Customer Reviews

Grow Fins: Rarities 1965-1982 [ENHANCED CD]

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Nearly a decade ago, WHRB-FM in Cambridge, MA did a 24-hour Beefheart orgy (including -- how obnoxious can you get? -- calling Don at home). Seems that some of the personalities involved in that extravaganza had a hand (or flipper) in this, which causes my eyes to roll back white and pupilless in the manner of an impossibly confused zombie posing the following question: Why? Why waste our precious time and piasters, gentlemen? And ultimately, why, out of the truly vast and incongruous richness of unreleased Beefheart material out there (I've heard it), as teeming with unidentified flora and inexplicable fauna as must Australia have been to the first white man to set tainted his foot upon its shores, why, why, why did you choose these particular tracks? The contents of GROW FINS are neither representative of the full Van Vliet ouevre, nor are they by any means the best available versions. Five CDs was far too many; CD#2 is just obnoxious, that second "Electricity," the brilliant but unnecessary "Korn Ring Finger" (unnecessary because it's on the Buddah reissue); the Trout Mask rehearsals should have been edited down to about half; and where's "Well Well Well" with Rockette Morton on vox? Where's the other vocal treatment of "Flash Gordon's Ape"? Why not the poems from the Italian bootleg CD, why not "Light Reflected..." for the noodly sake of completionism, why not a sampling of the rest of the Avalon Ballroom stuff, the stuff we haven't ALREADY heard on a million bootlegs? Etcetera, etcetera. Point being, this is in many ways an insult to, and an advantage taken of the fans, and you're probably better off sacrificing this particular itch by going to www.beefheart.com and downloading a CD or two's worth of the spiny but flavorful rarities to be found growing there.

****By the way: the best way to torture obstreperous Beefheart fans is to make up 'unreleased' sessions which never actually took place, describe in a breathless rush the pristeenly tightwired tomfoolery of the material (a fetal version of "Clear Spot" in slow-as-honey waltz-time; a song called "Exactly What Yuh'd Have If Yuh Didn't Have Nuthin' Uh'tall" featuring the Captain playing five clarinets simultaneously, a sung treatment of "Apes-ma," ad nauseum), promise to dub them a copy or burn them a CD, and then give them a wrong phone number. Guaranteed.

Although the price of "Grow Fins" is steep, this set is essential if you are a fan of Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band. Although they could have fit discs one and two onto one disc, I don't care. Although they could have added more video cuts or even some "clean" copies of Beefheart gems for which we have been waiting years (e.g., "Bat Chain Puller" original album), I don't care. Although the Trout Mask Sessions disc is filled with endless meaningless studio chatter, I don't care.

Why do I not care? After listening to and absolutely loving the music on this set for several days now, I realized that despite its limitations, had this set been a bootleg costing twice the price, I still would have happily paid the cash and felt great about my purchase. The reason for my gleefulness is precisely because Don Van Vliet and his comrades produced such powerful, engaging music that I'll happily devour whatever scraps of music or studio chatter that they left behind. For the uninitiated listener, "Grow Fins" might not be the best place to start your journey into the world of Beefheart, but it isn't the worst, either. The music on the discs reveal a vast array of stylistic textures, showing how the band developed their music from their blues-oriented beginnings to their avant-garde blowouts of the early `70s. The video clips on Disc 4, although a little grainy, are wonderful examples of the early Beefheart and Magic Band.

There are additional highlights on the other discs. On Disc 1, the demo of "I'm Glad" is absolutely gorgeous, as it showcases Don's incredible ability to use his voice with a rare tenderness. The blues-based songs on the disc show that the Captain Beefheart band was arguably the best blues band of that period. Unlike the numerous British bands that were butchering classic blues songs in that period (e.g., Yardbirds, Stones, among many others), Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band played the blues with technical and aesthetic authenticity. The version of "Rollin' and Tumblin'" on Disc 2 absolutely smokes. Disc 3 offers a penetrating look into the making of the classic "Trout Mask Replica." While there is a lot of insignificant studio chatter, many of the instrumental jams provide insight into how the songs developed over time. (Some of the studio chatter is hilarious, such as Don's discussion of how Herb Alpert uses overdubs on his albums. As a fan of postmodernism, I appreciate that it is often when nothing seems to be happening that everything is happening.) Although the final "Trout Mask" album sounds pretty chaotic to many people, it is actually highly cohesive when compared to the demos on "Grow Fins."

