This is a brief message intended, for ebay purposes, as something of a buying guide, rather than any sort of exhaustive history. Volumes have been written on Captain Beefheart (Don (van) Vliet) and the Magic Band, including multiple books (try “Captain Beefheart, the Biography” by Mike Barnes), magazine articles, documentaries, and hundreds of pages of liner notes for the various LPs and CDs
 
So who are you, that I am writing this to? Probably not an old curmudgeon like me, who has been listening to Beefheart regularly since I was in high school in the late 1960s. I will assume that you are a person who is interested in the important progressive and avant garde music from that halcyon time, and who knows, or has heard, that Beefheart was an extremely important and influential figure. I am going to write this to: a fifty-something with fond memories of hearing this strange music in his college dormitory in the 1970s who would now like to buy a CD, or 2, or 3, to remember it by, or another profile would be the fledgling twenty-something musical explorer who wants to find a reasonable passageway into the Beefheart universe.
 
The simple answer is really quite easy - the 2-CD anthology “The Dust Blows Forward” is a fantastic career overview, and it has something for everyone. It has a couple of the best and most accessible songs from each of the original albums, plus a small handful of rare and/or hard-to-find tracks from every period of his astonishing career (which will make it worthwhile to own, even if you go back later and buy all the original albums individually!).
 
In 1965 the band recorded several single sides for A&M Records (on vinyl they exist as very rare 45s and were re-issued in the mid-80s as the EP “The Legendary A&M Sessions”) along with some demos and out-takes. These are easily found on the first disc of the staggering 5-CD “Grow Fins” box set (which includes massive liner notes overseen by John French and several stunning videos, and is highly recommended if you have the spare cash). Luckily, 3 of the best of these tracks are also found on the “Dust Forward” set.
 
“Safe as Milk” was the next effort. Few debut albums have ever matched this one, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Considered totally bizarre upon its release, it now seems like just a mildly weird white-boy blues-rock album. If you can spring for the $200+ price tag, the original MONO vinyl will absolutely blow you away, and be worth every penny. Trust me. Otherwise, go for the 1999 Buddha remastered CD 7446599605-2 and its companion 7446599606-2 “The Mirror Man Sessions” which, between them, contain both entire original albums along with, as bonus tracks, the other Buddha sessions that were to make up the next album for Buddha. (There is a CD called “I May Be Hungry But I Sure Ain’t Weird” that preceded the 1999 Buddha re-issues I described above, but it is another collection of the same songs that make up the bonus material on those two.) That never materialized, but was mostly re-recorded and turned up as “Strictly Personal” on Blue Thumb Records. The US releases were “phased” supposedly without Beefheart’s knowledge or permission (this had been hotly debated) while the UK releases were clean, without phasing. If you are buying vinyl, the first US release has the black label and the tracks are separated by gaps. This is the rarer record, but it is recorded much stronger and louder and is definitely the superior version. The “unbanded” version is found with both black and beige labels, and is less desirable. In the UK, it was released on Liberty Records in stereo and also the very rare mono version. The first pressing UK Liberty is my top favorite and the one that I now listen to, the phasing seems confusing and unnecessary to me now. UK Liberty/UA and UK Sunset both released budget re-issue versions with different front cover photos showing the entire box in three dimensions, rather than the front label area only, and these are excellent pressings and usually reasonably priced and readily available on ebay. Buy one of them if you want top quality vinyl without paying an arm and a leg.
 
I will not spend much time on the transcendantly maginificent and unique “Troutmaskreplica” and “Lick my Decals Off Baby” since there do not seem to be many variations in the mixes of records and CDs. Both are off the charts in excellence and are ABSOLUTE “MUST-HAVES” in any serious collection of 1960s rock music. The “Grow Fins” collection provides several alternative mixes and out-takes, and a live acoustic radio station “Orange Claw Hammer” duet with Zappa is not to be missed, along with liner notes featuring an intensely serious written narrative of that period by French. Bill Harkelroad also wrote a fascinating little book called “Lunar Notes” that details the inner history of the band during this period, and it tarnishes the legend a bit but makes great reading.
 
Warner Brothers was kind enough to release “Spotlight Kid” and “Clear Spot” on a single CD, but it is not of very high quality. Buy vinyl or Japan mini-LPs. The nadir of Beefheart’s recording career was undoubtedly “Unconditionally Guaranteed” (not!) and “Moonbeams and Bluejeans” but the “Dust Forward” anthology will provide you the couple of decent songs you need from these mediocre outings and you can skip them.
 
After a “mercy” stint with Zappa, Beefheart went into the studio and recorded “Bat Chain Puller” in 1976. You can get a muddy original recording of this from the Captain’s own 2-track (probably a cassette) tape on the CD entitled “Dust Sucker” along with a half-dozen bonus tracks, if you want to hear it as it was originally intended. The songs were re-recorded and made up most of the 1978 “Shiny Beast” which is outstanding. All of us diehard fans rejoiced when this record came out, amazed that our hero was back with a strong, vibrant new record. He followed this up with 2 more solid albums, “Doc at the Radar Station” and “Ice Cream for Crow” before turning his back on music for a successful second career as a painter. These 3 later records stand strong and tall, worthy of inclusion in any collection.

Unfortunately, Don Vliet has suffered declining health since the mid-1980s, and is now frail and wheelchair-bound. There are numerous bootleg recordings and videos on the legitimate and black markets, of wildly varying quality. “Pearls Before Swine” is a semi-legitimate Italian little CD and booklet of the Captain reading his poetry, and is worthwhile but rather sad. The "Captain Beefheart Under Review" DVD is also well worth seeing.

My buying advice is to purchase the records, in order, and assimilate each one fully before moving on to the next. Otherwise, the “middle period” is probably the least demanding and would provide the most accessible inroad into this fascinating world. Good Luck!