CAPTAIN BEYOND: CAPTAIN BEYOND (1972)
1) Dancing Madly Backwards (On
A Sea Of Air); 2) Armworth; 3) Myopic Void; 4) Mesmerization Eclipse; 5) Raging
River Of Fear; 6) Thousand Days Of Yesterdays (intro); 7) Frozen Over; 8)
Thousand Days Of Yesterdays (Time Since Come And Gone); 9) I Can't Feel Nothin'
(part 1); 10) As The Moon Speaks (To The Waves Of The Sea); 11) Astral Lady;
12) As The Moon Speaks (Return); 13) I Can't Feel Nothin' (part 2).
This band, and their debut album in particular,
seem to have acquired somewhat of a cult status over the years — as usual, once
one becomes sick and tired of all the predictable art-prog-rock masterpieces of
the early 1970s, the discovery of something seemingly special under the surface
is always a source of joy, and yes, you can
construe Captain Beyond as a band that had something special about them if you
really put your heart and mind to it.
The band's background does not look terribly
auspicious: a «second-rate supergroup» assembled from past members of early
Deep Purple (singer Rod Evans, whose main claim to fame was the popularity of
ʽHushʼ), Iron Butterfly (bass player Lee Dorman; also guitar player Larry ʽRhinoʼ
Reinhardt, who only really played with the band on one of their albums, and far
from the best one at that), and Johnny Winter's band (drummer Bobby Caldwell).
All of these people were known to be «okay» at their jobs, but you wouldn't
want to accuse any of them of having a unique style or songwriting genius or
anything. So how could they all get together and make a record that not only
would not stink, but would even be capable of getting a cult following?
Essentially, by sounding like a slightly
softer, slightly more «sincere» (rather than openly post-modern-cynical) version
of Blue Öyster Cult. On the whole, Captain
Beyond could be classified as hard rock with a psychedelic edge, relying on
a combination of heavy distorted riffs, spaced-out guitar soloing, and
half-macho, half-stoned vocals (to acquire which Rod Evans had to smoke triple
amounts of pot and grow himself an extra pair of testicles — at least, if you
compare this style with Deep Purple circa 1968) suggesting that only strong,
well-endowed males with big swords and hairy chests deserve to go to
psychedelic heaven (think also of Hawkwind, although Captain Beyond are more
song-based than jam-based, and sound more like a tight rock band than a bizarre
psychedelic orchestra).
This can theoretically be a fun suggestion if
you don't take it too seriously, and, indeed, the record is quite pleasant.
Side A is essentially a collection of loosely joined not-too-fast riff-rockers;
Side B is technically more conceptual, with two mini-suites consisting of
several short movements, but there's not that much difference in terms of
atmosphere, and there are soft acoustic interludes on both sides. The band also
experiments with time signatures (the rhythmic pattern on ʽDancing Madly Backwardsʼ,
for instance, does suggest a bit of moonwalking), delays and echoes (ʽMyopic
Voidʼ owes a heavy debt to Jimi), and occasionally tries to build up some
suspense (ʽAs The Moon Speaksʼ, probably influenced by Electric Ladyland and In The
Court Of The Crimson King at the same time) — in other words, spending half
an hour with Captain Beyond is anything but
a boring experience, and it is nice to see how those guys managed to bring out
the best in each other where few people probably suspected that «best» existed
in the first place.
Unfortunately, the songs do not lend themselves
easily to detailed descriptions, largely because there isn't much diversity — a
bit slower, a bit faster, okay — and because the riffs, while definitely
«crafted» rather than just tossed off at random, are not awesome by themselves
or even tremendously original. Everything is perfectly enjoyable while it's on,
and there's plenty of headbang potential in numbers like ʽI Can't Feel Nothin'ʼ
or ʽRaging River Of Fearʼ, but all of these elements had been well exploited
before; in fact, the album looks positively archaic for 1972, because this
heavy-psycho style was already present on plenty of «nuggets» from the US and
UK scenes circa 1969-70 — yet, unlike Blue Öyster Cult, these guys were not
smart enough to turn the whole thing onto itself and give it a smarmy, ironic,
self-interpretative edge.
They were
smart enough to give the songs a slightly paranoid edge: with the exception of
a few starry-eyed misfires (ʽThousand Days Of Yesterdaysʼ), the album sounds
like the band is permanently on the run from something, be it a «raging river
of fear» or a «myopic void». This is probably the only angle from which the
record could ever be loved by anyone
— with enough listens, it can become a «Manifesto of the Impossibility of Escaping»,
which certainly goes against the common trend in that era's progressive rock.
But it is still difficult for me to lock myself onto that vibe, because the
ingredients aren't fully adequate to the task; and, for that matter, Rod Evans
is just not that good a singer to properly convey paranoidal horror.
Ultimately, the guys from Iron Butterfly are
the main winners here, supplying decent riffs, modestly energetic solos, and
(sometimes) expressive bass lines (Lee Dorman is at his best on the softer
numbers, most notably ʽAs The Moon Speaksʼ), and because of their honest work
and the general appeal of the record, I give it a thumbs up without too many reservations.
But do not really expect some unique forgotten masterpiece — I'd say this is
about as good as the actual Iron Butterfly at their best (which, admittedly,
happened rarely).
uh no this IS a friggin' classic and better than any Deep Purple. You're focusing too much on individual songs, it's to be taken as a whole.
ReplyDeleteA good album, but nothing close to Deep Purple.
Deletealso, no mention of the FANTASTIC drumming?! Caldwell is on FIRE here.
ReplyDelete1972 was the banner year of prog, making this style a bit outdated. However, this is still a really good album. Search Youtube for the live footage, as CB was even hotter on stage than in the studio (no surprise there).
ReplyDeletethere was still plenty of hard rock going on concurrent to prog
DeleteYes, but psychedelic hard rock was on its way out. The British groups like Sabbath, Purple, and Nazareth were throwing the trippiness overboard, while a whole new breed of American groups (Montrose, Head East, etc.) never had anything to do with psychedelia in the first place. Unfortunately, Captain Beyond got caught in the middle between the two extremes and thus failed to find a place in either camp.
Deletetrue but I think something only lightly trippy like this could've been popular with the right label backing (and if their was a hit single). It's still very riff-based and not that hippie-dippie. I don't necessarily think it's the style that relegated it to cult classic status.
Deletethere*
DeleteThat cover. Truckin awesome. My brother has the Japanese CD release. Dancing Madly!
ReplyDeleteI found my copy of Captain Beyond. Now all I need is Nitzinger, Every picture tells a story, Starless and Bible black, Grand Funk Live, Lee Michael's,and my time capsule will be complete
ReplyDelete