ALBUM OF THE WEEK #171 CAPTAIN BEYOND - CAPTAIN BEYOND (1972)

[RJhog (Admin)]

Artist: Captain Beyond

Genre: Heavy Prog

Country Of Origin: United States/Britain

Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Member: No

Album: Captain Beyond

Released: July 1972

Producer: Captain Beyond

Best Single: No singles noted by Wikipedia

Best Album Cut: Armworth

Hidden Gems: Pretty much everything

Filler: No filler

Disclaimer:  All "facts" come from Wikipedia unless otherwise noted.

I have been mean to Scott for 2 weeks now (Cyclorama and The Smithereens).  Now I shall pay him back with kindness.  So, how 'bout some prog?  I have no idea if Scott, or even Niels is familiar with Captain Beyond.  So I'll post their debut this week.  Captain Beyond was a supergroup.  Members were Rod Evans (Deep Purple, vocals), Bobby Caldwell (Johnny Winter, drums), Larry "Rhino" Reinhardt (Iron Butterfly, guitar) and Lee Dorman (Iron Butterfly, bass).  The band is classified as "heavy prog" by the website progarchives.com, with "heavy" referring to hard rock.  

You'll notice a lot of time signature changes as well as the songs being arranged more like a suite of music as opposed to individual songs.  There is no clear break between most songs.  Because of that, it is really difficult for me to pick out individual songs, so I just say listen to the whole thing.  That is the best policy.  There is really no filler.  

• The artwork was in 3D.  It's a cool album cover.
• The album was dedicated to the memory of Duane Allman.
• My absolute favorite thing about this album is the drum work.  I love the heavy use of the snare drum.  It is just a great style of drumming if you ask me.
• A remastered version of this album can be picked up from Amazon for a low cost of $4.99.

Track Listing (LP Style)

Side One:

1. Dancing Madly Backwards (On A Sea Of Air)

2. Armworth

3. Myopic Void

4. Mesmerization Eclipse

5. Raging River Of Fear

Side Two:

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)

[Scott]

I'm actually not familiar with this, but it shows up in my Amazon recommendations ... I'm looking forward to this one

[RJhog (Admin)]

Don't get too excited, I've been known to disappoint you.

[Scott]

No worries, I've been curious about the one for awhile...

[Jon]

You'll like this.

[Scott]

Very interesting to listen to this.  Right off the bat I totally get that 1st generation Deep Purple vibe, this is a good thing.  The weird part is that this being 1972 this transports the listener back to 68-69, again...not such a terrible thing.

 

The best moments throughout the disc are when the acoustic work comes in, those tracks stand out nicely although the geetar work in really nice in spots.

 

First listen is interesting, second listen?  Not sure yet but I got to hear it again sometime soon.

 

Nice post....  FINALLY!

[Jon]

If you listen to this today, it doesn't sound dated since there's quite a few bands presently that sound like this. That's what I've meant by throwback metal with bands like Mastodon, The Sword, Wolfmother, etc. In the 80's, this would have sounded dated. How wild is that?

This is a really good album. I like all three of their albums, but reviews for the tird are quite negative. I don't know why, it's good to me. 

is this better than "Cyclorama"? Hmmm.....   

[RJhog (Admin)]

Most "tirds" are quite negative.  

I definitely hear this when I listen to the Sword.

[Jon]

Not necessarily. You might see a vision in a tird, that's kinda fun.

[RJhog (Admin)]

That's probably better than seeing tirds in your vision.

[RJhog (Admin)]

I just started listening to the Kansas debut and right off the bat I thought of this album.