This retrospective project, thanks to Revenant's John Fahey, has enabled John 'Drumbo' French to dig deep among band member's memories to provide a fascinating historical document. The vinyl set libretto features all the notes and most of the pictures in the CD book and the CD set will not contain the poster. After I bought my Canadian SAM CD, I started seeing other Beefheart SAM versions/configurations in the form of CD/cassette albums/compilations. If a Lot is not second-hand and you purchase the Lot as a Consumer from a Seller that is a Trader, a number of additional terms may be implied by law in addition to the Seller’s warranties set out at Clause 11.

More than any other artist, Don Van Vliet – aka Captain Beefheart – defined Surrealism in rock ‘n’ roll. A special vinyl edition of Grow Fins was released on Table Of The Elements containing six LPs, a small poster (pictured above) and a 24 page libretto (pictured below).At the exact moment the music industry is overrun with homogenized teen harmonisers, along comes a grizzled, determinedly weird voice from the deep vault, bellowing a sloppy counterattack to all that manufactured cheer. Information about Beefheart was hard to find back in those days with only the public or College libraries being the only source for me to find anything about Beefheart/Magic Band. This was released by Revenant in March 1999 as a taster to the Grow Fins set, and is very tasty indeed.

Despite what the official blurb above says – it’s not a best-of collection and certainly not an introduction to the world of Beefheart, but it is an amazing extension. We reserve the right to charge you a selling commission at our standard rates on any such resale of the Lot. Find out in these two articles: Resurrection Shuffle by Byron Coley and The Weirdest, Coolest Reissue Label In The World by Mark Coleman.The recording quality is rawer (was recorded in the band's house as opposed to the professional studio that most of the album tracks were recorded in) and the performances are looser- there are also subtle differences that TMR obsessives like myself will notice (like a different bassline in the first part of "Pachuco Cadaver"). Since the 1969 release of Trout Mask Replica, the artist dubbed Captain Beefheart has incarnated the gold standard by which “weirdness” in rock has been calibrated. The 3rd disc presents an alternate history of the epic Troutmaskreplica but does not eclipse the original, of course. If, after you have placed a successful bid and paid for a Lot, any of the warranties above are found not to be true, please notify us in writing.

John French is busy on the bulk of the notes and I am attempting to wrap up the recordings end of things. Given that the early cuts are from 1966, this must have been one of the heavier bands at the time – raw, ramshackle. I think he's credited on the CD release though), thanks to a momentary fight/spat between French and Beefheart just as the album went to print.Revenant have produced a beautiful monochrome promotional advertisement in addition to the one above, featuring a Cal Schenkel photograph. A promotional 'taster' CD was issued in the run up to this release, which has 'Beef [Revenant logo] Heart' on the spine.