Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band: The Spotlight Kid

Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band: The Spotlight Kid

1972

Reprise Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1.  I'm Gonna Booglarize You Baby  2. White Jam  3. Blabber 'n Smoke  4. When It Blows Its Stacks  5. Alice in Blunderland  6. The Spotlight Kid  7. Click Clack  8. Grow Fins  9. There Ain't No Santa Claus on the Evenin' Stage  10. Glider


In the three years I've been doing this blog, I've been slowly acquiring random Captain Beefheart albums in no particular chronological order. As a result, my Beefheart posts are so all-over-the-place... If you're not familiar with his discography it might be hard to tell where all this stuff falls into place but his career is broke up into very distinct eras...

"Spotlight Kid" was the follow-up to the two notoriously difficult, spattery albums ("Trout Mask Replica" and "Lick my Decals Off, Baby") on which the band's legend was built upon. While their inventiveness built Captain Beefheart a dedicated cult following, he decided he was sick of obscurity and made an accessible album that would sound great on FM radio circa 1972 (and maybe rake in a few bucks while he was at it)....And how did he accomplish this?

He bought a spiffy suit and wrote some un-spattery blues rock songs. Sure, song titles like "There Ain't No Santa Claus on the Evenin' Stage" may raise flags now, but this wasn't too far removed  from an era where a song called  "I Am the Walrus" could top the charts...And these slow, heavy blues tracks sound great...And while the Captain's vocals are still a bit idiosyncratic, there's no denying how powerful he sounds here...If the lyrics are oblique, the soul is there...All in all, I think if someone could handle, say...the White Stripes, the "Spotlight Kid" album wouldn't seem too startling (although the extra-chunky marimba might raise a few eyebrows...And maybe those guttural "Ho Ho Ho Ho's" on "There Ain't No Santa Claus..." might be a bit much for some folks). But I greatly admire the way they made a more accessible record without losing their unique identity.

It's also notable that the album is credited to Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, rather than the usual His Magic Band...Was he loosening his grip?  Nah, I'm guessing it was another move towards mainstream acceptance. The "His" sounded like you might be getting into some weird, arty thing...Inept Radio Programmers introducing the band would probably screw it up and say "The Magic Band" anyway, so might as well beat 'em to the punch...

There's a few all-time classics here...Including the spare, mysterious, deep-swamp blues, 'Grow Fins.". I'm not someone who normally falls head-over-heels in love with electric blues rock, however I so get it when I hear this...Suddenly, those countless bland hours spent listening to the mind-numbing string-bending of Eric Clapton melt away with every thrust and howl of the Magic Band...I also love "When It Blows Its Stacks"" which has a stomping, distorted riff  that wouldn't sound out of place on an early Black Sabbath album...

Honestly, even though "Trout Mask Replica" is the Beefheart album that is always singled out, I would probably point newcomers to the one-two punch of "The Spotlight Kid" and the follow-up album "Clear Spot" (which we'll get to in a day or so) as the obvious entry points. Then move onto the run of albums from "Shiny Beat" through "Ice Cream For Crow"... After that you're ready for everything else in the discography (outside of "Unconditionally Guaranteed" and "Bluejeans & Moonbeams" which you'll probably want to skip altogether!! But we'll get to that in a few days)...

So let's listen to "Grow Fins"...Sounds good to me...Enjoy...