Captain Beefheart Album by Album thread *

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by vinyl diehard, Jan 18, 2018.

  1. asdf35

    asdf35 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Austin TX
    I saw that but couldn't figure out if it was an April Fools joke or not!

    I don't believe there was any mention of newly-accessed masters or remixes or outtakes, so luckily I won't have to buy it.
     
  2. asdf35

    asdf35 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Austin TX
    Yep, please!

    By the way, that old Grow Fins boxset is indestructible. So compact and well made. I bought a used one around '99 and it is still solid as a rock.
     
  3. RandelPink

    RandelPink The camel wore a nightie

    Location:
    LA
    Not newly-accessed but from the same Ludwig remaster from 2013 which was a very limited Zappa label re-issue. If you have that CD, this is overlap and simply a vinyl issuing of that same master. I've been looking for that CD for about a year and not only is it extremely difficult to find a copy, they fetch more then this Third Man Vault package.

    I was just reading reviews of Grow Fins on Zappaters and many have reported the same! I just got a sealed copy not long ago and I'm glad I did. I had it on iTunes but this set is totally worth having physically!
     
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  4. asdf35

    asdf35 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Austin TX
    Ha, I think I started a thread on Zappateers (years ago) about how well the box has stood the test of time. I'm getting old, and clearly repeating myself...
     
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  5. RandelPink

    RandelPink The camel wore a nightie

    Location:
    LA
    Haha no worries man, when there’s seldom items in the catalogue to get excited about Grow Fins ranks at the top 5. Still even almost 20 years later. The last disc doesn’t get much love but I think Natchez Burnin’ might be my fav from the lot. That vocal range gives my chills or smiles every time.
     
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  6. vinyl diehard

    vinyl diehard Two-Channel Forever Thread Starter

    Yup. We will get there.
     
  7. ciderglider

    ciderglider Forum Resident

    This week BBC Radio 4 covered Don Van Vliet in their Great Lives series. This involved Mike Barnes (Don Van Vliet's biographer) and Jim Moir (UK comedian) discussing the great man. They also played some excerpts from an interview Don did with the BBC around 1980, where he made the claim that he was the composer of his music, and his musicians were just following his directions. He came across as quite conceited.
     
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  8. lou

    lou Fast 'n Bulbous

    Location:
    Louisiana
    Are you saying Don was not the composer of his music? While there are a few songs where the music was 70 or 80 % composed by someone else (Elliott Ingber on Booglerize You, Bill Harkleroad on four or five songs), Robert Williams had stated that Don composed around 85% of the songs and the band came up with 15% for the final trilogy of studio albums. Of course with Trout Mask not enough credit is given to John French for coming up with the arrangements and creating songs out of the pieces Don gave him. Still, Don was the principal composer of his music.
     
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  9. ciderglider

    ciderglider Forum Resident

    I don't deny he composed the music, but I take issue with him giving the impression that the musicians just played what he had written. From what I've read about the Magic Band's workings, Don would whistle and hum his ideas, and the musicians would work those ideas into music.
     
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  10. vinyl diehard

    vinyl diehard Two-Channel Forever Thread Starter

    Let’s look at the album that was not released due to legal issues:

    From wiki:

    Bat Chain Puller is the 13th studio album by Captain Beefheart, released on February 22, 2012. It was recorded in 1976 by DiscReet Records, who had intended to release it with Virgin Records as Captain Beefheart's tenth studio album. It was co-produced by Beefheart and Kerry McNab.

    Bat Chain Puller
    [​IMG]

    Studio album by Captain Beefheart
    Released
    February 22, 2012
    Recorded 1976
    Genre Experimental rock, blues rock
    Length 41:12
    Label Zappa
    Producer Don Van Vliet
    Kerry McNab

    The album was a subject of friction between DiscReet cofounders Herb Cohen and Frank Zappa. Cohen had used Zappa's royalty checks to fund the album's production, and this led Zappa to withhold the master tapes from Virgin. Beefheart recorded a new album for Warner Bros., Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller), with no involvement from Cohen or Zappa.

    Following a lawsuit which was settled in 1982, the album remained unreleased until 2012, after Zappa's family had announced in 2011 that they would release the original Bat Chain Puller in its intended form.

    Background

    After recording the album Bongo Fury with Frank Zappa, Don Van Vliet formed a new Magic Band and began recording Bat Chain Puller for DiscReet and Virgin Records. Zappa described the proposed album as Vliet's best since Trout Mask Replica. Vliet co-produced it with Kerry McNab, who also served as the remix engineer on Zappa's album One Size Fits All. Herb Cohen, DiscReet's cofounder and Zappa's business manager, paid for the album's production costs with Zappa's royalty checks, leading Zappa to end his business partnership with Cohen. Cohen and Zappa each demanded to be paid an advance by Virgin, leading Zappa to withhold the master tapes, leading Cohen to sue Zappa.

    Due to the lawsuit, Vliet rerecorded the Bat Chain Puller tracks for Warner Bros. Recordsunder the title Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller).

    In 1982, Cohen settled his lawsuit with Zappa, while Vliet was recording Ice Cream for Crow. Vliet intended to use half of the tracks from the original Bat Chain Puller album on Ice Cream For Crow, but Zappa refused Vliet's request. Vliet biographer Mike Barnes subsequently claimed that Vliet did not want the original album to be released.

