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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 13, 2007
Though they got quite a bit of press, CAPTAIN BEEFHEART AND HIS MAGIC BAND was dropped by their label Buddha after their first album tanked. I have to say that the Buddha Records' decades-buried out-take of "Safe As Milk" included as a bonus track on the CAPTAIN's recently remastered release of the band's first album SAFE AS MILK (1967) is wonderful, and, ironically, the original SAFE AS MILK album did not include that title track! That track, and a few others also recorded for Buddha (particularly "On Tomorrow" and "Trust Us") are far superior to the "studio enhanced" over-phased muck on this record (including heavily over-dubbed vocals and corny special effects, such as the heartbeat at the end of "Ah Feel Like Ahcid"). The band's second album, released on Blue Thumb Records late in 1968, was ill-received for these various reasons (long story, who cares but buffs?) Nonetheless, this record has some very amusing, compelling parts ("Beatle Bones And Smokin' Stones" which alienated early supporter JOHN LENNON) unique blues, and what can only be described as "Acid Rock." The liner notes (by Mark Paytress of Record Collector magazine) scoff at the notion that the first track, "Ah Feel Like Ahcid," is "Acid Rock" and he's right it's certainly more SON HOUSE Blues influenced than by the surfeit of Acid Rock groups then in the mainstream. However, the lyrics betray clear references to dropping acid "...licked a stamp...dropped a stamp..." So, sure, it references the original idea of a double album intended to be packaged to look like a postally used package (that album idea was shelved by Buddha and was intended to be entitled IT COMES TO YOU IN A PLAIN BROWN WRAPPER) but one cannot ignore the lyrics and the year in which STRICTLY PERSONAL was released.
I think it is a mistake to assume that LENNON didn't listen to this record quite a bit; though he was reportedly insulted by "Beatle Bones And Smokin' Stones" (which is disappointingly suggestive of LENNON's lack of humor about himself). I hear the CAPTAIN's "Kandy Korn" influence on LENNON's ABBEY ROAD track "I Want You (She's So Heavy)." It is my opinion that "Beatle Bones" is historically the most interesting track on STRICTLY PERSONAL, and that track alone is worth the price of admission. I also think it is a terribly misunderstood song. The last line is "...strawberry FEELS forever," a typically clever pun by the CAPTAIN. Considering the care the CAPTAIN used in selecting words for his lyrics, that line seems a declarative statement of the unending influence of LENNON's extremely important, far-reaching, and eternal single "Strawberry Fields Forever." I think LENNON just didn't get it.
Certainly enjoyable, but also annoyingly cloudy, I must dock STRICTLY PERSONAL a point because of the muddy production, which obscures the percussion and charging guitars, and can recommend it only to diehard fans of the CAPTAIN or of BLUES influenced ACID ROCK. Nonetheless, "Son Of Mirrorman" is still powerful, "Gimme Dat Harp Boy" is such scorching raw and insightful blues it's impossible to obscure, and "Kandy Korn" (my own favorite) has stunning moments. Long out of print stateside, this album is now only available as an import.
I think it is a mistake to assume that LENNON didn't listen to this record quite a bit; though he was reportedly insulted by "Beatle Bones And Smokin' Stones" (which is disappointingly suggestive of LENNON's lack of humor about himself). I hear the CAPTAIN's "Kandy Korn" influence on LENNON's ABBEY ROAD track "I Want You (She's So Heavy)." It is my opinion that "Beatle Bones" is historically the most interesting track on STRICTLY PERSONAL, and that track alone is worth the price of admission. I also think it is a terribly misunderstood song. The last line is "...strawberry FEELS forever," a typically clever pun by the CAPTAIN. Considering the care the CAPTAIN used in selecting words for his lyrics, that line seems a declarative statement of the unending influence of LENNON's extremely important, far-reaching, and eternal single "Strawberry Fields Forever." I think LENNON just didn't get it.
Certainly enjoyable, but also annoyingly cloudy, I must dock STRICTLY PERSONAL a point because of the muddy production, which obscures the percussion and charging guitars, and can recommend it only to diehard fans of the CAPTAIN or of BLUES influenced ACID ROCK. Nonetheless, "Son Of Mirrorman" is still powerful, "Gimme Dat Harp Boy" is such scorching raw and insightful blues it's impossible to obscure, and "Kandy Korn" (my own favorite) has stunning moments. Long out of print stateside, this album is now only available as an import.
