Beefheart: Strictly Personal: phasing/reverberation - yes/no...?

[Six String]

I’m a sometimer as well. In the 70s I owned TMR but could never really get it and In the 80s I traded it away to a friend. I own Safe As Milk which I like a lot and Clear Spot (with the embossed flip top plastic cover) which is also quite good. It might be TMR’s fault but I’ve never been driven to explore much further. I do like avant garde, the “new thing” or however you want to label the outside jazz stuff like Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, etc. but I’ve never been interested in hearing TMR again. Oh, I do still have Bongo Fury too but haven’t played it in donkey years.

Listening to Clear Spot now and it’s sounding good to these old cloth ears. The closest I’ve come to seeing anyone from the Magic Band was the drummer who I saw play with that short lived group with Richard Thompson, Fred Frith and Henry Kaiser. They did a warmup gig just before recording the first one in a small venue (125 seater) nearby. It was wonderful and insane.

[GoogaMooga]

Didn't he write poetry as well? I seem to recall seeing a book of poems by him at the Exchange in Notting Hill Gate way back.

[toomanyhatz]

I'm ultimately an "always," I think, but the stuff I feel the need to defend isn't the 'out there' stuff - which I get is an acquired taste, but I've acquired it - but rather the 'normal' stuff. Not that Unconditionally Guaranteed or Bluejeans and Moonbeams are great records by any means - though the first does have a couple really good tracks - but they're not utter sellouts or completely lacking in personality either. By comparison to his others, not so great. Compared to ordinary music of the period? I think if we didn't have TMR for comparison, we'd think of them as pleasant period pieces.

[robertff]

90% Godawful racket.

I take your 90% and raise it another 5%. However, I quite like soft rock classic "Love, will keep us together" he made with Tennille

That was funny, made me chuckle.


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[robertff]

Can't believe Strictly Personal hasn't been mentioned once yet, I absolutely love that album, his very finest for me.



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[Charlie O.]

Can't believe Strictly Personal hasn't been mentioned once yet, I absolutely love that album, his very finest for me.

One of my favorites, too.

[Walk In My Shadow]

Never.

Life's too short to try again.

[fange]

90+% wonderful.

[fange]

[fange]

[fange]

[Diamond Dog]

I'm a 'Never' and a very proud one at that.

[Rayge]

A fan from the single release of Abba Zabba. Treasure the memory of seeing the original Magic Band in the basement room that was Middle Earth in Covent Garden in the late 1960s on their first European visit.
I never got onto the two Virgin albums or Bongo Fury, but I have all the rest, including several live boots.
With Trout Mask, it helps to come at it with a modern American poetry perspective. Lots of good jokes, too.

[The Slider]

Get him? Yes.
Like it? Not much.

I did for a bit but it wore out its welcome very quickly

[C]

Bluejeans and Moonbeams are great records by any means - though the first does have a couple really good tracks - but they're not utter sellouts or completely lacking in personality either.

Here's my Amazon review of said record:

The classic line-up left after the release of the album before - Unconditionally Guaranteed. That says a lot. They were the blokes who 'interpreted' Beefheart's ideas and made them playable. With the likes of Rockette Morton and Zoot Horn Rollo gone the Captain was sadly on his own. Many say he was 'lost' and it shows.

The album is a dull as ditch water and lacks any dynamism, excitement and tension that is in shedloads on earlier albums. Many reviewers have mentioned The Captain's Holiday - the personnel are unknown and the harmonica on the track is not played by Captain Beefheart by his own admission!

Same Old Blues and Twist Ah Luck are the best two tracks on the album and they are mediocre. The title track is painful as is most of the rest of the album.

Fortunately 'normal service' was resumed with the next album - Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) which is an absolute corker! Do yourselves a favour and listen to the first track and hear the difference (The Floppy Boot Stomp).

Bluejeans And Moonbeams WAS the Tragic Band - fortunately they only made one album.

I love Beefheart but the lad did himself no favours with this turkey!






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[C]

I'm a 'Never' and a very proud one at that.

Predictable!

Ha ha wanker!




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[C]

Yes, this is delightful





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[yomptepi]

I like nearly everything. I struggle with Strictly Personal and Moon beams. If pushed, then Shiny Beast is my favourite ( the Virgin version). I love everything else.

[Jumper K]

Hell no! Unlistenable arse.

[Lord Rother]

I'm not sure everybody has seen this



.

Christ.

Each to our own but ask me, someone devoid of even a grain of musical talent, to write a song to save my life and it would probably come out as something totally tuneless like that. I’d be shot at dawn.

Weird.