Forget this being the Tragic Band's album.
Captain Beefheart. How the hell did it happen? Where did this bizarre maestro come from? No one will ever know, but thank god he did happen! And thank god for this album! It's earned a nasty reputation for being the apparent epitome of the 'Tragic Band' era, but, and this a warning to you enthusiasts who strongly believe that, this review takes it from a different angle...
He and his ever-fluctuating magic band made some of the most outlandish and brilliant music this planet has ever encountered and now, and quite rightly so, Don Van Vliet's marvellously miraculous output is being re-issued for today's crowds, and it's coming at a time when music's left-field is closer to what it was back in those quirky days than it has been since.
The album Bluejeans and Moonbeams is one of the band's most musically accomplished and more conventional albums, but boy, the scope of the record, its sheer presence when listening to it as day transmutes into night, the ballads that hit the heart and the rock and blues that get you in the mood just set it out from all else. It really is something to behold.
It really is something of an achievement when you take into consideration the trouble that was going on with the Magic Band's line-up changes and tour problems and all that kind of thing around the time of its recording, but all that adds to the brilliant mystique that surrounds the record. Certain anecdotes from those sessions are just hilarious, for example the song 'Captain's Holiday' is quoted as having been written by 'Richmond, Hickerson and Feldman'; no one from the Beefheart camp apparently knew who these gentlemen were, it was a reel they found in the studio and had a female vocal put over the top singing 'Oooh, Captain, Captain.' A holiday for the frontman indeed.
But the opus as a whole is just full of beauty, from 'Observatory Crest' with its delay that's so like that used by Johnny Greenwood on 'Subterranean Homesick Alien', but predating it by 30 years or more, to 'Further Than We've Gone' that could almost make the Top 50 Fist Clenchers of All Time list, there really is a lot of heartfelt stuff from the Captain here, even with a heart made of beef...
But there's also his classic style of rock, opener 'Party Of Special Things To Do' has become a seminal favourite among so many now, including The White Stripes who've covered it, along with many others, 'Same Old Blues', an unexpected but magnificent cover of that elusive but well-loved musician JJ Cale, and 'Twist Ah Luck', which is just perfect demented Dylan-esque rock 'n roll non-stop.
The title track finishes the album off, it's the epitome of a starry record, an album about love, but set in a far-off galaxy, it's spacily romantic, it's what I imagine you can see from Observatory Crest and its brilliant and special and a definite contender for the best record to have come out in the 70's and for that reason, as well as many other, it has to get full marks...