Doc at the Radar Station

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

Doc at the Radar Station
Studio album by Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band
Released	August 1980
Recorded	June 1980
Studio	Sound Castle Recording Studios, Los Angeles
Length	38:52
Label	Virgin
Producer	Don 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
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Christgau's Record Guide	A−[2]
DownBeat	[3]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[4]
The Great Rock Bible	7.5/10[5]
Tom Hull	B+[6]
Music Story	[citation needed]
MusicHound Rock	[7]
Rolling Stone	[8]
Spin Alternative Record Guide	9/10[9]

Packaging

The album cover was painted by Don Van Vliet. It was placed at number forty-nine on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Album Covers in November 14th, 1991 issue.^[10]

Background

Although about half of the album's songs are based on old musical ideas, Mike Barnes states that "most of the revamping work built on skeletal ideas and fragments ... would have mouldered away in the vaults had they not been exhumed and transformed into full-blown, totally convincing new material".^[11] The tracks "A Carrot is as Close as a Rabbit Gets to a Diamond", "Flavor Bud Living" and "Brickbats" were originally intended and recorded for the unreleased album Bat Chain Puller.

John French (the original drummer in the Magic Band) rejoined Beefheart for this album. He played guitar on all songs, plus bass ("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".

Reissues

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

Track listing

Side one

No.	Title	Length
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

All tracks are written by Don Van Vliet

Side two

No.	Title	Length
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

• Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet) – vocals, Chinese gongs, harmonica, soprano saxophone, bass clarinet
• John French – slide guitar, guitar, bass, drums (on "Ashtray Heart" and "Sheriff of Hong Kong"), marimba (on "Making Love To A Vampire With A Monkey On My Knee"), vocals on "Dirty Blue Gene" and "Run Paint Run Run"
• Jeff Moris Tepper – slide guitar, guitar, nerve guitar, background vocals on "Run Paint Run Run"
• Eric Drew Feldman – synthesizer, bass, mellotron, grand piano, electric piano, background vocals on "Run Paint Run Run"
• Robert Arthur Williams – drums, background vocals on "Run Paint Run Run"

Additional personnel

• Gary Lucas – guitar (on "Flavor Bud Living"), French horn (on "Best Batch Yet")
• Bruce Lambourne Fowler – trombone (on "Run Paint Run Run")

Notes

1. Huey, S. "Doc at the Radar Station - Captain Beefheart | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 22 July 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. Carman. "The Captain Beefheart Radar Station - Doc At The Radar Station". beefheart.com. Archived from the original on 9 July 2011. Retrieved 22 July 2011.
4. Larkin, Colin (2011). "Captain Beefheart". The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0857125958.
5. Martin C. Strong (2024). The Great Rock Bible (1st ed.). Red Planet Books. ISBN 978-1-9127-3328-6.
6. Tom Hull. "Grade List: captain beefheart". Tom Hull - on the web. Retrieved September 4, 2020.
7. Gary Graff, ed. (1996). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide (1st ed.). London: Visible Ink Press. ISBN 978-0-7876-1037-1.
8. Rolling Stone Album Guide (1992) ISBN 0-679-73729-4
9. Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig, eds. (1995). "Captain Beefheart". Spin Alternative Record Guide (1st ed.). New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
10. [Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Album Covers "Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Album Covers"]. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
11. Barnes, Mike. Captain Beefheart: The Biography. London: Quartet Books, 2000.

Further reading

• Draper, Jason (2008). A Brief History of Album Covers. London: Flame Tree Publishing. pp. 216–217. ISBN 9781847862112. OCLC 227198538.

External links

• Lyrics, reviews and details at the Captain Beefheart Radar Station