Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band: Lick My Decals Off, Baby

Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band: Lick My Decals Off, Baby

1970

Straight/Reprise

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Lick My Decals Off, Baby  2. Doctor Dark  3. I Love You, You Big Dummy  4. Peon  5. Bellerin' Plain  6. Woe-is-uh-Me-Bop  7. Japan in a Dishpan  8. I Wanna Find a Woman That'll Hold My Big Toe Till I Have to Go  9. Petrified Forest  10. One Red Rose That I Mean  11. The Buggy Boogie Woogie  12. The Smithsonian Institute Blues (or the Big Dig)  13. Space-Age Couple  14. The Clouds Are Full of Wine (not Whiskey or Rye)  15. Flash Gordon's Ape




 Of all the Captain Beefheart albums I own, this one is easily my favorite...Reminiscent of the spastic "Trout Mask Replica" style but the lyrics hit the mark more often and the songs are catchier...

 Look at those song titles! Just the phrase "Woe-is-uh-Me Bop" gets stuck in my head! And Captain Beefheart sounds thrilled to be here,  like he won't be stopped until every square inch of the universe is filled with white-hot poetry and donky marimba...

"Hold a drinking glass up to your eye after you've
scooped up a little of the sky,
and it ain't blue no more.
what's on the leaves ain't dew no more..."

or try this one out....

"The rug's wearing out that we walk on,
Soon it will fray and we'll drop dead into yesterday.
Must the breathing pay
for those who breathe in and don't breathe out?"

I could listen to him hiss this stuff all day...Picking out highlights is difficult on these late 60's-early 70's Captain Beefheart albums. They're best appreciated as a whole, but if forced to choose I'm going to have to go with "I Love You, You Big Dummy," which could almost pass as straight-forward electric blues but the band sounds like they're having so much fun they're about to shake out of their own skins...

I also love the title track...Particularly the "She stuck out her tongue and the fun begun" section, which I always have a tough time getting out of my brain...Same goes for the guitar-based instrumental "Peon" which escaped my notice the first few listens but now I can't help but be taken in by it...It reminds me of a quiet sunset on Saturn...

(Television ad for "Lick My Decals Off, Baby," which would probably confuse people just as much today as it did back in 1970...)

Alsotake note of "The Smithsonian Institute Blues (Or The Big Dig)" which single-handedly invented Tom Waits 80's reinvention...Captain Beefheart was so ahead of the curve that he's still around the corner...

 (A 1983 appearance by captain Beefheart on David Letterman if'n you don't have anything to do...)

Damn, I wish "Lick My Decals Off, Baby" was a double album...Oh well, nothing I can do about that except play it twice. So, let's listen to "The Smithsonian Institute Blues (Or The Big Dig)" by Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band...Hell, you better listen to it twice for good measure...