Dust Sucker

Captain Beefheart | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 22, 2005)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Ozit Records UK
• ASIN: B0000630WZ
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #250,157 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

This CD includes the 12 tracks from the Captains own tape of original Bat Chain Puller album (great quality). Mojo did a feature on classic lost albums and this was one of the main albums featured. There are 7 extra tracks including 5 live recordings of tracks from Bat Chain Puller plus a version of 'Well Well Well' featuring Rockette Morton and a live festival performance of 'My Human Gets Me Blues'. 2002.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Avoid This LP and Sit Tight For the REAL BCP, December 16, 2002

By 

Tom (London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dust Sucker (Audio CD)

I won't go into the story behind the recording of Captain Beefheart's "Bat Chain Puller" in 1975/76 and its subsequent non-appearance as anything other than a bootleg. Instead I'll just consider this current release and ask the question, what exactly is "Dust Sucker" for? As the sleeve proudly trumpets, these tracks are from "the Captain's own tapes" of the album - well that's as maybe, but what they most certainly are NOT however are the long lost master tapes. The sound quality is not measurably better on this release than on any of the bootlegs I have heard - indeed the sound quality is boomy and bass-heavy and there's annoyingly high level of tape hiss present throughout. This all serves to leave the title track, "Harry Irene", "Floppy Boot Stomp" and "Owed T'Alex" sounding like little more than demo versions of the versions eventually released on "Shiny Beast". The version of "The One Thousand and Tenth Day of the Human Totem Pole" is markedly better than that on "Ice Cream For Crow", but we knew that anyway; and while "Brickbats", "Flavor Bud Living" and "A Carrot Is As Close As a Rabbit Gets to a Diamond" are fascinating early versions, "81 Poop Hatch" and "Apes-Ma" are exactly the same as the later versions - though with worse sound quality. Which leaves "Seam Crooked Sam" and the beautiful "Odd Jobs", and what would we Beefheart fans give to hear them in their pristine glory and not hamstrung by the muddy, hamfisted mixes on this album?

This is by no means the only annoying aspect of this album. The artwork cuts and pastes the Captain and various Magic Band members, from totally different eras, into various sci-fi landscapes - which is all good fun but what does it have to do with Don Van Vliet? Especially the Don Van Vliet who recorded "Bat Chain Puller"? The sleevenotes are a muddled mess of (uncredited) quotes, conjecture and plain nonsense. Not suprising perhaps, as they appear to be the work of Ken Brooks, a man who made some sort of living out of poorly researched and badly written books on various Rock cult figures.

The additional cuts are live versions of various "Bat Chain Puller" tracks culled at random from various sources/ gigs/ line-ups and of variable quality and, in some places it seems, variable tape-speed. Need I add that there is absolutely no information on when and where these tracks were recorded and who played on them? To add to the depressing aura of sloppiness, an extremely poor quality recording of the "Lick My Decals" out-take "Well Well Well" is added for no better reason it seems than the people responsible for this mess ("Milksafe Productions") had a copy lying around their offices. Ditto the even more lo-fi live version of "My Human Gets Me Blues" - errrrrr, why?

In short, this CD is a disgrace and rip-off and you'd be better off waiting for the Zappa Estate to get round to eventually releasing the REAL (Denny Whalley mixed) "Bat Chain Puller", which they've been threatening to do...Avoid this album at all costs.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mixed experience, but the best you'll see for now, August 21, 2002

By 

David Goodwin (Westchester, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dust Sucker (Audio CD)

Yes, despite Ozit's protestations to the contrary, their story about this being taken (with permission!) from Don's private tapes is probably at least somewhat untrue. Yes, the liner notes are abysmal, quoting from a guy who is usually consider to be the *worst* source on the Captain. Yes, in all likelyhood, all that separates this and its companion piece ("Merseytrout," a similarly questionable release) from bootleghood is a UPC and a placement on legitimate sites. Yes, the bonus tracks are pointless. And yes, the sound quality is pretty lousy.

But...

As there is no other legitimate release of the BCP tapes, this is still something to be happy about, as no longer will people have to track down expensive and (in all probability) shoddy bootlegs to hear the curio that is the original Bat Chain Puller. If you're reading this entry, you most likely know the story of the album: how it was, essentially, pulled right before its release due to contractual snafus, and how "Shiny Beast" is the re-recorded mirror of this album. Yet this story doesn't properly emphasize the immensely different vibe contained on Bat Chain Puller. This recording is looser, less classically "tight;" it sounds more like something that directly follows the much-reviled "Bluejeans and Moonbeams." That isn't meant as an insult at all, just an observation as to the "relaxed" nature of both albums.

Is it "better" than Shiny Beast? I honestly prefer the re-recorded versions (and heck, there's no "Tropical Hot Dog Night" here! I love that song!), but I still love the heck out of these renditions. So in conclusion: if one manages to put aside the lousy sound quality (muffled, but not too awful) and the hilariously inappropriate bonus tracks (some of which aren't even stolen from the best availible sources), one should be very, very happy with the only legitimate version of these tapes to ever make it to the marketplace.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Terrific music. Horrible disc!, November 26, 2003

By 

J. Busher (PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dust Sucker (Audio CD)

This disc is a third-rate BOOTLEG, with horrible sound quality. You can get this material in far better quality through trading. Don't be a "sucker"!