Product Description

More than 30 years after these tracks were recorded, the MIRROR MAN SESSIONS are finally being released in the manner of Don Van Vliet's original vision. Captain Beefheart and HisMagic Band were always going through personnel changes, butthe group was especially in flux during 1967. SAFE AS MILK had just been issued, and the band began recording a follow-up, planned as a double-album. But the following year saw the Captain and his Band dropped by their label (Buddah).
Some of the slated songs (supplemented with electronic effects) became STRICTLY PERSONAL, released by Blue Thumb Records.Buddah followed suit, venturing into its vaults, choosing four extended songs, and packaging them as MIRROR MAN-obscuring facts by billing the album as "live recordings from 1965". This reissue adds five additional numbers, all of which show the band at an evolutionary point midway between the delta blues of its first recordings and the layered rhythmic stew of TROUT MASK REPLICA. THE MIRROR MAN SESSIONS is an essential document of an important ensemble.

Track Listing

1. Tarotplane
2. 25th Century Quaker
3. Mirror Man
4. Kandy Korn
5. Trust Us
6. Safe As Milk
7. Beatle Bones 'n' Smokin' Stones
8. Moody Liz
9. Gimme Dat Harp Boy

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #42019 in Music
• Released on: 1999-09-04
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
There are times when a set of recordings begs not only to be re-mastered and reissued, but restored according to the artist's original intent. Mirror Man Sessions is an unqualified success of this sort. It's a re-sequenced approximation of the planned, half-live-in-the-studio/half-studio double album It Comes to You in a Plain Brown Wrapper, which Beefheart and band started on several months after the release of their debut, Safe as Milk. Most importantly, the disc includes many of the songs off the botched Strictly Personal album (the tapes of which were maliciously slathered with heavy echo and phasing effects by producer Bob Krasnow, without Beefheart's approval) in blissful clarity. The sound throughout is vibrant, with all the sparks of the dual-guitar interplay and massive slide sound that would typify the Magic Band in years to come. The album has far fewer tempo changes than Milk or the records that follow it; the band for the most part digs deep blues-based grooves and stays within their confines. But there are lengthy, monochromatic stomp-trance workouts, such as "Tarotplane" and "Gimme Dat Harp Boy", which stretch out and explore John French's jagged drumming, the guitarists' uniquely deft, pan-tonal playing, and Beefheart's harp playing, gruff vocal style, and impressionistic lyrics. Note: Seven more tracks from this session are included on the reissue of Safe as Milk. --Mike McGonigal

Customer Reviews

Did I really say that?
To my old chum Paul Harisson, when we started to discover the pure music that is Captain beefheart? Not as arhythmic as Troutmask or as overproduced as the still-wonderful Strictly personal ( and how I wish i hadn't swapped the divers-bell gatefold album for Led Zep II), but the first time that I realised there was music inside strange sounds, and outside of the bubblegum crap that was, and still is, most popular music.

So with mind-boggling circularity I bought this album on a recommendation based on the recommendation of my much younger self. And they say Philip K Dick is all fiction.

So we know from other reviews that the first four tracks are the original album, but how is this version? well, first off, as this is most liikely the only one you are going to get, GET IT because the content is amazing, but compared to the original, un-remastered, vinyl, I can't help thinking that it has lost some depth, some purity, and picked up some hint of electronic jangle. And this ironic as Beefheart as much as anyone suffered from having his work over-produced or re-edited once he had leftit with the company or in the vault, legendary tussles and contractual silences ensued.
Or maybe it is the passage of time, wear on my poor ears and the weight of experience on my once innocent and receptive mind, but I Don't thonk so: wharfedale speakers are still at the business end of my system.

So you can start here, if you wish, then move to The Spotlight Kid and Clear Spot, then jump straight to Doc at the radar Station and Ice Cream for Crow, then retire to the Mojave desert knowing that you have listened to some of the greatest musical art that this world has to offer.

