By "late"I refer not to the death of Don Van Vliet, a.k.a. Captain Beefheart, in 2010, but rather to the second half of his recording career, from 1973 to his final recording in 1982 (and perhaps with a glimpse beyond).
Like many other Beef enthusiasts, I regard his early recordings as his best, with Trout_Mask Replica at the top of my list. In an earlier post I discussed my pleasure with the Magic Band's pair of 1972 albums, The Spotlight Kid and Clear Spot. If within Beefheart's short career one can speak of the end of one era and the beginning of another, the ensuing CD was just that in the story of the Captain's remarkable vocation in music.
One footnote: I cringe when I see Beefheart hailed as "the greatest white bluesman;" what has ethnicity got to do with it? Better to say he was one of the best. Nevertheless, by 1966 the master of the 12-bar began to go off the rails into uncharted territory.
- Unconditionally Guaranteed (Virgin/ EMI, 1973)
The year 1973 was bad for my faves: I had already heard the Beach Boys' Holland and the Kinks' Preservation Act 1. And now this.
I certainly wasn't the only fan to feel this way. Captain Beefheart's audience, already a relatively tiny cult, was hugely disappointed by this unabashed sell-out and grew even smaller. Their expectations had been built on all that had come before, especially Trout Mask Replica. From the drums (Art Tripp) on up, most of the album sounded numbingly ordinary. And the cover portrait of Beefheart grasping wads of cash didn't help.
But without such expectations, the album sounds more interesting than it did when first released. Comprising ten tracks, it runs to barely 31 minutes. All songs are credited to Don and Jan Van Vliet and Andy DeMartino.
"Upon the My-O-My," "Full Moon, Hot Sun," and "Peaches" work out fairly well, but the rest is hardly worth hearing. Worse, the album seemed to signal that everything truly magic about the Magic Band had disappeared.
TRS Portal: Unconditionally Guaranteed
The Tragic Band: Ira Ingber, b; Gene Pello, d; Mark Gibbons, kybds; Dean Smith, gtr; Michael Smotherman, backing voc, kybds; Jerry Caravan, kybds; Ty Grimes, perc; Bob West, b on "Observatory Crest"; Nick Danger, third eye.
All selections, except "Same Old Blues" (J. J. Cale), were composed or co-composed by Don Van Vliet.
A few of the selections are worth hearing, even if they only suggest what might have been with the true Magic Band.
Zappa/ Beefheart, Bongo Fury (Ryko, 1975)
Personnel: Frank Zappa, lead gtr, vocal; Captain Beefheart, harp, vocal, shopping bags (+ soprano sax); George Duke, kybds, vocal; Napoleon Murphy Brock, sax, vocal; Bruce Fowler, tb, fantastic dancing; Tom Fowler, b, also dancing; Denny Walley, slide gtr, vocal; Terry Bozzio, drums, moisture; Chester Thompson, d. on "200 Years Old" and "Cucamonga."
As a slight reprieve from the responsibility of leading his own band, Beefheart took the opportunity to travel with Frank Zappa and the Mothers on their 1975 tour. He sings two of Frank's songs ("Debra Kadabra" and "Poofter's Froth Wyoming," a mordant satire of America's upcoming Bicentennial) and two poems of his own, done in the style of recitation rather than song: "Sam with the Showing-Scalp Flat Top" (whom I take to be an ordinary grasshopper, spitting up "tobacco juice") and "Man with the Woman Head." Both selections are punctuated by Zappa's wheezy, sleazy band.
TRS Portal: Unconditionally Guaranteed
- Bluejeans & Moonbeams (Virgin/ EMI, 1974)
The Tragic Band: Ira Ingber, b; Gene Pello, d; Mark Gibbons, kybds; Dean Smith, gtr; Michael Smotherman, backing voc, kybds; Jerry Caravan, kybds; Ty Grimes, perc; Bob West, b on "Observatory Crest"; Nick Danger, third eye.
TRS Portal: Bluejeans & Moonbeams
This record was even more widely reviled than its predecessor. So bad was its reputation, I myself didn't own a copy until a few years ago.
None of the so-called "Tragic Band" members seems to have a page on Wiki; apparently, not one of them had a notable career in music.
