Brain Capers

Mott the Hoople | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 16, 1991)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Atlantic / Wea
• ASIN: B000002I7M
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #223,919 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Death May Be Your Santa Claus

2. Your Own Backyard

3. Darkness, Darkness

4. Journey

5. Sweet Angeline

6. Second Love

7. Moon Upstairs

8. Wheel of the Quivering Meat Conception

Editorial Reviews

At the end of the 1960's, Island Records was THE record label everyone looked up to. THE A&R man at Island was the gifted, but somewhat eccentric GUY STEVENS, who was an integral part of the small, brilliant team that made Island so special during this period. Although Guy agreed to produce Mott's new album, he demanded a thousand pounds up front before he would work on the project. Studio time was duly booked, although Island's ever tightening purse-strings meant that the budget to complete the album would only run to a miserly five days worth of recording at Island's Basing Street Studios. After the more methodical approach the band had adopted during the recording of 'Wildlife', where they built tracks with overdubs, this time Guy wanted to record live in the studio:insisting on first takes with the vocals overdubbed later. The first recording session on 19th September 1971 passed quietly enough, with little evidence of what was to follow. In fact, Guy didn't even turn up on the first day leaving the band in the capable hands of engineer Andy Jones. The recording of the album continued to progress slowly over the next three days with only a couple of songs completed. With the studio time fast running out, something needed to be done and Guy, the master of the vibe, had just the idea to get the band playing with the aggression and energy he desired. John Glover of Island Records can remember visiting Basing Street Studios shortly after the final session for the album. ""I clearly remember walking in one Monday morning and they'd finished the album sometime over the weekend and gone totally berserk. Guy always incited them in to being outrageous and the whole place was wrecked"". Unable to decide between 'Bizarre Capers' or 'Brain Damage' for an album title, Guy eventually went for a compromise suggested by Dale Griffin. The album would be called 'Brain Capers' and the sleeve concept was credited to Bizarre Damage. Guy dedicated the album to one of his heores - James Dean. Released on 19th November 1971, 'Brain capers' picked up a mixed response from the music press. Chris Charlesworth from Melody Maker declared that it was ""back to rock for Hoople after their comparatively light last album"". Charlesworth didn't seem overly keen on the rockier material picking out 'Your Own Back Yard' and 'Darkness Darkness' as his personal favourites. Martin Hayman at Sounds thought that the album was a return to ""the real Mott The Hoople form"" and that the band had established themselves with more musical confidence. Looking back Ian Hunter has warmed to the album over the years ""You know 'Brain Capers' to me was five days of chaos. I didn't think anything came out of it, but when I listened to it recently, you can actually hear the Sex Pistols loud and clear. I was quite chuffed. I like 'Brain Capers' better than I did. I was very surprised because I never listened to it for many years and then the punks started talking about it."" Guy died in August 1981, aged 38. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MOTTS CAPERS, May 9, 2002

By 

Kim Fletcher (Pattaya, Chonburi Thailand) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Brain Capers (Audio CD)

Definitely one of the wackiest albums ever recorded, every track is an absolute corker. The whole album was put onto tape in 5 days of madness at Advisions studios London.
For the sessions Guy Stevens the bands original mentor was brought back after not being at the controls for the bands previous album "Wildlife" (which the band themselves had already dubbed mildlife) Guy arrived at the studio with engineer Andy Johns, who was feeling no pain having just come away from the Rolling Stones, armed with a case of Vino Calapso and dressed as Zoro with cape, mask and sword, insisting the tracks were all laid down in one take. "Brain Capers" (featuring the Brain Caper Kids) as the album became known, had an amazing atmosphere with last gasp energy capturing Mott in a wild and manic mood, predating punk rock, the overall feel of Brain Capers was barely controlled chaos, but it remains a brilliant and crucial album. Once described as the great lost hard rock L.P. of all time, the record drew a line in the sand between sixties and seventies music (recorded in 1971 six months before Bowie gave Mott "All The Young Dudes") revealing almost everything called rock and the subsequent punk movement six years later to be nothing short of fraudulent, after just one listen to this album you can clearly hear where "The Sex Pistols" and "The Damned" got their influences.
Opening track "Death May Be Your Santa Claus" is a pounding rocker with fearsome guitars, wailing organ, a catchy hook, and carrying a trademark message of defiance.
Tracks two and three were imaginative and tasteful covers versions of Dion Dimuccis auto biographical anti drug song "Your Own Backyard" and the Young bloods neglected classic "Darkness Darkness" featuring Mick Ralphs on vocals and contained some excellent guitar. Mott had the panache to re-interpret other writers material with feeling and understanding.
"The Journey", a sad introspective masterful ballad, some eight minutes long was Mott equivalent of Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven", building to a dramatic conclusion. The Journey started life as a poem, before becoming the central piece of Mott's stage act, demonstrating Hunter is a writer who has made a major contribution to rock music. The song was also a personal favorite of Verden Allen, who's keyboard playing excelled throughout Brain Capers most notably on this opus.
"Sweet Angeline" is a brilliant all out rocker, with Hunter adopting Dylanesque vocals, and is still in his solo live set today.
"Second Love" was Verden Allen's first song recorded by Mott the Hoople and fair plucks at the old heartstrings.
The penultimate track "The Moon Upstairs" is one of the most powerful tracks that Mott ever recorded. The song was unquestionably six years ahead of its time being a frightening "New Wave" fuzz tone premonitions that musically and lyrically rendered late seventies "Punk Rock" tone clumsy, and lacking in any real substance.
Brian Capers coda was a two minute instrumental piece named "The Wheel Of The Quivering Meat Conception" which was actually nothing more than the climax from a frantic jam from one of the sessions from "The Journey" a fine way to close the album.
Mott the Dog.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Years before the Sex Pistols or Clash, September 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Brain Capers (Audio CD)

