Warner Bros Outtakes

A three CD collection of instrumental tracks from Clear Spot and Lick My Decals Off, Baby plus a whole bunch of outtakes from The Spotlight Kid/Clear Spot era that didn’t make it onto the recent Reprise/Rhino boxset.

Song List

Disc 1

1. My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains (Inst.)
2. Clear Spot (Inst.)
3. Crazy Little Thing (Inst.)
4. Dirty Blue Gene (Inst.)
5. Big Eyed Beans From Venus (Inst.)
6. Untitled Blues Jam (Inst.)
7. Sun Zoom Spark (Inst.)
8. Nowadays A Woman’s Gotta Hit A Man (Inst.)
9. Low Yo Yo Stuff (Inst.)
10. Circumstances (w/Vocal)
11. Li’l Scratch #1 (w/Vocal)
12. Li’l Scratch #2 (w/Vocal)
13. Suzy Murder Wrist
14. U Bean So Cinquo (Obenso Cinco)
15. Unknown Title (Witch Doctor Life – Working Title)
16. Li’l Scratch (Slow Blues Jam Version)
17. Flaming Autograph
18. Love Grip

Disc 2

1. No Flower Shall Grow
2. “No More Fun”
3. Best Batch Yet
4. Your Love Brought Me To Life #1
5. Your Love Brought Me To Life #2
6. That Little Girl
7. Campfires
8. Funeral Hill #1 (w/Vocal)
9. Drink Paint Run Run (w/Vocal)
10. I Can’t Do This Unless I Can Do That
11. Dirty Blue Gene (Guitar/Voice/Harp)
12. Sun Zoom Spark (Alternate Version)
13. Two Rips In A Haystack
14. Funeral Hill #2
15. Sun Zoom Spark (Acoustic Version)
16. Too Much Time (Inst.)
17. Long Neck Bottles (Inst.)
18. Funeral Hill #3 (Cut)

Disc 3

(All Instrumental Except #15)

1. Lick My Decals Off, Baby
2. Doctor Dark
3. I Love You, You Big Dummy
4. Bellerin’ Plain
5. Woe-Is-Uh-Me-Bop
6. Japan In A Dishpan
7. I Wanna Find Me A Woman That’ll Hold My Big Toe ‘Till I Have To Go
8. Petrified Forest
9. The Buggy Boogie Woogie
10. The Smithsonian Institute Blues (Or The Big Dig)
11. Space Age Couple
12. The Clouds Are Full Of Wine (Not Whiskey Or Rye)
13. Flash Gordon’s Ape
14. “Holy Shit!”
15. Well, Well, Well (Rockette Morton Vocal)
16. Japan In A Dishpan (Horn Solo #1)
17. Japan In A Dishpan (Horn Solo #2)
18. Japan In A Dishpan (Drums/bass)
19. Flash Gordon’s Ape #3
20. Flash Gordon’s Ape #3

Notes

The only text apart from the title is a piece of blurb on the back cover:

The most complete collection of the Warner Bros. Outtakes to date

Radar Station Overview

The first thing to note is that there’s nothing on here that hasn’t already been circulated among collectors for several years.

The second thing to note is that it isn’t really “the most complete collection” as claimed. Yes, it does bootleg the Decals and the Clear Spot backing tracks and outtakes for the first time (I think I’m right about that?). However, there are at least two discs worth of other outtakes etc. which can be found on the Spotlight Kid Outtakes fan compilation and bootleg that would be needed to make it complete.

The sound quality throughout the three discs is very good so it’s likely to have been copied from the circulating collections that are now readily downloadable across the net. There’s some hiss on Circumstances and the two Li’l Scratch tracks on disc one but they are the best available.

Overall it’s a great collection of tracks. But with typical bootleg laziness there is no information about the music apart from the tracklist in the four page insert. The tracks No More Fun (disc 2) and Holy Shit! (disc 3) are very brief comments by Don which should really be included with the preceding track and don’t warrant being listed separately.

There is some overlap with the outtakes included as part of the Sun Zoom Spark boxset … but there’s a lot more!

The front cover is based on a poor copy of part of the amazing painting Don Van Vliet by Joe Coleman with a Warner Bros. logo photoshopped into it. The back cover is familiar too but I can’t place it at the moment. There is some indistinct text on the back which tries to give the impression that the bootleg is of Japanese origin. There is no label or catalogue number.

Of interest to the completist only.