Never to be repeated
This music comes from another world when looked at from today's overdone and sterotypical viewpoint. Beefheart sounds like no other and his band work hard to stay away from typical 60s grooves. We have an album of pre heavy metal blues, very little distortion but the sheer weight of the bass makes up for everything. This music was pop art before the term became popular. It was the alternative of its day. So if you consider the Doors/ Canned Heat/ Jimi Hendrix as the mainstream contempories ofthe magic band then this should give you an idea just how far out this is. Its certainly a great, never to be made again LP. Love ya Captain

Sometimes I think I don't know what to think; what do you think?
I've given this a little time to sink in, but I'm afraid I'm still unsure of what to think about it. I'm really only starting out on my discovery of the works of Captain Beefheart, so my review isn't going to be informed by a knowledge of all his work, but I will try my best to give you my impressions. And I'm not going to give you the brief history of the record. All the other reviewers seem to have done that already, and I'm sure anyone interested in the Captain already knows. I did.

This record is er... extremely percussive. To listen to it feels almost like being punched repeatedly on both temples at the same time. And it is sonically very flat. That isn't a complaint - I actually love the scope of sound and the music Beefheart gets from his guitar players without using fancy effects.

On the first 3 (and very long) tracks the guitars drone and tinker in spite of each other, the bass booms and bounces and the drums trip and tap and roll (and are too quiet in the mix)... with little approaching a recognisable structure in sight. I've heard this record described as the Captain's bluesiest. I'm not so sure. Safe As Milk seems more influenced by the groove and swing of the blues to me. Sure, there are blues elements here, but this music is just SO complex! It doesn't create a trance-like effect by the use of repeated figures, it does it by playing slightly different figures for 15-20 minutes. It's so difficult to absorb!

I do find it quite fascinating though. It's such a departure from it's predecessor (Safe As Milk). On Safe As Milk every note, every sound was absolutely necessary, was absolutely perfect in composition and placement. There was nothing in any of those songs that wasn't needed. In contrast, Mirror Man makes me wonder. These songs must have been hell to learn. Did the Captain REALLY make his band learn these songs note for note? Tarotplane? 20+ minutes of music that is constantly changing, but only slightly?! I just wonder... why?

Now, I'm sure he had a reason. I don't doubt for a moment that Beefheart is a genius. He just decided to go in the complete opposite direction to what he went in on Safe As Milk. I'm just not sure it makes for a great listening experience. It takes a little too much hard work. Sure, I know I'll hear something different in these tunes every time I listen to them... but part of that will only because there's so damn much to notice!

In case you're confused, I've only discussed the first 3 tracks so far. I'll just finish this section by saying that in amongst these long pieces there are a few moments of absolute genius - usually in the Captain's vocal performance.

And so onto the rest of the tracks. The rest of the tracks are easier to appreciate. They don't swing like the Safe As Milk album, but they are just as imaginative. And if you think the Safe As Milk album is too weird... these will be way too weird for you.

Kandy Korn is terrific, and good fun. The extended instrumental section at the end is fascinating. The version of Trust Us isn't quite as good as the one on the extended edition of Safe As Milk, but it's very good nonetheless. Conversely, the version of Safe As Milk is better than the one that is a bonus track on the album of the same name.

I don't have anything specific to say about Beatle Bones or Moody Liz, but nevertheless, they are pretty impressive, and again, fascinating examples of music the like of which I've never heard before. Gimme Dat Harp Boy is good too, however the first half of it's bluesy riff is very similar to Spoonful, a song covered by Cream. That pales it a little for me. Gimme Dat Harp Boy is better though.

Additional: I've had a lot more chance to absorb this record now, and would just like to add a couple of things. I still pretty much stand by what I've said about it, but I do have to say that I appreciate this record more the more I listen to it. It's radical departure from the music of Safe As Milk makes more sense to me since I've become familiar with Trout Mask Replica. I do find however, that The Mirror Man Sessions works best when playing it on random. Since the album was never actually conceived in this particular form, I can only conclude that the tracks have been sequenced in the wrong order. I find that having to listen to the 18 minute "Tarotplane" first often puts me off - it seems to dominate the whole record - and I get a much better feeling as a whole when I can listen to the songs in a context divorced from this sequencing.