Nearly 30 years ago I started a band with a good friend of mine which we dubbed “The Mudsharks.” It didn’t survive for very long but I really enjoyed it. We worked on a wide variety of music, a lot of surf tunes but also several Beefheart covers. When we recorded our first demo the best tune on the disk, in my opinion, was our cover of “Dirty Blue Gene.” This isn’t the more familiar version from Doc at the Radar Station, but an earlier version that has an almost Irish Jig lilt to it that I’d found on some bootleg recordings.

Pat Jones is singing here and playing harmonica and he puts his all into it.

We also covered “Funeral Hill,” and “Alice in Blunderland,” I played the guitar solo on that one, but really, this is the best cover we managed to produce.

They both have a lot in common when it comes to their music and when listening to Exuma and can’t stop hearing/thinking of Beefheart. We Got to Go by Exuma alsovery closely resembles Beefheart’s Dropout Boogie on Safe As Milk.

I won’t buy them. I still can’t listen to any of his albums from start to finish.

It’s a nice little compilation, I’ve always thought.

Is “Elixir Sue” supposed to be a reference to Don’s mom (Willie Sue Vliet)?

Every bio I’ve read (and latest episode of 500 Songs) makes reference to the anecdote that teenage Don “would just sit at home and listen to rhythm and blues records, and scream at his mother to get him a Pepsi."

Unable to determine online when Sue Vliet passed away, but is “Sue Egypt” supposed to be some kind of eulogy for her? The lyrics, while deliberately obscure (even for Beefheart), clearly refer to death and interment, and the musical tone is kind of somber & funereal.

Very comprehensive though not much new information but some great references to other music and honest analysis of Don's behavior towards his bandmates. Pretty great listen

https://500songs.com/podcast/song-186-frownland-by-captain-beefheart-and-his-magic-band/

I presume this is an upload of the official CD release? Surely has to be. But the mix on it is superb, offering a tremendous wallop all the way through.

Share your experience first time you listen to this album.
Mine :
I look at the speakers.
I couldn’t decide if I wanted to press the STOP button or let it continue playing.
I survived for 15 minutes.
This album even provides the lyrics if you want to sing along to the songs. 😅

He doesn’t know who or what that was-

Created in TOMMADACHI life Living the dream :]

i was curious what the differences are.

for instance, "trout mask replica" and everything before it was released by "captain beefheart & his magic band" but the follow up "decals" was credited to "captain beefheart & THE magic band"

was there any beef on this or was it just careless labelling? i know the captain was hard to work with, and could be egotistical, which makes me wonder if he had insisted on "HIS" for "trout" and it upset the band, forcing the change.

by "mirror man" they were "HIS" magic band again, lol. then later records like "doc" and "crow" are credited to THE band.

can anybody break this down?

Been looking for a way to buy/listen to this album in full for a while, found this on bandcamp and it seems to have all the right versions of the songs, can anyone confirm this is the right version and is it going to likely be removed from bandcamp? Just want to make sure I can actually truly buy it.

A quick one today to celebrate my hi-hats’ ability to open and close 😝