Lick My Decals Off, Baby

Infobox Album | Name = Lick My Decals Off, Baby
Type = Album
Artist = Captain Beefheart


Released = 1970
Recorded = 1970
Genre = Avant-garde, psychedelic rock
Length = 39:38
Label = Straight Records/Reprise Records LP
Enigma Retro 1988 CD
Producer = Don Van Vliet
Reviews =
*Allmusic Rating|4.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:q1ua6j4h71q0 link]
* Piero Scaruffi rating-10|7 [http://www.scaruffi.com/vol1/beefhear.html link]
*Robert Christgau (A-) [http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist2.php?id=222 link]
*"Rolling Stone Album Guide" (1992) (4/5) ISBN 0-679-73729-4| Last album = "Trout Mask Replica"
(1969)
This album = "Lick My Decals Off, Baby"
(1970)
Next album = "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 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 (with excerpts from "Woe-Is-uh-Me-Bop," silent footage of masked Magic Band members using kitchen utensils as musical instruments, and Beefheart overturning a bowl of what appears to be porridge onto a dividing stripe in 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."

Like many releases on Zappa's Bizarre and Straight labels, "Decals" has been out of print for years on CD. Enigma Retro released a CD edition in 1989 which now goes for high prices among record collectors. "Decals" is still available as a 180g vinyl reissue. In 2006, rumors of a CD reissue along with other Beefheart albums circulated but were not confirmed and no reissue of "Decals" has appeared thus far. [cite web |url=http://www.beefheart.com/blog/2006/02/decals-cd-and-vinyl-re-release.html]

Track listing

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

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

Personnel

* Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet) - 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

References