Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Obeah Man - (1966 demo)
2. Just Got Back From The City - (1966 demo)
3. I'm Glad - (1966 demo)
4. Triple Combination - (1966 demo)
5. Here I Am I Always Am - (early 1966 demo)
6. Here I Am I Always Am - (later 1966 demo)
7. Somebody In My Home - (live, 1966)
8. Tupelo - (live, 1966)
9. Evil Is Going On - (live, 1966)
10. Old Folks Boogie - (live, 1967)
11. Call On Me - (1965 demo)
12. Sure Nuff N Yes I Do - (1967 demo)
13. Yellow Brick Road - (1967 demo)
14. Plastic Factory - (1967 demo)

Disc 2:

1. Electricity - (live, 1968)
2. Sure Nuff N Yes I Do - (live, 1968)
3. Rollin N Tumblin - (live, 1968)
4. Electricity - (live, 1968)
5. Yer Gonna Need Somebody On Yer Bond - (live, 1968)
6. Kandy Korn - (live, 1968)
7. Korn Ring Finger - (1967 demo)
8. Electricity - Captain Beefheart, Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band
9. Sure Nuff 'N' Yes I Do
10. Rollin' N Tumblin
11. Electricity - Captain Beefheart, Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band
12. Yer Gonna Need Somebody on Yer Bond
13. Kandy Korn
14. Korn Ring Finger

Disc 3:

1. Untitled 1
2. Untitled 2
3. Hair Pie: Bake 1
4. Hair Pie: Bake 2
5. Untitled 5
6. Hobo Chang Ba
7. Untitled 7
8. Hobo Chang Ba - (take 2)
9. Dachau Blues
10. Old Fart At Play
11. Untitled 11
12. Pachuco Cadaver
13. Sugar 'N Spikes
14. Untitled 14
15. Sweet Sweet Bulbs
16. Frownland - (take 1)
17. Frownland
18. Untitled 18
19. Ella Guru
20. Untitled 20
21. She's Too Much For My Mirror
22. Untitled 22
23. Steal Softly Thru Snow
24. Untitled 24
25. My Human Gets Me Blues
26. Untitled 26
27. When Big Joan Sets Up
28. Untitled 28
29. Untitled 29
30. China Pig
31. Pachuco Cadaver
32. Sugar 'N' Spikes
33. Sweet Sweet Bulbs
34. Frownland [Take 1]
35. Frownland
36. Ella Guru
37. She's Too Much for My Mirror
38. Steal Softly Through Snow
39. My Human Gets Me Blues
40. When Big Joan Sets Up
41. China Pig

Disc 4:

1. Blimp
2. Herb
3. Septic Tank
4. Overdub [plus ENHANCED CD live performance footage: Cannes Beach, 1968; Amougies, Belgium, 1969; Detroit, Michigan, 1971; Paris, France, 1973]
5. Blimp
6. Herb
7. Septic Tank
8. Over Dub

Disc 5:

1. My Human Gets Me Blues - (live, 1969)
2. When Big Joan Sets Up - (live, 1971)
3. Woe Is Uh Me Bop - (live, 1971)
4. Bellerin' Plain - (live, 1971)
5. Black Snake Moan I - (1972 radio phone-in)
6. Grow Fins - (live, 1972)
7. Black Snake Moan II - (1972 radio)
8. Spitball Scalped Uh Baby - (live, 1972)
9. Harp Boogie I - (1972 radio)
10. One Red Rose That I Mean - (live, 1972)
11. Harp Boogie II - (1972 radio)
12. Natchez Burning - (1972 radio)
13. Harp Boogie III - (1972 radio phone-in)
14. Click Clack - (live, 1973)
15. Orange Claw Hammer - (1975 radio)
16. Odd Jobs - (1975 piano demo)
17. Odd Jobs - (1976 band demo)
18. Vampire Suite - (1980 worktapes/live)
19. Mellotron Improv - (live, 1978)
20. Evening Bell - (1981 piano worktape)
21. Evening Bell - (1982 guitar worktape)
22. Mellotron Improv - (live, 1980)
23. Flavor Bud Living - (live, 1980)
24. My Human Gets Me Blues
25. When Big Joan Sets Up
26. Woe-Is-Uh-Me-Bop
27. Bellerin' Plain
28. Black Snake Moan I
29. Grow Fins
30. Black Snake Moan II
31. Spitball Scalped Uh Baby
32. Harp Boogie I
33. One Red Rose That I Mean
34. Harp Boogie II
35. Natchez Burning
36. Harp Boogie III
37. Click Clack
38. Orange Claw Hammer [Version]
39. Odd Jobs
40. Odd Jobs
41. Vampire Suite
42. Mellotron Improv
43. Evening Bell
44. Evening Bell
45. Mellotron Improv
46. Flavor Bud Living

