Valediction - The Best Till Last

Five years ago, when I first began Rocket Remnants, music blogging was cool.
Now it's really in the hands of those posting new releases.
The retro blogger, whether of shows, deleted albums or general rarities, well, they're all gone now: "blog no longer exists"; words all read up; links long dead.

I joined in thinking I had something to add; it looked like fun.
I was also about to digitize much of my own collection, the leap from ripping to sharing was short, so as long as it wasn't widely available I'd put it on here, adding a word or two.

That process has now come to an end, as does this blog.
So I'll finish with what has to be one of the greatest albums of all time, ripped from a cassette that has accompanied me for the majority of my life.

For many, Trout Mask Replica is the one; the best; the magnum opus of Beefheart's oeuvre; perhaps of alternative music!
But I think Decals is better.

From the immediate attention grabbing opening gallop, you know you're in for one hell of a ride; and once that slurring, booze soaked vocal kicks in, well, you're soon convinced the driver is one hell of a crazy motherfucker, and he could be leading us anywhere! Everywhere!
And he does.
From Mississippi to Ornette Coleman, from Boogie Woogie to classical pastiche, from the heartfelt to the truly absurd.
This is one hell of a journey!
And what! Never released on CD?
Good.
Proving that Lick My Decals Off, Baby is the most anti-bourgeois album ever released.

The musicianship throughout Decals is simply phenomenal; mainly co-written with guitarist Zoot Horn Rollo, many of the snazzy syncopations absent of conventional notation leave you breathless; they just sound so hard to play.
(Well worthy of becoming "The Magic Band", no longer "His".)

The mania is suitably juxtaposed with moments of calm, brief understated instrumentals, segueing into discordant beauty: Ed Marimba's marimbas, Drumbo's drums and Rockette Morton's impossible bass adding obliquely to the fabulous, unique melee.

There isn't a better album in which to bring this to an end.

BANG!

Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band - Lick My Decals Off, Baby (1973)

Lick My Decals, Baby
Doctor Dark
I Love You, You Big Dummy
Peon
Bellerin' Plain
Woe-Is-Uh-Me-Bop
Japan in a Dishpan
I Wanna Find Me a Woman That'll Hold My Big Toe Till I Have to Go
Petrified Forest
One Rose that I Mean
The Buggy Boogie Woogie
The Smithsonian Institute Blues (or The Big Dig)
Space Age Couple
The Clouds are Full of Wine (Not Whiskey or Rye)
Flash Gordon's Ape

Excellent cassette rip @320kbs
Lick away here

Shanti

The Knebworth Don

Since my last Captain Beefheart post I've been hit with all manner of suggestions as to which Beefheart boots are worth hearing.
There are some links in the comments to the post, kindly provided by Zigzagwanderer, the best being BBC sessions, 1968, which is both good quality and a good listen (here's a direct D/L link if you can't be bothered to click your way back to the original post, but are maybe half-heartedly interested enough and will give it a listen seeing as it's just a few words back).

What I've got here came to me as a CDR, merely titled Knebworth Magic Band, 1975.
It suffers the Beefheart curse, I'm afraid, that being pretty poor quality; but this is interesting enough to put up despite its dodgy sound as it truly is a great set, and captures the more accessible Captain; the one who after Trout Mask Replica and Lick My Decals Off, Baby (his best!) suddenly became accessibly hip, producing The Spotlight Kid and Clear Spot; albums that expanded his audience somewhat.

The quality varies during the recording; I'm not sure if the taper was moving around or whether it was a particular windy day - from my own experience of The Knebworth Festival (1978) I distinctly remember sounds emanating from the PA were very prone to being blown about; of course them were the days before dynamic and drilling outdoor sound systems; them were the days when the stacks were four times the size but half the oomph.

The instrumentation comes across pretty well, and the a capella 'Orange Claw Hammer' I think is if anything enhanced by it's distance and breeze effected delivery.

I guess by looking at the line-up, this set no doubt took place in the afternoon.
Floyd were headlining, and I assume in 75, Floyd fans probably wouldn't have been that up for the Magic Band's's curious syncopations or the Captain's growling delivery (and he really does growl, the opening 'Moonlight On Vermont' sounds like he's loaded on methadrine.
Perhaps he was...).

Beefheart does indicate an odd reception at one point, suggesting the audience could at least act drunk, to at least pretend they're beatniks (can't imagine that going down too well with a 75 Floyd audience), but he backs down and reveals that he's 'only teasing'.

I couldn't find out too much about this performance, except John French (Drumbo) who was mysteriously absent from the recording of Clear Spot, was back in the band, but playing guitar, no longer drums (Guitaro?); lead slide duties were taken up by Elliot Ingber; which is another reason for posting this, as The Winged Eel Fingerling, as he was known, is someone who's going to make an appearance in my next post.

