I'M GOING TO DO WHAT I WANNA DO: LIVE AT MY FATHER'S PLACE 1978

This is a fantastic live recording, FM broadcast. If you enjoy the Magic Band this is the best of the bootlegs for sound quality, and Don's on great form with the audience - the material from Shiny Beast Bat Chain Piller is heavily featured with great exuberance. Beware the other versions of this show because they are running at the wrong speed (1992 Hallmark HM011CD)

From the Radar Station website: "Graham Johnston writes:

A splendid recording of an exemplary gig which you should snap up fairly quickly before it's too late. Rumours that this had been mastered at the wrong speed (as is the case for some of the vastly inferior bootleg versions of this show) can be happily ignored. Shiny Beast-era shows are always my favourites from the plethora of later-period live recordings and this is one of the finest.

The show is great fun with the Captain in high spirits throughout, with one brief, momentary exception. During a recital of 'Well' an enthusiastic member of the audience appears to get blamed for Don's fluffing of the lines. Don bellows "Cut it out, man! This is not in 4/4 time. Some things are sacred!" There is nothing to suggest what the audience member was doing that was so disruptive (there is no audible clapping which would be a logical suggestion) but I'm sure he or she cut whatever-it-was out immediately. By the end of the song, Don has decided to blame McDonalds instead for his difficulty in 'performing poetry'; a much more blameworthy target methinks.

The music confidently swings along from highlight to highlight. The only duff moment comes during Dropout Boogie; a tune which Don seldom got exactly right vocally on stage. No doubt that is McDonalds' fault too. Considering that Beefheart's few duff moments are still treasured by most Radar Station visitors, and that the music itself is as sharp as Robert Williams' centre parting, this really doesn't detract at all.

Rhino Handmade have worked on this with their usual fine attention to detail which demonstrates the high regard they hold for the music they release. The design of the two CDs (pictured below) focus upon the name of Don's publishing company and feature shots of the Earth, the Milky Way and a golf ball. Tucked away where no one would find them are the follow words by way of an explanation: "Captain Beefheart calls it God's Golfball". Little touches like this make the package that little bit more special. Only a record company which is (at the very least) mildly infatuated with Beefheart's music and personality would include the following in their copyright details: "Rhino Handmade [is] a fast and bulbous division of Rhino Entertainment Company". The quality of this release prompts me to add the words "bulbous also tapered". Don't miss out on it." http://www.beefheart.com/datharp/albums/official/whatiwannado.htm

So there

This is a great concert of CB having a good time with both the band and the crowd. This live recording is of very good quality and makes me jealous that I was not part of the crowd. The band is hot and so is CB.

If you are looking for a live set of CB and the Magic Band, this is the place to start. While there is the Rhino records version, which I don't believe is available any longer, I believe there is an English version of this CD that might be easier to get.

Beefheart and his freshly-assembled Magic Band hit the road to support the well-received comeback "Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)" album, and it's immediately clear that he's back on his game, as evidenced by this superbly presented live document by Rhino/Handmade. The repertoire relies heavily on "Shiny Beast" material, though it also favors the smoother strains of "Clear Spot" material (Nowadays a Woman's Got to Hit a Man, Her Eyes are a Blue Million Miles) as well as a generous number of "Trout Mask Replica" songs (Well, Old Fart at Play, Moonlight on Vermont, Veterans Day Poppy), and a couple of songs that are even older (Dropout Boogie, Abba Zaba, Safe as Milk). The era of his misguided attempts at mainstream acceptance is wisely avoided. This catches Beefheart right in the midst of a turning point in his career, and I can only imagine how elated his fans were to see him back in such commanding form.

Sound quality is impeccable throughout, leading me to think this was professionally recorded with the intention of being released, or broadcast over the radio. It was an unusual-sounding lineup. Bruce Fowler (ex-Zappa) plays the bass parts on trombone (or "air bass" as Beefheart amusingly calls it), Robert Williams provides the kind of tom-heavy offbeat rhythms that are a hallmark of Beefheart's music, Eric Drew Feldman fills in the spaces jumping around between keyboards, guitar, and bass. Jeff "Moris" Tepper plays the slide with even more joyful abandon than his precursor Zoot Horn Rollo (if not as expertly). The band handles the Trout Mask material adequately, though they do seem more comfortable with the "Shiny Beast" material they helped to create.

Beefheart himself sounds confident and in charge. He communicates with the crowd with humor and good-natured sarcasm (best moment: yelling at an audience member for clapping in 4/4 time during "Well", an acapella piece that is in anything but 4/4). All in all, this is probably the best live document of Captain Beefheart you are likely to find. 4 stars.