After the release of Unconditionally Guaranteed, The Magic Band-- Art Tripp, Rockette Morton, Alex St. Clair, and Zoot Horn Rollo-- resigned en masse shortly before a tour of the U.S. and Europe was to start. Don Van Vliet's new managers, Andy and Augie DiMartino, desperately assembled a new, polyglot "Magic Band" for this recording session in North Hollywood and a 1974 tour. All of the musicians left the band after the tour, and it seemed perhaps that Captain Beefheart's career had come to an end; maybe he was just a novelty like Tiny Tim.
This recording is the pits. Everything is played in 4:4 time by a totally conventional rock band and released as a totally conventional production (by Andy DiMartino, who had also produced Unconditionally Guaranteed). Most tellingly, the drummer here is completely unequipped to handle real Captain Beefheart music, because drums are key to Beefheart's music. His own vocals, on the other hand, are first class. One wonders how this release might have sounded if the real Magic Band had handled it.
All selections, except "Same Old Blues" (J. J. Cale), were composed or co-composed by Don Van Vliet.
A few of the selections are worth hearing, even if they only suggest what might have been with the true Magic Band.
Here's a quick rundown:
- "Party of Special Things to Do" features slide guitar work by Dean Smith
"Same Old Blues" With Smotherman on backing vocal it trips along, just as the title says: same old, same old. It somehow reminds me of "Too Much Time," with the addition of synthetic mice.
- "Observatory Crest"contains a narrative: A couple escapes the city. So what?
- "Pompadour Swamp"resembles "Clear Spot" in theme and execution. It might have stood a chance with the real Magic Band.
- "Captain's Holiday" Perhaps the title refers to the absence of a Van Vliet Vocal. When his mouth harp finally does appear in the song's tag line, it is buried under a female group backing vocal crooning, "Ooh, Captain, Captain..." I'm afraid Walt Whitman is spinning in his grave.
- "Rock 'n Roll's Evil Doll"
- "Farther Than We've Gone"
- "Twist Ah Luck"
- "Bluejeans and Moonbeams"
Zappa/ Beefheart, Bongo Fury (Ryko, 1975)
Personnel: Frank Zappa, lead gtr, vocal; Captain Beefheart, harp, vocal, shopping bags (+ soprano sax); George Duke, kybds, vocal; Napoleon Murphy Brock, sax, vocal; Bruce Fowler, tb, fantastic dancing; Tom Fowler, b, also dancing; Denny Walley, slide gtr, vocal; Terry Bozzio, drums, moisture; Chester Thompson, d. on "200 Years Old" and "Cucamonga."
As a slight reprieve from the responsibility of leading his own band, Beefheart took the opportunity to travel with Frank Zappa and the Mothers on their 1975 tour. He sings two of Frank's songs ("Debra Kadabra" and "Poofter's Froth Wyoming," a mordant satire of America's upcoming Bicentennial) and two poems of his own, done in the style of recitation rather than song: "Sam with the Showing-Scalp Flat Top" (whom I take to be an ordinary grasshopper, spitting up "tobacco juice") and "Man with the Woman Head." Both selections are punctuated by Zappa's wheezy, sleazy band.
TRS Portal: Bongo Fury
- Bat Chain Puller... puller puller (Zappa, 1976; released 2012)
Although Bat Chain Puller was recorded in 1976; because of legal complications, not until 2012 was it finally released.
The album per se consists of twelve tracks, as shown below; three additional bonus tracks include an alternate take of the title tune, "Candle Mambo" and, as a separate production, "Hobo-ism," a rustic narration in a primitive style of a crime of passion.
Because ten of these tracks were re-recorded with a larger band for Beefheart's ensuing studio albums, I will comment on them in the context of those albums. Minus those ten tunes, we are left with"Ah Carrot Is As Close As Ah Rabbit Gets to Ah Diamond," an instrumental, and "Seam Crooked Sam,"which begins:
The mule kicked off a new one
and the stockings ran up Seam Crooked Sam
bandana frock stuffed with smoke
and ears out flopped like bowlin' pins
hog troughs hocked and walleyed in cool mud bins
and patent leather hooves
split in twos
(Another asset of this set is that it contains a booklet with contributions from session participants John French and Denny Walley. Fast and bulbous: Got me?)
