Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band
Lick My Decals Off, Baby

Release Date: 1970 | Tracklist

This is the fourth album by Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band (the first time the band are credited so, on all prior reviews they are credited as "His Magic Band", people with awareness of the band will realize that description is far more apt). This was released straight after "Trout Mask Replica" and the perspective you have on that album will determine how you feel about this one, possibly, I don't wanna tell you how to think...not till you're willing to listen.

When all is said and done this album sounds extremely similar to "Trout Mask Replica", the only differences being this one only has Zoot Horn Rollo (Bill Harkleroad) playing guitar. This does make a difference, because your opinion of "Trout Mask Replica" could determine your view towards this, if you like "Trout Mask Replica" chances are you'll really enjoy this, if not, it isn't really going to change your opinion. One of the greatest features of "Trout Mask Replica" was the guitar interplay, which is gone. A highlight of this is that the bass is more prominent than before, although it doesn't seem as good as the bass work on Trout Mask Replica.

These complaints aside, this is still a fantastic album, hence the high rating. The lyrics seem to have slightly improved from "Kraut Task Triangular", and those lyrics were fantastic. The guitar work is fantastic. In a few tracks the cap'n 'plays' his sax and it creates an awesome dissonance (I mean "awesome" in the biblical sense of the word...AS IN NOT AWESOME AT ALL....biting Religious satire aside....) to the rest of the song, although the members used to complain about this obscuring their playing, which is fair enough. It's amazing how well these guys play though, it's its own type of music which needs its own type of playing. You can't learn this stuff in music school. Like in the album before, the tracks take some getting used to, although if you're used to "Trout Mask Replica" it shouldn't be too hard to adjust. These songs really meet you on their terms though, not yours, and if you can't dig it, then that's just too freakin' bad. And if you think I'm being a cock, that's the album talking, I'm just the messenger, and don't shoot the messenger, unless you're hungry....and a cannibal. A term often used to describe a lot of Post-punk music (in a way this is proto-post-punk) is "angular", but trust me guy, this album makes Joy Division and Gang of Four seem like bubblegum music. Musically. lyrically it's quite playful. The guitar playing can come across as sloppy at first, as if he's just, like, slappin' it or something, but, y'know, he's not, he's a genius, these commas gonna put me in a coma. No, no, he knows exactly what he's playing and exactly what he wants to achieve.

The guitars feature mild distortion, which adds to the music, the music is never in common time (y'know, it's not "common music"), and it's real herky jerky, almost robotic. The drum playing is something else though, it doesn't just hold down the music, you could listen solely to the drums and still have a good time, there's some real interesting stuff, just irregular playing that adds so much. OH! OH! A new feature to the music is the marimba, which can sometimes make the music sound a bit like Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. Only kind of though, there aren't a lot of similarities between them, Captain Beefheart's music has soul, sorry, Frank's music conveyed many thing (scorn, disdain, contempt, derision, mockery) but soul wasn't one of them. The bass playing is generally the catchiest part of the song, especially with its new prominence, although the whole album is catchy in its own way.

Okay, the lyrics, Don sticks to his surreal poetry as the lyrics, and it works really well, the title track is supposedly about sex (though Rear Admiral Cornlung refuted this), and I don't know what the hell "I Love You, You Big Dummy" is about, although the central refrain consisting of the title track sure leaves an impression. "Space-Age Couple" seems to target modern types at the time, who are too hip to care about the Earth, which the Captain urges them to do. It's a cool message. Overall the lyrics are surreal, also tapered! Nah, they're also witty, playful and completely original. Seriously, this Beefheart guy is like a genius or something.

These songs are particular highlights and help show what the album is like as a whole. First would be the title track, which welcomes the listener right back into the slightly tweaked world of Captain Beefheart with glee and aplomb! Then there's "Doctor Dark", which features some magnificent guitar work and a nice bassline, with hectic drumming and good, grizzly singin'. "Peon" introduces the listener to a new aspect of the band (post-TMR), acoustic guitar, which is nice. The aforementioned "I Love You, You Big Dummy" is the most immediate hooky song on the album, and is something to be checked out (further checking out should be done of the fantastic Magazine cover, ha, accidental wordplay,.genus...). "I Wanna Find A Woman That'll Hold My Big Toe Till I Have To Go", in addition to having the best title of anything in the history of forever has some nice marimba work and a melodic bassline. Those are the highlights, but the other tracks are good as well, hell, the whole thing is good.

So, that's pretty much it, normally when I'm recommending Captain Beefheart to total strangers I recommend the first album ("Safe As Milk") because it's relatively accessible, but if you want to be introduced to the Avant-Garde side of Captain Beefheart first I would probably recommend this over "Trout Mask Replica", because it's shorter and there's no spoken word poetry and dialogue (which most fans like but will probably be bemused by at first). If you then decide you like this get "Trout Mask Replica" because it's a masterpiece (I guess this is an apprenticepiece...whatever...). It is my personal belief that the only reason these albums are viewed as so inaccessible is because a lot of people didn't have a reference point. Trust me, in an alternative universe where everything would sound like this, The Beatles would be treated the same way as "Trout Mask Replica".

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4.1 excellent