Electricity by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, from their 1967 debut album, Safe as Milk has a very ‘Zappa’ feel to it. It’s chaotic, psychedelic, and above all genius. Their lead singer Captain Beefheart sounds like an interesting fellow…. whilst playing Electricity for a warm-up performance at the Mt. Tamalpais Festival in 1967 Beefheart stopped the […]
Tuesday’s Tune: Electricity
Electricity by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, from their 1967 debut album, Safe as Milk has a very ‘Zappa’ feel to it. It’s chaotic, psychedelic, and above all genius.
Their lead singer Captain Beefheart sounds like an interesting fellow…. whilst playing Electricity for a warm-up performance at the Mt. Tamalpais Festival in 1967 Beefheart stopped the song, straightened his tie, walked off the stage, and landed face flat into the grass. He later claimed that he saw a girl in the audience turn into a goldfish. This caused guitarist Ry Cooder to immediately quit the Magic Band claiming he couldn’t deal with Beefheart’s “unpredictability.”
The band’s record company at the time, A&M Records dropped them after co-owner Jerry Moss heard the song Electricity declaring it “too negative” and wouldn’t be something he would want his teenage daughter to listen to….
Tuesday’s Tune is dedicated to Moss’ teenage daughter. Lets hope she stole the record, played it at a friends party, and danced to it on repeat for hours on end.
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