Captain Beefheart/captain Beefheart & The Magic Ba - Bluejeans & Moonbeams ((Vinyl))

Personnel: Don "Captain Beefheart" Van Vliet (vocals, harmonica); Dean Smith (guitar); Michael Smotherman (keyboards, background vocals); Mark Gibbons, Jimmy Caravan (keyboards); Ira Ingber, Bob West (bass); Gene Pello (drums); Ty Grimes (percussion).
BLUEJEANS & MOONBEAMS emerged later in the same year that UNCONDITIONALLY GUARANTEED was released and, like GUARANTEED, was produced by Andy DiMartino. This time however, Beefheart was without any of his previous Magic Band members--the new ensemble was assembled out of primarily session players. Conventional wisdom, in the hands of Beefheart's devoted following, has branded this album an outcast, an aberration generally not even mentioned.
While it bears little of what his fans had been responding to in his output from 1967 to 1972, it is nonetheless a perfectly fine album of conventional pop filtered through variations of Beefheart's familiar poetics and swamp blues inclinations. If the name Captain Beefheart was not emblazoned across the cover, this release could easily be lauded as an engaging, albeit quaint, period piece.

• RSD Release Date: DDD
• Genre: Rock and Pop