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Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band ‎– Somewhere Over Detroit

£10.00

From Harpos Concert Theatre, Detroit.

Recorded in December 1980, this concert was part of Beefheart’s comeback, as he reverted to his dense, early career avant garde music, with some oblique poetry and dissonant horn on the side.

Indeed it’s the latter that opens the album and receives a huge ovation from a wild crowd, who sound almost relieved that the good Captain is back to his pre- commercial ‘Unconditionally Guaranteed’ days.

Indeed he is, as by 1980 he’d just cut the impressive ‘Doc at the Radar Station’ and had started a slow but gradual return to form, starting with the delayed 1976 ‘Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)’ album – the title track of which was reputedly based upon the rhythm of the wind shield wipers on Beefheart’s Volvo car!

‘Bat Chain Puller’ is just about discernible here, if only because of his trademark primal growl and the insistent lyrical chant. ‘Somewhere Over Detroit’ leans heavily on the ‘Doc’ album, (6 tracks are featured) and fleetingly revisits 3 tracks from ‘Trout Mask Replica’, including his poetic rap The Dust Blows Forward n’ The Dust Blows Back’ as well as early favourites such a ‘Safe As Milk’, ‘Abba Zabba’ and ‘Kandy Korn’ (at least that’s what it says on the track listing!).

But there’s not a complete purge of his mid-career material, as he includes a brace from the excellent ‘Clear Spot’ album, including the closing magnificent ‘Big Eyed Beans From Venus.’

Tracklist
1 Nowadays A Womans Gotta Hit A Man
2 Abba Zabba
3 Hot Head
4 Ashtray Heart
5 Dirty Blue Gene
6 Best Batch Yet
7 Safe As Milk
8 Dr. Dark
9 A Carrot Is As Close As A Rabbit Gets To A Diamond
10 One Red Rose That I Mean
11 Bat Chain Puller
12 My Human Gets Me Blues
13 Sugar And Spikes
14 Sheriff Of Hong Kong
15 The Dust Blows Forward The Dust Blows Back
16 Suction Prints
17 Big Eyes Beans From Venus