Customer Reviews

Spotlight Kid & Clear Spot

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This Captain Beefheart is some of his greatest material. It is also easy for the pedestrian fan to enjoy as well. But beware! You may become a real fan!I started listening to Beefheart at 13 years old when "Safe As Milk" first hit the shelves. I have never been the same since.And now, 36 years later, I am still a big fan. And, every time I listen to a Beefheart album, I hear something new and it seems fresh all over again.His stuff is still better tahn 99 0/0 of what passes for cutting edge today.Buy and listen to these two cds in the same package. It will open your mind.The good Captain will Booglerize you.

I am 42 years old and have been a Zappa fan for many years. I've always heard of Beefheart (Willie the Pimp), but never knew much about him. After reading some music reviews I decided to check out Trout Mask Replica. And I thank the heavens for that. For most people, several listenings of Trout are required, but from the very start of Frownland, I was totally blown away by this completely unique, non-conformist, unconventional stuff which I had never ever been exposed to before. Vliet's voice is so cool, and his whole way of looking at things is so refreshing, mesmerizing, and creative. I will always look at things differently from now on because of Don Van Vliet (check out his abstract paintings). People of the next millenium, you must re-discover this one-of-a-kind "no-rules", "free-form", masterfully-produced brand of music. The mold, as with Zappa, was made once and broken. I recently downloaded a 1972 performance of Beefheart and band doing "I'm Gonna Booglarize You Baby" on a TV show in Germany and watched it on RealPlayer. I highly recommend this for the avid Beefheart fan. It was so good. And it shows how good he and his band really were. That's all I have to say. If you want to really open your mind up and experience true "non-commercial" yet extremely creative music, go ahead and start with Trout Mask Replica and then try this CD. And remember, most people (conformists who dare not be different) do not get Captain Beefheart and never will. So ignore their ignorant criticisms, turn on, tune in, and do drop into the best musical experiences you'll ever have.

It's been a lot of years, but I can still remember the disbelief that I felt when listening to each of these two albums when they first came out. I could "get" them, although they were just on the outside edge of my musical comprehension. I was not able to "get" the earlier double album "Trout Mask Replica"--it was just too avant garde.

I recommend this fine reissue of Captain Beefheart's two 1972 albums on Warner Bros for an introduction to this man's great music. These records offer a nearly perfect balance of art and accessibility and if you hear these for the first time now, you will not believe how modern they are. It took everyone else a VERY long time to catch up with the Captain's musical ideas. Now you will know where bands like Wall of Voodoo, The Birthday Party and The Fall got their inspiration from.

"The Spotlight Kid" is the more consistent album,in my opinion. It sprawls with a languid dissonant blues groove. What was originally Side Two of the album (tracks 6 through 10 here) is a relentless string of modern jazz/blues genius. Do you like your blues with marimba? Try keeping track of the rhythym to "Click Clack"--the freshest railroad blues you'll ever hear. In 2002, anybody could cover "There Ain't No Santa Claus on the Evenin' Stage" and sound like they'd just written one of the highlights of their career. Only Don Van Vliet (Beefheart's legal name) could mix sardonic humor and poignancy so delicately.

The high points of "Clear Spot" may exceed even the peaks mentioned above, particularly the dissonant swamp rock of the title track and the exciting psychedelic guitar blues opus "Big Eyed Beans from Venus." However, "Clear Spot" also included a few inexplicable and inappropriate attempts to cut "normal records"--"Too Much Time" being the chief culprit. You'll forget it immediately. In all, it's a less consistent effort.

Don Van Vliet was and is a genuine genius, a profoundly gifted poet, musician and painter, all of which talents are on display on this release. He and Frank Zappa grew up together in the very unpromising environs of Lancaster, California.

