Fingerlinging Good!

Elliot Ingber, aka Winged Eel Fingerling, was so liked by Captain Beefheart he gave him a whole track to himself on his at the time under-rated but now much appreciated The Spotlight Kid album.

It wasn't the first time the Captain had done this, despite Ingber informing the audience of the Beefheart doc Under Review that it was - mind you he is speaking from the front seat of a stationary car; stationary in a darkened garage, I might add.

Really, two tracks from Lick My Decals Off, Baby could be said to have been given over to Bill Harkelroad (Zoot Horn Rollo), although Ingber may have had something to do with both of those pieces ('Peon' and One Red Rose That I mean'); but more of that in a moment.

Often associated with both Beefheart and Zappa, despite his credit as guitarist on the Mothers' debut Freak Out!, he became peripheral; popping up ever so occasionally, and then after some releases with other psyche bands, most notably Fraternity of Man, he appeared slightly more conspicuously as The Magic Band's Winged Eel Fingerling.
And how his hair had grown.

(Roy Estrada is real funny on this clip; bopping about like a right Geezer Butler.
Also with Art Tripp on percussion and Ingber (he's the hirsute one) playing guitar. HD quality)



Because of much claimed uncrediting a whole mythopoeia has evolved around Ingber: he played a lot more guitar than Zappa gave him credit for; he featured as second guitarist during Magic Band recordings, again uncredited (Trout Mask Replica and Lick My Decals Off, Baby); he came up with the storyboard for the gloriously absurd Lick My Decals Off, Baby commercial



and he was a brilliant blues guitarist but is completely shot away due to taking far too many drugs.

Surely not.

O yeah...

Anyway, he apparently released an album several years ago called The The The The.
Now this album is a bit of a legend to me; as I've tried since I've had a PC to track down a copy but goose chases all.

So I put my own Fingerling album together; featuring what I think are the most essential of his tracks: including 1969's 'Alley Cat', a raw blues, cut alongside Beefheart, Zappa and John French (Dream Team!), some Fraternity of Man (including Zappa's 'Oh No I Don't Believe It', predating Zappa's release (Weasels) by two years), some Juicy Groove (garage psyche) and some solo material recorded during the 70s later released on Grandmothers' albums.

(I could have included some Factory or Little Feat, but again due to lack of verification it's hard to know how involved Ingber actually was)

The order of the tracks are complementary rather than chronological.
Enjoy.

Elliot Ingber & Others - The Winged Eel Fingerling

Gingerwail
In the Morning
Alley Cat
Spread Love
I'm Gonna Booglarize you Baby
Blue Guitar
Oh No I Don't Believe It
A Bit Blue
Cat's Squirrel
Two Shy
Alice in Blunderland
We Don't Feed No Livestock Here

Track 1: Looking Up Granny's Dress, Grandmothers, 1982.
Tracks 2,6,7: Fraternity of Man, 1968.
Track 3: The Lost Episodes, Frank Zappa, 1996.
Tracks 4, 10: First Taste, Juicy Groove, 1978.
Tracks 5,11: The Spotlight Kid, Captain Beefheart, 1972.
Tracks 8,12: Grandmothers, 1980.
Track 9: Get It On, Fraternity of Man, 1969.

Ripped from various sources to 192kbs
Fingerlings here