Strictly Personal

Strictly Personal is also a book by W. Somerset Maugham.

Strictly Personal is the second album by Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band. It was originally released in October 1968, almost a year after the band had initially taken to the studio to record the follow-up to 1967's Safe as Milk. The finished album has ever since been the subject of controversy, owing to producer Bob Krasnow's addition of phasing to many of the tracks, which has since been interpreted as a cynical attempt to bring Beefheart's music in line with the psychedelic norms of the period.

History

The original intention, it seems, was to record an album for Buddah Records entitled It Comes to You in a Plain Brown Wrapper, which was to be composed partly of studio tracks and partly of music performed live in the studio. (Strictly Personal's sleeve design is apparently a relic of this initial concept.) A significant amount of material was recorded for the project during the period of October – November 1967. But owing, according to the liner notes of The Mirror Man Sessions (1999), to reservations from Buddah, the album was put on hold. Strictly Personal was eventually released on Bob Krasnow's own Blue Thumb label the following year featuring mostly re-recorded versions of tracks from this time, albeit with a glut of psychedelic effects added by Krasnow. Beefheart himself is said to have supported these changes at the time but later, and following a tepid critical reception, claimed they had been made against his knowledge.

The live material from the earlier sessions would later be released, along with an earlier version of "Kandy Korn", as Mirror Man (1971). Many of the original mixes of the studio material have also since been released: the compilation I May Be Hungry But I Sure Ain't Weird (1992) contained eleven of the original cuts taken from master tapes. This album has long since been out of print, but all eleven tracks can be found spread across The Mirror Man Sessions and the current version of Safe as Milk.

The song "Beatle Bones 'n' Smokin' Stones" was covered by The Fall in a 1996 Peel session.

Track listing

All songs written by Captain Beefheart

Side one

"Ah Feel Like Ahcid" - 3:05
"Safe as Milk" - 5:27
"Trust Us" - 8:09
"Son of Mirror Man - Mere Man" - 5:20

Side two

"On Tomorrow" - 3:26
"Beatle Bones 'n' Smokin' Stones" - 3:17
"Gimme Dat Harp Boy" - 5:04
"Kandy Korn" - 5:06

Personnel

External links

Lyrics, reviews and further details at the Captain Beefheart Radar Station.