Product Description

After the unique TROUT MASK REPLICA, Beefheart moved slowlyto what we mortals would call music, very much like the stuff on SAFE AS MILK. His "music from Venus" had never been quite so easy on the ear and CLEAR SPOT was a hit album, of sorts. Nobody other than John Lennon has been able to approximate the English language so brilliantly as this man. How canyou resist "My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains" or "Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles?" The Captain can also foolus with a real love song, the sublime "Too Much Time".

Track Listing

1. I'm Gonna Booglarize You Baby
2. White Jam
3. Blabber 'n' Smoke
4. When It Blows Its Stacks
5. Alice In Blunderland
6. Spotlight Kid
7. Click Clack
8. Grow Fins
9. There Ain't No Santa Claus On The Evenin' Stage
10. Glider
11. Low Yo Yo Stuff
12. Nowadays A Woman's Gotta Hit A Man
13. Too Much Time
14. Circumstances
15. My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains
16. Sum Zoom Spark
17. Clear Spot
18. Crazy Little Thing
19. Long Neck Bottles
20. Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles
21. Big Eyed Beans From Venus
22. Golden Birdies

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11825 in Music
• Released on: 1990-12-03
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
These two albums, which appear on one CD in reverse chronological order, capture Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart consolidating his position here as the greatest surrealist white bluesman of the 20th century. The Spotlight Kid is relatively subdued and rambling by Beefheart's standards, with his Magic Band never quite lifting off. That said, "White Jam" is poignant in a Mad Hatter sort of way, while "I'm Gonna Booglarise You Baby" and "Click Clack" more than pass muster. The earlier Clear Spot, however, may well be Beefheart's finest album. Stax horns jostle with Zoot Horn Rollo's zig-zagging slide guitar, with producer Ted Templeman keeping all the deranged lateral musical thinking of "Nowadays A Woman's Gotta Hit A Man" and "Sun Zoom Spark" tightly ravelled up for maximum impact. Moods range from the bizarrely soulful "Too Much Time" to the spacebound bottleneck frenzy of "Big Eyed Beans From Venus". --David Stubbs

Customer Reviews

Magnet draw day from dark...
I wondered why these two albums had been packaged on one cd. Now I know: they complement each other so well. Now, depending where you get your information from, the albums have either been placed in reverse chronological order, or they haven't. I don't really care. It doesn't really matter. Nevertheless, I listened to The Spotlight Kid a few times first.

Yes, The Spotlight Kid is quite bluesy (for want of a better word). It's slower and less manic than Safe As Milk, and way, way, way less complicated than Trout Mask Replica. That's not a bad thing though. This time around you can listen to the Captain actually sing once again! He's still about as madcap as you can be, but you don't have to twist your mind into unfeasible shapes to be able to appreciate this one. "White Jam", "Blabber n' Smoke", "When It Blows It's Stacks", "Click Clack" and "Grow Fins" are all menacingly driving tracks, and worth the price of this CD alone.

Clear Spot is a different beast altogether, but it works alongside The Spotlight Kid. Here the production is crisp, and the arrangements slightly more complex. This time though we find the Captain straying into soul territory, almost coming off like James Brown on tracks like "Too Much Time" and "My Head Is My Only House..."

For me, the first three tracks of Clear Spot are negligible, but once you've gotten that far, you're in for a treat. The album doesn't let up after that until it's done, and in "Sun Zoom Spark" you really have a gem.

The very, VERY best songs are the ones that just aren't long enough. The ones where each passing verse or chorus makes you sad that you're that much closer to the end. "Sun Zoom Spark" is one of those. In fact, since beginning to listen to Beefheart I've found a few of those, and "Sun Zoom Spark" ranks right alongside "Abba Zaba", "Trust Us (Take 9)", "Moonlight On Vermont", "I Love You, You Big Dummy" and "Woe-Is-Uh-Me-Bop".

Now for some people Clear Spot is the best Beefheart album. For me, it still ranks behind Safe As Milk, Trout Mask Replica and Lick My Decals Off, Baby. It isn't as vibrant as the first, it isn't as crazy as the second, and it isn't quite as genius as the last. In fact, in places it sounds like a slightly more complex "Unconditionally Guaranteed". That's not an entirely bad thing, though. I quite like that album. But Clear Spot is clearly a step towards making that album.

So, in summation, The Spotlight Kid has more songs on it that I like on their own, but Clear Spot is more cohesive as an album. Both have ideas that the Captain has stolen from himself, but both are absolutely essential if you're into Beefheart. If you're not, this might just be the catalyst that starts you on your personal voyage of discovery.

Two of the greatest albums- ever.
If you've never listened to Beefheart before - forget the supremely difficult Troutmask Replica that everyone says is his best (It's not)- these two albums should be heard by everyone.
Ethnic rhythms, cajun rifts, absurdly brilliant guitar work and weird lyrics sung by a weider voice - this is simply superb. The most commercial and easily accessible of his recordings, but still some of the best music ever. Superb, brilliant etc. etc.
And if you like this, then there is Ice Cream For Crow, Bat Chain Puller, Doc at the Radar Station, and the iconic Strictly Personal. All by a brilliant musical genius.

A masterpiece that covers so much.
I was going to start off by saying that this is a piece of blues genius but after listening to the album again I realise that it's much much more than that. There are traces of jazz, soul, rock, freak-out, even rap in places. It's certainly more accessible than some of Beefheart's other works but this is by no means a bad thing. I challenge anyone to listen to this without stamping a foot or tapping a finger. In places it's angry and twisted. In others it's simply beautiful.
If you're even curious - buy it.