TRS Portal: Bat Chain Puller
The Magic Band: Richard Redus, gtrs, accordion, fretless bass; Eric Drew Feldman, kybds; Jeff MorisTepper, gtr; Bruce Fowler, tb; Robert Williams, d, perc, with Mary Jane Eisenberg, "shake bouquet."
Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller), Captain Beefheart's first release in three years, was co-produced by Don Van Vliet and Pete Johnson as Shiny Beast Productions.
They did a marvelous job, making full use of the studio. Van Vliet receives the sole writing credit for each tune, except for "Owed T'Alex," in which the credit is shared with the mysterious Herb Bermann, whose last writing credits with Beefheart appeared more than a decade earlier on Safe As Milk.
Five of these titles were carried forward from the original Bat Chain Puller, plus "Candle Mambo,"to wit:
- "The Floppy Boot Stomp" tells a tale of mythological proportions about a farmer's struggle with the Devil:
The famed screamed 'n blew the sky off the mountains
Eye sockets looked down on the chest bone mountains
'n the sun dropped down, 'n the moon ran off,
His heels 'n elbows pale as chalk
'n all the comets collided 'n blew t' dust
For fear they'd be seen.
Then comes the band's unison chant to punctuate the story: "Floppy boot -- stomped down -- to the ground!" countered by Beefheart's mantra:
Then comes the band's unison chant to punctuate the story: "Floppy boot -- stomped down -- to the ground!" countered by Beefheart's mantra:
'n the sky turned white in the middle of the night
'n the sky turned white in the middle of the night
'n the big floppy boot stomped down into the ground
"Hoodoo hoedown!" the band answers in cadence, as Beefheart nears the denouement:
"Hoodoo hoedown!" the band answers in cadence, as Beefheart nears the denouement:
"If you fall into my circle again I'll tan your red hide
And dance you on your tail, and pitch you from now to now
Pitch you from now to now."
And the hot lick kicked 'n the fire leaped and licked.
And the hot lick kicked 'n the fire leaped and licked
And the hot lick kicked an' the fire just leaping' an' lickin'
And the fire leaped and licked.
- "Apes-Ma" is identical to the track featured on the original Bat Chain Puller. It consists of an a capella recitation lasting 39 seconds. In essence, it's a denunciation of our species, but I've learned not to take it personally.
- "Harry Irene" were a couple that lived in the green, ran a canteen, and otherwise apparently led an entirely uninteresting life, leading to the ontological question:
What does this mean?
What is the meaning of this?
Poor Harry, I guess.
whereupon Van Vliet whistles a little tag, over and out.
- "Bat Chain Puller," in this sextet version becomes more intricate than its predecessor, but not fundamentally different. The repetitive, otherworldly complaint (issuing from God knows what instrument) across the background remain from the original, alongside:
A chain with yellow lights
That glistens like oil beads
On its slick smooth trunk
That trails behind on tracks, and thumps
A wing hangs limp and retrieves
This chain morphs into
This train with grey tubes that houses people's thoughts,
Their very remains and belongings.
As in so many previous Magic Band accompaniments, this version of the tune is highlighted by an all-out guitar duel between Tepper and Redus. "Owed T'Alex" is most notable for the Captain's workout on the mouth harp. He still had his chops.
- "Candle Mambo," which was a bonus track on the 1976 recording, adds a marimba (played, of course, by Ed Marimba), a new tint in the Magic Band's tonal palette.
"New" titles include:
- "Tropical Hot Dog Night," like two flamingoes in a food fight, another of the Captain's salacious lyrics, set to marimba.
- "Ice Rose," an instrumental featuring Fowler's trombone before an avant-garde accompaniment.
- "Love Lies," a song of anxieties and regrets, taken at a slow, loping tempo. Don delivers an exceptionally fervent vocal.
- "Suction Prints" is a rip-roaring, full blast instrumental a la "Hair Pie," with Don on saxophone.
- "You Know You're a Man" rocks. (Naturally, it reminds one of "Nowadays, a Woman Gotta Hit a Man," just to show she's there.)
- "When I See Mommy, I Feel Like a Mummy" is eerily recited to the band's chant, "mummy, mummy, mummy; mommy, mommy, mommy."
