It Comes to You in a Plain Brown Wrapper

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It Comes to You in a Plain Brown Wrapper
Studio album by Captain Beefheart
Released Unreleased (planned for 1968)
Recorded TTG Studios, Hollywood October-November 1967
Genre Rock
Length circa 90mins
Label Buddah
Producer Bob Krasnow
Captain Beefheart chronology
Safe as Milk
(1967)		 It Comes to You in a Plain Brown Wrapper
(c. 1968)		 Strictly Personal
(1968)

It Comes to You in a Plain Brown Wrapper was to be the second album by Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band.

Contents

[edit] History

The original plan was to produce a double-album, combining studio tracks with new music performed live in the studio (the latter being "Mirror Man", "Tarotplane" and "25th-Century Quaker"). The intended artwork was later re-used for the Strictly Personal album. [1] Fourteen tracks were recorded during the period of October – November 1967, but Buddah was unconvinced by the commercial potential of the new sound, and cancelled the production of the album while the Magic Band were touring Europe. As a result of this decision, four of the tracks were left incomplete, lacking vocals.[2]

[edit] Availability

Unlike the other 'lost' Beefheart album, Lick My Decals Off, Baby (1970), it is possible to reconstruct It Comes to You in a Plain Brown Wrapper from official CD releases: the fourteen tracks are spread across The Mirror Man Sessions and the current version of Safe as Milk.

In 1968, seven of the 'studio' tracks emerged as Strictly Personal (an album that was poorly received due to Krasnow's excessive use of 'psychedelic' effects in post-production), and in 1970, the three 'live' tracks emerged as Mirror Man. The original tracks didn't appear in any widely available form until 1992, with the release of the bootleg I May Be Hungry But I Sure Ain't Weird.

[edit] Track listing

It is impossible to know in which precise sequence the tracks would have been presented, but they can be arranged in a logical order; John Platt and Graham Johnston have both argued that it would be best to have a "double CD" set of the "Plain Brown Wrapper sessions all together". [3][4] In doing so, it is possible to avoid placing all of the instrumental pieces together (as Buddah have done on their reissues), giving a sequence roughly as follows:

  1. "Trust Us" – 7:14
  2. "Big Black Baby Shoes" – 4:50 (instrumental)
  3. "Safe as Milk" – 5:00
  4. "On Tomorrow" – 6:56 (instrumental)
  5. "Beatle Bones 'n' Smokin' Stones" – 3:11
  6. "Flower Pot" – 3:55 (instrumental)
  7. "Moody Liz" – 4:32
  8. "Gimme Dat Harp Boy" – 3:32
  9. "Dirty Blue Gene" – 2:43 (instrumental)
  10. "Korn Ring Finger" – 7:26
  11. "Tarotplane" – 19:08 ('live')
  12. "25th Century Quaker" – 9:50 ('live')
  13. "Mirror Man" – 15:46 ('live')
  14. "Kandy Korn" – 8:06

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Captain Beefheart, 2000, by Mike Barnes, p. 47.
  2. ^ The Mirror Man Sessions, John Platt, 1999, liner notes.
  3. ^ The Mirror Man Sessions, John Platt, 1999, liner notes.
  4. ^ Safe As Milk and Mirror Man's Buddha Reissues , Graham Johnston, http://www.beefheart.com/datharp/reviews/buddhareview.htm

[edit] External links

  • [1] Discussion of Plain Brown Wrapper reissues at the Captain Beefheart Radar Station.
v • d • e
Captain Beefheart
Main albums (discography)
Languages