The Spotlight Kid
Encyclopedia
The Spotlight Kid is the sixth album
by Captain Beefheart
(Don Van Vliet) and the Magic Band, originally released in 1972. It is the only album formally credited solely to Captain Beefheart. Often cited as one of the most accessible of Beefheart's albums, it is solidly founded in the blues
but also uses instruments such as marimba
and jingle bells
that are not typical of that genre. The incarnation of the Magic Band on this album was Bill Harkleroad
and Elliot Ingber
, guitars; Mark Boston, bass; John French
, drums; and Art Tripp
, marimba. Session drummer Rhys Clark substituted for French on one track, "Glider."
The music on The Spotlight Kid is simpler and slower than on the group's two previous releases, the uncompromisingly original Trout Mask Replica
and the frenetic Lick My Decals Off, Baby
. This was in part an attempt by Van Vliet to become a more appealing commercial proposition as the band had made virtually no money during the previous two years – at the time of recording, the band members were subsisting on welfare food handouts and remittances from their parents. Van Vliet offered that he "got tired of scaring people with what I was doing... I realized that I had to give them something to hang their hat on, so I started working more of a beat into the music." Magic Band members have also said that the slower performances were due in part to Van Vliet's inability to fit his lyrics with the instrumental backing of the faster material on the earlier albums, a problem that was exacerbated in that he almost never rehearsed with the group.
The band members disliked the simpler material and sluggish tempos. Drummer John French
has said, "At the time I hated that album... A lot of that stuff was really boring to play, because it was so simple and it wasn't going anywhere. For another thing a lot of the tracks were just so slow... We just hated it." Guitarist Bill Harkleroad
simply said "I hate that album. It sucks." He attributed the album's lackluster performances to the emotional toll of Van Vliet's behavior toward the band: "We were just emotionally beat to death by his particular environment...we were playing really anemically and it sucks because of that."
In the period leading up to the recording the band lived communally, first at a compound near Ben Lomond, California
and then in northern California near Trinidad
. The situation saw a return to the physical violence and psychological manipulation
that had taken place during the band's previous communal residence while composing and rehearsing Trout Mask Replica
. According to John French, the worst of this was directed toward Harkleroad. In his autobiography Harkleroad recalls being thrown into a dumpster, an act he interpreted as having metaphorical intent.
During these sessions the band recorded several compositions that did not appear on the released album. "Well, Well, Well," with Mark Boston on vocals, was the only one that was completed. Others were sketches or early versions of songs released on later albums. "Suzy Murder Wrist" was later completed as "Sue Egypt" on Doc at the Radar Station
, and "The Witch Doctor Life" later appeared on Ice Cream for Crow
. "Drink Paint Run Run" was an early version (with completely different lyrics) of "Ice Cream for Crow."
described the album as appealing to a "new audience, the ones that teethed on feedback and boogie," acknowledging that Beefheart's previous work was "a bit beyond the attention span or interest of the average listener." Critic Robert Christgau
wrote that Beefheart's "much-bruited commercial bid turns out to have all the mass appeal of King of the Delta Blues Singers
".
Stereo Review
acknowledged the album as Beefheart's attempt to "go commercial," while opining that "Captain's conception of commercial is still sweetly weird." Colman Andrews
writing in Phonograph Record Magazine described the album as evidence that Van Vliet was "the greatest white blues singer in America today." Jim Washburn, reviewing the album's reissue as a double CD with Clear Spot
, noted that while "Beefheart seemed to be attempting to meet listeners halfway" the music was still "demanding, powerful stuff." Later assessments were less positive. Critic and Beefheart biographer Mike Barnes has offered that the album was "ponderous... it really just lumbers along. You get the feeling that if the tracks were about half as fast again it would add a bit more energy. There seems to be something labored about it... it's got kind of a drabness to it."
