Lick My Decals Off, Baby

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Lick My Decals Off, Baby
Studio album by Captain Beefheart
Released	1970
Recorded	1970
Genre	Rock
Length	39:38
Label	Straight Records
Producer(s)	Captain Beefheart
Professional reviews
All Music Guide (4.5/5) link Rolling Stone Album Guide (1992) (4/5) ISBN 0-679-73729-4 Robert Christgau (A-) link
Captain Beefheart chronology
Trout Mask Replica (1969)	Lick My Decals Off, Baby (1970)	Mirror Man (1971)

Lick My Decals Off, Baby is a record by Captain Beefheart released in 1970 on Frank Zappa's Straight label. The followup to his Trout Mask Replica, it is regarded by some critics and listeners as superior to the famous 1969 recording. Beefheart himself allegedly regards it as his best album, and due to John Peel's championing of the work on BBC radio, Decals spent eleven weeks in the British Top 50 and reached #20 on the charts. It remains his highest-charting album in the UK

Decals contains some of Captain Beefheart's most experimental music, as well as some of his most accessible. Not a particularly well-recorded album, it nonetheless remains memorable for the innovative marimba playing of Art Tripp, and for its concise instrumental work. An early promotional music video was made of its title song, and a bizarre television commercial (with excerpts from "Woe-Is-ah-Me-Bop", silent footage of masked Magic Band members using kitchen utensils as musical instruments, and Beefheart overturning a bowl of mashed potatoes into the middle of a road with his foot) was also filmed.

In his collection of record reviews Rock Albums of the '70s: A Critical Guide, rock critic Robert Christgau reviewed Decals this way: "Beefheart's famous five-octave range and covert totalitarian structures have taken on a playful undertone, repulsive and engrossing and slapstick funny."

Decals has been out of print for years on CD, Rhino Records & Restless both released CD editions in the late '80s which now go for high prices among record collectors. Decals is still available as a 180g vinyl reissue.

[edit] Track listing

Side one:

1. "Lick My Decals Off, Baby" – 2:38
2. "Doctor Dark" – 2:46
3. "I Love You, You Big Dummy" – 2:54
4. "Peon" – 2:24
5. "Bellerin' Plain" – 3:35
6. "Woe-Is-uh-Me-Bop" – 2:06
7. "Japan in a Dishpan" – 3:00

Side two:

1. "I Wanna Find a Woman That'll Hold My Big Toe Till I Have to Go" – 1:53
2. "Petrified Forest" – 1:40
3. "One Red Rose That I Mean" – 1:52
4. "The Buggy Boogie Woogie" – 2:19
5. "The Smithsonian Institute Blues (Or the Big Dig)" – 2:11
6. "Space-Age Couple" – 2:32
7. "The Clouds Are Full of Wine (Not Whiskey or Rye)" – 2:50
8. "Flash Gordon's Ape" – 4:57

[edit] Personnel

• Captain Beefheart - vocals, harmonica, saxophone
• Zoot Horn Rollo (Bill Harkleroad) - guitar, slide guitar
• Rockette Morton (Mark Boston) - bass guitar
• Drumbo (John French) - drums, percussion
• Ed Marimba (Art Tripp) - drums, percussion, marimba

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Main Albums
Safe As Milk | Strictly Personal | Trout Mask Replica | Lick My Decals Off, Baby | Mirror Man | The Spotlight Kid | Clear Spot | Unconditionally Guaranteed | Bluejeans & Moonbeams | Bongo Fury | Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) | Doc at the Radar Station | Ice Cream for Crow