Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band
December 26, 1975 ( opening for Frank Zappa/Mothers )
Paramount Theater Oakland, California
Set List
01. Moonlight On Vermont
02. Abba Zaba
03. band intros
04. Orange Claw Hammer
05. Dali's Car
06. When It Blows It Stacks
07. My Human Gets Me Blues
08. Alice In Blunderland
09. Improvisations > Deserts Of Time > Drumbo's Tap Dance
10. applause
11. Electricity
12. Golden Birdies
13. Big Eyed Beans From Venus
total time approx 41 minutes
Band Members . . . .
* Captain Beefheart Don Van Vliet vocals, saxophone, harmonica
* Drumbo John French drums, percussion, guitar [on: Dali's Car]
* Bruce Fossil Fowler air-bass, trombone
* Winged Eel Fingerling Elliot Ingber guitar, slide guitar
* Feeler's Reedo / Walla Walla Denny Walley guitar, slide guitar
Aud. unknown gen
Maxell XLII cass > Sony TC-WE805S Deck > TDK DA-3826 > CD-R > PC > Wav > Traders Little Helper Flac level 8 > dimeadozen
transfer by mcchocchoc
about the recording . . . this should be an upgrade to most folks that have a copy. Over at the database of Beefheart shows ( maintained by D.J. ) it shows this listed as VG- ( based on the old tape trading way of listing quality ). This copy is much better than that rating. No, it is not perfect . . . but it sounds very nice. One of the better sounding 1975 tapes actually. Pretty full sound with a nice balance/mix of vocals and instruments. I listened to the whole show last night and was actually surprised at the sound quality. I expected it to be worse ! Even my wife said, " that sounds pretty good ". Haha. Ok, you get it . . . it sounds good. Complete performance, including the intro. No cuts.
This is a good one. Great line-up featuring Elliot Ingber, Bruce Fowler, and Denny Walley who all played with Zappa . . . and the amazing DRUMBO on drums (and guitar on Dali's Car).
This line-up was considered loose or sloppy by some, but here I think they are pretty tight. Very intense show. Don is just on fire here. The Orange Claw Hammer is just brutal.
Elliot whips out a killer solo during Alice In Blunerland. The improv section is very cool.
Bruce Fowler relly compliments Don's horn playing during this section. It is really something. You can also actually hear Drumbo's shoes hitting the floor during the Tap Dance Routine. Very cool ! The version of Golden Birdies is also just great, it's pretty much all Don and Bruce. Awesome. This show is from a short run of shows that found the band opening for Frank Zappa. Tough crowd. You can hear a couple of comments here during very quiet parts, but overall the crowd seems into it. The same can not be said of the Winterland show on Dec. 26. That show is freaking crazy and much of the crowd could not have cared less about The Magic Band. You can read about it on a few fan sites. EJNOY THE SHOW.
Much thanks to the original taper and also much thakns to all of the folks that I trade with through the mail for so many years.
upped on dimeadozen on August 16, 2010.
NEVER FOR SALE / FREE / TRADE ALWAYS & ONLY.