Grow Fins: Rarities 1965-1982 [ENHANCED CD]

So you're into "Trout Mask Replica" and you've saved up the cash and got hold of a copy of "Lick My Decals...", what next? Well to complete your collection I recommend this box set of 5-CDs plus extensive linear notes. The quality of the recordings is high and I found I understood the songs on "Trout Mask..." better from the rehearsal tapes of the Magic Band without the Captain's vocals. There's also tracks from the "Safe as Milk" era with previously unreleased material, plus live songs recorded between 1972 and 1980. A must for every real Beefheart fan!

Grow Fins features all rare not-released-before recordings of Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band. That sounds good, doesn't it? Well, unfortunately, not all sounds that good in this box set. Let's take a brief look.

CD number 1 features mostly old pre-Safe As Milk Beefheart studio recordings. The sound quality is amazingly good. It gives a good insight to the early sound of a band that was great from the very beginning. There were not rhythmic extravaganzas yet, not Zoot Horn Rollos nor Drumbos, but Beefheart's voice was already ready to shine. Nicely played and nicely recorded. There are also tremendously good live recordings that do the band even more justice. The few last tracks, which are early versions of tracks that would later appear on debut album "Safe As Milk" sound more poorly, but anyway it is nice to hear them on their early encarnations.

CD number 2 features mostly post-Safe As Milk live recordings. The sound quality is acceptable, but not as good as the live tracks on CD#1. Anyway, the group's sound was turning more distinctive, not to say unique. Unfortunately, this CD is quite short for today's length standards, not even reaching the 40 minute mark. It closes with an unreleased studio recording which can be found nowadays with slightly better sound on the reissue of "Safe As Milk".

CD number 3 gives the listener an opportunity to get into the early stages of recording of "Trout Mask Replica". It features instrumental tracks recorded at the house where the band was living. It is worth mentioning that that was the way in which the album was going to be recorded until Don Vliet complained about it to producer Frank Zappa, who rented a bunch of hours at a studio later to record the album we all know and love. The CD sound quality is really good and it portraits the instrumental complexity of those almost-impossible-to-play compositions over which Don would lay his legendary vocal tracks later.

CD number 4 is definitively not interesting. Though it features some really nice videos to watch on the computer, the dialogues featured on the audio section of the CD are not very interesting. It doesn't add much really.

CD number 5 covers the rest of Beefheart's career, mainly through live recordings which in general sound quite awful. Especially "Spitball Scalped Uh Baby", where Artie Tripp's talent simply can't be appreciated because of an extremely badly recorded performance. The highlights are the performances at TV in 1971 and Beefheart appearances on radio (including a Beffheart-Zappa version of "Orange Claw Hammer"). The rest is not very valuable, and this is because of the recordings' sound quality. I wish other cleaner live takes had been chosen.
The booklet is certainly great, especially because of John French's revealing liner notes, and also because of a good-taste design.
As the title of this review says, it could have been better. Anyway, it is essential if you're into Beefeart.

FANS, Beefheart aficionados are like few others. They are steeped in the lore, amazing skeptics, lovers of music off the beaten path, and all of them deeply moved and influenced by the body of work by one band (with a great number of players) and one writer vocalist, Don Van Vliet.
There's a lot of hogwash going on about this great blues influenced band turned psychedelic, jazz, rock, skronk genius - AND most of the urban legends are completely disassembled in the accompanying book. In fact, I've never seen an artist undergo quite a thorough raking over the coals in tribute, IN THE VERY BOX SET!

But it's worth it, and the price is coming down - time to get addicted!

This box set is BOOTLEG QUALITY, but the music and liner notes are FIRST RATE. The video footage is priceless! This package was made with tender loving care by Beefheart fanatics, and it shows. If you love Beefheart, grab it before it goes out of print! The instrumental "Trout Mask" rehearsals are worth the price of admission alone....burn them to a CD-R (without the in-between song banter) and you're in Trout Mask Heaven!

I probably wouldn't have bought this collection at full price. Lucky for me, I found it for 20 dollars at a CD store that was going out of business. But if you're an obsessive Beefheart fan, you probably don't care anyways. This is a good collection, packed with tons of rarities and live tracks. I haven't even checked out the entire thing yet. But anyways, good stuff. Go for it!