I was just listening to the Captain this morning on the way to work - Lick My Decals Off Baby. I think it's even more obtuse than Trout Mask (if that's possible) but extremely groovy once you get your head around it.

my vote goes to mirror man.

Word to the Beef!!!

Shiny Beast is an underrated record i think

I highly recommend the Grow Fins box set as well

Safe as Milk and Clear Spot are easily his most accessible albums. I'm not so fond of Spotlight Kid though. There's some amazing live versions of Grow Fins and Click Clack on the Grow Fins boxset though that indicate how good that album could've been if they'd cut loose.

Mirror Mans a strange choice Sister. I love the version of Kandy Korn on that though.

I have a few gaps in my experience of the Captain but I love Safe As Milk and Clear Spot.

Doc At The Radar Station can be hard work, but some of it is great. The live record of the later line-up is really good too. (I have to dig it out to remember the name).

Any fans of the 'Electricity' album here? Maybe not his best work, but a great introduction to the genius me thinks

another vote for Mirror Man Sessions - fuck I love the 19min Tarrotplane! it fucking rules...

I''m a big Beefheart fan... has anyone seen the album review doco that has come out recently?? i bought it for Scientificsupercute who says its fantastic - but i haven't borrowed it off her yet to watch it.

I'm a huge fan of Spotlight Kid and Trout Mask as well... not to mention Bluejeans and Moonbeams (party of special things to do is such a great track)

I really want to get the box set.

Electricity is a compilation of his earlier stuff - like you say, it is a good way to ease newcomers into the world of the Captain

MM- buy Grow Fins, freaking amazin set

yeah man - i've seen it around for a long time... I think I will probably get it soon.. the captain is fucking great....

SO FUCKING MONO.

MM- buy Grow Fins, freaking amazin set

some of the really early recordings are as good as anything on Safe as Milk.
Some great live material as well, especailly the live version of Grow Fins.

True - Safe as Milk, Clear Spot & Spotlight Kid are most accessible and most easily dug.

At the risk of sounding like a wanker (yeah right) it wasn't until a recent drive down the Hume that i finally "got" Trout Mask. driving 10hrs straight, pretty much non-stop in the dark - it all made sense. Now, for me, it leaves the 3 above for dead

It's an amazing headfuck of an album - one I never tire of.

bluejeans and moonbeams is the most accessible of the lot i reckon.. it is pretty much a straight white soul record

I'm going Safe As Milk too.......even though i LOVE Trout Mask cause it's completely original and over the top.

The house where Captain Beefheart lived and recorded the Trout Mask Replica is for sale.

Fast and Bulbous!

That's right, the mascara snake. Fast and Bulbous.

For some reason, I've been seeing "A squid eating dough in a polyethylene bag is fast and bulbous. Got me?" grafitti-ed in a number of places lately.

The next "Play Some Fucking Stooges", perhaps?

That's a hard choice. I'd say start with the easy stuff then if they show signs of promise, reveal the goods.

Easy stuff. I've put people stright onto *Trout Mask *and they never listened to another record

Spotlight kid/clear spot was a good starting point for me

Make a compilation that covers the range of his output.

Track number one should be Dachau Blues - a song I think encapsulates the Captain perfectly.

Totally agree Goal Attack, I heard those albums on a 2-for-1 CD and got into the captain big time, whereas when I'd heard 'Trout Mask Replica' I was really put off.

There is no point in using Safe As Milk as a primer as it's a completely different beast to Trout Mask/Decals. Some love everything but Trout Mask/Decals and others are the opposite. Trout Mask definately takes a few spins to properly digest but there is no point in listening to it repeatedly just because you feel compelled to 'understand' it. I reckon Decals is a good starting point as it represents the true (whatever that means) Beefheart and it more immediately digsetible than Trout Mask.

Doc is the best Beefheart primer, I think.

Just finished reading this:

Been listening to nothing but Beefheart for the last couple of weeks. It's interesting listening to the albums again after reading about the musicians who played on each record and the composing/recording process. Recommended.

Trout Mask Replica all the way. Start with Ella Guru - the poppiest thing ever.

It's a shame it's still not in print but there was an excellent Beefheart anthology called The Dust Blows Forward and the Dust Blows Back which is the only Beefheart compilation that covers his whole career from Diddy Wah Diddy to Ice Cream for Crow. I paid a fair bit of $$ for a dodgy copy of it on discogs. If it was still in print I'd recommend it to people new to the Captain's work.

I'm with you there monoceros re: repeated listening. It's not homework.
I do reckon there's the freaky seed of TMR and Decals lying semi-dormant in the early albums though, hence my housemate's reasoning that the 'astute listener' would hear this, and be drawn via it to the more difficult albums.
Btw did you play renegade at CALH this year?

Get all of them except ''Bluejeans and Moonbeams'' and ''Unconditionally Guaranteed'', and keep on trying.

But I do think the Clear Spot / Spotlight Kid twofer is the best intro.

I got into Captain Beefheart about a year or so ago, but I still can't appreciate TMR, it's just too ''whacky'', like for whackiness' sake. Maybe one day.

The 2-for-1 Clear Spot/Spotlight Kid I found super accessible, I'm Gonna Booglarize You, Baby got me absolutely hooked on the rest of that disc. Doc At The Radar Station is pretty fucking awesome too, some really angry sounding Beefheart there... Looking forward to extending my collection a bit more. Icecream For Crow will be next I think.

rather surprised no one has yet brought up the transculent fresnel 2lp bootleg which came out some time middle of last year. all tracks were sourced and compiled from peelie's live beefheart archives with emphasis on clear spot era material. the presser says,

''180 gram vinyl, gatefold sleeve. The title obviously is a reworking of Clear Spot - Translucent Fresnel ('Fresnel' is a spotlight). From the late 1960s through to 1980 John Peel collected tapes of recordings of Captain Beefheart's live shows, particularly ones in the UK. During a tidy up at Nan True's Hole in 2003 he discovered around six large reels of tape containing many of Beefheart's live UK performances and he sent these on to Ozit Morpheus Records. Here is Volume 1 of material from the tapes.''

Damn! I want.

Thanks muchly to outerspace who saw my above post and bought this for my birthday. The recording is pretty good considering it's an audience recording, the Captain's vocals are a bit muffled in places but the band sounds incredible throughout.

The Doc used to be a good party clearer back in the dark ages.

just been listening to Rural by The Systematics: am i crazy for hearing a little shade of Beefheart (or rather Mascara Snake) therein?

Babbette baboon Abba zaba zoom

that's fantastic!