Doc at the Radar Station [Import]

Captain Beefheart | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 5, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Emd Int'l
• ASIN: B000025JS6
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #242,350 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Hot Head

2. Ashtray Heart

3. A Carrot Is As Close As A Rabbit Gets To A Diamond

4. Run Paint Run Run

5. Sue Egypt

6. Brickbats

7. Dirty Blue Gene

8. Best Batch Yet

9. Telephone

10. Flavor Bud Living

11. Sheriff Of Hong Kong

12. Making Love To A Vampire With A Monkey On My Knee

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

At first listen, Doc at the Radar Station is cacophonous, atonal, and jagged. It's the same after repeated listenings, but by then the whimsical humor, blissful invention, melodic turnabouts, and even warmth shine through. Doc at the Radar Station was the follow-up to the Captain's big comeback record for the punk and new-wave crowd, 1978's merely OK Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller). Some of the songs on the disc were originally written in between Beefheart's two strongest records, 1969's mind-blowing Trout Mask Replica and 1970's merrymaking Lick My Decals Off, Baby. Doc at the Radar Station was made with a newly energized, younger Magic Band featuring Eric Drew Feldman, Robert Williams, and Gary Lucas. With their help, old man Beefheart was blowing chunks of lyrical beauty ("Making Love to a Vampire with a Monkey on My Knee") and mystical, rollicking, blues-baked skronk ("Run Paint, Run, Run") with the same force as PIL, Pere Ubu, or any other postpunks of the day that adulated the man. --Mike McGonigal

Product Description

Import edition of 1980 album that's currently out-of-print domestically. This Five star album features 12 tracks including 'A Carrot Is As Close As A Rabbit Gets To A Diamond'.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If "Beef-ART" Is An Acquired Taste, This Is Filet Mignon, November 20, 2002

By 

Chris Matthews "nunyuz" (Ridgecrest, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Doc at the Radar Station (Audio CD)

The Captain is a strange & eccentric man, and not all of you will like this album. He's one of those I-don't-give-a-damn-what-you-think artists that we thought died out in the Beat era, and he's not afraid to throw in whatever suits him, lumps & all. This is why he scares many, but endears himself to those of us who dig him.

That being said, this is my absolute favorite Beefheart album, even more so than the infamous "Trout Mask Replica". Why? I think it's because this is the closest the Captain got to a punk/new wave album, but then again, everything he does is his own kinda' wave. There's more modern electric guitar upgrade on this than TMR which delves heavily into a puposely dirtied up Delta blues & folk setting instead. A new, younger Magic Band helps drive this into Pere Ubu territory & pull it off as cleanly as a Motown backing band behind Syd Barrett.

"Making Love To A Vampire With A Monkey On My Knee" is the acid test of listening to this album. In it, the Captain rants about a [messed] up hallucinatory situation that sounds to be Tom Waits on acid trying to describe that the monkey on his back has now crawled around to the front to look right in his eyes. Sound weird? Then Beefheart isn't for you. I get a kick out of it because whatever bad situation I'm in it couldn't possibly be as bad as this guy's, yet it's funny because it's so absurd you know it's not real. The cacophonous ending has to be heard ("DEATH BE DAMNED!...LIFE!")to be believed.

My favorite here is "Run Paint Run" another bittersweet piece of primal scream therapy. The Captain & the Magic Band make a frat house chant by way of Fellini out of an ode to dripping paint. It seems to say that letting it run naturally will give way to new insights that will free you like Jackson Pollock's tears or something.

Wild women muses show up here: The tempermental mistress in "Hot Head", the cruel hearted femme fatale that stubs out her cares on Beef's "Ashtray Heart", and the exotic "Sue Egypt", one of the album's best.

The tripping verse of "A Carrot Is As Close As A Rabbit Gets To A Diamond" is a great ditty about humility.

"Best Batch Yet" seems to be about the opposite of "Run Paint Run". The artist is now satisfied with his work and has his technique under control.

All Beefheart albums are batches of riddles that are stetched on a canvas that echoes the likes of Salvador Dali or Francis Bacon. He's surreal, and sometimes this mode helps us
deal with aspects of existence that we hadn't considered.
Consider "Doc At The Radar Station" next time you're stuck in a rut.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Original assured fantastic!, May 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Doc at the Radio Station (Audio CD)

This album is my favorite Beefheart cut. This is him at his most assured. The production is perfect and the band is right there making this difficult music easy. With Trout Mask Beefheart had to mutate his blues musicians to get what he wanted. These guys grew up on Trout Mask and there is an easy joy in their playing. The use of mellotron is startling. Beefheart is very painterly with his music and once you get past the initial shock of his supreme originality you find an invigorating life affirming beauty. The sleeve art by the Captain will give some indication of what is inside, if you see something in it then try the album. Favorite tracks: "Sheriff of Hong Kong", "Sue Egypt" and "Brickbats". Has to be one of the greatest recording artists of the century.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When it came out..., February 10, 2004

By 

"cornfield23" (Chicagoland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Doc at the Radar Station (Audio CD)

The Ex and I happened to catch the good Captain on SNL (back when it was funny) when punk was new to the scene and this album was newly released. Her previous experience with the Captain was to catch a small piece of Trout Mask, then buy me a headset for my stereo. The band came on doin' Hot Head. "This guy created punk," she said. "Yup. Lots more, very bulbous." Later on Cap performed Ash Tray Heart. We were dancing, and her eyes teared. I pulled out Trout Mask, and she still loathed it. By the time I got this record home, she'd left. I still think we'd be together today had she stayed and danced to Ash Tray Heart again. I still dance to it. This music is immortal.