Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band came out of the colored land to mix up the best batch yet, burnin' up a storm with the ex-extract hocus pocus avion of an ashtray heart. Don Van Vliet had gone into semi-retirement (again) after the release of Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)in 1978, living in a trailer in the Mojave desert working on his painting. 'Doc at the Radar Station' was recorded at Sound Castle Recording Studios in Los Angeles during June of 1980 with Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet) on vocals, Chinese gongs, harmonica, soprano saxophone, and bass clarinet; John French on slide guitar, guitar, marimba, bass, and drums (on "Ashtray Heart" and "Sheriff of Hong Kong"); Bruce Lambourne Fowler on trombone; Jeff Moris Tepper on slide guitar, guitar, and nerve guitar; Eric Drew Feldman on synthesizer, bass, mellotron, grand piano, and electric piano; and Robert Arthur Williams on drums; with Gary Lucas adding guitar and French horn. Van Vliet also did the painting on the album cover.
Nowadays A Woman's Gotta Hit A Man Best Batch Yet Dirty Blue Gene Safe as Milk Flavor Bud Living Bat Chain Puller Big Eyed Beans From Venus 'Doc at the Radar Station' full album:
All tracks written by Don Van Vliet Side One 1."Hot Head" 3:23 2."Ashtray Heart" 3:25 3."A Carrot is as Close as a Rabbit Gets to a Diamond" 1:38 4."Run Paint Run Run" 3:40 5."Sue Egypt" 2:57 6."Brickbats" 2:40 Side Two 1."Dirty Blue Gene" 3:51 2."Best Batch Yet" 5:02 3."Telephone" 1:31 4."Flavor Bud Living" 1:00 5."Sheriff of Hong Kong" 6:34 6."Making Love to a Vampire with a Monkey on My Knee" 3:11 interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIlVXzC85TU
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band cultivated the grounds by throwing the whole kit ‘n kaboodle ‘n the kitchen sink to woe-is-a-me-bop his buggy boogie woogie into a wolfhowl wine. Each of his previous three albums ('Safe As Milk', 'Strictly Personal', and 'Trout Mask Replica') had all been released on different labels; but, for his fourth album, he stuck with Frank Zappa's Straight Records label. Don van Vliet produced the recording of 'Lick My Decals Off, Baby'at United Recording Corporation on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood with engineer Phil Schier. The sessions featured Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet) on vocals, bass clarinet, tenor sax, soprano sax, and harmonica; Drumbo (John French) on percussion and broom; Zoot Horn Rollo (Bill Harkleroad) on guitar and glass finger guitar; Rockette Morton (Mark Boston) on "bassius-o-pheilius"; and Ed Marimba (Art Tripp) on marimba, percussion, and broom.
Zappa wanted to record the album at the house in Woodland Hills; but after a few sessions, Van Vliet wanted to move to an actual studio, thinking that Zappa was trying to get the album recorded as cheaply as possible. One track was taken from the Woodland recordings, two tracks were recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders, with most of the album being recorded at Whitney Studios in Los Angeles, California. The band banged out twenty instrumental tracks in a single six-hour recording session, with Van Vliet overdubbing vocals later. The sessions featured Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet) on lead and backing vocals, spoken word, tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, musette, simran horn, hunting horn, jingle bells, production, and engineering; with The Magic Band: Drumbo (John French) on drums, percussion, abd engineering; Antennae Jimmy Semens (Jeff Cotton) on guitar, "steel appendage guitar" (slide guitar using a metal slide), lead vocals on "Pena" and "The Blimp", "flesh horn" (vocal with hand cupped over mouth) on "Ella Guru", and speaking voice on "Old Fart at Play"; Zoot Horn Rollo (Bill Harkleroad) on guitar, "glass finger guitar" (slide guitar using a glass slide), and flute on "Hobo Chang Ba"; Rockette Morton (Mark Boston) on bass guitar and narration on "Dachau Blues" and "Fallin' Ditch"; and The Mascara Snake (Victor Hayden) on bass clarinet, backing vocals on "Ella Guru", and speaking voice on "Pena". The album also included Doug Moon on acoustic guitar on "China Pig"; Gary "Magic" Marker on bass guitar on "Moonlight on Vermont" and "Veteran's Day Poppy"; Roy Estrada on bass guitar on "The Blimp"; Arthur Tripp III on drums and percussion on "The Blimp"; Don Preston on piano on "The Blimp"; Ian Underwood and Bunk Gardner on alto and tenor saxophones on "The Blimp"; Buzz Gardner on trumpet on "The Blimp"; Richard "Dick" Kunc as speaking voice on "She's Too Much for My Mirror" and engineer; and Frank Zappa as speaking voice on "Pena" and "The Blimp", engineer, and producer. Between the sessions at Sunset Sound and Whitney Studios, 'Strictly Personal' was finally released on producer Bob Krasnow's Blue Thumb label more than a year after it was finished. 'Trout Mask Replica'never charted in the US. In the UK it appeared for one week at number twenty-one before disappearing completely. http://www.beefheart.com/ "Frownland" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeOiP10zjA0
