. LTD. - with 5 pages essay in Japanese by K. Uemura and a wild shot at the lyrics.
  
  
• 198X UK CD release on Castle Classics CLACD 235
  
  
• 1990 West German CD on Repertoire Records RR 4036-C with extra tracks (see below).
  
  
• 1992 (April) US CD on One Way Records OW22166 - with US "long box".
  
  
• 1999 CD The Mirror Man Sessions, featuring the four tracks from Mirror Man and also five out-takes from the same sessions. These five tunes were previously available on I May be Hungry But I Sure Ain't Weird. Released on Buddha.
  
  
• 1999 Japanese CD on BMG Funhouse BVCM-35052.
  
  
• 1999 Vinyl The Mirror Man Sessions, featuring the same remastering and bonus track as the 1999 Buddha CD listed above. Released on Simply Vinyl.

• 1977 UK SAM/MM Combination Re-issue as Beefheart File of SAM/MM on Pye FILD 008 - Two inner sleeves contain "rare" photos and informative article by Connor McKnight
  
  
  • first sleeve has real slot on front
  • later sleeve front cover has Internal Memo artwork and no slot
  
  

• 1983 UK Re-issue as Music In Sea Minor of six tracks from SAM and two from MM on a 10" Album with Cannes Beach publicity shot cover on Buddah PRT DOW 15.
  
  
• 1984 UK Re-issue as Top Secret of five tracks from SAM and two from MM on Breakaway BWY 66
  
  
  • 1984 UK Re-issue as Top Secret on 12" Picture Disc Design PIXLP4 - has Knebworth photo and Clear Spot period top-hat publicity shot.
    
    
• 198X UK double CD SAM & MM combination from Castle Communications TFO 11 1/2
  
  
• 19?? Dutch Release as Abba Zaba of five tracks from SAM and two from MM on MASTERS MA 0015784
  
  
  • White label - promo?
  • Red label - assume this is the standard issue

• 1988 UK Re-issue of SAM/MM by Castle Communication on That's Original series TFOLP 11 (double)
  

• 198X CD The Best Beefheart (All of SAM and three tracks from MM) on Pair Records by Buddah (EEC) CDB 019
  
  
• 1991 Dutch double CD on DISKY DCD 5216 - TWO ORIGINAL ALBUMS ON CD - Mirror Man CD has Little Scratch and Funeral Hill No. 1 as per Germany Mirror Man CD and the same photo on front. Inside notes culled from Rolling Stone, New Musical Express and Sounds.

(Thanks to Richard Gardner for the scan.)

Song list:

1. Tarotplane
2. Kandy Korn
3. 25th Century Quaker
4. Mirror Man
5. Little Scratch
6. Funeral Hill No.1
   

This is essentially the Mirror Man album with two then-unreleased songs from the Spotlight Kid / Clear Spot sessions added. Little Scratch is now available on The Dust Blows Forward and Funeral Hill No.1 should be getting a legitimate release fairly soon.

The cover art is different from other Mirror Man versions, and there are a few pages of history written in the CD booklet - the information is inaccurate, and apparently written by a non-native English speaker, with many grammatical mistakes. The song lyrics are transcribed with many errors, though the "blues dialect" Captain Beefheart uses on this album makes translation very difficult even for native English speakers.

The two additional tracks are from Tom Klatt in "The Beefheart Archive", in West Germany. I don't know much more about that organization.

• 1990 West German on Repertoire Records RR 4036-C