My overall impression of "Grow Fins" can be summed up as follows: When is the next box set of rare Beefheart material going to be released?

Very seldom is an artist as perfectly matched to a label as Captain Beefheart and Revenant. Revenant's reputation for outstanding releases in such fringe areas as early country blues and experimental jazz is perfectly suited to tackling a unique artist like Captain Beefheart.

Here's who should get this box set:

1) Revenant fans - Its their first box set and they won't let you down.

2) Captain Beefheart fans - The unreleased tracks, demos, live tracks are amazing. And there's pc quicktime movies of concert footage!

3) Trout Mask Replica fans - You haven't heard Trout until you heard the sessions presented here.

4) Fans of Sun Ra/Zappa/electric Miles/Albert Ayler/Sonic Youth/Pere Ubu or any other noisy skronk music.

A beautiful followup to this would be a DVD/VHS video release of Captain Beefheart concert footage.

This box set is BOOTLEG QUALITY, but the music and liner notes are FIRST RATE. The video footage is priceless! This package was made with tender loving care by Beefheart fanatics, and it shows. If you love Beefheart, grab it before it goes out of print! The instrumental "Trout Mask" rehearsals are worth the price of admission alone....burn them to a CD-R (without the in-between song banter) and you're in Trout Mask Heaven!

This is a very interesting box set if you own all the other official records from Beefheart, but not a good place for a neophyte to start. The booklet is well written and entertaining. Disc one is perhaps my favorite; the early garagey r & b stuff is great and the band should have been huge back in those days. They were definitely on a par with the Stones, Animals , and Yardbirds. I already owned copies of most of the live material on disc two, but here the sound quality is upgraded just slightly. Disc three, I can't see myself listening too very often. I would rather hear Trout Mask in it's finished state with vocals, and a lot of really dead spots on that tape should have been edited. Disc four, well hearing them talk to their neighbour is another one time amusing listen, and I couldn't get the video stuff to play successfully on my computer. Disc five, geat stuff, especially the accapella 'Black Snake Moan',the clips of Don playing piano, and a lot of cool but rough sounding live material; another disc that will get listened to more.Overall a nice set that could have been edited a little more, and maybe have been a little less costly.

Most Beefheart freaks have probably already bought it, but there's not much to recommend GROW FINS to any but the most fanatical devotees (especially given it's price tag). It's nicely packaged, has decent biographical info and the CD-rom video is a must see, but the quality of many of the tracks is questionable. The early demos are definitely worth hearing and the live Howlin' Wolf and John Lee Hooker tunes might be of interest to some (I prefer original Magic Band material) but it's mostly bootleg grade material. The Trout Mask rehearsal tapes are an interesting sidenote which hardly warrant an entire disc. The notes, written by John French, indulge in a good deal of myth-bashing (not necessarily a bad thing) while still acknowledging an abiding respect for Don's talent. All in all, it probably could have been pared down to three CD's.

So you might be well-served to buy the existing LPs first. But yes there is some great stuff here. To go through each disc :

Disc 1 - my favorite - some great previously unheard material by the original blues-rock version of the band. Solid, great, highly listenable. The first six tracks here (found recently by Doug Moon) plus the four live tracks from the Avalon ballroom augment the two A&M singles in providing a great LP's worth of music, pre-"Safe As Milk", that really delivers the goods.

Disc Two - Recorded in Kidderminster shortly before "Mirror Man" was recorded, and similarly extended and full of blues-based jamming and Don going crazy over the top on harmonica and sax and musette. Get Mirror Man first, but this is great stuff too.

Disc Three - the Trout Mask "house" sessions - well worth hearing if you haven't heard it - the vocals did obliterate some of the intricate playing on the final release. I think the band was tighter on the released sessions but this is interesting to hear.

