One of the most beautiful pieces of music that I know of. One Red Rose That I Mean from Captain Beefheart's Lick My Decals Off, Baby, my favourite Beefheart record. Zoot Horn Rollo (Bill Harkleroad)'s playing is gorgeous and I've still never really heard anything like this - his phrasing and sense of melody (though I gather Beefheart wrote it on the piano and Harkleroad as his musical director made it into a piece). But most of all the way he's attacking, yanking, the strings, I find such a beautiful sound. There's a transcription here, along with other Beefheart songs, if anyone's interested. It's been 20 years and I still haven't read Harkleroad's Lunar Notes, though I keep meaning to.
Live in 1972:
A cool, strange TV advert for the record that was banned from being played. A nice article about that which shows the record company being supportive, which is nice and certainly a rarity.
A rather funny story about the first time I ever heard Beefheart, which was indeed Decals. It was winter break 1991 and I was 15. My first band, Funkalicious (yep), decided to go on a band outing. We were rehearsing everyday at our bass player Ed's house as his parents were away. Ed was the only one of us who could drive and I'm afraid we used to abuse this. Though that day was really nice, we went up to the cool record stores in New Haven, CT (Cutler's, Rhyme's) and there were some bands I was anxious to check out, most notably Fugazi and Captain Beefheart. Being very excited at finding Repeater and Decals, we then entertained ourselves by making up band names and their albums and asking the clerk to look for them. Which they good-naturedly did. The only one I remember is Buttery Cake Ass' Live In Hungaria. Oh how I wish that record existed.
The tapes we picked up did not disappoint on our drive home (only 20 minutes, but oh how long it seemed then, with the first teenage rushes of freedom, being out on your own with your friends). Our own songs were rather strange and humourous at the time and we found ourselves blown away by Captain Beefheart. Ed had to be back by 8 as he was going on a date. But Rick (vocals), Bri (drums) and I (guitar) did not want the day to end. Somehow we convinced Ed to go along with a plan, that while it still meant we had to part ways, we would do so with maximum entertainment value. When Ed went to pick up his date, he agreed to tell her that the reason the backseat was covered in blankets was that he had just had it reupholstered. We kept a window cracked open to hear him give this excuse. Whether or not she believed this is another story, as I'm sure she could clearly see the outline of three heads underneath the blankets, probably shaking fiercely in order to contain their enormous mirth. As she got in the car, Bri pressed play on the boom box we had with us. And the car was flooded with the sounds of Beefheart's The Clouds Are Full Of Wine (Not Whiskey Or Rye). We EXPLODED with laughter. Bless Ed for going along with that. I'm still laughing now.
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