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Song list: Abba Zaba Drums Disposable Thoughts Weaned From The Earth The Thousandth And Tenth Day Of The Human Totem Pole We Are In Control? Bat Chain Puller Hair Pie Drums Three For 5 P-K-RO P Suzanne Steal Softly Thru Snow Drums What's A Cobble Box? |
Parts of this album have been around in a different form. Disposable Thoughts was used, albiet differently, on a French Frith Kaiser Thompson album, for instance, while all the Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band tracks are obviously taken from those earlier works.
This is not a derivative album, though. It consists entirely of drumming, recorded from the aural viewpoint of John French - this means you hear what he does, as he does it.
An all-drum-solo album is not easy to take - not exactly a party record. (then again, neither is Trout Mask Replica...) It will, however, take you down to the guts of the songs. John French did the arrangements for many of the Beefheart songs, pulling together the musical fragments Don Van Vliet would compose. You get to hear those basic musical statements here. It's like seeing the bones of a song.
If you really get into the early Beefheart music (and most do), you should get this album. It'll also give a view into his other work with Crazy Backwards Alphabet and French Frith Kaiser Thompson - also excellent work that should not be missed.
Theo Tieman pointed out addresses of a few places that may have this hard-to-find album. (Avan 024 is the label and number)
Wayside music: http://members.aol.com/Cuneiform2/cuneiform.php
Downtown Music Gallery
211 e. 5th. st.,
Manhattan, NY 10003
telephone 212-473-0043
fax 212-533-5059
e-mail dmg@panix.com
On a last note, so to speak, the performance of "The Thousandth And Tenth Day Of The Human Totem Pole" is amazing. It is the song - not just the drums to the song, but the song itself, played on the drums. I like it more than the original.
Henry Kaiser was kind enough to send me previously the excellent liner notes to this album.