00:00 Introduction by Zappa 04:45 She's Too Much For My Mirror 07:04 My Human Gets Me Blues 10:29 The Mascara Snake Blows His Horn 11:18 Wild Life 15:13 Hobo Chang Ba 17:36 When Big Joan Sets Up (FZ on guitar) 27:55 Who Will Be The Next? (FZ on guitar)
Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band made their outrageous emergence with this wild, weird, and wonderful welding of white boy blues and spellbinding sideways psychedelia. Don Van Vliet came from the town of Lancaster in the Southern California desert, where he hooked up with Frank Zappa. Together they came up with the moniker Captain Beefheart, though Van Vliet said, "Don't ask me why or how." Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band became a local sensation and they won a contract with A&M in a battle of the bands. They released a version of Bo Diddley's 'Diddy Wah Diddy' that became a hit in Los Angeles. Beefheart recorded a number of demos for an album; but Jerry Moss rejected them as too negative. A&M released another single 'Frying Pan'; but it didn't go anywhere. A year later, Bob Krasnow of Kama Sutra Records liked the demos enough to produce 'Safe As Milk' for the subsidiary label Buddah. Richard Perry co-produced the sessions at RCA Studios in Los Angeles with Don Van Vliet on vocals, harmonica, bass marimba, and arrangements; Alex St. Clair Snouffer on guitar, bass, and background vocals; Jerry Handley on bass and background vocals; John French on drums and background vocals; and Ry Cooder on guitar, slide guitar, bass, and arrangements. Additional musicians included Samuel Hoffman on theremin; Milt Holland on log drum and tambourine; Taj Mahal on tambourine, bass, and guitar; Doug Moon on guitar; and Perry on harpsichord. Cooder recalls: "He had great musical ideas. It was kind of an interesting event. I still think that 'Safe As Milk' is a good record. What's really good there is the master tape. It's mixed badly. Hopeless mix... hopeless... terrible. Stupid thing was done which was to take it into a cheap studio to save some money.... The master tape of that album is utterly fantastic. They should take it to Japan and redo it. What a great sound. 'Cause it was cut in a good studio on tube equipment - it's a fantastic sound. I was pretty impressed with what he had figured out. Not always logical, but always interesting." Beefheart expressed: "During our 'Safe As Milk' era, we were over in England and I walked right off the stage about ten feet in mid-air. Then fell down about six feet, got up and ran back up on the stage and asked them, 'Why'd you drop me?' Because it was them holding me up with the vast potentiality of their energy. But once I'd begun to do it out there over their heads, they looked up and began to think en masse, 'How the hell is he doing that?' - the contact was broken...I don't think I do magic, I think I do spells." The band did well in the psychedelic music scene until lead guitarist Cooder quit the band right before major gigs scheduled in San Francisco. 'Safe As Milk' never charted in the US or the UK; but it has become a cult classic and is, indeed, the safest place to start in Beefheart's idiosyncratic and influencial career. 'Safe As Milk' full album: 1. 0:00 Sure 'Nuff 'n Yes I Do (Don Van Vliet, Herb Bermann) 2. 2:15 Zip Zag Wanderer (Van Vliet, Bermann) 3. 4:55 Call on Me (Van Vliet) 4. 7:32 Dropout Boogie (Van Vliet, Bermann) 5. 10:05 I'm Glad (Van Vliet) 6. 13:36 Electricity (Van Vliet, Bermann) 7. 16:44 Yellow Brick Road (Van Vliet, Bermann) 8. 19:12 Abba Zaba (Van Vliet) 9. 21:56 Plastic Factory (Van Vliet, Bermann, Jerry Handley) 10. 25:05 Where There's Woman (Van Vliet, Bermann) 11. 27:15 Grown So Ugly (Robert Pete Williams) 12. 29:42 Autumn's Child (Van Vliet, Bermann) 13. 33:45 Safe as Milk (Take 5) (Van Vliet) 14. 37:59 On Tomorrow (Van Vliet) 15. 44:56 Big Black Baby Shoes (Van Vliet) 16. 49:46 Flower Pot (Van Vliet) 17. 53:42 Dirty Blue Gene (Van Vliet) 18. 56:26 Trust Us (Take 9) (Van Vliet) 19. 1:03:48 Korn Ring Finger (Van Vliet)
