#shiny beast

[nedison]

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Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band - Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) Genre: Experimental Rock, Art Rock Artwork: Don Van Vliet

[nurtureandsupport]

Squat Cobbler 65: Captain Beefheart - Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) (review)

Squat Cobbler 65: Captain Beefheart – Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) (review)

The little girl that named you years ago died now

This week Mike and Kelly review Kelly’s favorite Captain Beefheart album “Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)”.  This album has all the things that make Beefheart truly unique, while somehow also being probably his most accessible work.

Here is the Price song that Mike said was reminiscent of “Bat Chain Puller”,  you be the judge…

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[transistoradio]

[babbytwogeeaye]

[sofakingmanyrecords]

Though I am only 95% sure, I do think that this might be my favorite Beefheart album as a whole. While it is still subversive in nature, it is also just straight enough so as not to come off as tedious or trying too hard to be “weird” or “out there”. It just is what it is… and it is very engaging overall.

Give it a listen some time if you haven't heard it and/or have been curious about The Captain.

[pleasenomoresadsongs]

Captain Beefheart, born Don Van Vliet, was an American musician known mostly for his experimental fusions of blues and free jazz. After releasing several commercial albums, he had reconvened with old high school friend Frank Zappa to embark on a successful tour and release the live record Bongo Fury in 1975. After the tour was over, Beefheart had begun recording an album with Zappa producing it, harkening back to his 1969 opus Trout Mask Replica. Recorded under the name Bat Chain Puller, the LP was to be the Captain's return to form after a number of increasingly pop albums. Unfortunately, the album was locked away due to contractual disagreements with Warner Brothers and Zappa's manager. Rerecorded by an entirely different band in 1978, the Captain kept 6 songs that were to be on the original album and called the new album Shiny Beast.

Van Vliet's dadaist beat poetry, twisted melodies and nonsensical song structures all return in spades on the album, with added quirks not seen on previous Beefheart albums. The role of bass was filled by a synthesizer and the slide guitar was doubled with ex-Mother Bruce Fowler's trombone to create fluidity over the jagged rhythm section. The Captain's voice returns back to it's glory days, alternating between his crazed old bluesman voice and sincere crooner voice. With the same brand of junkyard percussion, dark jazz bar instrumentation and brooding vocals, the album was surely a major inspiration for Tom Waits' career Swordfishtrombones onwards.

Other highlights from the album include the instrumental Ice Rose, The Floppy Boot Stomp, Love Lies and Harry Irene.

[thebristolboard]

A forgotten masterpiece: "Shiny Beast" by Rick Veitch from Epic Illustrated #8 (October 1981).