The Spotlight Kid/Clear Spot

Amazon.com essential recording
In 1972 it probably seemed like the year belonged to a blues-tinged wall-of-sound rock band--maybe Deep Purple, who recorded Made in Japan that year--but from an aesthetic vantage, the blues-rock mantle has to go Captain Beefheart. In 1972 producer Ted Templeman took the controls for a pair of stunning Beefheart diamonds (in the rough of course), The Spotlight Kid and Clear Spot, both collected here in full on one CD. Beefheart's voice sounds rightly inimitable, growly and gruff and lyrically cryptic. For its part, the Magic Band is in top form as well, integrating marimba and an assortment of percussion into the slide guitar forestry. There's a distinct and good reason that the celebrated Beefheart box set of rarities is called Grow Fins: the tune, as it appears on this collection, is a classic terrain-defying testament of love as only Don Van Vliet (Beefheart) could provide, a surreal and funny little tune caught in a skein of rough-hewn music that's stood the test of time splendidly. --Andrew Bartlett

From Grove Press Guide to Blues on CD
Unconventional to the nth power, Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet) constructed a gnostic blues world where Howlin' Wolf curls Salvador Dali's moustache and Little Walter espouses dadaism. Of the two early-1970s albums juxtaposed here, The Spotlight Kid most interestingly turns twelve-bar music on its head with Beefheart's multi-octave son-of-Wolf voice, his pixilated lyrics, his marvelous Chicago-style harp, and his specially instructed Magic Band's asymmetrical rhythms. Not to say the second heartfelt blues travesty, Clear Spot, scrimps on the quirky "low yo yo" either. -- © Frank John Hadley 1993

The Spotlight Kid/Clear Spot,Captain Beefheart,Reprise / Ada,Blues-Rock,Experimental,Pop,Prog-Rock/Art Rock,Proto-Punk,Rock,Rock/Pop

The Spotlight Kid/Clear Spot

Average customer rating:

Does it matter?
The Captain's One Successful Sellout
un lobo rabioso aullando cruda e incomprensible poesia
A must have
great wild bluesy experimental verbal goodness

The Spotlight Kid/Clear Spot
Captain Beefheart
Manufacturer: Reprise / Ada
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Proto Punk | Hardcore & Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Blues Rock | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Progressive Rock | Progressive | Rock | Styles | Music

Psychedelic Rock | Classic Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

Experimental Music | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music

Classic Rock | Rock | Indie Music | Stores | Music

Progressive | Rock | Indie Music | Stores | Music

Safe as Milk
The Mirror Man Sessions
Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)
Strictly Personal
Doc at the Radar Station

ASIN: B000005JB4
Release Date: 1990-10-19

Tracks:

I'm Gonna Booglarize You Baby
White Jam
Blabber 'n Smoke
When It Blows Its Stacks
Alice In Blunderland
The Spotlight Kid
Click Clack
Grow Fins
There Ain't No Santa Claus on the Evenin' Stage
Glider
Low Yo Yo Stuff
Nowadays a Woman's Gotta Hit a Man
Too Much Time
Circumstances
My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains
Sun Zoom Spark
Clear Spot
Crazy Little Thing
Long Neck Bottles
Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles
Big Eyed Beans from Venus
Golden Birdies

Amazon.com essential recording

In 1972 it probably seemed like the year belonged to a blues-tinged wall-of-sound rock band--maybe Deep Purple, who recorded Made in Japan that year--but from an aesthetic vantage, the blues-rock mantle has to go Captain Beefheart. In 1972 producer Ted Templeman took the controls for a pair of stunning Beefheart diamonds (in the rough of course), The Spotlight Kid and Clear Spot, both collected here in full on one CD. Beefheart's voice sounds rightly inimitable, growly and gruff and lyrically cryptic. For its part, the Magic Band is in top form as well, integrating marimba and an assortment of percussion into the slide guitar forestry. There's a distinct and good reason that the celebrated Beefheart box set of rarities is called Grow Fins: the tune, as it appears on this collection, is a classic terrain-defying testament of love as only Don Van Vliet (Beefheart) could provide, a surreal and funny little tune caught in a skein of rough-hewn music that's stood the test of time splendidly. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews:

