Capt. Beefheart in the studio 💫

 

TTG Studios is where "The Mirror Man Sessions" ( officially the second album recorded, though it wasn't released until after TMR).  I forgot just how massively large that room was!  There was a vocal booth, which Don used on certain cuts where he interacted with the band ( Tarotplane, Mirror Man, Gimme Dat Harp...etc).  They turned it sideways and set up a small amp for him to play harp and Simran Horn through.  It was a 16 channel recorder -- one of the first.  Even Sunset Sound ( where "Sho Nuff" was recorded) was 8-track, and we moved to RCA for the rest of SAM was recorded, which was a 4-Track studio.  Suddenly, we walked into a control room that had an IMMENSE sound that was so impressive.  Ami Hadani ( which I mis-pronounced for years as "Ami Andante") was our engineer (although I often felt that he should have been "co-producer" as his knowledge of the board and outboard gear is what got the sound).  I remember Don mentioning to me that he was a member of the Israeli Army and sometimes was called to battle.  Don had a 7 1/2 inch rough mix of the masters and he loved playing it, because the sound was so good.  Although the internet  information states the recording as "April 1971," Mirror Man Sessions was actually recorded in November of 1967 for Buddah Records -- about six months after Safe As Milk.  It was a giant leap in structure for the band, of course.  The idea was to split the group into two personas- "Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band," and "Twenty-Fifth Century Quaker."  The latter would be the warmup act- coming out dressed in Quaker costumes; playing the more improvised blues jams, and the latter would follow in more colorful costumes; playing the more "arranged" compositions ( On Tomorrow, Trust Us, Safe as Milk).  The album was supposed to be called "It Comes to you in a Plain Brown Wrapper" ( as a satire on how pornography used to be sent through the mail ) with the words "Strictly Personal" stamped on the front, along with the addresses of "both bands."  Krasnow kind of achieved this later on, with the release of the later-recorded "Strictly Personal;" a re-recording of some of the same material hastily done at Sunset Sound Studios the following year, just before a major U.K. tour.  My head was spinning by this time, as Don has already walked off stage at Mt. Tamalpais "Fantasy Fair," then recorded an album ( Mirror Man ) that Buddah seemed to view as "unfit for release," then we re-recorded it and took off for a six week tour right after two intense weeks in the studio, and then, Krasnow flew over to the U.K. and took all our earnings from the tour to start Blue Thumb Records and release "Strictly Personal" without our knowledge, leaving us with no money to pay hotel and tour expenses.  After the tour, the final solution was to sign with Zappa.  The first intention was to re-record the material from "The Mirror Man Sessions" once again, but then Krasnow released "Strictly Personal" and a "Plan B" was created.  Don decided to write an entire album with the use of a piano (having seen FZ composed all his music thusly) and, suddenly, I was transcribing music like a poor man's Ian Underwood.  Ian, of course, was a schooled musician with TONS of training, and I was but a former marching band player, so my skills were seriously limited, which Don didn't probably realize.   

Long Story short, TMR was a vast and risky experiment that paid off by being critically - acclaimed, but still put the majority of people off who heard it.  I like to brag that I helped arrange an album that could clear out a room in minutes, so it was great as a "The Party's Over" album.  My only regret in this post is that I couldn't find a photo of us dressed in our Quaker outfits.  They came from "Western Costume Company," along with the Simran Horn, the "Man from Planet X" mask, and the other strange attire which we wore on the foldout of "Strictly Personal," which, for the record, came from the photo shoot for "Mirror Man."  Confused yet?  My first three years with Beefheart seemed like ten turbulent years.