.....then this should be it. Running the full gamut of his idiosyncracies, the Spotlight Kid explores some of the same territory as the indigestible classic, Trout Mask Replica, while Clear Spot is the palatable end of his "commercial" output. Featuring the classic Magic Band line-up of Winged Eel Fingerling, Zoot Horn Rollo, Rockette Morton and Ed Marimba, there is such a wealth of weird and wonderful instrumental and lyrical invention, this music exists in a field of its own, undated and unchallenged in twenty five years. Highlights of the earlier tracks are the bluesy rumble of the opener, "I Wanna Booglerize You, Baby" thro' the majesty of "When It Blows Its Stacks" to the gentle beauty of the instrumental, "Peon." Although fans of Clear Spot love the Captain's dark version of blue-eyed soul, the gems are at the end. That moment when Mr. Zoot Horn Rollo 'hits that long, lunar note and lets it float' in Big Eyed Beans,is one of the defining moments of this writers life in music. Golden Birdies, the closer is a showcase for a wonderfully cryptic lyric with a sombre percussive soundtrack. Don Van Vliet, the Captain, gave up music for painting almost twenty years ago. Somebody else can be the judge of whether that is the art world's gain, but music has sorely missed his brand of uncompromising weirdness and beauty ever since.

Either one of these albums alone would be worth the purchase price, but instead this awesome two-fer lets you get two killer Captain Beefheart albums on one disc!

There's little point in trying to describe Captain Beefheart's entire body of work, because he went through so many changes and styles - but these two albums captured him as he straddled the blues (more so on Spotlight Kid) and soul (more so on Clear Spot), adding his own weird stamp on top of it.

You get all the musical devices and "moves" that Beefheart is known for - polyrhythms, strange percussion, jagged guitar lines; and the voice: by turns impossibly deep (I'm Gonna Booglarize you Baby) and impossibly gruff (Clear Spot, Circumstance), but also soft and gentle at times (Too Much Time; My Head Is My Only House ...).

Lyrically, the Captain was in top form here too. From swampy blues vamps to pure goofiness, and of course a generous share of sexual entendre (Low yo-Yo Stuff, White Jam).

HIGHLY RECOMMEND for anyone interested in seeing what this cult legend was all about - and Clear Spot features outstanding production work from none other then Ted Templeman, who in just a few years would man the board for Van Halen - his mainstream rock sensibilities bring a welcome perspective to the bizarre musical ideas.

These albums will never be as "legendary" or "seminal" as Trout Mask Replica, but they are a hell of a lot more accessible, and as a single disc release, i believe this is the best Beefheart CD out there.

I found myself listening to this album almost in spite of myself. While I enjoy music that drifts toward the "avant-garde" I seldom find myself passionate about it. Besides, to me avant-garde jazz shakes things up a little bit more than a music that sounds at times like country blues. And even though I love the blues, it is more a tonic than a fire-starter for me.

Having said all of this, Wow! What an album! I feel, to quote "the Captain," like I've been "booglarized." While this music isn't even technically blues, it certainly shakes you up in your gut like a Willie Dixon record. But it is not derivative blues music, not at all. Captain Beefheart has a resonant voice that seems to fill several chambers with its moaning, twisting and churning sound but it is not some copy-cat trying to sound like Howlin' Wolf. There is something familiar but not quite domesticated about this sound. You listen to a lot of "blues musicians" sing the blues and it sounds more like a cocktail party. The Captain seems to have walked in from the Sonora Desert he loves so dearly and begun recording without even dusting himself off.

What is catchy about the tracks is that they don't seem very refined but I can't find any errors or amateurishness in them. They just ignite and then shuffle and pretty soon it doesn't matter even what the man is saying he's just playing. And he can sing about anything like "magic beans from Venus" and give it an exquisite melody and you find yourself enveloped by the inspiration. If I were to draw a metaphor here I might say it reminds me of Georgia O'Keefe's paintings of the Jack-in-the-pulpit flowers. It doesn't matter that you are staring straight into a stem and little more. You've been brought in so close you really know that it's a miracle.

Five stars. Cheers to the Captain for making music exciting and daring without trying to sound exciting and daring.

Cap's most accessible album is also one of his best, if not THE best. It features the perfect compromise between his enormously inventive songwriting and conventional structure. Indeed, a few of these songs wouldn't sound too out of place on a classic rock station. "Blue Million Miles" has one of the greatest guitar lines ever; I never get sick of listening to it. The sentiments it expresses are not terribly profound, but they manage to sound fresh. "Big Eyed Beans From Venus" is tight, tight, and tight, one of his best. It features the infamous "long lunar note" from Zoothorn Rollo. Speaking of, this album is pretty much the last to feature the classic Magic Band. Subsequently, a revolving door of ringers would back up the Captain. Many of them were exceptionally talented, but for various reasons (not the least of which is the Captain's leadership style) it would be awhile before he would get a group used to playing together. If you only get one Captain album, make it this one. If you get two, pick up Bat Chain Puller/Shiny Beast, and get tropical.