Does it matter?.......2007-01-11

Some albums/songs create a moment's transcendence in a life harried by the day to day. Some artists create a moment's identification between me and the music. And then there are the artists who have changed the way I think about the world. Don Van Vliet is of the second type in my ears. He opened my eyes to the golf ball around me and for that I am in his debt. And to the point, Clear Spot is the album that I think of when I think of the captain (not that I don't respect The Spotlight Kid). I haven't owned a copy since I was 17 and I can still hear the songs echoing through the canyons of my mind. I repurchased this combo a few months back and after all these years my memory only matches the music. How often can we say that?
In the 21st Century I listen to RadioHead or Mark Sandman (see ya on the flip side) or Tom Waits and I can hear Van Vliet in all of them. He is the musician's musician because, to me, he dared to walk out into the void and embrace what he found there. I am happy to blabber and smoke in his company.
If you like Captain Beefheart's peculiar distillation of life you will love this album.

The Captain's One Successful Sellout.......2007-01-08

Five stars reflects the bodacious Clear Spot, even if it is cobbled together with a rather mediocre Spotlight Kid.

Spotlight features the Captain's greatest Magic Band, just finishing touring what was arguably his finest achievement: Lick My Decals Off Baby (still out of circulation!). However, the Captain in desperate pursuit of commercial success now pushed the band hard ever increasing the cult-like discipline. The result was a fairly monolithic trad-blues product. Actually any one of the cuts off the Spotlight album are pretty good, but taken altogether, it's rather a drag.

The Magic Band was pretty well fed up by this point. Drumbo and Rocket Morton took off, moving Art Tripp to drums and recruiting Oregon (former Mother, later Little Feet) to bass, as well as Elliot Ingber. Zoot Horn Rollo and producer Ted Templeton basically through Don out of the control booth.

Suddenly the possibility of merging the Captain's dada sensibility with a fairly rocking production emerged. There was room for the intensely beautiful Her Eyes are a Blue Million Miles with the outrageous fun of Big Eyed Beans from Venus and Golden Birdies. (Webcor, Webcor!)

That his subsequent sell-outs were so pitiful has more to do with the loss of the rest of his band (after discovering he had dissed them out of their tour money) than any loss of his prodigious talent. His three last classic albums proved that.

But for those sonic adventurers rightly attracted to the great Captain's underground adventures, don't forget to check out his one legitimate shot at FM play (even if the industry proved too ignorant to actually play this stuff). It's a qualified hoot.

un lobo rabioso aullando cruda e incomprensible poesia.......2006-10-04

debe ser uno de los discos mas accesibles y geniales del capitan.....y aun asi no deja de ser personal y cautivante. lo escuchas y no podes dejar de imaginarte a howlin' wolf en sandalias, rodeado de caricaturas, pentagramas con 10 lineas y una banda de locos improvisando...cuanto blues y delirio rezuman estos 2 discos siamenses.....hazne un favor..escuchalo..no creo que el capitan te de otra oportunidad..no suele ser muy terrenal..............

A must have .......2006-09-26

This is unbelievably great. You get two of Captain Beefheart's masterpieces here; The Spotlight Kid and Clear Spot. Making this a double album which easily holds it's own with integrity next to any that have been released. It is just that strong. I have always been a fan of double albums and these two go together perfectly. Because they were actually conceived separately they are both strong and hold their own so putting them together is a Beefheart fan's dream come true. It is not Trout Mask Replica, which I adore, but some of the greatest blues you're likely to hear bar none. Everything about it is superb. If you are not completely insane you'll not hesitate to get this and you'll be glad you did. It is what blues aspires to be and a treasure that far too few will be fortunate enough to understand and appreciate.

great wild bluesy experimental verbal goodness.......2006-05-13

The Magic Band was at a high point (Though Zoot Horn Rollo says that they didnt' play that well on Spotlight Kid, he recommends Clear Spot) the guitars are groovin' the tracks are exciting and Beefheart's Howlin' Wolf-esque vocals are brilliant on this pair of records.

There are standout tracks all over this collection.
And for fun you can watch a couple of videos on Youtube.com of songs from this collection - Black Eyed Peas from Venus is one of them - great psychedelica - and I'm gonna Booglarize you - with the band bouncing and jamming like something put together by spike jonez.

anyway - you can't go wrong if you like rock, blues, or good guitar noise.

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