Captain Beyond [Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered]

Captain Beyond | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 19, 1997)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: Fontana Island
• ASIN: B000003CMR
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (177 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,307 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Japanese reissue of 1972 self-produced album for Capricorn. 13 tracks, including 'Dancing Madly Backwards (On A Sea Of Air)', 'Armworth' and 'Myopic Void'. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

214 of 217 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There I was ..., September 24, 2003

By 

MurrayTheCat (upstate New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Captain Beyond (Audio CD)

... in the summer of 1972, standing in the record store, holding this album. Hmmm, Lee Dorman and Rhino. (I was an Iron Butterfly fanatic.) Hmmm, Rod Evans. (I was a Deep Purple fanatic.) And, who the heck was Bobby Caldwell? Johnny Winter had a drummer by that name. Was it the same one? I didn't buy the album that day, but about a week later, I did. I took it straight to a friend's house, and we had a listen. Needless to say, it just about took our faces off.

The album still has its effect. What an amazing display of power and finesse! Never before--and never again to my knowledge--has an array of diverse time signatures danced with such remarkable ease. Bobby Caldwell's highly aggressive but astoundingly tasteful drumming will stupefy you. I thought about mentioning a couple of specific spots on the album where he overwhelms me, but that's impossible because the guy never really stops overwhelming me! With today's preoccupation with trying to mimic a drum-machine (an ongoing trend for almost 20 years), I wonder if anybody knows how to play drums like this anymore. Guitarist Larry Reinhardt (Rhino) is as tasteful a player as one could ask for. We got a dose of his alluring style on Iron Butterfly's METAMORPHOSIS (a much overlooked gem, by the way). His playing is firm, to the point, and power-ridden. But, it also contains cosmic elements, overtones of otherworldliness, that I find irresistible. Lee Dorman is much underrated on bass. The power aspect of this music does not afford him the freedom to embellish with the endless variety he gave us with Iron Butterfly, but he does give us plenty of motion, along with maintaining the solid bottom needed for these driving rhythms. I've always loved the work of vocalist Rod Evans when he was with Deep Purple. Here, he is given the opportunity to really show off. His vocals are as energized as the rest of the band.

Another review points out that most of the reviews on this product page are written by us old folks. Yes, there are indeed many of us who have owned this album for 30-some years, and who are still infatuated by its brilliance. Great music stands the test of time. It rises above mere nostalgia. CAPTAIN BEYOND packs a wallop. What a combination of energy and sophistication! The music is well thought out--it's classy, but tailored to knock your socks off. If you have any idea of what it takes to make a band jell, I can almost guarantee that after the first four songs, you and your friends will be looking at each other with blank stares. "Juggernaut" does not even begin to describe this album.

Cheers,
Murray

143 of 146 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best albums ever made!, November 19, 2003

By 

David Parker (burlington, vermont United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Captain Beyond (Audio CD)

And to think, when I bought this on a whim back in '72 at the age of 16, I, for many years, thought I was the only one who'd ever heard of this great band (even though it was made up of members of Iron Butterfly and Deep Purple!) So great to read all the other glowing reviews here - so I must add my two cents. What exactly is "Captain Beyond"?? An album still very much ahead of its time - hard rock, but not metal - spacey but not too "druggy" - acoustic before there was the term "unplugged" - jazzy without being jazz (this due to drummer Caldwell's unique and offbeat time signatures) - conceptual without being a "concept album", with each song flowing on into the next. And certainly one of the greatest guitar albums I've ever heard, due to the highly underrated Strat-master with the single-moniker name of Rhino (as a guitarist myself, I STILL can't figure out most of these riffs!) So what exactly does all this yin & yang add up to? One of the greatest "unknown supergroup" albums ever recorded. Still eminently listenable after 31 years (due in no small part to its excellent production values - it sounds like it could have been recorded yesterday!!) How many albums, even the better known "classics", can really say that? Of the thousands of albums I've ever owned, this is still in my Top Ten! Yeah, that good!

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the 5 best rock albums of all time!, June 2, 2000

By 

D. Tonya "the_digital_dan" (Barber-tucky, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Captain Beyond (Audio CD)

Born from the ashes of Deep Purple (vocalist Rod Evans) and Iron Butterfly (bassist Lee Dorman and guitarist Rhino) and adding an excellent if somewhat unknown drummer (Bobby Caldwell). This was one of the first "superbands" of their time. All members had achieved a great degree of fame in their former bands, but took their different stylistic approaches to produce the first truly great progressive hard rock album.

Their music was punctuated with a constantly shifting tempo with equally complex time signature changes. Their musicianship rivalled or surpassed that of the majority of their contemporaries. Unlike many groups with stellar musicians, their songs still flowed effortlessly together, never staying one place long enough to become stale or repeatative and never becoming overly self-indulgent.

From they acoustic "A Thousand Days of Yesterdays" to the loud and heavy "Frozen Over", the incredible dynamics that are the hallmarks of progressive hard rock music today are present. For an early 70's recording (2 years before I was born), the production work on this recording is nothing less than extraordinary. The album sounds incredibly clear and vibrant, with all the impact and power you'd expect from a modern production.

This album was ahead of its time and is still fresh to this day. Of the 2500 cd's in my collection, this is still my most favorite. If you are a fan of King's X, Dream Theater, Fates Warning or the like, you must have this album. If you are a fan of Deep Purple and Iron Butterfly and don't own this album, what are you waiting for?