So not the best recording, but if you're hard enough, well worth a listen.
With a bit of fiddling of the bass and treble, my CDR through the hi-fi doesn't sound too bad; although it makes Cem cringe something rotten; but then women often have a problem with Beefheart.
I can't for the life of me work out why that is....

Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band - Live, Knebworth Festival, 1975.

Moonlight On Vermont
Abba Zabba
Orange Claw Hammer
Dali's Car
When it Blows it Stacks
My Human Gets Me Blues
Alice in Blunderland
Beatle Bones 'n' Smokin' Stones
Gimme Dat Harp Boy
Electricity
I'm Gonna Booglarize You
Sam With the Showing Scalp Flat Top
Jam
Big Eyed Beans From Venus

CD rip to mp3s
Breezy Blues here

(As the set makes no reference to Unconditionally Guaranteed or Bluejeans & Moonbeams I haven't either.
Nuff said!)

Homophonic Blues

Years ago I was quite into tropical fish.
As well as being psychedelically mesmerizing, they were meditative, calming, friendly, and a darn sight more interesting to look at than anything on the television.

Anyway, went to score myself a fish one day; visiting a new shop in town to see what they had to offer.
I soon cast my eyes on a fine specimen: a Jack Dempsey; apparently, I found out later, named after an American boxer; so called because of the fish's aggressive behaviour and a visage that is said to resemble that of the 1920's heavyweight champion of the world (rather unfair on the fish I thought, as he was lovely; cute, even).

As the owner, a genial old dude grateful for my venturing into his new shop, filled the plastic bag containing the Jack Dempsey and six inches of water with air from an air line, he looked me straight in the eye and said, in a knowing, insightful way: 'He'll like a bit of beef heart.'
This was hard to take in straight away; my perplexity was obvious, so he went on: 'O yes, they like a bit of beef heart; all the large cichlids like a bit of beef heart'.

So I took my Jack Dempsey home, popped him in his new world, placed a speaker at each end of the tank and played through the whole of Trout Mask Replica, hoping the Jack Dempsey would appreciate this and soon settle in.

And you know what? The dude was right.
The Jack Dempsey, and all the other tank denizens, absolutely loved Beefheart!
And why not!

And if my old Jack Dempsey was still in the world of the floating I'm sure he'd really dig this: a slice of swampish blues from The Magic Band, circa '67.

Unfortunately it doesn't last very long - just over thirteen minutes - but it's really very cool indeed.

I have liberated this from a monster of a compilation called It Crawled Out From the Vaults of KSAN (1966-68). It's just so rare to have good quality live Magic Band from this period (any period in fact. Beefheart, for some reason, didn't attract bootlegging anoraks: merely opportunists.
So many Magic Band shows have I downloaded; so many have I deleted before reaching the end), I thought it was worth giving it a platform of its own; especially as it includes a glorious rendition of Howling Wolf's 'Evil', and concludes with an instrumental jam that's heading straight for Mirror Man.

This may only last thirteen minutes, but with so little of worth to choose from, the Beefheart head gets it where they can.

Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band - Live, Avalon Ballroom, 1967.
Extracted from It Crawled Out From the Vaults of KSAN (1966-68).

Tupelo
Old Folks Boogie
Evil
Instrumental

Quality rip @320kbs
Feed the fish here

Captain Marvel

Despite the rather dodgy cover (is that Don?), this live recording from Seattle, 1981, is one of the better Beefheart boots.

The recording obviously came from within the audience, but the quality isn't bad; I give it an A-.

Along with an excellent set list - reads almost like a 'Best Of', although it doesn't feature 'I Wanna Find A Woman That'll Hold My Big Toe Till I Have To Go' [his finest moment], it does feature 'Veterans' Day Poppy', 'Big Eyed Beans From Venus' and 'Hothead', the best tracks from Trout Mask Replica, Clear Spot and Doc at The Radar Station respectively - a band that was in touch with what their leader was doing - it would have been nice to have a quality boot like this from 1971, but beggars can't be choosers, and 1981 does actually capture Beefheart and his Magic Band at a very creative time; he had been reborn: Doc at the Radar Station had gone down a storm, and his audience had never been bigger - and a half decent recording, this makes for an essential addition to any Beefheart collection.


Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Don's 40th Birthday Party (1981)

Flavur Bud Living
My Human Gets Me Blues
Nowadays A Woman's Gotta Hit A Man
Hothead
Ashtray Heart
Best Batch Yet
Safe As Milk
A Carrot Is As Close As A Rabbit Gets To A Diamond
The One Red Rose That I Mean
Doctor Dark
Bat Chain Puller
Sugar 'n Spikes
Veterans' Day Poppy
Sheriff Of Hong Kong
Suction Prints
Big Eyed Beans From Venus

CD rip to mp3s
Artwork included

Don yourself with Beefheart here