CAPTAIN BEEFHEART & THE MAGIC BAND

December 27, 1975

Winterland, San Francisco, California.

set list

01. Introduction
02. Moonlight On Vermont
03. Abba Zaba
04. Orange Claw Hammer
05. Dali's Car
06. When It Blows It Stacks
07. My Human Gets Me Blues
08. Band Introductions - Don
09. Don
10. Alice In Blunderland
11. Improvisations - Tap Dance
12. Improvisation pt. 2
13. Electricity
14. Golden Birdies
15. Big Eyed Beans From Venus

Total Time Approx 44 minutes

The Band
Captain Beefheart Don Van Vliet vocals, saxophone, harmonica
Drumbo John French drums, percussion, guitar [on: Dali's Car]
Bruce Fossil Fowler air-bass, trombone
Winged Eel Fingerling Elliot Ingber guitar, slide guitar
Feeler's Reedo / Walla Walla Denny Walley guitar, slide guitar

Unknown ( low ) Gen
Maxell XLII-S Tape > Sony TC-WE805S > TDK DA-3826 > CD-R > PC > Wav > Traders Little Helper Flac level 8 > dimeadozen

transfer - mcchocchoc

Another show from the short run of gigs opening up for Frank Zappa in California,
December 1975. Holy Shit ! Wow. What can I say about this show ? It is REALLY something else. Very intense to say the least. The Orange Claw Hammer here will blow your mind.
Seriously.

The quality here is much better than I remembered ! Great. Not quite as
good of a recording as the Paramount Theater show, but very close. A must have for sure.

This tape was often traded back when we traded tapes as " New Years Eve 1975 ".
That is incorrect. Enough has been documented online by fans who were there and
by John French to give this show the location and date that I have listed here.

Many years ago John French did a series of Q&A's with fans.
Here is what John remembered about the show . . . . ( first, the question. followed
by John's answer ) . . . . .

Q - John Ellis: I have a tape from Oakland, where the audience turns en mass on Don and he begins throwing very creative insults in their face. I believe you quit after the California dates, or so I heard. I'm referring to the small California tour for what became the unreleased LP Bat... I have a tape of that Oakland date and something happened that turned the entire audience against Don, so that he started throwing insults at them like, "Trying to sing for you is like trying to turn a jar of pickle relish back into cucumbers." I wondered what he did that turned them so that they were booing every number - unique among the many tapes I have. Also, was it an outdoor gig? Sounds odd on the tape.
I wondered if that incident had anything to do with you quitting –

John French: I do recall a concert which was not in Oakland but in San Francisco at Winterland in late December of 1975 in which Don said those exact words to the audience. This was, however, before the recording of the original Bat Chain Puller.
Frank was the headliner, and some guy in the audience was flipping Don off… giving him the finger. To Frank, this was a salute and a sign of respect, to Don, it was an insult.
Don "gave the finger" to the guy in an insulting way, got right in his face and started hurtling insults to the audience. The objective of this behaviour seemed to be to intentionally provoke the audience. People were throwing objects at the stage. I was upset with Don for not just ignoring the guy and performing. Don eventually left the stage. We played Alice in Blunderland and appeased the crowd a bit, but as soon as Don came back up, they became hostile again.
Afterwards, we walked into the dressing room, which was completely dark. Don had broken out all the lights. Every light in the dressing room was broken, and there were shards of glass everywhere. He was saying "I wanted the audience to do that, man! That was exactly what I wanted them to do!" It was a very unnerving evening, but certainly not the first time Don had managed to alienate an entire crowd. He had recently behaved very similarly in Lyon, France.
[Burundi Drumbi! John French's Series Of Q&As 2000/1]

This show is very unique among all of the CB/MB tapes out there. Enjoy.

Much thanks to the taper of these shows.

upped at dimeadozen on August 25, 2010.

NEVER FOR SALE / FREE / TRADE ALWAYS & ONLY Thank you.