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: #4824 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

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.

Two great Beefheart albums
While `The Spotlight Kid' is ambient music for more serious Beefheart fans; `Clear Spot' is a twisted masterpiece, made up of both musical highs and lows. Not to say though, that `TSK' isn't brilliant because I do think it is. In fact, it is one of my favorite Beefheart `come down' records; but `CS' is, in most peoples opinions, the better of the two albums on show here.

I am going to start with `TSK' because it is the shorter of the two albums. As already mentioned, the music throughout this one is mostly watered down Beefheart, with some cool blues and not much over the top experimentation. This one's more like a commercial flight to Japan than the U.F.O to the centre of the galaxy that `Trout Mask Replica' was.
I think my personal favorite from `TSK' is probably `White Jam', the weirdest hit on the album. It starts out quite soft and with some, I think, beautiful singing from Beefheart before slowly turning into something a little odd and a little alien. Another definite highlight from this one is `When It Blows Its Stacks', a blues track that just simply rocks to the extreme edge of cool.
While there are a lot of great tracks on `The Spotlight Kid', `Clear Spot' is the reason you are buying this album and, excuse me for rushing `TSK', I'm going to get on with the review of that one.

`Clear Spot' is an album that effectively covers Beefheart's expansive range of personalities and musical tastes. It goes from soft and tuneful to craziness at the drop of an atom bomb. It is sometimes simple and easy to make out and sometimes so far gone you can't help but laugh at the inventiveness and diversity.
Tracks like `Too Much Time' even have female backing, which is odd in the context of a Beefheart album but definitely welcome when utilized as effectively as it is. Tracks like `Too Much Time' are also strangely beautiful in a weird Beefheart way and offer a more personal insight into Don Van Vliet's mind.
`Clear Spot' the song is hardcore blues in some places, strange typical Beefheart in others. `My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains' is another weird one in that it is softer than other tracks here but utterly compelling in its mix of commercial music and other worldliness that you are drawn gently into the swirl of beautiful guitar parts and meaningful lyrics with no resistance.
The real highlight here though is `Big Eyed Beans from Venus' and I don't think anyone is going to argue with me against that. It might even be the best Beefheart track ever. It has everything I look for in a Beefheart song. There are some wonderfully funny lyrics, some great drumming, thumping bass, and most importantly, incredible guitar playing. The guitar playing on this song is so out there that it is hard to accept that this was written by a bunch of mere mortals. Simple earth dwellers. It just can't be. It can't. The music is so detailed, so intense, so emotional that it just couldn't have been written by people of the same species as those who wrote trash like `American Idiot'.

Anyway, I'm listening to `Safe as Milk' right now and writing this review is distracting me from that so I'm gonna stop. I hope this review was helpful to you. If you are already a Beefheart fan then this is an essential purchase, and if you are new to him it is a good starting place. Buy it now.