Disc 4 - the video footage - videotape is the medium for this, not the Quicktime footage! The footage itself is great but it should be seen full-size with maximum clarity! (Tapes do exist, I've been watching this footage for years). I cannot say much good about stuffing that footage onto a disc.

Disc 5 - a real hodge-podge. Not cohesive at all and IMHO they could have picked better tracks to put on here. Not so great.

A huge positive for the set are John French's detailed notes, which amount to the best, most detailed, most balanced essay ever written about what was going on and how this music got created. (His notes are based on interviews with the other musicians involved at each phase).

I just can't get enough Beefheart and appreciate anything that comes out. You guys (and/or possibly girls?) saw the song listing before you bought, so pipe down. A true Beef fan would consider just about anything he/she can get his hands on as a good deal, as for the Guy hasn't made music for almost 20 years. The internet is actually making a wonderfully strong come back for Beef. Isn't it unbelievable that as long as he's been out of the business he is having all of this attention escalating. I'll tell you right now, I've been a Zappa fan for years and years, but as of this year, Mr. Beefheart has taken over the #1 position. I've always liked really hard guitar solos (Zappa), but Lord-have-mercy, the more I listen to Safe as Milk, Mirror Man Sessions, Trout Mask, Spotlight Kid/Clear Spot, I just continue to be blown away by this guys voice quality and that unbelievable creativity. Ok, OK, he had no people skills, and managed to alienate every human being around him throughout his career, but just listen to these same people who worked with him and you see that his brilliance shone on all of them. And although they all probably still think he was and is an asshole, they still appreciate his genius. That's probably why most of his band members put up with him.

But don't you all just feel the void left since there is no one to replace him? (Same for you Frank Zappa).

So let's Zig-Zag away from this petty bitchiness and Rid ourselves of these Ashtray Hearts.

Peace.

Any musician--or historian, librarian, or ANYONE interested in the growth and expansion of music in the twentieth century--needs to hear the "Trout Mask" sessions in their instrumental incarnations (the musicians somewhat overshadowed by Beefheart's vocals on the released mix). Listen to Western concepts of meter and harmony deconstructed and stretched well past their breaking points. Having two takes of some cuts tells you just HOW knowledgeable and in control these musicians were. The rest of the set is typically superb Beefheart, but the "Trout" sessions are reccommended to lovers of the new, bold, and unfettered. All others need not apply. Go home to your Lenny Kravitz records.

This is might be a useless review since those of you who know of Beefheart are probably already collectors, and those who haven't heard of him probably don't ever want to. Meaning this box set won't be stumbled upon by a casual music buff. This box set, and the entire Beefheart catalog for that matter, applies to that small but ever growing gaggle of 'fHeart heads that through destiny will inevitably find Beef.

So if you're a new and interested fan, who has heard or owns a Magic Band Album or three and wants more,... the 90 dollar price tag should scare you away... unless...

If you're hooked, like myself, 90 dollars is irrelevant.

If you've only heard of the Cap, and you have curiosities about the genius of Van Vliet (The Cap) than I would suggest getting any one of his regular albums and listening to it over and over and over. Don't give up on it yet. Catalog your judgments if necessary but don't decide its fate until you've had time to recognize that what you're hearing is a very, very well practiced band, performing incredibly complex musical configurations dictated from the mind of an artistic prodigy to a bunch of dedicated, however perplexed, musicians. That's the Magic.

If you think we're all a bunch of weirdoes, than that's okay too. You're probably right. Because I have yet to fully understand why I'm hooked. I suspect that after you've seen that there is indeed Magic underneath the madness, "regular" music often sounds trite. That is, his work has been an extremely rewarding experience.

But from this hooked fans perspective, this box set is very special. Much of the stuff on here is live. And it's on the live recordings that you get to realize that his band was always on. You realize that the albums weren't flukes. They did it just as good in front of an audience. Plus the Trout House sessions are absolutely golden. It reveals that the instrumental arrangements were separate compositions, complete in their own right as individual works of brilliance.

I left off one star because I would have done some things differently. (1.--disc 2 is only 40 minutes or so. Could of used more stuff on there. 2.--disc 4 should be a music disc as opposed to the video disk) But with that said I've been extremely happy with all the great bits they dug up!