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Music : Strictly Personal
1 2
Rating: 
- Genius
I first heard this when it was released, in the UK, on Sunset Records, a budget label who also released the Bonzo Dog Band albums etc. This was one of the albums that nearly everybody I knew at the time had in their collection. In the late 1970s when Punk and second hand record shops arrived in Dundee this was one of the albums that people couldn't give away. In that era peopel were casting off their previous music collections and getting rid of anything Prog Rock or Hippy, this album falling into the latter category.
I deeply resented being told that I shouldn't like all the stuff I liked before so I clung on my own judgement and still consider this as a classic, not just of Beefheart's career but I would put it in my top 10 1960s albums, and there is a lot of competition there.
There are a couple of things to clear up here, the first is the opening track Ah Feel Like Ahcid (unfortunately Amazon does not have the mechanism for customers to feedback with absent or incirrect track titles). Many assumed that this was an LSD reference but Beefheart insists that it was just a phonetic spelling of the phrase in the song "I feel like I said...", however, even if this is the case I am sure that the record company, if not Beefheart himself, were trying to exploit this ambiguity.
The second big bone of contention is the post production phasing etc, Beefheart came out publicly and denounced this say that the record company had destroyed his album, he later did a similar thing with Unconditionally Guaranteed and Bluejeans & Moonbeams. In these later albums I am inclined to take his objections as face value but in this case I think he is being rather disingenuous. Beefheart embraced the production of Strictly Personal prior too and immediately after it's release. It was only after disappointing sales that he started to complain about the post production treatments. Personally I do not understand the objections people have to this, I love this album. I do however, secretly, welcome this controversy because it lead to the demand for the release of the Mirror Man Sessions album that is now hugely expanded on it's current CD release.
Beefheart genius in his early work was his subversion of traditional music forms, here with the opener Ah Feel Like Ahcid and Gimme Dat Harp Boy put Beefheart up there with the cream of blues vocalists, his voice is just wonderful. The artist is often not best placed to judge the merit of his own work and I really don't mind people contradicting themselves about the value of their work.
His dig a the then leader of the British Invasion, Beatle Bones and Smokin' Stones sounds as edgy now as it did then, apparently John Lennon took exception, however it is a rather cool dig; if someone is going to have a go at you in song then you would want it to sound as cool as this.
Don't let anyone put you off this is a true classic album. There was a "Greatest Albums of All Time" programme on television some years back, one of the many similar polls around the millennium. John Peel took part in the programme and when asked about which Beefheart albums he thought everyone should listen to he said "All of them, everyday." John was confident enough just to say what he thought and never tried to be cool with the result that he was paradoxically never cool and totally cool all the time. Beefheart has gone in and out of fashion amongst the arbiters of cool but for me he will always be a legend, buy this album and turn on to a genius.
Rating: - Full vinyl replacement
I have had this album on vinyl since about 1968 on the original Blue Thumb label but until I obtained this on CD I was never able to listen to the whole album - read on for an explanation.
If I remember correctly, Chicken Shack were performing at my University and to fill-in between their sets there was a DJ called John Peel playing some of the records he liked. He arrived in a transit van. In those days, the engine compartment was accessed via the cab and the cover used to become quite warm. Peel had put his records to select from next to the engine. The result was that this particular record became warped around the edge and therefore the first one and half tracks became unplayable. When Peel discovered this he said you can have the record if you like and gave it to a friend who used to used to use my equipment to play his records. Somehow this record got left in my collection and I have always liked the playable tracks.
So it was a real pleasure to able to hear the missing tracks when I purchased this as a vinyl replacement.
Listening to this again after all these years, I now appreciate the originality of the performances - they still sound quite fresh today. There has been some argument about the post performance production mix on this record (too much phasing etc.), and I would agree that this was not necessary, but (maybe because I am used to it) it does not distract from the perfomances.
Rating:
- Strictly Personal
Although a remix with the guitar and drums raised would greatly improve this album, as it stands its still great. In many ways oppostie to next year's Trout Mask Replica, Strictly Personal contains mainly extended songs, which serve as a showcase for some amazing guitar work, and the great drumming of John French. The extent of the now-dated effects may be overplayed, but it dosen't do much good for this set.
Rating: - not the best Don but better than amost everyone else.
This is genuinely innovative stuff. Although relatively coventional compared to what was to come i.e. Troutmask Replica, or Lick My Decals off, it still carries a punch that makes most of its musical contemporaries look pretty tame. Frankly the reviewer who though that there was any comparison in any way to the Small Faces has left me totally baffled.
