“I May Be Hungry But I Sure Ain’t Weird”
One of the RYM reviews:
“Listening to this album is like being in prison and walking down that dark corridor that leads to the execution room, and each track brings you closer to the door. Something’s not quite compos mentis here. Anything bad I could say about the music, and the vocals, would be an understatement.”
Hehe, whatcha say? But, what did you expect from good ol’ Cap, some crooner stuff or somethin’? Peoples, peoples, peoples, ya must be prepared for these kinda albums. I mean really! This is weird shit, raw psychedelizied blues weirdness, like Howlin’ Wolf on acid. Don howls and screams as crazy racoon, from the deep of his sinful soul. Those who are familiar with “Trout Mask” or “Mirror Man” know but others who aren’t… well… Anyways, there’s always a first time for everything.
Now on the specification. This is Captain Beefheart 2nd lp with His Magic Band released in 1968., produced by Bob Krasnow. Beefheart wasn’t satisfied with results to say the least.
“After Safe as Milk, the Captain wanted to go full kozmo-blues and intended a double album called It Comes to You in a Plain Brown Wrapper, with the 1967-material that was partly issued in 1971 as Mirror Man and later more comprehensively reconstructed on 1995’s The Mirror Man Sessions. But while the debut Safe as Milk was weird yet very much in touch with already established forms of fusing rhythm&blues, rock and psychedelia, the Brown Wrapper recordings were lengthy 15 to 30 minute-prog-monsters drawing from the most extreme sides of delta blues on the one hand and space rock psychedelia on the other hand – without using any of the psychedelic sound gimmicks, it was really just delta blues rock taken to its outer limits. Needless to say, no label would publish this at the time.
”Ah Feel Like Ahcid”
“This is were the Strictly Personal story starts: Producer Bob Krasnow looked at the material, told the band to record shorter versions and tinkered with the usual psychedelia-clichés to align it with Hendrix or the 13th Floor Elevators – you know, acceptably „far out“ stuff. What we ended up with on Beefheart’s second official album is experimental blues compositions with a lot (but not too much) of psychedelic phasing, unfocussed song structures somewhere between tight r&b and rural bluesy jamming – and it is all so audibly manipulated in post-production that Krasnow got a lot of flak for it (critics included Beefheart himself). And, as history continued to show, Beefheart was always worst when someone tried to make him more appealing to the masses.”
Bought this UK ’71 edition [different cover art] sometimes in the 90’s and it grew on me since. Just want to say, I like it more than “Trout Mask” and “Mirror Man”, now you know. Ahcid <360> vinyl rip by Surfadelic.
Alright, Gimme Dat Harp Boy! Now Go Home & Get Your Fuckin’ Shinebox! Dig!!!
SURFADELIC 