The first limited edition of this great little book, The Mystery Man of The Magic Band, sold out pretty quickly but Brass Tacks Press have just published a second edition.
Check out my original review
So if you missed it first time around here’s your chance to get a copy – visit Brass Tacks Press website. This edition is not limited.
It has a new foreword by actor Alec Baldwin who was a friend of Herb’s during his later Hollywood years. The rest of the text is the same apart from one additional endnote from Herb about the lyrics for Dirty Blue Jean.
Cover Photo by George Herms
Introduction by John “Drumbo” French,
Interview by Derek Laskie,
Foreword by Alec Baldwin
Interview by Derek Laskie,
Foreword by Alec Baldwin
Price: $25
Pages: 116
Size: 8.5″ x 11″
ISBN: 9780982014011
Publisher’s blurb from the back cover:
Herb Bermann was credited as co-writing eight of the songs on CAPTAIN BEEFHEART AND HIS MAGIC BAND’s debut album Safe As Milk (1967); it would have been a completely different record without him. According to one observer:
“[Captain Beefheart] called the guy ‘The Poet.’ For a while he was positively gagging us all out with it! ‘The Poet said…’ or ‘The Poet is HEAVY, man!’ I mean none of us could believe it…. You’d have thought Salvador Dali had walked in!”Yet Bermann kept silent about Captain Beefheart for almost 50 years — so silent that some people said that Captain Beefheart had invented him. Now Bermann shares his story! Fans will be charmed by Bermann’s descriptions of how his songs came to be written. They may also be surprised to learn just which songs he says he wrote. Included is a facsimile reproduction of his original lyric sheets, with dozens more songs that were never produced. Bermann’s story reveals previously unpublished information about the early work of Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band, Neil Young and Steven Spielberg. It also introduces us to an artist whose work and influence have been generally overlooked.