TRS Portal: Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)
- I'm Going to Do What I Wanna Do (Rhino Handmade, limited edition, 1978, released 2000)
This two-disc recording offers a live performance at My Father's Place in Long Island, New York. As seen below, the setlist offers the full gamut of Beefheart's music, from Safe as Milk to Shiny Beast. The sound quality is first-rate, and the Magic Band is at its best. The title is taken from a remark Van Vliet made to a rude audience member who interfered with his performance.
Because the recording is too long for a single disc, there are two, but not as one might expect; the first disc delivers the entire concert, exclusive of its ten-minute encore, which is featured on the second disc. The silk-screening art on both discs is uber-cool.
TRS Portal: I'm Going to Do What I Wanna Do (Live at My Father's Place 1978)
- Doc at the Radar Station (Virgin, 1980)
The Magic Band: Jeff Moris Tepper gtr; Gary Lucas, gtr, french horn; Eric Drew Feldman, kybds; Robert Williams, d; Bruce Fowler, tb; John French (Drumbo), multi-instrumentalist, d. on two tracks.
This set from 1980 featured most of the same players who had accompanied Van Vliet since Bat Chain Puller, plus the return of John French, who takes the drums for "Ashtray Heart" and "Sheriff of Hong Kong." As always, the drums keep the whole project afloat, with movements within songs and changing textures throughout.
This time around, more tunes from the Bat Chain stockpile were re-recorded, "A Carrot Is as Close as a Rabbit Gets to a Diamond," "Flavor Bud Living," both instrumentals, and "Brickbats," a fireplace-inspired vision of bats, upside down, squeaking and roasting.
"Owed T'Alex" reappears with its Western fantasy:
Sparks, tattoos, two tats and a toot
Helmets, crosses, and a patch to boot
Engine hot, pipes burn white
Glad I'm not home tonight
Five miles back I took a spill
-- Thought I almost paid my bill
Makin' my putt to Carson City.
Among the new titles here, two immediately grab the attention, "Hot Head" and "Ashtray Heart," both performed on Saturday Night Live (check the videos above).
- Ice Cream for Crow (Virgin, 1982)
The more recent compositions were still more interesting. The title tune, of course, would have been more aptly rendered "I Scream for Crow":
don't shake my hand
give me your claw
two tears in a haystack
scarecrow get back.
"The Host the Ghost the Most Holy O" lopes along on a chant of the title behind Captain Beefheart's recitation; "Hey Garland, I Dig Your Tweed Coat" features an ever-changing background riff which may remind one of "Pena" from Trout Mask. And, of course, "The Past Sure Is Tense" (appealing to my pedantic disposition) might better be rendered "The Pasture Is Tense" to mirror the title track.
There is a hint of something new in the instrumentals, "Semi-Multicoloured Caucasian,"and "Evening Bell" (a short guitar solo); several tracks-- "Ink Mathematics,""The Witch Doctor Life"-- seemed to harken back to the rough-and-tumble backgrounds the old Magic Bands used to produce.
ADDENDUM: Pearls Before Swine, Ice Cream for Crows
SOME MONTHS AGO, I had occasion to introduce this rather odd booklet and its accompanying CD. The disc consists of six selections, purportedly from about 1989 to the early '90s, all featuring Don Van Vliet reciting poems of his own, including "Falling Ditch" and "Skeleton Makes Good," both well-known from his recordings.
To one degree or another, all the tracks reveal Don's decline, particularly his inability to speak as he once had. I first heard Pearls with little idea of what had happened to the erstwhile Captain Beefheart in the interval between his final record release and the appearance of this CD, although I understood he had turned to the visual arts to express his particular weltanschauung. It was hard to listen to Don's halting speech and sad to remember the great Beefheart, whose voice could peel paint off walls at fifty yards.
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STOP THE PRESSES!
Apropos my mention a few months ago of this album in LP form, I received today the first U.S. release of any kind and the first CD remastering of Alice Babs and Duke Ellington, Serenade to Sweden. I'm so excited, I haven't yet removed the shrink-wrap. I just stare at it.
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- Ravi Coltrane, Spirit Fiction (Blue Note, 2012)
I met Ravi a few months ago, when he played Joe Segal's joint in Chi, the Jazz Showcase.
