''Bat Chain Puller'' is the 13th studio album (and first official posthumous album) by

Captain Beefheart Don Van Vliet (; born 'Don Glen Vliet'; January 15, 1941 – December 17, 2010) was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and visual artist known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. Conducting a rotating ensemble known as the M ...

, released on February 22, 2012. It was recorded in 1976 by

DiscReet Records DiscReet Records, self-identified simply as DiscReet, was a record label founded by Frank Zappa and his then business partner and manager Herb Cohen. The name of the label was a pun derived from disc and the Compatible Discrete 4 process of ...

, who had intended to release it with

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group. They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), ...

as Captain Beefheart's tenth studio album. It was co-produced by Beefheart and Kerry McNab. The album was a subject of friction between DiscReet cofounders

Herb Cohen Herbert Cohen (December 30, 1932 – March 16, 2010) was an American personal manager, record company executive, and music publisher, best known as the manager of Judy Henske, Linda Ronstadt, Frank Zappa, Tim Buckley, Odetta, Tom Waits, Geor ...

and

Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American guitarist, composer, and bandleader. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestra ...

. Cohen had used Zappa's royalty checks to fund the album's production, and this led Zappa to withhold the master tapes from Virgin. Beefheart recorded a new album for

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

, '' Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)'', with no involvement from Cohen or Zappa. Following a lawsuit which was settled in 1982, the album remained unreleased until 2012, after Zappa's family had announced in 2011 that they would release the original ''Bat Chain Puller'' in its intended form.

Background

After recording the album '' Bongo Fury'' with

Don Van Vliet Don Van Vliet (; born 'Don Glen Vliet'; January 15, 1941 – December 17, 2010) was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and visual artist known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. Conducting a rotating ensemble known as the M ...

formed a new Magic Band and began recording ''Bat Chain Puller'' for

DiscReet Discreet may refer to: * Discreet Logic, a subsidiary of Autodesk Media and Entertainment * DiscReet Records * ''Discreet'' (film), a 2017 film {{disambig ...

and

. Zappa described the proposed album as Van Vliet's best since ''

Trout Mask Replica ''Trout Mask Replica'' is the third studio album by the American band Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, released as a double album on June 16, 1969, by Straight Records. The music was composed by Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet) and arrange ...

''. Vliet co-produced it with Kerry McNab, who also served as the remix engineer on Zappa's album '' One Size Fits All''.

, DiscReet's cofounder and Zappa's business manager, paid for the album's production costs with Zappa's royalty checks, leading Zappa to end his business partnership with Cohen. Cohen and Zappa each demanded to be paid an advance by Virgin, leading Zappa to withhold the master tapes, leading Cohen to sue Zappa. Due to the lawsuit, Van Vliet rerecorded the ''Bat Chain Puller'' tracks for

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (known as Warner Bros. Records Inc. until 2019) is an American record label. A subsidiary of Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division ...

under the title '' Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)''. In 1982, Cohen settled his lawsuit with Zappa, while Vliet was recording '' Ice Cream for Crow''. Van Vliet intended to use half of the tracks from the original ''Bat Chain Puller'' album on ''Ice Cream For Crow'', but Zappa refused Van Vliet's request. Vliet biographer Mike Barnes subsequently claimed that Van Vliet did not want the original album to be released. On June 24, 2011, six months after Van Vliet's death, Zappa's widow Gail claimed that the original ''Bat Chain Puller'' would be released " is year. December most likely"; in December it was announced for release on January 15, 2012, but was delayed and did not ship until February.

Style

The song "Bat Chain Puller" was based upon the rhythm of the windshield wipers on Vliet's Volvo car.

Track listing

All tracks by Don Van Vliet (aka

)

Personnel

(Don Van Vliet) – vocals,

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica incl ...

soprano saxophone The soprano saxophone is a small, high-pitched member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented in the 1840s by Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax. Built in B♭ an octave above the tenor saxophone (or rarely, slightly small ...

* John "Drumbo" French –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

, music director * Denny "Feelers Rebo" Walley – guitar,

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

* Jeff Moris Tepper – guitar *John Thomas –

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

Rhodes electric piano The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, th ...

, Mini Moog

References

{{Authority control 2012 albums Albums published posthumously Captain Beefheart albums Zappa Records albums