PIC INFO: Resolution at 859x1100 -- Spotlight on CAPTAIN BEEFHEART and THE MAGIC BAND inside a wooden chicken coop, a close-up shot of the original "Safe As Milk" cover artwork/fisheye lens photo of the band, c. mid 1967. 📸: Guy Webster.
"From skewed blues opener "Sure ’Nuff ’N’ Yes I Do" to the menacing psychedelia of closer "Autumn’s Child," "Safe as Milk" still ranks among the most ambitious debuts in rock. Issued on Buddah in late summer ’67, it had the trappings of the psychedelic age, from the fisheye lens photograph to inventive studio trickery. If America enjoyed the summer of love, however, Beefheart ushered in a winter of discontent, presaging
the death of hippie ideals."
A couple of surprising finales presented a direction that turned into a conclusion with a hindsight, but you also had a hunch there was more to be promised. Ice Cream For Crow by Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band, for instance, is quite weird. That's normal for him, though he did go on the LP I mentioned into a soundscape that could be described as the 80's Tom Waits taking a ton of hard drugs, then visiting his favourite place to gather some strangers to play music – notice I didn't say musicians – and finishing this with a trip to a local wasteland, where his cohorts are told to play whatever instrument the way they like. Unsurprisingly, he makes all that work out and yet he could've gone further in this mode, mind you, though he just … stopped.
Gus Taylor from The Magic Gang has a new project - Gus Tiramani's @gus.tiramani debut single was only realesed last week so I don't know too much about him but I liked what I heard. Here's a live version of the single Galaxy
Gus Tiramani - The Louisiana, Bristol 21st Jan 2023
kofi commission for Bloodysyren. AFTER SO LONG- Thank you so much for your support and patience. I got carried away with the colors and sparkles here. It became a full-blown magical girl transformation. 🫣💜💖💛
I was at a Bruce Springsteen concert watching him play with the E Street Band. Out of nowhere, he transformed into a Sailor Moon type magical girl and then played Born In the USA.
Ted Templeman produced for a lot of musicians, yet I would consider most of them to be in the vein that would've found them checking the music charts for their own placements. Am I accusing his clients of being commercial? No, I am merely saying his collaborators were firmly in the mainstream, so when someone like Captain Beefheart called to cooperate, you knew the latter had a success in his mind. Still, Clear Spot, where Mr. Templeman sat behind the controls, didn't do much for the fortunes of Mr. Beefheart and I agree with the reviewer at Allmusic – why didn't the whole thing bring him and his band the triumph? If you ask me, I assume their previous LPs made many realize Clear Spot clearly sounded like them looking for their Loaded, if you catch my drift.