Despite being nominated as Melody Maker
album of the month The Spotlight Kid failed to match the UK Top 20 success of Lick My Decals Off, Baby
, peaking at #44. However, in the US it was the first Captain Beefheart album to appear in the Billboard Top 200. Its peak of #131 remains the highest attained by any Beefheart album. The album is now available as a "two for one" CD
along with Beefheart's follow-up album, Clear Spot
. Separately, the two albums are available as vinyl LP reissues. Van Vliet later blamed the album's lack of success on the band members, stating "The band wasn't into what I wanted to do at the time... They failed miserably on The Spotlight Kid."
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
by Captain Beefheart
Captain Beefheart
Don Van Vliet January 15, 1941 December 17, 2010) was an American musician, singer-songwriter and artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. His musical work was conducted with a rotating ensemble of musicians called The Magic Band, active between 1965 and 1982, with whom he recorded 12...
(Don Van Vliet) and the Magic Band, originally released in 1972. It is the only album formally credited solely to Captain Beefheart. Often cited as one of the most accessible of Beefheart's albums, it is solidly founded in the blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
but also uses instruments such as marimba
Marimba
The marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. It consists of a set of wooden keys or bars with resonators. The bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys ...
and jingle bells
Jingle Bells
"Jingle Bells" is one of the best-known and commonly sung winter songs in the world. It was written by James Lord Pierpont and published under the title "One Horse Open Sleigh" in the autumn of 1857...
that are not typical of that genre. The incarnation of the Magic Band on this album was Bill Harkleroad
Bill Harkleroad
Bill Harkleroad, known professionally as Zoot Horn Rollo , is an American guitarist. He is best known for his work with Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band...
and Elliot Ingber
Elliot Ingber
Elliot Ingber is an American guitarist. In 1966, he was a founding member of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention and was featured on their debut album Freak Out! After being fired from the band by Frank Zappa, Ingber helped form Fraternity of Man, which released two albums...
, guitars; Mark Boston, bass; John French
John French
John French may refer to:* John French , English doctor and chemist* John French , Canadian ice hockey player* John French , American drummer and musician...
, drums; and Art Tripp
Art Tripp
Arthur Dyer Tripp III is a chiropractor and former musician best known for his work as a percussionist with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention and Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band.-Early career:Tripp grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and started playing drums in...
, marimba. Session drummer Rhys Clark substituted for French on one track, "Glider."
The music on The Spotlight Kid is simpler and slower than on the group's two previous releases, the uncompromisingly original Trout Mask Replica
Trout Mask Replica
Trout Mask Replica is the third album by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, released in June 1969. Produced by Beefheart's friend and former schoolmate Frank Zappa, it was originally released as a double album on Zappa's Straight Records label...
and the frenetic Lick My Decals Off, Baby
Lick My Decals Off, Baby
-Personnel:* Captain Beefheart – vocals, bass clarinet, tenor sax, soprano sax, harmonica* Zoot Horn Rollo – guitar and glass finger guitar* Rockette Morton – "bassius-o-pheilius"...
. This was in part an attempt by Van Vliet to become a more appealing commercial proposition as the band had made virtually no money during the previous two years – at the time of recording, the band members were subsisting on welfare food handouts and remittances from their parents. Van Vliet offered that he "got tired of scaring people with what I was doing... I realized that I had to give them something to hang their hat on, so I started working more of a beat into the music." Magic Band members have also said that the slower performances were due in part to Van Vliet's inability to fit his lyrics with the instrumental backing of the faster material on the earlier albums, a problem that was exacerbated in that he almost never rehearsed with the group.
The band members disliked the simpler material and sluggish tempos. Drummer John French
John French
John French may refer to:* John French , English doctor and chemist* John French , Canadian ice hockey player* John French , American drummer and musician...
has said, "At the time I hated that album... A lot of that stuff was really boring to play, because it was so simple and it wasn't going anywhere. For another thing a lot of the tracks were just so slow... We just hated it." Guitarist Bill Harkleroad
Bill Harkleroad
Bill Harkleroad, known professionally as Zoot Horn Rollo , is an American guitarist. He is best known for his work with Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band...
simply said "I hate that album. It sucks." He attributed the album's lackluster performances to the emotional toll of Van Vliet's behavior toward the band: "We were just emotionally beat to death by his particular environment...we were playing really anemically and it sucks because of that."