This is one of the all-time great British punk rock albums, even if that genre wouldn't even be "invented" for another half decade. "Brain Capers" is the sound of a very angry, frustrated working class band railing out against a world in which it didn't fit. The seething contempt of "Death May Be Your Santa Claus" and "The Moon Upstairs" ("we ain't bleeding you, we're feeding you/but you're too f***ing slow!") wasn't topped in raw anger by anything on the more controversial "Never Mind the Bollocks." Yet this album also has poignant moments like "Sweet Angeline" (a hint of great future Mott piano-based rockers) and the cover of Dion's junkie lament "Your Own Backyard."

Oddly, this about-to-implode band was rescued after this album by David Bowie, glammed up, and went on to some commercial success for a couple of years. Mott the Hoople burned the candle at both ends in the early '70s, and arguably only made three good albums (this one, "All the Young Dudes," and "Mott")--but they're some of the greatest British rock albums ever. The Pistols, Clash, Damned, Gen X, etc., wouldn't exist without them.

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mott creates a Masterwork, Nobody Listens, June 9, 2006

By 

PHILIP S WOLF (SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, CA. USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Braincapers (Audio CD)

This was the first record of Mott The Hoople I listened to, a good friend lent it to me during my third year of doing time in High School. I was 'Hooked' , and within a short time I purchased this and the three LP's that came before "Brain Capers".
NOBODY was like Mott the Hoople way back in 1971... this is not your Daddy's, Led Zeppelin... not even close, if you wanna know what Rock Music COULD HAVE BEEN in the early Seventies, this is as close as you are gonna get.
Things begin with "Death May be Your Santa Claus" and it's a proper start to say the least, Mother's really had to Scream over this to..."TURN THAT CRAP DOWN".
A cover of Dion's "Your Own Backyard" was almost too Preachy at the time of release because Drug Use was still considered too cool to lecture about, but dying ain't so cool either. The best Cover Version of the Youngblood's, "Darness, Darkness" is up next and as usual in Mott's hands it is Ton's better than the Original Version with Great Vocals and Guitar by the even Greater Mick Ralphs.
"The Journey" what can I say, except that the biggest Epic and Masterpiece produced by this Great Band would be heard by only a few of us is quite a shame. This is One of the Greatest songs EVER...
Mott always opened Side Two of their records with something strong and "Sweet Angeline" ( nothing to do with ol' Big Lip's) is no exception. It's a solid Rocker that was featured in their live shows untill the end
"Second Love" & "The Moon Upstairs" are both fine tunes, Please forgive the closing selection as it is a short piece of insanity tacked on by Producer Guy Stevens but it does Quiver though.
The Bonus Cuts are welcome, "Midnight Lady" was a single released by the band and is more in tone to "Wildlife" than "Brain Capers" . The Big Treat here is the Original Version of "The Journey" that is even more Majestic than LP Version, I am thankful the Band let this out of the Vaults, finally.
Angel Air has done a fine job on the Remaster as it sounds so much better than before.. FIVE STARS