Bat Chain Puller - Captain Beefhaert

Bat Chain Puller

Captain Beefheart

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

The dear old Captain returns to idiosyncratic form here. Odd stylings, off-kilter tempos & surreal subject matter all coalesce again after DVV's dreadful "commercial period" of Unconditionally Guaranteed and Blue Jeans & Moonbeams. But this album teeters a bit as the Captain regains his sea-legs. The first three tracks, "Tropical Hotdog Night", "Ice Rose" and "Harry Irene" all sound a bit schmaltzy, DVV's sentiment still gets in the way of artfully rockin' out like he was still obviously most able. By the time "Bat Chain Puller" ominously roars out of your speakers, the OLD CAPTAIN NOW SAILS GLORIOUSLY and somewhat chaotically over the bounding riffs. Beefheart is best taken all gruff and oddly time signatured. While the Captain himself exhorts his artistry of word-smithing about the oddness of the everyday. "Candles Mambo" sputters a bit again but "Love Lies", "Suction Prints" and "Apes Ma" are all rock & roll channeled thru Beefheartian insensibilities and churned out as PURE WEIRD ROCK. Fans of Beefheart will not be disappointed by this or the dastardly awesome albums to follow: DOC AT THE RADAR STATION and ICE CREAM FOR CROW. Albums upon which Beefheart raised the seas with mighty art rock and sailed like a mythic hero out of the music biz and into the stuff of rock legends. (***UPDATE 022415*** YES, "schmaltzy" you persnickety wonderers. As Merriam-Webster defines it: "sentimental or florid music or art." And it's all OK, fanboys. How is "Harry Irene" or "Candle Mambo" not schmaltzy...yeah? DVV aka CB exercised a penchant for sensitivity & overly emotive (if oblique) stylizations throughout his oeuvre. That is not to say those expressions were BAD. In fact, schmaltz is a much beloved ingredient in jewish/yiddish and MY cooking! Forgive this reviewer who prefers Don's brusquely defiant brushstrokes of sound on TMR, DATRS, SP (ooh, yeah!), ICFC (oh, hell yeah!) or especially his masterpiece LMDO,B (yes, not TMR, read my review on this one!) because the Ol' Captain certainly explored richer musics in those slabs than the few mis-steps off this album, an album I mostly praise. So, cheers, you bored trolls & buy all the Beefheart you can!)