    On June 24, 2011, six months after Vliet's death, Zappa's widow Gail claimed that the original Bat Chain Puller would be released "[t]his year. December most likely"; in December it was announced for release on January 15, 2012, but was delayed and did not ship until February.

    Style


    The song "Bat Chain Puller" was based upon the rhythm of the windshield wipers on Vliet's Volvo car.


    Track listing


    1. "Bat Chain Puller" 5:07
    2. "Seam Crooked Sam" 3:09
    3. "Harry Irene" 3:25
    4. "81 Poop Hatch" 2:35
    5. "Flavor Bud Living" 1:49
    6. "Brick Bats" 4:27
    7. "Floppy Boot Stomp" 3:57
    8. "Chariot (Ah Carrot Is As Close As Ah Rabbit Gets To Ah Diamond)" 1:37
    9. "Owed T' Alex" 3:19
    10. "Odd Jobs" 5:14
    11. "Human Totem Pole (The 1000th And 10th Day Of The Human Totem Pole)" 5:49
    12. "Apes-Ma" 0:44

    Bonus tracks

    13. "Bat Chain Puller" (alternate mix) 5:05
    14. "Candle Mambo" 3:25
    15. "Hobo-Ism" 8:18
    Included are original recordings of songs that had appeared on the albums Shiny Beast(tracks 1/13, 3, 7, 9, 12 & 14), Doc at the Radar Station (tracks 5, 6 & 8) and Ice Cream for Crow (tracks 4 & 11).

    Personnel

    Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet) – vocals, harmonica, soprano saxophone
    John "Drumbo" French – drums, percussion, guitar, music director
    Denny "Feelers Rebo" Walley – guitar, accordion
    Jeff Moris Tepper – guitar
    John Thomas – piano, Rhodes electric piano, Mini Moog
     
  11. Vangro

    Vangro Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    I've only ever owned this album as a muffled bootleg cassette! "Odd Jobs" is beautiful.
     
  12. vinyl diehard

    vinyl diehard Two-Channel Forever Thread Starter

    I would like to hear this as it was intended by CB. I really have to search this one out. Although I don’t see this available. I thought it was released in 2012?
     
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  13. Scope J

    Scope J Senior Member

    Location:
    Michigan
  14. Scope J

    Scope J Senior Member

    Location:
    Michigan
  15. Scope J

    Scope J Senior Member

    Location:
    Michigan
  16. Scope J

    Scope J Senior Member

    Location:
    Michigan
    Isn't this the take of Hoboism
    that was mean't to be on the cd?

     
  17. mr.datsun

    mr.datsun Incompletist

    Location:
    London
    I love this CD and the album sounded great (at last).

    Along with an old 80s cassette, I have a CDR from a few years back from someone in the chain. It had extra songs like Suction Prints, When I See Mommy, Candle Mambo (diff mix to here) and The Witch Doctor Life (edit). I always assumed they were from the same sessions and wish they'd been included with the same improvement in audio quality.
     
  18. The original Bat Chain Puller is an absolute masterpiece. It is a real shame what happened to it. One wonders how Don's trajectory might have been different had it been released at the time, as intended. We wouldn't have gotten SB, DatRS, and IfC exactly as we did, obviously. This and Trout Mask Replica are Don's two crowning achievements, in my opinion. It's doubly a shame that the BCP CD was released in a limited fashion and is currently out of print. It sounds fantastic, though.
     
    bzfgt, RandelPink and mr.datsun like this.
  19. vinyl diehard

    vinyl diehard Two-Channel Forever Thread Starter

    Bump for Don, the Van Gogh of the music world.
     
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  20. jacethecrowl

    jacethecrowl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    Not coming out as it should have, its hard for me to think of BCP as little more than a footnote, having already fallen in love with Shiny Beast. I've only had a hissy bootleg, but certainly would've bought an LP had the Zappa people not totally missed that boat (now only unofficial knockoffs of their work are out there). But I may have rejected it on the basis of the lazy cover art alone, crediting the album to "Beefheart" (?) and the overly literal bat imagery - terrible! As an artist Don woulda hated it, and he deserved better - in 1976 and 2012.
     
  21. RandelPink

    RandelPink The camel wore a nightie

    Location:
    LA
    I agree and almost thought the same thing when I bought the digital release on iTunes a few years back. Tonight I'll post the Cal Schenkel 'ApesMa' print I just got, which I've read was possibly supposed to be the original cover art for BCP.
     
    mr.datsun, jacethecrowl and Blue Note like this.
  22. elaterium

    elaterium Forum Resident

    I have his original piano recording.
     
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  23. jacethecrowl

    jacethecrowl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    That's a good idea. Have some iTunes credit just sitting there and if I can substitute the art...
     
  24. bzfgt

    bzfgt The Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler

    This is better than Shiny Beast, and as good as DATRS.
     
  25. lou

    lou Fast 'n Bulbous

    Location:
    Louisiana
    While BCP is great - and the versions of Totem Pole, Carson City/Owed t'Alex, Floppy Boot Stomp, and Harry Irene are definitive - there is a relative lack of SONGS on BCP with too many recited spoken word pieces for my taste. Shiny Beast is better in that respect. A Carrot is as Close as a Rabbit Gets to a Diamond is better here, but Flavor Bud Living is much better on Doc - the "nonreligious"version. One of my favorite pieces is Odd Jobs - mostly spoken but partially sung, kind of unique in the Beefheart discography - which was not rerecorded later but of course the guitar figure towards the end became Tropical Hot Dog Night.
     

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