Doc at the Radar Station

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Doc at the Radar Station
Studio album by
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band
ReleasedAugust 1980
RecordedJune 1980
StudioSound Castle Recording Studios, Los Angeles
Length38:52
LabelVirgin
ProducerDon Van Vliet
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band chronology
Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)
(1978) 		Doc at the Radar Station
(1980) 		Ice Cream for Crow
(1982)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusicStarStarStarStarHalf star[1]
Christgau's Record GuideA−[2]
DownBeatStarStarStarStarHalf star[4]
The Encyclopedia of Popular MusicStarStarStar[3]
The Great Rock Bible7.5/10[5]
Tom HullB+[9]
Music StoryStarStarStarStar[citation needed]
MusicHound RockStarStarStarStarHalf star[6]
Rolling StoneStarStarStarStarHalf star [7]
Spin Alternative Record Guide9/10[8]

Doc at the Radar Station is the eleventh studio album by Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, released in August 1980 by Virgin Records.

Background

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Although about half of the album's songs are based on old musical ideas. Captain Beefheart biographer Mike Barnes states that "most of the revamping work [was] built on skeletal ideas and fragments ... [that] would have mouldered away in the vaults had they not been exhumed and transformed into full-blown, totally convincing new material".[10] "A Carrot is as Close as a Rabbit Gets to a Diamond", "Flavor Bud Living" and "Brickbats" were originally recorded for the unreleased album Bat Chain Puller.

Original Magic Band drummer John French rejoined Beefheart for this album. He played guitar on all songs, plus bass guitar ("Sheriff of Hong Kong"), drums ("Ashtray Heart" and "Sheriff of Hong Kong"), and marimba ("Making Love to a Vampire with a Monkey on My Knee"). He also sings the second vocal on "Dirty Blue Gene".

The album cover was painted by Captain Beefheart. It was placed at number forty-nine on Rolling Stone's 1991 list of the "100 Greatest Album Covers".[11]

Reissues

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In 2011, 4 Men with Beards released a 180-gram version of the album, distributed by City Hall Records.

Track listing

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All tracks are written by Don Van Vliet.

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Hot Head"3:23
2."Ashtray Heart"3:25
3."A Carrot Is as Close as a Rabbit Gets to a Diamond"1:38
4."Run Paint Run Run"3:40
5."Sue Egypt"2:57
6."Brickbats"2:40
Side two
No.TitleLength
1."Dirty Blue Gene"3:51
2."Best Batch Yet"5:02
3."Telephone"1:31
4."Flavor Bud Living"1:00
5."Sheriff of Hong Kong"6:34
6."Making Love to a Vampire with a Monkey on My Knee"3:11

Personnel

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Additional personnel

Notes

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  1. ^ Huey, S. "Doc at the Radar Station - Captain Beefheart | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved July 22, 2011.
  2. ^ Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: C". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved February 23, 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
  3. ^ Larkin, Colin (2011). "Captain Beefheart". The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0857125958.
  4. ^ Carman. "The Captain Beefheart Radar Station - Doc At The Radar Station". beefheart.com. Archived from the original on July 9, 2011. Retrieved July 22, 2011.
  5. ^ Martin C. Strong (2024). The Great Rock Bible (1st ed.). Red Planet Books. ISBN 978-1-9127-3328-6.
  6. ^ Gary Graff, ed. (1996). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide (1st ed.). London: Visible Ink Press. ISBN 978-0-7876-1037-1.
  7. ^ Rolling Stone Album Guide (1992) ISBN 0-679-73729-4
  8. ^ Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig, eds. (1995). "Captain Beefheart". Spin Alternative Record Guide (1st ed.). New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
  9. ^ Tom Hull. "Grade List: captain beefheart". Tom Hull - on the web. Retrieved September 4, 2020.
  10. ^ Barnes, Mike. Captain Beefheart: The Biography. London: Quartet Books, 2000.
  11. ^ "Rolling Stone's 100 Best Album Covers". rollingstone.com. Retrieved July 16, 2025.

Further reading

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