fish-eye
spoon #1
[ August 2001 ]
CAPTAIN BEEFHEART AND THE MAGIC BAND
Ice Cream For Crow
All words and music by Don Van Vliet
Produced and arranged by Don Van Vliet
Engineered and mastered by Phil Brown at WB Recording
Studios, N. Hollywood, CA
All tracks published by Singing Ink Music (BMI)
Cover photograph: Anton Corbijn
Cover painting: Don Van Vliet
1. ICE CREAM FOR
CROW [4'33]
2. THE HOST THE GHOST THE MOST HOLY
O [2'25]
3. SEMI-MULTICOLOURED CAUCASIAN [4'20]
4. HEY GARLAND, I DIG YOU TWEED COAT
[3'11]
5. EVENING BELL [2'00]
6. CARDBOARD CUTOUT SUNDOWN [2'37]
7. THE PAST SURE IS TENSE [3'20]
8. INK MATHEMATICS [2'40]
9. THE WITCH DOCTOR LIFE [2'38]
10. "81" POOP HATCH [2'37]
11. THE 1010TH DAY OF THE HUMAN TOTEM POLE
[5'43]
12. SKELETON MAKES GOOD [2'18]
CROW was the final album Don Van Vleit produced
as "Captain Beefheart", the nom de muse during Van Vleit's 18-year
development into and reign as one of the kings, grandfathers, or secret
uncles of most contemporary genres which connect at some point with what
is presently called "Americana" and "Jazz".
THIS MONTH'S FISH-EYE SPOON
SONG REVIEW:
Ice Cream For Crow
The collection opens with the snaky, muscular,
and heavily funky title track. It's more or less an ass-kickin'
1-4-5 Blues rave, with irregular and distinctly Beefheart-y phrase durations.
Two distinct slide/rhythm guitars (one cleaner and ringing-dominant, one
buzzier and lower-midrange-playing more repetitive anchoring riffs) wrestle
and shoot past each other like motorboats playing "Chicken"; while the
primary accent shifts, somewhat unpredictably, between odd and even points
on the song's rhythmic continuum. The basswork is confident and bouncy,
with a 'fixin' to fall off the trampoline' feeling - EQ'd into something
rubbery and farty. The drumming is post-Drumbo - heavy on the tom toms,
accenting often on 2, the bright tapping hi-hat being the component I'd
be hanging my own ear on as a band member keeping apace with the whole.
The instruments provide a color-field
on which Beefheart aspirates dualities and spews contrasting visuals of
black ('crow', 'panther') and white (vanilla? 'ice cream') objects and
images, as well as other stark, oppositional juxtapositions of noun, verb,
and adjective. This record has been panned by some as "weak" in the
vocals. I wholeheartedly disagree. It is raggedier and
more 'emphysimic' than much of Van Vleit's output, but certainly not all
of it. If you recall the tone and rasp of "Making Love to a Vampire with
a Monkey on my Knee" from Doc At The Radar Station; it anticipated
the voice that most populates these songs. It's a favorite Don timbral
mannerism of mine, which he could make happen as a younger man,
then could only do by 1981. 24 seconds before the song ends,
Don tears into a fine, wheezy harmonica/mumbled non sequitur outro.