This set is more Ornette than Trane-oriented, contrary to what one might expect; one tune, in fact, was written by Ornette, another by Paul Motian, three by trumpeter Ralph Alessi, and the rest by the leader. The selections are performed mainly by Ravi's regular quartet, along with appearances by guest artists Joe Lovano, Geri Allen, and trumpeter Ralph Aleppi.
All of the tunes are explorations of tempo and rhythm. Geri Allen, especially in the ensembles, lends a sort of '60s Blue Note avant-garde vibe to the sessions; a well-chosen track order enhances contrasts in mood.
The first track, Ravi's "Roads Cross," appears to have no set theme; it drifts up and down like a flag caught in the wind. In his solo, Coltrane deftly quotes "Lift Up Your Voice and Sing." Alessi's "Klepto," on the other hand, possesses form enough to allow the players to interact contrapuntally.
Probably the group plays at its best when joined by Lovano and Allen, on Paul Motian's "Fantasm," which features both tenor saxes on a draggy, liquid theme.
This set is more Ornette than Trane-oriented, contrary to what one might expect; one tune, in fact, was written by Ornette, another by Paul Motian, three by trumpeter Ralph Alessi, and the rest by the leader. The selections are performed mainly by Ravi's regular quartet, along with appearances by guest artists Joe Lovano, Geri Allen, and trumpeter Ralph Aleppi.
All of the tunes are explorations of tempo and rhythm. Geri Allen, especially in the ensembles, lends a sort of '60s Blue Note avant-garde vibe to the sessions; a well-chosen track order enhances contrasts in mood.
The first track, Ravi's "Roads Cross," appears to have no set theme; it drifts up and down like a flag caught in the wind. In his solo, Coltrane deftly quotes "Lift Up Your Voice and Sing." Alessi's "Klepto," on the other hand, possesses form enough to allow the players to interact contrapuntally.
Probably the group plays at its best when joined by Lovano and Allen, on Paul Motian's "Fantasm," which features both tenor saxes on a draggy, liquid theme.
The Great Lost Kinks Album/The Kink Kronikles (Reprise, 1973, 1972)
My disc is a compilation of the two compilations, omitting the tracks that appeared on the Kinks' "regular" albums, from Face to Face through Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One. I listen to this do-it-myself disc often, because it contains recordings made during what I consider their most fertile and creative period. While not all the tunes are of equal quality, some of them-- "Til Death Do Us Part," "I'm Not Like Everybody Else," "Autumn Almanac," and "Big Black Smoke," and Dave Davies solo recordings that were not issued at the time they were made, to name a few-- are indispensable.
*
NB: There is one negative observation I must make about The Great Lost Kinks Album, and it is important enough, for me at least, to cast a shadow across my memories of the Kinks. Side Two of the LP begins with a song called, "When I Turn Off the Living Room Light." Here is the opening verse:
Who cares if you're Jewish, and your breath smells of garlic
And your nose is a shiny red light?
To me you are gorgeous, and everything's right,
When I turn off the living room light.
I've read apologies for this verse that maintain that the main intent of the lyric is not to denigrate Jews, but rather to propose the idea that no one is ugly in the dark. Yes, I understand the message of the song, but it bothers me even more that its anti-Semitism is delivered so casually, as if it is commonly understood that the song's audience considers all Jews ugly. How would it go over if, instead, the lyric went, "Who cares if you're Negro, or Asian, or Danish"?
- Duke Ellington, 1899-1974 (MF, 1958-1971)
By the way, the MF designation of the label refers to Manheim Fox, who, at the time of the set's release, was the agent for Duke's music.
- Christian McBride, Conversations with Christian (Mack Avenue, 2011)
- Gary Burton Quartet, Duster (RCA, 1967)
I have always enjoyed listening to the music of Gary Burton, from the late '60s particularly. Here is one I probably heard soon after it came out. It sounds like no other quartet, and there is no better introduction than this one.
The production here, well-recorded with plenty of echo, suits the vibraphone particularly well. Most of the tunes are rather short, yet they afford quite a lot of room for experimentation, in slow tempos ("Sweet Rain," "Sing Me Softly of the Blues") and fast ("Portsmouth Figurations,"), unusual time signatures and forms ("Ballet" is a fast 3:4 blues, while "General Mojo's Well-Laid Plan" is played almost as a tango. "Response," without chord changes, builds a melody out of rhythmic stops and starts, and "Liturgy" is a Latin-tinged steamer. Burton, his instrument at one moment a veritable locomotive and at another a delicate, shimmering surface, explores territory new to the vibes; Coryell, his young partner in the front line, is all over his instrument as well, accepting Burton's challenges and, at times, going him one better.
