Lick My Decals Off Baby - CAPTAIN BEEFHEART**

Lick My Decals Off Baby/Doctor Dark/I Love You You Big Dummy/Peon/Bellerin' Plain/Woe-Is-Uh-Me-Bop/Japan In A Dishpan/I Wanna Find A Woman/Petrified Forest/One Red Rose That I Mean/The Buggy Boogie Woogie/The Smithsonian Institute Blues/Space Age Couple/The Clouds Are Full Of Wine/Flash Gordon's Ape

Decals was the only Captain Beefheart LP to break into the UK album top twenty. It features the usual mixture of eccentric and wacky lyrics with more avant-garde musical experimentalism, appealing only to minority tastes. (UK:20)

“This is focused on Beefheart's brand of curious jazz-rock. The witty, humorous lyrics he's known for are in top form, especially on the opening/title track, which is my favourite song on the album. There's an environmentalist slant in some of the tracks, which show the good captain applying his surreal wordplay to serious issues. One of his best and most memorable albums.”

“It takes all the radical experimentalism from its predecessor and refined it into a much more digestible sound. This would be one of the first albums I would recommend to those uninitiated to the Magic Band.”

“Another wacky and crazy album by this well known and official captain of insanity. Many different musical genres can be found in here which was typical for Beefheart and his band at the time. Experimental rock, art rock, blues rock, psychedelia and free jazz are combined fantastically in this record.”

“This is sure not toe-tapping elevator music, but a sonic exploration that fits no mould. Try to understand the lyrics? Never in a million years.”

“Captain Beefheart is best when he is overpowering. With only a few exceptions, this record is disappointingly flat. Beefheart's voice and lyrics lack their usual strength.”

“While it has its moments of humour and downright strangeness, it has at its heart a stark meditation on time and mortality, reaching an almost apocalyptic peak on the number Flash Gordon's Ape. While there are cheerful moments such as the instrumental Japan In A Dishpan and thoughtful moments such as the pseudo- Renaissance instrumentals, there is a strange paranoiac, apocalyptic tone that picks up speed in the final few numbers.”

“The whacky, ever experimental, far out, creative and highly unusual songwriting is here. Personally I have a lot of trouble understanding the lyrics, but that doesn't matter as the lyrics are put together in an interesting way.”