Released
in January of 1972, Captain Beefheart’s 6th studio album, The Spotlight
Kid, celebrates its 50th anniversary this month.
After pushing
the blues to the outer edges of recognizable music with Trout Mask
Replica (1969) and Lick My Decals Off Baby (1970), the empty bank
accounts of Don Van Vliet and his Magic Band convinced him that music
fans needed something “to hang their hats on”. Occupying the outer
fringes of the avant-garde for the previous two years had left his band
living off of welfare or handouts from parents, so musically, and he set
course for the band to pursue a slightly more accessible sound. To
this end, evenly metered beats were given greater prominence and tempos
were slowed down, which also served the purpose of helping Don fit his
vocals into the music since he was notorious for not rehearsing with the
band and struggling to cope with the faster tempos.
As they
had done before with Trout Mask Replica, the group lived communally
again during the pre-production & rehearsal phases of Spotlight Kid,
a situation which ultimately resulted in the return of the same abuses
and deprivations which had characterized the previous experience. At
one point, the worst of it was when Zoot Horn Rollo (Bill Harkleroad)
was literally thrown out into the trash, an all too cruel commentary on
his value to the band. Overall, the change in direction didn’t sit well
with the band and many still consider the album one of their least
successful, citing the sluggish, slow tempos and simplistic arrangements
as disappointing compared to the achievements of the previous records.
Interestingly, the album is the only one that is credited to Captain
Beefheart alone with no inclusion of The Magic Band like all the other
albums.
Critically, the album wasn’t badly received with many
considering even a weaker Beefheart album better than good albums by
lesser artists. Personally, it’s not one of my favorites by far, though
there are a couple of notable songs, the best of which are actually the
live performances of I'm Gonna Booglarize You Baby and Click Clack from
a TV appearance in Germany on Beat Club. The band looks and sounds in
top form and rips through these songs with a focused fury that isn’t
apparent on the studio versions.
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