Rating: - A Beafheart classic
From the first period of the Magic Band, when they still played traditional blues. (Well, nothing from Don van Vliet is traditional). Very much like "Safe as Milk" which I find slightly better though. Buy that one first and you will either hate C.B. or buy the rest! Other C.B. must haves: "Trout Mask Replica" and "Doc at the Radar Station"
- GeniusI first heard this when it was released, in the UK, on Sunset Records, a budget label who also released the Bonzo Dog Band albums etc. This was one of the albums that nearly everybody I knew at the time had in their collection. In the late 1970s when Punk and second hand record shops arrived in Dundee this was one of the albums that people couldn't give away. In that era peopel were casting off their previous music collections and getting rid of anything Prog Rock or Hippy, this album falling into the latter category.
I deeply resented being told that I shouldn't like all the stuff I liked before so I clung on my own judgement and still consider this as a classic, not just of Beefheart's career but I would put it in my top 10 1960s albums, and there is a lot of competition there.
There are a couple of things to clear up here, the first is the opening track Ah Feel Like Ahcid (unfortunately Amazon does not have the mechanism for customers to feedback with absent or incirrect track titles). Many assumed that this was an LSD reference but Beefheart insists that it was just a phonetic spelling of the phrase in the song "I feel like I said...", however, even if this is the case I am sure that the record company, if not Beefheart himself, were trying to exploit this ambiguity.
The second big bone of contention is the post production phasing etc, Beefheart came out publicly and denounced this say that the record company had destroyed his album, he later did a similar thing with Unconditionally Guaranteed and Bluejeans & Moonbeams. In these later albums I am inclined to take his objections as face value but in this case I think he is being rather disingenuous. Beefheart embraced the production of Strictly Personal prior too and immediately after it's release. It was only after disappointing sales that he started to complain about the post production treatments. Personally I do not understand the objections people have to this, I love this album. I do however, secretly, welcome this controversy because it lead to the demand for the release of the Mirror Man Sessions album that is now hugely expanded on it's current CD release.
Beefheart genius in his early work was his subversion of traditional music forms, here with the opener Ah Feel Like Ahcid and Gimme Dat Harp Boy put Beefheart up there with the cream of blues vocalists, his voice is just wonderful. The artist is often not best placed to judge the merit of his own work and I really don't mind people contradicting themselves about the value of their work.
His dig a the then leader of the British Invasion, Beatle Bones and Smokin' Stones sounds as edgy now as it did then, apparently John Lennon took exception, however it is a rather cool dig; if someone is going to have a go at you in song then you would want it to sound as cool as this.
Don't let anyone put you off this is a true classic album. There was a "Greatest Albums of All Time" programme on television some years back, one of the many similar polls around the millennium. John Peel took part in the programme and when asked about which Beefheart albums he thought everyone should listen to he said "All of them, everyday." John was confident enough just to say what he thought and never tried to be cool with the result that he was paradoxically never cool and totally cool all the time. Beefheart has gone in and out of fashion amongst the arbiters of cool but for me he will always be a legend, buy this album and turn on to a genius.
Rating:
- Full vinyl replacementI have had this album on vinyl since about 1968 on the original Blue Thumb label but until I obtained this on CD I was never able to listen to the whole album - read on for an explanation.
If I remember correctly, Chicken Shack were performing at my University and to fill-in between their sets there was a DJ called John Peel playing some of the records he liked. He arrived in a transit van. In those days, the engine compartment was accessed via the cab and the cover used to become quite warm. Peel had put his records to select from next to the engine. The result was that this particular record became warped around the edge and therefore the first one and half tracks became unplayable. When Peel discovered this he said you can have the record if you like and gave it to a friend who used to used to use my equipment to play his records. Somehow this record got left in my collection and I have always liked the playable tracks.
So it was a real pleasure to able to hear the missing tracks when I purchased this as a vinyl replacement.
Listening to this again after all these years, I now appreciate the originality of the performances - they still sound quite fresh today. There has been some argument about the post performance production mix on this record (too much phasing etc.), and I would agree that this was not necessary, but (maybe because I am used to it) it does not distract from the perfomances.
Rating:
- Strictly PersonalAlthough a remix with the guitar and drums raised would greatly improve this album, as it stands its still great. In many ways oppostie to next year's Trout Mask Replica, Strictly Personal contains mainly extended songs, which serve as a showcase for some amazing guitar work, and the great drumming of John French. The extent of the now-dated effects may be overplayed, but it dosen't do much good for this set.
Rating:
- not the best Don but better than amost everyone else.This is genuinely innovative stuff. Although relatively coventional compared to what was to come i.e. Troutmask Replica, or Lick My Decals off, it still carries a punch that makes most of its musical contemporaries look pretty tame. Frankly the reviewer who though that there was any comparison in any way to the Small Faces has left me totally baffled.
Rating:
- A Beafheart classicFrom the first period of the Magic Band, when they still played traditional blues. (Well, nothing from Don van Vliet is traditional). Very much like "Safe as Milk" which I find slightly better though. Buy that one first and you will either hate C.B. or buy the rest! Other C.B. must haves: "Trout Mask Replica" and "Doc at the Radar Station"