Op 10 november verschijnt een vier cd’s tellende box met werk van Captain Beefheart: Sun Zoom Spark: 1970 to 1972.
Op die cd’s staan de voor deze gelegenheid geremasterde albums Lick my decals off, baby, The spotlight kid en Clear spot, plus een cd met veertien niet eerder uitgebrachte outtakes uit diezelfde periode.
In het boekje staat een gedicht dat Tom Waits speciaal voor deze gelegenheid schreef over Beefheart: Don is like the bones in a watermelon.
Tom Waits is al lang een zelfverklaard fan van Beefheart’s muziek en diens invloed is dan ook duidelijk hoorbaar in Waits’ latere werk.
De tekst van het gedicht is inmiddels bekend:
NOW DON IS LIKE THE BONES IN A WATERMELON
OR THE SEEDS IN A FISH AND YOU CAN SEE HIM
THROUGH THE BLUE SMOKE OF A TRAMPS FIRE
IS HE STILL IN 1129 AT THE DAVENPORT HOTEL
IN SILO, MISSOURI? NO…YOU SEE MY FRIEND YOU
WILL NOT FIND HIM THERE. HE CAME FROM THE CLAY
AND HE HAS GONE BACK…LIKE RATS, LIKE RAVENS
ROOKS, AND COAL BLACK ROSES…SHARKS, SHADOWS,
SHOES AND SHEEP. HE IS NOW LIKE THE PLACE ON
THE COUNTER, WORN AWAY FROM YEARS OF MAKING CHANGE.
HE IS NOW A SIREN IN THE NEXT TOWN OVER…ONLY HIS
TAIL IS STICKING OUT OF THE GROUND.
DON, HE WAS A GIANT AND HE WALKED AMONG US ON THIS
EARTH, NOW LONG GONE…
HE HAS GONE BACK INTO THE FROGS CROAKING THROAT…
LISTEN, IN THE DESERT THERE IS A FORK STUCK IN A TREE…
PUT YOUR EAR UP TO IT AND THUMP IT, BOW IT, SWALLOW THE
SOUND AND THEN GROW IT…
DON SEEMS TO BE TELLING US ALL…DO NOT FOLLOW HIM
JUST TAKE WHAT CLUES HE LEFT AND WITH THEM, GO AND BUILD
A STRANGE HOME OF YOUR OWN
De tracklist:Lick my decals off, baby (oktober 1970)
1. Lick my decals off, baby
2. Doctor dark
3. I love you, you big dummy
4. Peon
5. Bellerin’ plain
6. Woe-is-uh-me-bop
7. Japan in a dishpan
8. I wanna find a woman that’ll hold my big toe till I have to go
9. Petrified forest
10. One red rose that I mean
11. The buggy boogie woogie
12. The Smithsonian Institute blues (or the big dig)
13. Space-age couple
14. The clouds are full of wine (not whiskey or rye)
15. Flash Gordon’s ape
The spotlight kid (januari 1972)
1. I’m gonna booglarize you baby
2. White jam
3. Blabber ‘n smoke
4. When it blows its stacks
5. Alice in blunderland
6. The Spotlight Kid
7. Click clack
8. Grow fins
9. There ain’t no Santa Claus on the evenin’ stage
10 Glider
Clear spot (november 1972)
1. Low yo yo stuff
2. Nowadays a woman’s gotta hit a man
3. Too much time
4. Circumstances
5. My head is my only house unless it rains
6. Sun zoom spark
7. Clear spot
8. Crazy little thing
9. Long neck bottles
10. Her eyes are a blue million miles
11. Big eyed beans from Venus
12. Golden birdies
Outtakes
1. Alice in blunderland – alternatieve versie
2. Harry Irene
3. I can’t do this unless I can do this/Seam crooked Sam
4. Pompadour swamp/Suction prints
5. The witch doctor life – instrumental
6. Two rips in a haystack/Kiss me my love
7. Best batch yet – (Track) – versie 1
8. Your love brought me to life – Instrumental
9. Dirty Blue Gene – alternatieve versie 1
10. Nowadays a woman’s gotta hit a man- vroege mix
11. Kiss where I Kain’t
12. Circumstances – alternatieve versie 2
13. Little scratch
14. Dirty Blue Gene – alternatieve versie 3