''Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)'' is the tenth studio album by American band

Captain Beefheart Don Van Vliet (; born Don Glen Vliet; January 15, 1941 – December 17, 2010) was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and visual artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. Conducting a rotating ensemble known as Th ...

and the Magic Band, released in October 1978 by Warner Bros. Records. The album emerged from production difficulties surrounding ''

Bat Chain Puller ''Bat Chain Puller'' is the 13th studio album (and first official posthumous album) by Captain Beefheart, released on February 22, 2012. It was recorded in 1976 by DiscReet Records, who had intended to release it with Virgin Records as Captain B ...

'', an album Captain Beefheart recorded for

DiscReet Discreet may refer to: * Discreet Logic, a subsidiary of Autodesk Media and Entertainment * DiscReet Records DiscReet Records, self-identified simply as DiscReet, was a record label founded by Frank Zappa and his then business partner/manager He ...

and Virgin Records in 1976. DiscReet co-founders Herb Cohen and

Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by wikt:nonconformity, nonconformity, Free improvisation, free-form improvisation, sound experimen ...

feuded over the production of the album, because Cohen funded the production with Zappa's royalty checks. Captain Beefheart recorded a new album titled ''Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)'' due to Zappa withholding the master tapes of the original ''Bat Chain Puller'' album.

Background and recording

After recording '' Bongo Fury'' with

, Don Van Vliet formed a new Magic Band and began recording an album titled ''

'' for

and Virgin Records. Herb Cohen, DiscReet's co-founder and Zappa's business manager, paid for the album's production costs with Zappa's royalty checks, leading Zappa to end his business partnership with Cohen. Cohen and Zappa each demanded to be paid an advance by Virgin, leading Zappa to withhold the master tapes, for which Cohen sued him. ''Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)'' was recorded from July 6 to August 27, 1978 at the Automatt in San Francisco. Due to the lawsuit, Van Vliet re-recorded four ''Bat Chain Puller'' tracks for Warner Bros.: "The Floppy Boot Stomp", "Bat Chain Puller", "Harry Irene", and "Owed T'Alex". The ''Bat Chain Puller'' outtake "Candle Mambo" was also re-recorded for the album, as were older unused songs "Ice Rose" (a ''Strictly Personal'' outtake formerly known as "Big Black Baby Shoes") and "Suction Prints" (a ''Clear Spot'' outtake known as "Pompadour Swamp", no relation to the later song of that name). Four new songs completed the album, these being "You Know You're A Man", "When I See Mommy I Feel Like A Mummy", "Love Lies" and "Tropical Hot Dog Night", the latter being based on a riff of the ''Bat Chain Puller'' song "Odd Jobs", which was otherwise not re-recorded. The album was completed with "Apes-Ma", which is the same recording on both versions, due to being sourced from Van Vliet's own home recording. Versions of "Run Paint Run Run" and "The Witch Doctor Life" were attempted during the sessions but not used (they have been bootlegged). They would be finished for '' Doc at the Radar Station'' and ''

Ice Cream for Crow ''Ice Cream for Crow'' is the twelfth and final studio album by Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, released in September 1982. After it was recorded, Don Van Vliet retired from music to devote himself to a career as a painter. It spent two weeks ...

'' respectively.

Style

The music of ''Shiny Beast'' featured a mix of different music styles, similar to '' Safe as Milk'', incorporating elements of

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * ''Pop'' (G ...

, spoken word and

experimental music Experimental music is a general label for any music or music genre that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilities radically opposed to, and questioning of, ...

. The song "Bat Chain Puller" was based upon the rhythm of Van Vliet's windshield wipers.

Reception

The album received favorable reviews.

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

declared ''Shiny Beast'' to be better than all Van Vliet's previous albums, writing, "Without any loss of angularity or thickness, the new compositions achieve a flow worthy of Weill or Monk or Robert Johnson, and his lyrics aren't as willful as they used to be." A contemporary reviewer, AllMusic's Ned Raggett, also praised the album, writing "''Shiny Beast'' turned out to be manna from heaven for those feeling Beefheart had lost his way on his two

Mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...

albums". '' Trouser Press'' called it "one of his best". In the ''

Spin Alternative Record Guide The ''Spin Alternative Record Guide'' is a music reference book compiled by the American music magazine '' Spin'' and published in 1995 by Vintage Books. It was edited by rock critic Eric Weisbard and Craig Marks, who was the magazine's editor-i ...

'' (1995), the album was ranked 73 on the book's list of the "Top 100 Alternative Albums".

Track listing

All tracks written by Don Van Vliet except "Owed t' Alex", written by Don Van Vliet and Herb Bermann.

Personnel

(Don Van Vliet) – vocals,

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

, soprano sax, whistling * Bruce Lambourne Fowler – trombone, air bass * Jeff Moris Tepper –

slide guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos tha ...

, guitar, spell guitar * Eric Drew Feldman –

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

Rhodes piano The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, t ...

, grand piano, bass * Robert Arthur Williams –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

, percussion *Richard Redus – slide guitar, bottleneck guitar, guitar,

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

, fretless bass Additional personnel * Art Tripp III – marimba, additional percussion

References

External links

Jeff Moris Tepper's candlebone.com
* The Wire'sbr>''100 Records That Set The World On Fire (When No One Was Listening)''
{{Authority control Captain Beefheart albums 1978 albums Warner Records albums