In the autumn of 1984, I was dipping into ’60’s Psychedelic music, which I suppose was inspired by my favourite music critics of the day , Sandy Robertson and Edwin Pouncey, and their playlists in ‘Sounds ‘ and ‘NME’.

The Doors, Love, The Velvet Underground, Them, Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, and the early albums of Frank Zappa, especially ‘Freak Out’ figured prominently, but somehow this one by Beefheart, ‘the Legendary A&M Sessions’ stood out from the paisley patterned crowd for me, his voice , a hoarse bellow of a thing, similar to that of Howling Wolf (Chester Burnett) or Tom Waits, was one that really made you stand up and take notice.

So on to the album itself, ‘Diddy Wah Diddy’ , a raw version of the Bo Diddley classic, kicks off proceedings as they mean to go on, rollicking R&B , like the early Rolling Stones. My favourite track, ‘Frying Pan’ is brilliant’ , I recall woefully attempting to play the harmonica along with this one at my family home at the time, honking away erratically and imagining it sounded like some venerable bluesman like Sonny Boy Williamson or Junior Wells. ‘Frying Pan ‘ is a very similar tune wise to Blue Oyster Cult’s ‘ The Red and the Black’, but maybe that’s just me, check them out on Youtube , see / hear for yourself!. ‘Moonchild’ , written by Bread’s David Gates , sounds like a dark tale by some supernatural author of yore, or doomed poet from yesteryear ‘On the night she’s born , the lightnin’ flashed and the thunder roared’, sounding similar vocally and nominally to the Van Morrison of the time, two Vans, similarly rooted musically , yet wildly different. ‘Who Do You Think You’re Fooling’, and ‘Here I am , I always am’ , are garage pop classics of their time in the same way as Them’s ‘Gloria’ or ‘ I Can Only Give You Everything’. According to the sleevenotes of the cd of The A&M Sessions, Beefheart is quoted as saying that his band ‘were often mistaken for an English R&B group’ , and I would fully agree with that.

The music on this one, was not unlike the rough house rhythm and blues sound of Van Morrison’s Them, but The Magic Band were more bluesy , and a wee bit off kilter to my ears at the time. I was listening to a ‘Best of Howling Wolf ‘ compilation on Chess Records a lot, so I could hear the similarity vocal-wise, they certainly were blues influenced, there was a bit of jazz was in there too, but I wasn’t yet attuned to jazz , so didn’t pay too much attention to that. Listening to this Beefheart guy, real name Don Van Vliet, really made me look out for other artists I thought similar , Tom Waits was one, especially with his work on ‘Swordfishtrombones’, and to a lesser extent, on ‘Raindogs’, and I also got J.J.Cale , through hearing Beefheart’s cover of Cale’s ‘Same Old Blues’. I got the Screaming Blue Messiahs , who best known for their novelty song ‘ Wanna Be a Flintstone’ , started off as a damn good Beefheartian trio with an E.P that also came out in 1984, ‘Good and Gone’ , which had a cracking cover of Hank Williams’ ‘You’re Gonna Change ( Or I’m Gonna Leave), I tapped into the wonderful world of The Fall , and thought the ranting Mancunian drawl of Mark E. Smith could really make him an English equivalent to Beefheart. The influence of Beefheart goes from Pere Ubu, there are discernable influences in the music of the Birthday Party , Nick Cave’s early band, in Scottish ’80s bands The Fire Engines and The Primevals , and even ZZ Top, especially their early stuff, and the track ‘My Head’s In Mississippi’, on which the vocal is to my mind, Billy Gibbons channeling Don Van Vliet’s bluesy rasp.

The Legendary A&M Sessions were a great primer for me, an introduction to the weird and wonderful music of Captain Beefheart, and from this I moved on to ‘Safe As Milk’, ‘Mirror Man’, and ‘Clear Spot’, in which the music got gradually weirder, but still retaining the blues influence which can only be a good thing. As with all good bands, many great musicians passed through the ranks of the Magic Band, in their day, notably Ry Cooder, whose music is known to most people by his soundtrack to the movie ‘Paris Texas’ , and his ‘Buena Vista Social Club’ album which brought Cuban music to the spotlight; and also the lesser known Gary Lucas, the absolutely amazing guitarist whose repertoire goes from, soundtracking readings with Nick Cave, playing National Duolian steel guitar on songs from Pink Floyd, bluesman Blind Blake, and duets with the late Jeff Buckley on the album ‘Songs To No One 1991-1992’. All worth investigating!

Playlist:-

Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band- The Legendary A&M Sessions (Edsel cd reissue 1986),

Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band- Safe As Milk-( Buddha cd reissue 1999)

Gary Lucas- Evangeline (Paradigm Records cd 1997)

Jeff Buckley / Gary Lucas – Songs to No One 1991-92 (Knitting Factory Records 2002)