submissions
| Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band – Orange Claw Hammer Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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@[nebraskan:12109] I can't find it online now, but I remember reading somewhere that the narrator hasn't actually been "lost at sea" for thirty years. The little girl is his daughter, but he has this other (black) family somewhere, the result of an affair he had when as a young sailing-man he was "shanghaied", and that's why he's been spending so much time voyaging at sea for the past thirty years - taking care of them. Which is why no-one seems to know him when he comes home now. |
submissions
| Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band – Bills Corpse Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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@[Ex:12105] Abrupto Kubalaht's analysis is pretty much right (based on Don's own statements). But according to John French the song started life as merely a taunt for Bill Harkleroad, written after one of those infamous "band talks", comparing him to a recently deceased goldfish. Obviously the lyric evolved a bit later. |
submissions
| Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band – Lick My Decals Off, Baby Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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@[earthlycitizen:12103] We now know Don was an enthusiastic LSD user for quite a while, even though he denied it.
But your analysis of the song is pretty spot on.
John French made a fool of himself in his book, getting all prudish about the oral sex part of the lyrics. |
submissions
| Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band – When Big Joan Sets Up Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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Actually there's a theory that Big Joan is a transsexual. Not just because of the last line because of the repetitions of "her hands are too small" - one of the visual signs of someone having undergone gender-corrective-therapy is unlikely "too-masculine" shapes and sizes of hands and feet |
submissions
| Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band – Pena Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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@[losttango:12096] There was a whole group of Pena poems, most of them lost. (Hey Garland... is another - that song was written and rehearsed around the same time as this, even if it wasn't recorded till 1982).
Don was inordinately fond of this - in rehearsals he had Jeff Cotton reciting it over and over until everyone was sick of it (Cotton in particular) |
submissions
| Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band – Upon The My Oh My Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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"Got to make her move" - isn't it?
I think if this means anything, it's Don arguing with himself about how he'd abdicated control of his music (been driven away from his steering wheel), under the influence of his new manager, and of his own confused desire to make a record commercial enough to please the mutinous band, and make a "love song" record for his wife. |
submissions
| Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band – Flash Gordon's Ape Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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@[Malkmusian:12090] Losttango's answer is right. Amusing point - "too day" is what Don would say when reluctant to venture out into the hot desert sun.
Again, it's worth finding the bootleg of the band playing the backing track - to hear what's actually going on behind the tenor/soprano sax outpouring! |
submissions
| Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band – Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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It's interesting to hear the band rehearsing the backing music on the Grow Fins album. You can hardly hear the guitars and drums on the finished take - once Don had overdubbed the horns. Namely: the "shenai"/"simran horn" (that's the thing which sounds like an organ, fed through a Leslie speaker) and the musette (that's the solo at the end) |
submissions
| Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band – Grown So Ugly Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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According to John French's book, Ry Cooder wrote the "knock upon my baby's door" verse (the important part of the song!)
Cooder found the song and drove everyone mad rehearsing it. (Especially Don - his own "blues" songs were full of irregular phrasing and rhythms but he didn't like to memorise anyone else's irregularities. No wonder Zappa had so much trouble with him) |
submissions
| Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band – Safe As Milk Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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I think it's conflating domestic squalor with environmental decay. The phrase "safe as milk" was a sarcastic shorthand reference to strontium 90 affecting mothers' milk and causing deformities in babies. At the end the narrator is separating himself from the grand-scale pollutants - I may look like a living wreck but I "know better".
This is a Herb Bermann lyric wrongly credited to Don. |
submissions
| Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band – There Ain't No Santa Claus On The Evenin' Stage Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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In part it's saying "there's no God/hero figure coming to save the world...we have to do it ourselves"
But it's also about the music industry and Don's unassuagable feelings of being ripped off / abused. (Damn, talk about "pot and kettle"!!)
He famously recited it in the face of Frank Zappa when Frank wouldn't let him use any Bat Chain Puller material to pad out the IC4C album. |
submissions
| Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band – Trust Us Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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It sounds too "hippie-ish" but I believe it's a self-acceptance song. "Us / we" presumably are the seemingly opposing facets of one's personality.
Like "Electricity", this is a Herb Bermann lyric (even though Don's been given the credit and the royalties for years). |
submissions
| Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band – Electricity Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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I've heard it explained somewhere (the John French book I think) that it's a "self discovery as first step on path to personal freedom". In which case it's similar to "Trust Us" [even if John French couldn't see it that way 'cause he reads religion into everything].
In fact Herb Bermann wrote the words to this |
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