View source for Lick My Decals Off, Baby

{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{Infobox album
| name         = Lick My Decals Off, Baby
| type         = [[Album]]
| artist       = [[Captain Beefheart]] and [[the Magic Band]]
| cover        = Captain Beefheart - Lick My Decals Off, Baby.jpg
| alt          = 
| released     = December 1970
| recorded     = May 1970
| venue        = 
| studio       = [[Record Plant]] ([[West Hollywood, California]])
| genre        = 
* [[Avant-rock]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Charlesworth |first1=Chris |title=25 albums that rocked the world! |date=2008 |publisher=Omnibus |page=199 }}</ref>
*[[art rock]]<ref>{{cite web |last1=Horowitz |first1=Hal |title=Captain Beefheart: Sun Zoom Spark |url=https://americansongwriter.com/captain-beefheart-sun-zoom-spark/ |website=American Songwriter |date=10 November 2014 |access-date=14 January 2023}}</ref>
[[avant-pop]]<ref name="Grimstad">{{cite web |last1=Grimstad |first1=Paul |title=What Is Avant-Pop? |url=https://brooklynrail.org/2007/9/music/what-is-avant-pop |website=The Brooklyn Rail |access-date=February 11, 2024 |date=September 2007}}</ref>
| length       = 39:38
| label        = * [[Straight Records|Straight]]
* [[Reprise Records|Reprise]]
| producer     = [[Captain Beefheart|Don Van Vliet]]
| prev_title   = [[Trout Mask Replica]]
| prev_year    = 1969
| next_title   = [[Mirror Man (Captain Beefheart album)|Mirror Man]]
| next_year    = 1971
}}
{{Music ratings
| rev1      = [[AllMusic]]
| rev1Score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.allmusic.com/album/r3285 |title=Lick My Decals Off, Baby - Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band &#124; AllMusic |first=S. |last=Huey |work=allmusic.com |year=2011 |accessdate=22 July 2011}}</ref>
|rev2 = ''[[Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies|Christgau's Record Guide]]''
|rev2Score = A−<ref>{{cite book|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|year=1981|title=[[Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies]]|publisher=[[Ticknor & Fields]]|isbn=089919026X|chapter=Consumer Guide '70s: C|chapter-url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_chap.php?k=C&bk=70|accessdate=February 23, 2019|via=robertchristgau.com}}</ref>
| rev4      = ''[[The Rolling Stone Album Guide]]''
| rev4Score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref>{{cite book|title=[[The Rolling Stone Album Guide]]|year=1992|chapter=Captain Beefheart|isbn=0-679-73729-4 |last1=Decurtis |first1=Anthony |last2=Henke |first2=James |last3=George-Warren |first3=Holly |publisher=Random House }}</ref>
}}
'''''Lick My Decals Off, Baby''''' is the fourth studio album by American musician [[Captain Beefheart]] (Don Van Vliet) and [[the Magic Band]], released in December 1970 by [[Straight Records|Straight]] and [[Reprise Records]]. The follow-up to ''[[Trout Mask Replica]]'' (1969), it is regarded by some critics and listeners as superior, and was Van Vliet's own favorite of his albums. In his words, the title credo of the album was an encouragement to "get rid of the labels", and to evaluate things according to their merits.

==Composition==
Captain Beefheart performs vocals, harmonica, and woodwinds on the album, joined by [[Zoot Horn Rollo|Bill "Zoot Horn Rollo" Harkleroad]] on guitar; [[Rockette Morton|Mark "Rockette Morton" Boston]] on bass guitar; [[Art Tripp|Art "Ed Marimba" Tripp]], late of [[Frank Zappa]]'s [[The Mothers of Invention|Mothers of Invention]], on marimba, drums, and percussion; and [[John French (musician)|John "Drumbo" French]] on drums and percussion.

French had been the band's 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 Harkleroad. French returned to the group shortly before recording began, but after Tripp had been hired to replace him, and so both percussionists appear on the album.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Review: Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band - Lick My Decals Off, Baby {{!}} Sputnikmusic |url=https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/75159/Captain-Beefheart-and-His-Magic-Band-Lick-My-Decals-Off-Baby/ |access-date=2022-03-31 |website=www.sputnikmusic.com}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Andreyev |first=Samuel |title=Art Tripp on working with Frank Zappa, John Cage and Captain Beefheart |date=April 24, 2020 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugMep20elgQ |access-date=2023-09-18 |language=en}}</ref>

Most of the songs began as piano improvisations by Van Vliet, which Harkleroad arranged into full-band compositions.<ref name="Lunar">Harkleroad, Bill with Billy James, 1998: ''Lunar Notes: Zoot Horn Rollo's Captain Beefheart Experience.'' SAF Publishing Ltd.</ref> 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.'' The [[liner notes]] contain two poems or sets of lyrics for songs not present on the album, one untitled and the other entitled "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 Beefheart’s previous musical and lyrical concerns, writing that "even though the sonic textures are sometimes even more complex and angular than on ''Trout Mask''...his messages are universal and warm as the hearth of the America we once dreamed of".<ref name="Bangs">{{cite news|last1=Bangs|first1=Lester|title=Review: Lick My Decals Off, Baby|url=http://www.beefheart.com/lester-bangs-reviews-lick-my-decals-off-baby/|accessdate=20 November 2017|work=[[Creem Magazine|Creem]]|date=March 1971}}</ref>

With [[John Peel]] championing the work on [[BBC]] radio, ''Lick My Decals Off, Baby'' spent eleven weeks on the [[UK Albums Chart]], peaking at number twenty and becoming his highest-charting album in the country.

