Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band - Strictly Personal (USA 1968)

Another Roddus Review

In light of the sad passing of this legendary figure of the music world, on December 17, I have been listening to my favorite albums from this master of psychedelic acid blues and other weirder musics. "Strictly Personal" was The Captains second album in 1968, following on from his 1967 debut "Safe As Milk"

This album has been near my top 20 for 25 odd years after I had it on cassette and use to torture my friends with it on road trips. I just love the acid drenched atmosphere of these psychedelic blues that knocked me out at a time when I was  delving more deeply into the history of the blues. The Captain sets the tone on the first track "Ah Feel Like Ahcid" with its foot stomp and  a mean Son House impersonation singing an adaptation of Son's "Death Letter blues" introduction before those acid blues guitars and captain's harp chime in to make the song one of his own. Awesome and the Captain's singing sounds like he is already a 90 year old delta bluesman.

The Captain then links back to his first album with "Safe As Milk", a more full on psychedelic dirge with more of that great guitar style, that finishes with a stretched out avant garde style ending with great treated drum sound. "Trust Us" is another classic, very cool melody's on the guitar and like the rest of this album offbeat and a little weird. No commercial potential. I dig the bass lines later in the song. The rest of the song changes tact somewhat but stays very cool throughout and ends with another very cool Son House style blues section. "Son Of Mirror Man..."  is more weird psychedelic blues and is a theme he will revisit on future albums.Not one of my favorites but still a good song. I love the start of "Beatles Bones...." with it's minimalist Blues guitar and "Strawberry Fields" reference in the intro and "Gimmie Dat Harp boy" is classic Beefheart with some great harp playing. The album ends with "Kandy Korn" which has some great parts, of which The Buzzcocks based a song on 10 years later, but degenerates into a dirge and is my least favorite track on the LP. Overall rating 4/5,