In the period leading up to the recording the band lived communally, first at a compound near Ben Lomond, California
Ben Lomond, California
Ben Lomond is a census-designated place in Santa Cruz County, California, United States, and also the name of the mountain to the west. The population was 6,234 at the 2010 census.-History:...
and then in northern California near Trinidad
Trinidad, California
Trinidad is a seaside city in Humboldt County, located on the Pacific Ocean north of the Arcata-Eureka Airport and north of the college town of Arcata...
. The situation saw a return to the physical violence and psychological manipulation
Psychological manipulation
Psychological manipulation is a type of social influence that aims to change the perception or behavior of others through underhanded, deceptive, or even abusive tactics. By advancing the interests of the manipulator, often at the other's expense, such methods could be considered exploitative,...
that had taken place during the band's previous communal residence while composing and rehearsing Trout Mask Replica
Trout Mask Replica
Trout Mask Replica is the third album by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, released in June 1969. Produced by Beefheart's friend and former schoolmate Frank Zappa, it was originally released as a double album on Zappa's Straight Records label...
. According to John French, the worst of this was directed toward Harkleroad. In his autobiography Harkleroad recalls being thrown into a dumpster, an act he interpreted as having metaphorical intent.
During these sessions the band recorded several compositions that did not appear on the released album. "Well, Well, Well," with Mark Boston on vocals, was the only one that was completed. Others were sketches or early versions of songs released on later albums. "Suzy Murder Wrist" was later completed as "Sue Egypt" on Doc at the Radar Station
Doc at the Radar Station
Doc at the Radar Station is the eleventh studio album by Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band, released in August 1980 to favorable reviews. The painting on the album cover is by Don Van Vliet himself...
, and "The Witch Doctor Life" later appeared on Ice Cream for Crow
Ice Cream for Crow
Ice Cream for Crow is the twelfth and final studio album by Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band, released in September 1982. It is the last Don Van Vliet recorded before abruptly retiring from music as Captain Beefheart to devote himself to a career as a painter...
. "Drink Paint Run Run" was an early version (with completely different lyrics) of "Ice Cream for Crow."
Critical and commercial reception
Contemporary reviews were generally favorable. Lester BangsLester Bangs
Leslie Conway "Lester" Bangs was an American music journalist, author and musician. He wrote for Creem and Rolling Stone magazines, and was known for his leading influence in rock 'n' roll criticism....
described the album as appealing to a "new audience, the ones that teethed on feedback and boogie," acknowledging that Beefheart's previous work was "a bit beyond the attention span or interest of the average listener." Critic Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
wrote that Beefheart's "much-bruited commercial bid turns out to have all the mass appeal of King of the Delta Blues Singers
King of the Delta Blues Singers
King of the Delta Blues Singers is a compilation album by American blues musician Robert Johnson, released in 1961 on Columbia Records. It is considered one of the greatest and most influential blues releases ever...
".
Stereo Review
Stereo Review
Stereo Review was an American magazine first published in 1958 by Ziff-Davis with the title HiFi and Music Review. It was one of a handful of magazines then available for the individual interested in high fidelity. Throughout its life it published a blend of record and equipment reviews, articles...
acknowledged the album as Beefheart's attempt to "go commercial," while opining that "Captain's conception of commercial is still sweetly weird." Colman Andrews
Colman Andrews
Colman Robert Hardy Daniel Andrews is an American writer and editor and authority on food and wine. In culinary circles, he is best known for his association with Saveur magazine, which he founded with Dorothy Kalins, Michael Grossman, and Christopher Hirsheimer in 1994 and where he served as...
writing in Phonograph Record Magazine described the album as evidence that Van Vliet was "the greatest white blues singer in America today." Jim Washburn, reviewing the album's reissue as a double CD with Clear Spot
Clear Spot
Clear Spot is the seventh album by Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, originally released on LP in 1972 in a clear plastic sleeve.After Trout Mask Replica, which was critically acclaimed but sold poorly, each of the group's following three albums was slightly more conventional than the one before...