An early promotional [[music video]] was made of its title song, and a television commercial for the album was also produced that included excerpts from "Woe-is-uh-Me-Bop", silent footage of masked Magic Band members using kitchen utensils as musical instruments, and Van Vliet kicking over a bowl of porridge onto a dividing stripe in the middle of a road. The video was rarely played, but was later accepted into the [[Museum of Modern Art]].<ref>''Music Video: The Industry and Its Fringes'', Museum of Modern Art, September 6–30, 1985</ref><ref>''Looking at Music'', Museum of Modern Art, August 13, 2008 – January 5, 2009</ref>

[[Enigma Records|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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://music.apple.com/us/album/lick-my-decals-off-baby/415007099 |title=Lick My Decals Off, Baby by Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band |publisher=[[iTunes]] |date= 10 September 1970|access-date=2012-01-06}}</ref> On November 17, 2014, [[Rhino Entertainment|Rhino Records]] reissued the album as part of the 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spincds.com/smile-cd-43038 |title=Captain Beefheart – Sun Zoom Spark 1970 to 1972 |publisher=Ispincds.com |accessdate=2014-09-06 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140907082106/http://www.spincds.com/smile-cd-43038 |archivedate=2014-09-07 }}</ref> The album was reissued separately, without [[bonus tracks]], by Rhino on September 25, 2015.<ref>[https://www.amazon.com/Lick-My-Decals-Off-Baby/dp/B013U6UDZW/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1446310512&sr=1-1&keywords=lick+my+decals+off+baby Amazon website retrieved 31 October 2015.]</ref>

==Track listing==
All songs initially composed by [[Don Van Vliet]]. Arranged by [[Bill Harkleroad]].
{{track listing
| headline = Side one
| title1 = Lick My Decals Off, Baby
| length1 = 2:38
| title2 = Doctor Dark
| length2 = 2:46
| title3 = I Love You, You Big Dummy
| length3 = 2:54
| title4 = Peon
| note4 = instrumental
| length4 = 2:24
| title5 = Bellerin' Plain
| length5 = 3:35
| title6 = Woe-is-uh-Me-Bop
| length6 = 2:06
| title7 = Japan in a Dishpan
| note7 = instrumental
| length7 = 3:00
}}
{{track listing
| headline = Side two
| title1 = I Wanna Find a Woman That'll Hold My Big Toe Till I Have to Go
| length1 = 1:53
| title2 = Petrified Forest
| length2 = 1:40
| title3 = One Red Rose That I Mean
| note3 = instrumental
| length3 = 1:52
| title4 = The Buggy Boogie Woogie
| length4 = 2:19
| title5 = The Smithsonian Institute [sic] Blues (or the Big Dig)
| length5 = 2:11
| title6 = Space-Age Couple
| length6 = 2:32
| title7 = The Clouds Are Full of Wine (not Whiskey or Rye)
| length7 = 2:50
| title8 = Flash Gordon's Ape
| length8 = 4:15
}}

===8-track tape edition===
{{track listing
| title1 = Lick My Decals Off, Baby
| length1 = 2:38
| title2 = Doctor Dark
| length2 = 2:46
| title3 = Woe-is-uh-Me-Bop
| length3 = 2:06 
| title4 = Space-Age Couple
| length4 = 2:32 
| title5 = I Love You, You Big Dummy
| length5 = 2:54
| title6 = Bellerin' Plain
| length6 = 3:35
| title7 = Japan in a Dishpan
| note7 = instrumental
| length7 = 3:00 
| title8 = Peon
| note8 = instrumental
| length8 = 2:24
| title9 = I Wanna Find a Woman That'll Hold My Big Toe Till I Have to Go
| length9 = 1:53
| title10 = Petrified Forest
| length10 = 1:40
| title11 = One Red Rose That I Mean
| note11 = instrumental
| length11 = 1:52
| title12 = The Buggy Boogie Woogie
| length12 = 2:19
| title13 = The Smithsonian Institute Blues (or the Big Dig)
| length13 = 2:11
| title14 = The Clouds Are Full of Wine (not Whiskey or Rye)
| length14 = 2:50
| title15 = Flash Gordon's Ape
| length15 = 4:15
}}

==Legacy==

[[Magazine (band)|Magazine]] recorded a cover of "I Love You, You Big Dummy" in 1978.

==Personnel==
* [[Captain Beefheart]] – [[vocals]], [[bass clarinet]], [[tenor saxophone]], [[soprano saxophone]], [[harmonica]]
* [[Zoot Horn Rollo]] – [[electric guitar]], [[Slide guitar|glass finger guitar]]
* [[Rockette Morton]] – [[bass guitar|bassius-o-pheilius]]
* [[John French (musician)|Drumbo]] – [[Drum kit|drums]], [[percussion]], [[broom]]
* [[Art Tripp|Ed Marimba]] – [[marimba]], drums, percussion, broom

'''Production'''
* Grant Gibb – [[talent manager|personal management]]
* Peacock Ink – album concept
* [[Captain Beefheart|Don Van Vliet]] – back cover painting
* [[Ed Thrasher]] – photography and art direction

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Captain Beefheart}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1970 albums]]
[[Category:Albums produced by Captain Beefheart]]
[[Category:Captain Beefheart albums]]
[[Category:Enigma Records albums]]
[[Category:Reprise Records albums]]
[[Category:Straight Records albums]]
[[Category:Avant-pop albums]]