Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band: Clear Spot

 Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band: Clear Spot

1972

Reprise Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Low Yo Yo Stuff  2. Nowadays a Woman's Gotta Hit a Man  3. Too Much Time  4. Circumstances  5. My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains  6. Sun Zoom Spark  7. Clear Spot  8. Crazy Little Thing  9. Long Neck Bottles  10. Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles  11. Big Eyed Beans from Venus  12. Golden Birdies



I hear that this record originally had a clear cover for the first pressing...My version is just the usual white cover with Captain Beefheart wearing a Raiden hat...

But when I cracked open my used copy, the previous owner left something freakin' awesome in there for me...

An old Rolling Stone article about Captain Beefheart entitled, "Where's the Captain?"  I scanned it in so you guys could see it, but my scanner is about 6 inches big, so it couldn't quite fit the full page (these pages are from the days when Rolling Stone was a tabloid-sized publication), but that didn't prevent me from scanning it anyway...

 The first page is a beautiful photo of Beefheart, his mustache resplendent in the desert breeze...They always had great photos in these old RS magazines...If you ever see an old 70's-mid 80's issue lying around, crack one open and look at how nice they used to look...They're kinda eye-splitting now...If they do happen to photograph a real musician these days, they usually do the whole  "ultra-close black and white photo meant to accentuate what big wrinkle-bags old musicians are" thing...

 

On  the following page we have a picture of a model named Nahanni Johnstone from Dallas, Texas...I'm not sure what she's selling...There's some vague text at the bottom that informs us that she's "Spiritually aware and always trying new things..." Oh, wait...I just noticed the button on her jacket says "Esprit"...I think they might manufacture clothes or something...I wouldn't know, I don't wear clothes...I just sit naked in front of a computer all day...

Here's a page of text that's probably impossible for you to read, thanks to my shitty printer...Beefheart talks about how much he hates Charlton Heston, whom he predicts will be the next President of the United States...The Captain also discusses his usual subjects like the plight of animals and the superiority of women to men...He also talks about how much he likes Eric Feldman as a person, which I remember reading a lot about in the Captain Beefheart book that Klae bought me...

Next, there's one of his paintings entitled "Bromboline Frenzy." This article is from 1987 or somewhere around that time frame, so at this point Beefheart had long abandoned music for painting...

Another page of text accompanied by a photo of Ted "Theodore" Logan drinking Amaretto...Sometimes I drink Amaretto mixed with Scotch...Yum! This page gives us some insight into some of the things Captain Beefheart enjoys. A partial list includes: Cats, cotton pajamas, tailored suits, La Phraogue single-malt whiskey, red enamel thumbtacks, that old Cootie game, and the smell of Fungus/and or Loam....I don't know what "La Phraogue" whiskey is... They could possibly mean Laphroaig scotch...But I don't know...I can only afford "Winner's Cup"...

 Another nice picture...The big quote about seeing the universe inside a Hamilton Beach Mixer is eye-catching...

Alright, enough about the miscellanea floating around inside the sleeve, let's talk about the record itself...It rules! Beefheart at his most accessible and...gulp...best! After listening to this back to back with "The Spotlight Kid," I've gotta say this is far superior...Much catchier,  exuberant and lively...They snagged big-shot producer Ted Templemen who is famous for his work with Van Halen, the Doobie Brothers, Van Morrison, Little Feat and about a billion other million-sellers. The sound is incredible...Much thicker, clearer and muscular than the majority of Beefheart albums. And Don brought his A-Game in the songwriting Department..." Low Yo Yo Stuff" just comes right out and flattens you with its funky, bluesy swagger. And "Circumstances" might just be the hardest the band ever rocked...Contrast this with the lumbering heaviosity on "The Spotlight Kid." This is much more nimble...Real souped-up muscle-car shit...

Best of all though is the Stax-Style soul influence that pops up on songs like "Too Much Time" and "My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains"...After his recent run of  far-out, cerebral albums it became easy to lose sight at what a great straight-soul singer he was on some of those earlier records. And the band plays this stuff beautifully...That guitar line on "My Head..." just makes you want to melt...Oh, and "Too Much Time" has what is possibly my favorite Beefheart line:

Sometimes when it’s late and I’m a little bit hungry

 I heat up some old stale beans, open up a can of sardines, 

eat crackers and dream of somebody to cook for me..."

 

 And somehow he imbues that line with a considerable amount of poignancy...Really every single lyric on here is pure gold...So much vivid imagery: Whether he's singing about "Sleepin’ in a bayou on a old rotten cot..." on the title track or when he's commanding Zoot Horn Rollo to "Hit that long lunar note and let it float..." there's just so much here to take in...

This gets my highest possible recommendation...Just go out and find a copy at any cost...It's the odd Captain Beefheart album that I think anybody would enjoy...If you'e into blues, classic rock, southern rock, funk, alternative, soul, punk or totally oddball shit then you'll find something to like here...I curse all those years I walked around Earth not knowing "Long Neck Bottles" or "Big Eyed Beans From Venus"...What a hollow, empty shell of a man I was!

Here's "Long Neck Bottles" by Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band...Enjoy...