Here’s a vinyl missive straight from my parents to me, Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band Strictly Personal*. A rare case of them giving me a long-term loan of some LPs, rather than my just stealing them away under cover of darkness. My mum particularly loves this one.
Gimme that harp boy Ain't no fat man's toy
Hitting the racks in 1968 Strictly Personal was originally conceived of as a double album project called It Comes To You In A Brown Paper Wrapper, a reference to how pornography was distributed by post. Sundry practicalities nixed this idea and the fruit of the sessions was released as Strictly Personal, controversially produced by the band’s manager Bob Krasnow.
The production controversy stems from Krasnow adding vogueish phasing and reverb effects and reclamation of the ‘true recordings’ has long been an obsession of those of a Beefheartian bent**.
For my money I can’t get enough of those unique oblique skewed and stewed blues that Captain Beefheart was apt to serve us up at this time. The opening ‘Ah Feel Like Ahcid’ is suitably ramshackle for my tastes, its out there sho’ nuff but there is something thrillingly rootsy and gutsy about it too, that rhythm and that chicken scratch guitar conspire to give the track something of an impressionistic take on John Lee Hooker’s minimalism. That it then segues into the good captain’s heartbeat … truly the blues are the font of all life.
Well she slippin’ along easy like fried chicken Grew sort of greasy easy Oh I ain’t blue no more I ain’t blue no more I said Well she walked along crazy like kinda crazy Sorta lazy sleazy cheesy you know what I mean I said
Strictly Personal guns it up a gear for the throbbing insistence of ‘Safe As Milk’, either a comment on chemically contaminated breastmilk or part of an acid dealer’s sales-pitch, depending on which way you fold your bills. There is a wonderful intensity to the vocals, I find myself hanging onto them like a life line as the music skitters away from me.
To round the side out we get the oval groove of ‘Trust Us’ and ‘Son Of Mirror Man – Mere Man’. The former sounds like an entire concept LP about the descent of man distilled into 8:09, with some great guitar figures and a blues relapse to conclude. The latter track always eludes me, slippery as a (heavily phased) flanged fish I have always struggled to hold an opinion on it when I can’t hear it.
To the flipside, Captain!
There is something substantial and satisfying about ‘On Tomorrow’, it is definitely built on solid ground, no matter how much it struggles to escape gravity. The incredible John French and bassist Jerry Handley really do tie this track down.
I’ve never known how to grok ‘Beetle Bones ‘N Smokin’ Stones’, I take it as a riposte to mainstream psychedelia from whichever planet Van Vliet’s inspiration was orbiting that day; I’m probably wrong. Much as I dig the gleeful line ‘Strawberry feels forever’, it remains a difficult dusty indistinct skeletal thang for me; I want more muck.
Lucky then that Strictly Personal allows ‘Gimme Dat Harp Boy’ to plunge out of the mire next. I love this bluesy earthbound, sexy strutting thing to distraction/destruction/destitution; whichever comes first.
Closer ‘Kandy Korn’ is wonderful for its jazzy jelly roll. There is something uplifting in just how the band persist, ramping the song towards the runout groove.
Like everything I have heard from Captain Beefheart it is the utter idiosyncrasy of Strictly Personal that remains with me after listening. Unlike a lot of way out, stay out, head music this never comes over as overly intellectual, Beefheart’s gutbucket blues core mitigates against this.
The fact that it still sounds so out on its own limb 55 years after it was released is a testament to the drive and utter individuality of Beefheart and also the open-minded approach and skill of the Magic Band. I have mentioned the rhythm section above but Alex St Clair and Jeff Cotton’s guitar playing verged on extraordinary at times. All of this, the times, the place and the substances^^ baked a very unique parcel indeed.
Thanks mum!
Gimme that harp, boy, don't just stand around Gon' blow pure joy, girl, you wear this crown
‘My’ copy of Strictly Personal is a 1971 reissue on Sunset Records, which despite looking a bit beaten up still sounds good after a bit of cleaning. After gawping at some of the variants listed on I am left wondering why nobody has conducted a good deluxe reissue campaign of Beefheart on vinyl. Maybe a bit niche, but damnit this is important stuff!
1174 Down.
*which I will henceforth attribute solely to Captain Beefheart for brevity’s sake, without any intended disrespect to a VERY magic band indeed.
**on this as on anything at else to do with the Captain^ let me refer you to the remarkable Captain Beefheart Radar Station it is a wonderful and detailed resource for all things Van Vliet, which I have leaned on here. Go there.
^the capital letter is intentional and earned.
^^I had always thought, like Zappa, Beefheart was not a dabbler at all, I have learned I was wrong (mostly from interviews with John French).
CB can never get enough CB. Im doing to Big Earl what your folks are doing to you. I just promised him ‘Here Come The Warm Jets’ … if he’s a good Earl.
Wow, there’s an incentive.
He does like music and has has always picked up his own more current musicians but at the same time is always discovering the music dear old CB listens to. Early Roxy Music being a case in point.
That’s good taste.
Your parents are super cool. Mine like bagpipes and The Seekers
I get what you’re saying but it was a right pain in the arse trying to rebel as a teenager. In the end I had to cut my hair and get a job in law.