Lick My Decals Off, Baby

Musicians

Musicians on the album were Don Van Vliet, vocals, harmonica, and woodwinds; Bill Harkleroad, guitar; Mark Boston, bass; Art Tripp, marimba, drums, and percussion; and John French, drums. French had been arranger and musical director on Trout Mask Replica. Van Vliet ejected French from the group—both figuratively and literally, by allegedly throwing him down a flight of stairs—shortly after Trout Mask Replica was completed, and these roles passed to guitarist Bill Harkleroad. French returned to the group shortly before recording began.

Origins

Most of the songs began as piano improvisations by Van Vliet. He would record extended improvisation sessions on a cassette recorder. Harkleroad then listened to these improvisations, picked out the best parts, and pieced them into compositions. The musical lines on Decals tend to be longer and more intricate than the assemblage of short fragments that characterized much of Trout Mask Replica.

Musical content

The record contains some of Captain Beefheart's most experimental music and remains memorable for both the marimba playing of Art Tripp and for its concise instrumental work. An early promotional music video was made of its title song, and a bizarre television commercial was also filmed that included excerpts from "Woe-Is-uh-Me-Bop", silent footage of masked Magic Band members using kitchen utensils as musical instruments, and Beefheart kicking over a bowl of what appears to be porridge onto a dividing stripe in the middle of a road. The video was rarely played but was accepted into the Museum of Modern Art, where it has been used in several programs.

The album's liner notes contain two poems or lyrics for songs not present, one untitled and the other "You Should Know by the Kindness of uh Dog the Way uh Human Should Be".

Critical and commercial reception

Critic Robert Christgau said of the record: "Beefheart's famous five-octave range and covert totalitarian structures have taken on a playful undertone, repulsive and engrossing and slapstick funny." Lester Bangs noted the maturation of the musical styles and lyrical concerns of Trout Mask Replica, writing that Beefheart's music was "one of the most rewarding musical experiences available today."

Due to John Peel's championing of the work on BBC radio, Lick My Decals Off, Baby spent eleven weeks on the UK Albums Chart, peaking at number twenty. This remains Beefheart's highest-charting album in the UK.

Enigma Retro released a compact disc edition in 1989; the album has also seen reissue as a 180g vinyl LP, which is still in print. In January 2011, shortly after Van Vliet's death, iTunes and Amazon's MP3 store released the album for download. On November 17, 2014, Rhino Records reissued the album as part of a limited-edition four-disc Beefheart box set Sun Zoom Spark: 1970 to 1972, which also included The Spotlight Kid, Clear Spot, and a disc of outtakes from the three albums. The album was reissued separately, with no bonus tracks, by Rhino on September 25, 2015.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Don Van Vliet.

Personnel