By:
On:
In: Clear Spot
With: 0 Comments

1972 UK Original on Reprise K54007 Clear plastic sleeve with black on white printed insert. 19?? UK Re-package on Reprise K54007 Normal printed sleeve 1972 German Original on Reprise REP54007 White Label Trade Sample with “Unverkäufl” (not for sale) “Warenprobe ohne Wert” (sample without value) “Echantillon gratuit” (free sample in French) on centre label – in clear plastic sleeve with Clear Spot – w/insert sheet printed in England standard issue – clear plastic sleeve 1972 US Original on Reprise MS-2115 White Label Promo with PROMOTION NOT FOR SALE printed on centre label and over stamped -> N.T.I. standard issue – clear plastic sleeve 1972 USRead More →

By:
On:
In: Clear Spot
With: 0 Comments

WHILE nobody questions his status as one of rock’s great originals, Captain Beefheart’s madcap variations on the blues are an acquired taste. Armed with a voice like Howlin ‘ Wolf, a band he claimed to have taught himself and an imagination that just went thataway, Beefheart did not set out to be easy listening. The unhinged adventurousness of his 1969 masterwork, Trout Mask Replica, appeals mainly to critics and students of musical weirdness. More approachable and ultimately more satisfying is the album he recorded three years later with a new producer. Ted Templeman, whose clients included Van Morrison and the Doobie Brothers, was drafted inRead More →

By:
On:
In: Clear Spot
With: 0 Comments

“And that pantalooned duck / white goose neck / quacked, ‘Webcor, Webcor.’” Those are the last lines on Clear Spot, from a song called “Golden Birdies.” Not exactly “I Can See Clearly Now,” I know, but if you find it hard to make sense out of lyrics like that, or feel that you must, rest easy. Captain Beefheart has come out of the haze. Even though his music has always been solidly rooted in the blues, Beefheart has remained a sort of cult figure: to his followers, a supreme genius; to many others, inaccessible both musically and verbally. Starting from Delta blues, which was neverRead More →

By:
On:
In: Clear Spot
With: 1 Comment

The continuing evolution of Beefheart’s music has been one of the most fascinating developments of contemporary rock. The Captain has seemed an introverted, almost schizophrenic figure, mirroring in his work the apparent dichotomy between the rigorous ensemble playing of the Chicago-out-of-Mississippi bluesmen and the anarchic-sounding sprung rhythms of modernists like Albert Ayler and Ornette Coleman. But the unique facet of Beefheart’s blues playing has always been his understanding of the essentially irregular metric structures of much Mississippi blues, and he has thus been able to translate the abrupt, quirky stridency of the early blues guitarists into abrupt, quirky arrangements for his Magic Band. In thisRead More →

By:
On:
In: Clear Spot
With: 2 Comments

Recording details Date – Autumn 1972 Studio – Amigo Studios, Los Angeles Producer – Ted Templeman Engineer – Donn Landee Musicians Don Van Vliet – vocals, harmonica Bill Harkleroad – guitar Mark Boston – bass, guitar Art Tripp – drums Roy Estrada – bass Milt Holland – percussion Russ Titelman – guitar (Too Much Time only) The Blackberries – backing vocals unknown horn players Track list Low Yo Yo Stuff Nowadays a Woman’s Gotta Hit a Man Too Much Time Circumstances My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains Sun Zoom Spark Clear Spot Crazy Little Thing Long Neck Bottles Her Eyes Are ARead More →

By:
On:
In: The Spotlight Kid
With: 0 Comments

More undiluted examples of Captain Beefheart’s singular genius can be heard on his “Trout Mask Replica” and “Lick My Decals Off” albums, but this pair of 1972 albums-packaged together here-are his most innately pleasurable. Had Howlin’ Wolf been raised beside the canals of Mars, he might have sounded like Beefheart (a.k.a. Don Van Vliet), who mutated the blues with Dadaist lyrics, jagged guitar lines and spasmodic rhythms that showed his disdain for what he called the “mama heartbeat” of rock music. Striking many as chaotic hippie noise, his music, for the diligent listener, mirrored nature in its complex patterns and disquieting beauty. With “The SpotlightRead More →

By:
On:
In: Your stories and tributes
With: 0 Comments

Here is my recollection of my first listening to the Spotlight Kid. (the artist- not that particular album! hehehee) In 1973 and at the age of 16, I went to New York from my hometown of St. Louis to see Jethro Tull perform ‘A Passion Play’ at The Garden and the Nassau Colluseum with a New Jersey couple, Ron Lorman and Lisa who were students at Webster College that I had met at the Tull shows here two weeks earlier. *shwew* One night between shows we were hanging at thier apartment when he hands me a clear plastic record jacket with a white cardboard insert.Read More →

By:
On:
In: 1973.03 Celebrity Theatre Phoenix, Your stories and tributes
With: 3 Comments

I have had the pleasure of seeing Beefheart at least a dozen times between 1972 and 1980, starting with “Clear Spot” line-up. The first time I saw him he was headlining at a theater-in-the-round in Phoenix, Arizona in 1973, and Little Feat was the opening act. It was a rather bizarre venue – the moving stage did a full revolution every five minutes, so although all the seats were close the perspective kept changing. After Little Feat put on a superb show, there was a lull between sets, and then suddenly, some… GUYS jumped out of their seats in the audience, and… RAN onto theRead More →

By:
On:
In: 1973.04.27 Guild Hall Preston, Your stories and tributes
With: 3 Comments

Some of the finer points of this tail may be a little out due to memory loss… but this is the gist of it: It was the Clear Spot tour in the UK in ’73. We had seen it in Liverpool, where we all lived, and his next venue was Preston at the Preston Guild Hall. One of our gang was a guy called Tony, he was a rather slim Irish character with a larger than life personality. He had a way of getting himself noticed wherever he went just by his exhuberance, and had managed to get noticed at the Liverpool concert; by theRead More →

By:
On:
In: In the press, Tributes
With: 10 Comments

A nice feature about Captain Beefheart has just gone online in one of The Guardian’s podcasts. Beefheart fan Jon Dennis chats to John Harris (author of the Guardian’s recent Mission: Unlistenable) about how best to get into Beefheart and why people should bother. Their conclusion? Leave Trout Mask Replica to the hardcore weirdos, Clear Spot is one of the greatest albums ever recorded and everyone should be listening to it. It’s hard to disagree. I have often felt that our tendency to bang on about Trout Mask Replica as a pinnacle of artistic achievement in music (which I think it is) has probably done BeefheartRead More →