DESCRIPTION:
Doc At The Radar Station is Captain Beefheart's 2nd to last album, released in 1980. This album is in my eyes the absolute best of all his albums, which is saying a lot. This is the type of work i wish Beefheart would have done more of. This is a very special album for Beefheart because here he (and his band, which includes the great Trombone work of Bruce Fowler) found the perfect balance between rock weirdness and avant garde originality. Nothing elsewhere sounds like this blues guitar drenched gumbo...which is also mellotron spiced, harmonica fueled and poetry stabbed . The captain spewed a master piece for sure in Doc at the Radar Station. I consider this the most daring and 'progressive' work he ever did.

Don't be put off by the fact that this album was made toward the end of the Captain's career - Doc at the Radar Station is 100% essential, top quality Beefheart. It's harder and more aggressive than it's predecessor, Shiny Beast (an equally outstanding but very different album). It is very much a return to the Trout Mask Replica style of off-kilter poetry set to complex, dissonant music. The best songs on this album represent some of the best stuff he ever did. Slashing guitars, intricate rhythms and crushing poetry.

Standouts include Ashtray Heart, Run Pain Run Run, Sue Egypt, Best Batch Yet, and Sheriff Of Hong Kong (possibly the best Beefheart song of all time). Doc stands the test of time and still holds up as one of the greatest albums ever recorded to this day.

1. Hot Head
2. Ashtray Heart
3. A Carrot Is As Close As A Rabbit Gets To A Diamond
4. Run Paint Run Run
5. Sue Egypt
6. Brickbats
7. Dirty Blue Gene
8. Best Batch Yet
9. Telephone
10. Flavor Bud Living
11. Sheriff Of Hong Kong
12. Making Love To A Vampire With A Monkey On My Knee