, noted that while "Beefheart seemed to be attempting to meet listeners halfway" the music was still "demanding, powerful stuff." Later assessments were less positive. Critic and Beefheart biographer Mike Barnes has offered that the album was "ponderous... it really just lumbers along. You get the feeling that if the tracks were about half as fast again it would add a bit more energy. There seems to be something labored about it... it's got kind of a drabness to it."
Despite being nominated as Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
album of the month The Spotlight Kid failed to match the UK Top 20 success of Lick My Decals Off, Baby
Lick My Decals Off, Baby
-Personnel:* Captain Beefheart – vocals, bass clarinet, tenor sax, soprano sax, harmonica* Zoot Horn Rollo – guitar and glass finger guitar* Rockette Morton – "bassius-o-pheilius"...
, peaking at #44. However, in the US it was the first Captain Beefheart album to appear in the Billboard Top 200. Its peak of #131 remains the highest attained by any Beefheart album. The album is now available as a "two for one" CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
along with Beefheart's follow-up album, Clear Spot
Clear Spot
Clear Spot is the seventh album by Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, originally released on LP in 1972 in a clear plastic sleeve.After Trout Mask Replica, which was critically acclaimed but sold poorly, each of the group's following three albums was slightly more conventional than the one before...
. Separately, the two albums are available as vinyl LP reissues. Van Vliet later blamed the album's lack of success on the band members, stating "The band wasn't into what I wanted to do at the time... They failed miserably on The Spotlight Kid."
Side one
- "I'm Gonna Booglarize You Baby" – 4:33
- "White Jam" – 2:55
- "Blabber 'n Smoke" – 2:46 (Van Vliet, Jan Van Vliet)
- "When It Blows Its Stacks" – 3:40
- "Alice in Blunderland" – 3:54
Side two
- "The Spotlight Kid" – 3:21
- "Click Clack" – 3:30
- "Grow Fins" – 3:30
- "There Ain't No Santa Claus on the Evenin' Stage" – 3:11
- "Glider" – 4:34
Personnel
- Captain Beefheart - vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, harmonicaHarmonicaThe harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
, jingle bells - Zoot Horn Rollo (Bill HarkleroadBill HarkleroadBill Harkleroad, known professionally as Zoot Horn Rollo , is an American guitarist. He is best known for his work with Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band...
) - guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, slide guitarSlide guitarSlide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the guitar. The term slide refers to the motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the original material of choice for such slides: the necks of glass bottles... - Rockette Morton (Mark Boston) - bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, guitar - Drumbo (John FrenchJohn French (musician)John "Drumbo" French is an American drummer and musician. He played on Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica and on various other Beefheart recordings: Beefheart dubbed him "Drumbo"...
) - drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration... - Ed Marimba/Ted Cactus (Art TrippArt TrippArthur Dyer Tripp III is a chiropractor and former musician best known for his work as a percussionist with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention and Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band.-Early career:Tripp grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and started playing drums in...
) - drums, percussion, marimbaMarimbaThe marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. It consists of a set of wooden keys or bars with resonators. The bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys ...
, pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, harpsichordHarpsichordA harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard... - Winged Eel Fingerling (Elliot IngberElliot IngberElliot Ingber is an American guitarist. In 1966, he was a founding member of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention and was featured on their debut album Freak Out! After being fired from the band by Frank Zappa, Ingber helped form Fraternity of Man, which released two albums...
) - guitar - Rhys ClarkRhys ClarkRhys Edward Clark is an Australian drummer who has played with such artists as Hoyt Axton, Freddy Fender, and most notably Billy Joel, backing him on drums from 1971 to 1975 and also playing on his albums Cold Spring Harbor and Piano Man...
- drums (on "Glider")