Lick My Vocals Off, Baby Dept.

 

Cover Art by A Dave @ Kinko

Decals hasn't, for me, gained as much over the decades as other Beefheart albums. It sounds a little - thin? It doesn't have the soaked-in atmosphere of the Trout House recordings, and I've always been uncertain about exactly how necessary Ed Marimba/Art Tripp III was. Aaaand, there's maybe four or five songs on the album I love, but a lot of fiddly noodling and honking that never quite gets authentically weird. A lot of clear-thinking folks think it's Beefheart's masterpiece, but what do they know?

But I do enjoy this version, which you might think is exactly the same material where the vocals have been wiped by an astringent household cleanser, but it ain't. It sounds altogether punchier, and there's detail - like the grunted count-ins - not on the original album. So somebody got the raw master takes before Don did his thing. It sounds better, dammit.

In the unlikely event that you have a grail version of the album, do the right thing for once in your wretched so-called life and upload it. 

 

This post funded in part by the Pork Bend Pumice Co.