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38252 in Music
• Published on: 1999
• Released on: 1999-05-18
• Number of discs: 5
• Formats: Box set, Enhanced

Amazon.com
Grow Fins is an impeccably assembled, lavishly produced, epic fanboy love poem to one of popular music's least popular and most influential geniuses, Don Van Vliet, a.k.a. Captain Beefheart. Packaged in a hardcover accordion folio that recalls the 78-rpm era, five CDs of demos, acetates, concert recordings, video footage, and radio broadcasts are packaged alongside 112 densely annotated, highly illuminating pages of previously unpublished text and photos that leap from trainspotting minutiae to insider revelation. The sound has been cleaned up considerably, but the set is essentially the world's coolest bootleg. The upshot is that if you love Beefheart's music, you're likely to have already one-clicked it, but if you are looking for an introduction to his idiosyncratic and totally addictive music, you should hear Trout Mask Replica, Lick My Decals Off, Baby, and Safe as Milk first. This set traces the various permutations and exhilarating development of the Magic Band, from bluesy garage punks to otherworldly, thoroughly orchestrated avant-Delta/skronk/rock avatars of the Trout Mask sessions to the rejuvenated new-wave-era group. Insights into the Magic Band's working method abound, notably with the earliest recordings of Trout, in which they're rougher sounding and mostly instrumental, although their exacting precision disproves the legend that the music was banged out in a free-form free-for-all; clearly, it was a laborious effort. The video footage from Cannes Beach, France, in 1968 and the Detroit "Tubeworks" show in 1971 is priceless. The radio appearances on disc 5 are also thrilling; Beefheart plays solo harp and sings relaxed, spine-tingling a cappella songs. After beginning John Lee Hooker's "Black Snake Moan," which shows off Beefheart's infamous, multi-octave range, he stops in the middle, informing a Boston radio host, "I just can't get it through this microphone--it's too little." --Mike McGonigal

Customer Reviews

After such a long wait, what a vile disappointment.
Nearly a decade ago, WHRB-FM in Cambridge, MA did a 24-hour Beefheart orgy (including -- how obnoxious can you get? -- calling Don at home). Seems that some of the personalities involved in that extravaganza had a hand (or flipper) in this, which causes my eyes to roll back white and pupilless in the manner of an impossibly confused zombie posing the following question: Why? Why waste our precious time and piasters, gentlemen? And ultimately, why, out of the truly vast and incongruous richness of unreleased Beefheart material out there (I've heard it), as teeming with unidentified flora and inexplicable fauna as must Australia have been to the first white man to set tainted his foot upon its shores, why, why, why did you choose these particular tracks? The contents of GROW FINS are neither representative of the full Van Vliet ouevre, nor are they by any means the best available versions. Five CDs was far too many; CD#2 is just obnoxious, that second "Electricity," the brilliant but unnecessary "Korn Ring Finger" (unnecessary because it's on the Buddah reissue); the Trout Mask rehearsals should have been edited down to about half; and where's "Well Well Well" with Rockette Morton on vox? Where's the other vocal treatment of "Flash Gordon's Ape"? Why not the poems from the Italian bootleg CD, why not "Light Reflected..." for the noodly sake of completionism, why not a sampling of the rest of the Avalon Ballroom stuff, the stuff we haven't ALREADY heard on a million bootlegs? Etcetera, etcetera. Point being, this is in many ways an insult to, and an advantage taken of the fans, and you're probably better off sacrificing this particular itch by going to www.beefheart.com and downloading a CD or two's worth of the spiny but flavorful rarities to be found growing there.

