Lick My Decals Off, Baby

Lick My Decals Off, Baby is the fourth album by Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band, released in 1970 on Frank Zappa's Straight Records label. The follow-up to Trout Mask Replica (1969), it is regarded by some critics and listeners as superior, and was Van Vliet's personal favorite. Don Van Vliet said that the title is an encouragement to "get rid of the labels", and to evaluate things according to their merits rather than according to superficial labels (or "decals").

Musicians on the album were Don Van Vliet, vocals; Elliot Ingber and Bill Harkleroad, guitars; Mark Boston, bass; Art Tripp, marimba, drums, and percussion; and John French, drums. French had been arranger and musical director on Trout Mask Replica. Van Vliet ejected French from the group—both figuratively and literally, by throwing him down a flight of stairs—shortly after Trout Mask Replica was completed, and these roles passed to guitarist Bill Harkleroad. French returned to the group shortly before recording began.

Most of the songs began as piano improvisations by Van Vliet. He would record extended improvisation sessions on a cassette recorder. Harkleroad then listened to these improvisations, picked out the best parts, and pieced them into compositions.^[4] The musical lines on Decals tend to be longer and more intricate than the assemblage of short fragments that characterized much of Trout Mask Replica.

The record contains some of Captain Beefheart's most experimental music and remains memorable for both the 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 was also filmed that included excerpts from "Woe-Is-uh-Me-Bop", silent footage of masked Magic Band members using kitchen utensils as musical instruments, and Beefheart kicking over a bowl of what appears to be porridge onto a dividing stripe in the middle of a road. The video was rarely played but was accepted into the Museum of Modern Art, where it has been used in several programs.^[5][6]

Critical and commercial reception

Critic Robert Christgau said of the record: "Beefheart's famous five-octave range and covert totalitarian structures have taken on a playful undertone, repulsive and engrossing and slapstick funny." Lester Bangs noted the maturation of the musical styles and lyrical concerns of Trout Mask Replica, writing that Beefheart's music was "one of the most rewarding musical experiences available today."

Due to John Peel's championing of the work on BBC radio, Lick My Decals Off, Baby spent eleven weeks on the UK Albums Chart, peaking at number twenty. This remains Beefheart's highest-charting album in the UK.

Like many releases on Zappa's Bizarre and Straight labels, Decals has been out of print since the early 1990s on CD. Enigma Retro released a CD edition in 1989 which now goes for high prices among record collectors. More recently Decals has also been re-issued as a 180g vinyl LP, which is still in print. Both Rhino Records and Warner/Reprise have announced CD rereleases of the album several times in recent years but have not moved past the planning stage. In January 2011, iTunes and Amazon's MP3 store released the album for download.^[7]

Track listing

All tracks by Don Van Vliet.

Personnel

• Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet) – vocals, bass clarinet, tenor sax, soprano sax, harmonica
• Zoot Horn Rollo (Bill Harkleroad) – guitar and glass finger guitar
• Rockette Morton (Mark Boston) – "bassius-o-pheilius"
• Drumbo (John French) – percussion, broom
• Ed Marimba (Art Tripp) – marimba, percussion, broom

Liner notes

• Album concept: Peacock Ink
• Personal management/Production supervision: Grant Gibb
• All songs written by Captain Beefheart
• Published by Beefheart Music Co. (BMI)
• Back cover painting: Don Van Vliet
• Photography and art direction: Ed Thrasher

References