Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band
Shiny Beast Alternate Takes
Studio Sessions
The Automatt, San Francisco, California
August 28, 1978
Got some Shiny Beast alternate takes from the guy who wants to stay anonymous. Thanks a lot to you for the excellent stuff!!
The collection included 12 tracks. Suction Prints, When I See Mummy I Feel Like A Mummy, Candle Mambo, The Witch Doctor Life and Love Lies came in 2 versions, version 2 the same tracks with more hiss, Owed T'Alex the same track as the official one in minor quality.
I kept 6 tracks which are definitely different to the released versions. Culled from a tape I got from perebeef I added another different version of Candle Mambo.
There is not much info about these tracks.
Most of them were seeded on DIME by carville in January 2005 as WB promo from the WB archive inhouse cassette tape. The tracks offered here sound better.
Also I have seen the same tracks listed as 1978-08-28 session tape.
01. Suction Prints (4:20) marimba!, less horns
02. When I See Mummy I Feel Like A Mummy (4:29) shorter, missing background vocals
03. Candle Mambo (Version 1) (3:18) marimba low mix
04. Candle Mambo (Version 2) (3:25) different intro, no marimba, less vocals
05. The Witch Doctor Life (2:02) instrumental, faster
06. Love Lies (3:28) different take, faded
07. Run Paint Run Run (4:01) basics only
Lineage 01-03, 05-07: Studio->2nd gen tape->Fostex X-1 Portastudio->CDR->CDR->TLH->WAV->Wavelab: click deletion, auto error correction, dc-offset elimination->TLH->FLAC Level 8
Lineage 04: tape ?gen->Wavelab>WAV>Freefilter using soundscape of Candle Mambo (Version 1), normalized to 0db->TLH->FLAC Level 8
Total length: 25:07
Line-Up:
Don Van Vliet: vocals, tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, harmonica
Eric Drew Feldman: bass guitar, keyboards, synthesizer
Bruce Fowler: trombone, air-bass
Robert Williams: drums, percussion
Richard Josef Redus: guitar, slide guitar, slide bass
Jeff Moris Tepper: guitar, slide-guitar
Art Tripp: marimba
Producer: Don Van Vliet, Pete Johnson
Engineer: Glen Kolotkin, assisted by: Jeffrey Norman
jazzfan 2009-03-15
Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band
Shiny Beast Basic Tracks
Studio Sessions
The Automatt, San Francisco, California
June 6 - August 27, 1978
Another rarity from our friend who wants to stay anonymous.
Same story as with The Spotlight Kid Outtakes: at first the tapes were made for a former band member in order to learn the tunes. Our guy got his tape directly from him, transferred the tapes to CDR using a stand alone CD burner.
Thank you very much again to Mr. Anonymous!
01. Tropical Hot Dog Night (Version 1) (4:39:39)
02. Run Paint, Run Run (4:16:07)
03. You Know You're A Man (3:27:55)
04. When I See Mummy (Version 1) (5:34:34)
05. Candle Mambo (3:39:07)
06. Floppy Boot Stomp (4:21:02)
07. Brickbats (3:38:51)
08. Bat Chain Puller (4:43:23)
09. Owed T'Alex (4.10:25)
10. Love Lies (5:04:71)
11. When I See Mummy (Version 2) (5.12:23)
12. Tropical Hot Dog Night (Version 2) (2:48:62) cut
Lineage: Studio->1st gen tape->2nd gen tape->Fostex X-1 Portastudio->CDR->CDR->FLAC Level 6
Total length: 52:36:34
Line-Up:
Don Van Vliet: vocals, tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, harmonica, whistling
Eric Drew Feldman: bass guitar, keyboards, synthesizer
Bruce Fowler: trombone, air-bass
Robert Williams: drums, percussion
Richard Josef Redus: guitar, slide guitar, slide bass, accordion
Jeff Moris Tepper: guitar, slide-guitar
Art Tripp: marimba, additional percussion (on: Tropical Hot Dog Night)
Producer: Don Van Vliet, Pete Johnson
Engineer: Glen Kolotkin, assisted by: Jeffrey Norman
Comments:
Scott McFarland: During your time, were any members of the band especially active at 'translating' Don's instructions or raw music out to members of the band? Can you describe how the process worked?
Robert Williams: Don dictated each part to each musician on an individual basis. Some drum beats were written by having me emulate the sound of windshield wipers recorded on his portable cassette recorder. Other beats were recordings that he had made of a set of keys hitting the floor or a five gallon water bottle with the bubbles rising ... : "Bloop babloop buddella bloop", or him singing into his recorder: "Bum chicka a do bop dweep boing, diddelly doop, plop plop fizz fizz".
And oh what a relief it was to see it all come together like pieces in a puzzle. The guitar parts were mostly written by him whistling. He usually played the keyboards himself as Eric recorded it to learn later. Sheriff Of Hong Kong was written on the piano by Don. The left hand was doubled with bass guitar, the right doubled with the guitar. I had recorded a drum part for that song which Don showed me by playing the drums but ended up having John French replace it. John did that by reading the bass part while he improvised on the drums. Of course I had to learn that six minute and thirty three second improvisation for the tour. It took some time to memorize but it was actually a much better part than the one Don had given me to play originally.
Scott McFarland: How long did that band have to develop & rehearse the songs, and how long to do the recording sessions?
Robert Williams: Our rehearsals lasted months upon months. Most of the time we rehearsed without pay just because we all wanted it to sound as tight as possible. Jeff Tepper and I used to get together and I'd repeat a verse or chorus over and over so he could really zero in on his part. When I first joined the band Eric (not really a drummer) showed me the basic mechanics of a beat we referred to as "Picaro Pete" which appeared in many of Don's earlier compositions. It sounds just like the name. Try to spot it next time you listen to Trout Mask. The recording sessions usually took a week of live tracking, a week of over dubs and vocals, and a week of mixing.
Scott McFarland: Was Don difficult to work with?
Robert Williams: He was a big pain in the window. All he wanted to do was blabber and smoke. If I were to accidentally closed my high hat while reaching for something in the middle of his endless bullshitting he'd scream at me accusing me of putting tin foil in his radar. On other occasions he'd be thinking of a part for the keyboards or something and accuse someone in the room of having too much to think so he'd point at each guy and say, "It's not you, it's not you, it's not you, and it's not you, but he knows who he is!" Of course the person he didn't point at would be the scapegoat of the day. Most of the time he'd pick on me. One day I pulled him aside and told him that I perform much better when he's nice to me and he said, "Hey man, I just do it to you because you can take it. These other guys would fall apart and shrivel away if I did it to them. Do you know what I mean, man? I mean, do you? I mean, I need that tension man! Besides I was only teasing." Don was a genius when it came to getting us to do what he wanted and what he wanted was often very demanding. On the other hand when it came to paying us he automatically turned into an idiot who couldn't count to three. It makes me laugh to think of it now.
(Scott McFarland: WAIT FOR ME! Robert Williams Pants Out. Private source. Early 1997)
Don Van Vliet: I'm totally happy with this album. I just had a blast, and I mean a blast, doing it. Glen Kolotkin, the engineer, is just brilliant. This is the first time you can hear my voice the way it really is. Glen did Stravinsky's last record. I've always used my voice as an instrument but these people never realized that. What a job he did. When I heard Bat Chain Puller it just knocked me down. He got my voice the way it is. You know what I mean?
(Billy Altman: Captain Beefheart Knows He's A Man. Creem, April 1979)
jazzfan 2009-03-14
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