#drumbo

CP #904 GO....

Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band: Lick My Decals Off, Baby (1970)

Released 50 years ago this month, Lick My Decals Off, Baby was Captain Beefheart’s fourth LP and the sequel to one of history’s most imaginative, unconventional, and incomparable artifacts: the experimental masterpiece, Trout Mask Replica.

Of course, this positive perception wouldn’t materialize for decades; at the time, Trout Mask was seen as just a very daring commercial flop!

So, Lick My Decals sought to, in many ways, both dissociate itself from, and improve upon its predecessor, beginning with a cover portrait that posed the Magic Band in sophisticated evening attire, in direct contrast to Trout Mask’s ragged, scary, hungry “freaks” (daddy).

Like that predecessor, Lick My Decals had to be painstakingly assembled from Beefheart’s random, tape-recorded piano improvisations, only this time guitarist Bill Harkleroad (a.k.a. Zoot Horn Rollo) took over those duties from drummer John French (a.k.a. Drumbo), who’d been ejected and then reinstated shortly before the album’s recording.

Unlike its predecessor, Decals’ eccentricity was “successfully” tamed by a stricter studio session environment, as compared to Trout Mask’s chaotic “field recordings” (produced by Beefheart’s longtime friend/foe Frank Zappa), but therein lies the problem, if you ask me ...

For, though they offer more of the same unorthodox song structures, off-kilter tempos, and bizarre poetry, new songs like “I Love You, You Big Dummy,” “I Wanna Find a Woman That'll Hold My Big Toe Till I Have to Go” and title track feel deliberate and calculated for crazy, instead of genuinely crazy.

And, while this elevated sense of control did benefit new mutant blues like “Woe-Is-Uh-Me-Bop,” “The Smithsonian Institute Blues (Or the Big Dig)” and “The Clouds are Full of Wine (Not Whiskey or Rye),” it also betrayed less inspired numbers like “Space-Age Couple” and “Flash Gordon’s Ape.”

What’s more, that same control virtually nullified wonky guitar instrumentals like “Peon,” “One Red Rose that I Mean,” and even the sax-led free jazz of “Japan in a Dishpan,” all of which seem to be merely mimicking Trout Mask’s legitimate improvisational risk-taking.

So, in spirit if not in sound, Lick My Decals Off, Baby had more in common with the irony of Beefheart’s debut, Safe as Milk, as well as subsequent attempts to meet the mainstream halfway like The Spotlight Kid and Clear Spot, than it did with Trout Mask’s oblivious, “what’s irony?” honesty.

Otherwise, this album sounds like that all-too-precious sequel to Trout Mask Replica, and little else.

Luigi Colani (born Lutz Colani; 2 August 1928 – 16 September 2019)

Colani not only designed various transportation models such as cars, trucks and airplanes, but also furniture, dishware, glasses, cameras, televisions, clothing, toilets and kitchens.

His long legacy profoundly shaped Germany's design and influenced generations of young designers around the world.

‘Drumbo’ money box for Dresdner Bank, 1963 

for more:

https://almostarts.tumblr.com/post/187774470944/luigi-colani-born-lutz-colani-2-august-1928-16

https://flyingprivate.tumblr.com/post/187774706640/luigi-colani-born-lutz-colani-2-august-1928-16