Bluejeans and Moonbeams (1974)
Now this is weird! Beefheart had no musical experience or instrumental know-how? You don't say!
Seriously: someone had to “translate his ideas into music” and with the mass exit after the previous album there was, well, nobody. Which makes it seem like this should be one very crappy album. And yet, Kate Bush can't rate it highly enough. Intriguing...
1. Party of special things to do Hard guitar is good, sort of Chicago Delta blues or something
2. Same old blues Love this. Great piano work and the guitar is excellent. Strings style keyboard is beautiful.
3. Observatory crest Again I hear Springsteen here, also Cohen. And Cave. Lyric is quite repetitive though. Great guitar and keys. Oddly, this reminds me of a slowed-down version of “Motorway City” by Hawkwind, in places anyway.
4. Pompadour Swamp Not mad about this one at all. Sort of a bit chaotic and disorganised.
5. Captain's holiday Very Steely Dan-like instrumental (mostly) with splashes of reggae and blues, maybe even funk thrown in. Like it. Great harmonica.
6. Rock'n'Roll's evil doll Great fun. Uptempo, upbeat, cool track.
7. Further than we've gone Oh this is just one beautiful ballad, great piano. This is probably the best track of his I've ever listened to up to this point.
8. Twist ah luck Decent blues track, but a big disappointment after the last one.
9. Bluejeans and moonbeams Somehow he now sounds like Bob Seger or Kenny Rogers! Really nice closer, unexpected sort of Country song.
End result: Again a really good album, and given all the bad press I'm kind of mystifed, unless Beefheart fans just hate anything musical.
So, Love or Hate? This is surely a
Love.