At this point in his career, Steve Swallow was still playing the standup double bass, arco as well as pizzicato; Roy Haynes was at his peak of performance, lending his kit fully to Burton's conceptions.
- Gary Burton Quartet, Lofty Fake Anagram/ A Genuine Tong Funeral (RCA, 1967)
Lofty Fake Anagram presents Coryell's working band at the time it was made. As before, creative arrangements and the use of acoustic instruments give the project, as a whole, a certain texture throughout. Burton contributes "Lines," an Elizabethan masque that quickly accelerates into a dialogue between vibes and guitar, "The Beach," a tumbling theme with an odd rhythm, and "Good Citizen Swallow," a feature for the bassist. Other tunes were contributed by Swallow, Terry Gibbs, Carla Bley, and Duke Ellington ("Fleurette Africaine," from the Maestro's trio session with Charles Mingus and Max Roach).
The larger group on A Genuine Tong Funeral performs Carla Bley's "dark opera without words," a ten-part foray into experimental forms and rhythms.
- Harold Land, The Fox (OJC/ Contemporary, 1958)
Here's Harold Land at his best, and that alone is reason to celebrate, but this album offers a rare session that includes Dupree Bolton on trumpet. Together these two are a formidable pair, and the rhythm section offered the great Elmo Hope on piano, Herbie Lewis on bass, and the drummer present on innumerable L.A. sessions, Frank Butler.
Country? Rock 'n' roll? Rockabilly? It doesn't really matter how you categorize her; Wanda Jackson was a marvel. Thanks to the music collection at LCPL, I discovered this disc not very long ago while on one of my frequent forays into their catalog.
- Sivuca, Forte Norte (SOM/ Tropical Music, 1979-1982)
This is an excellent compilation of Sivuca's recordings for the SOM label and a good introduction to a monster accordionist in interesting combinations.
I'm pretty certain that among all my discs, I have no other record by an accordionist. Too many Polish weddings, I guess.
Joe Sixpack's Guide to Brazilian Music is da bomb!
Our Car Club:
One of her last studio recordings, Zoning stands out among Mary's many wonderful recordings. In my automobile, it has usurped the place of her Zodiac Suite, not because that was anything less, but since I was over-familiar with it, I wanted to listen to something new.
I first found Zoning in the 1970s, not many years after it was recorded. Mary drenched nearly everything she played with the spirit of the blues, and this is no exception; yet it sounds forward-looking and modern even now. Her accompanists on most tracks include Bob Cranshaw on bass and Micky Roker on drums, with Zita Carno playing second piano in two instances; on the rest, Mary is accompanied by Milton Suggs on bass and Tony Waters on bongos (although the notes say he's playing congas). On the Smithsonian reissue, there are extra titles and a different track order from the original LP on Mary's own label.
I most enjoy the composition "Gloria," which appears in two different versions on the Smithsonian reissue. The title isn't someone's name, but rather a portion of the liturgy, without words, from Mary Lou's Mass from the previous decade. Its effect is thrilling, as are the other titles in the collection.
This was an easy pick for my Elantra Collection. What a thrill to be listening to these tunes after quite a while, especially "The Lion's" own compositions, "Morning Air," "Echoes of Spring," "Concentration," and five more. On the remaining tracks, Smith performs his own takes on such pop standards as "Tea for Two," "Stormy Weather," and "The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea." He had a style all his own, forceful yet exquisitely delicate, and this recording contains some of his very best playing.
Like many people my age or younger, I made the acquaintance of The Lion via the recommendation of his famous protege, Duke Ellington.
There is no shortage of recordings by Smith, but at least half of them feature him in a supporting role in small combos, and I favor by far his solo recordings. Beyond that, The Lion was a prolific composer, and his own compositions are without peer. Here he performs some of his best, along with a set of standards and two-piano exercises.
- Rosemary Clooney, Do You Miss New York? (Concord, 1992)
NEXT: Zoot Sims
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