2 albums on 1 cd, with some fine moments. These are the albums that appeared after the golden age of beefheart (i.e trout mask and decals). Spotlight kid has some grand moments and is for me the better album, despite what the liner notes say.ed marimba's marimba and percussion are very effective, adding to this album's charm. Winged eel fingerling soars in the top instrumental 'alice in blunderland', there is loads of fine guitar work on the album, great interplay between zoot and eel on 'when it blows it stacks'. 'white jam' and 'spotlight kid' also shine, it gets more bluesy towards the end of the album. So the first album is excellent, and 'clear spot' is not as good but has fine moments. It's not beefheartian heaven, it has a more commercial sound, there are some regular songs and bits of soul sounding music, with female backing vocals on crazy little thing. eyes are blue million miles is not a typical beefheart song but it's nice enough (it appears in 'big lebowski') there's some good songs like yoyo stuff, big-eyed beans from venus, long neck bottles,nowadays a woman's got to hit a man...also some sappy stuff like 'too much time' and 'my head is my only house..' But clear spot is not bad overall. This cd is well worth owning.thank you

I was ecstatic when I found the Spotlight Kid / Clear Spot had been released on CD. My old vinyl had been played way too many times. From the New Orleans street band hooks on 'Nowdays a woman's got to hit a man' to the Wilson Picketesque 'Too much time,' ["huh"? say the kids raised on grunge, Brittny, and boy bands.] these albums are an eclectic, yet accessible, musical mosaic of a brilliantly demented genius. Born too late for beat poetry in coffee houses, Beefheart recited his verses to his own vision of psychedelically warped R&B. [Legend has it that the Captain never took drugs. A reading of his lyrics shows why he never felt the urge.] Although contemporary bands do have their moments, I callenge them to float on the cusp and the echo of the beat and still pound forward as Mr. Van Vliet did on 'Circumstances', 'Click Clack' & 'Clear Spot'. Bar chords and leather pants do not necessarily a musician make. Although these two collections are ranked as the Captain's 'most commercial,' an earlier opus such as 'Trout Mask Replica' may be too esoteric for the beginner to digest. I can't believe that this collection was recorded almost thirty years ago. "And the pantalooned duck, white goosnecked quacked,'webcore, webcore'"

Regarding "Spotlight Kid/Clear Spot." Originally two separate albums, they are joined by dint of the fact that a more mainstream producer hooked up with Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band with results that were strikingly uneven. The first record, "Spotlight Kid," is one of Beefheart's best. Yes, it's more conventional than what he did before, but only in the sense that Howlin' Wolf is more "conventional" John Cage. It is the bluesier side of Captain Beefheart, with lyrics that are mostly just as poetic and strange as those on "Trout Mask Replica." The music is thick, muscular, mysterious and oddly beautiful.

On the other hand, "Clear Spot" was initially greeted with dismay by Beefheart fans, particularly the attempted hit single, "Too Much Time," which I'm sure you haven't heard on any classic rock stations lately. With the passage of time, you can enjoy "Clear Spot" for what it is, and none of the rest of it is as botched as the single. You do get the sense that he and the band are a little tired. But a few songs like "My Head is My Only House Unless it Rains," and "Her Eyes are a Blue Million Miles" are quite wonderful.

But here's what I don't get. You can buy this two-fer. You can buy "Trout Mask Replica" (and you should). Why oh why can't you get the album that came out in between those two, "Lick My Decals Off Baby." It's a great album. Frankly, I like it better than "Trout Mask." It is just as wild, but just slightly more refined, enough so it's more of a pleasurable listen. There are some fantastic instrumentals on it. It has some great songs, like the title track, "Woe Is Uh Me Bop," "Buggie Boogie Woogie," and many more. There is no good reason why it is still out of print.