****By the way: the best way to torture obstreperous Beefheart fans is to make up 'unreleased' sessions which never actually took place, describe in a breathless rush the pristeenly tightwired tomfoolery of the material (a fetal version of "Clear Spot" in slow-as-honey waltz-time; a song called "Exactly What Yuh'd Have If Yuh Didn't Have Nuthin' Uh'tall" featuring the Captain playing five clarinets simultaneously, a sung treatment of "Apes-ma," ad nauseum), promise to dub them a copy or burn them a CD, and then give them a wrong phone number. Guaranteed.

Break Out the Cash and Grow a Fin!
Although the price of "Grow Fins" is steep, this set is essential if you are a fan of Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band. Although they could have fit discs one and two onto one disc, I don't care. Although they could have added more video cuts or even some "clean" copies of Beefheart gems for which we have been waiting years (e.g., "Bat Chain Puller" original album), I don't care. Although the Trout Mask Sessions disc is filled with endless meaningless studio chatter, I don't care.

Why do I not care? After listening to and absolutely loving the music on this set for several days now, I realized that despite its limitations, had this set been a bootleg costing twice the price, I still would have happily paid the cash and felt great about my purchase. The reason for my gleefulness is precisely because Don Van Vliet and his comrades produced such powerful, engaging music that I'll happily devour whatever scraps of music or studio chatter that they left behind. For the uninitiated listener, "Grow Fins" might not be the best place to start your journey into the world of Beefheart, but it isn't the worst, either. The music on the discs reveal a vast array of stylistic textures, showing how the band developed their music from their blues-oriented beginnings to their avant-garde blowouts of the early `70s. The video clips on Disc 4, although a little grainy, are wonderful examples of the early Beefheart and Magic Band.

There are additional highlights on the other discs. On Disc 1, the demo of "I'm Glad" is absolutely gorgeous, as it showcases Don's incredible ability to use his voice with a rare tenderness. The blues-based songs on the disc show that the Captain Beefheart band was arguably the best blues band of that period. Unlike the numerous British bands that were butchering classic blues songs in that period (e.g., Yardbirds, Stones, among many others), Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band played the blues with technical and aesthetic authenticity. The version of "Rollin' and Tumblin'" on Disc 2 absolutely smokes. Disc 3 offers a penetrating look into the making of the classic "Trout Mask Replica." While there is a lot of insignificant studio chatter, many of the instrumental jams provide insight into how the songs developed over time. (Some of the studio chatter is hilarious, such as Don's discussion of how Herb Alpert uses overdubs on his albums. As a fan of postmodernism, I appreciate that it is often when nothing seems to be happening that everything is happening.) Although the final "Trout Mask" album sounds pretty chaotic to many people, it is actually highly cohesive when compared to the demos on "Grow Fins."

My overall impression of "Grow Fins" can be summed up as follows: When is the next box set of rare Beefheart material going to be released?

Revenant does it again
Very seldom is an artist as perfectly matched to a label as Captain Beefheart and Revenant. Revenant's reputation for outstanding releases in such fringe areas as early country blues and experimental jazz is perfectly suited to tackling a unique artist like Captain Beefheart.

Here's who should get this box set:

1) Revenant fans - Its their first box set and they won't let you down.

2) Captain Beefheart fans - The unreleased tracks, demos, live tracks are amazing. And there's pc quicktime movies of concert footage!

3) Trout Mask Replica fans - You haven't heard Trout until you heard the sessions presented here.

4) Fans of Sun Ra/Zappa/electric Miles/Albert Ayler/Sonic Youth/Pere Ubu or any other noisy skronk music.

A beautiful followup to this would be a DVD/VHS video release of Captain Beefheart concert footage.