''Captain Beyond'' is the debut album by

Captain Beyond Captain Beyond is an American rock supergroup formed in Los Angeles in 1971.
at

, an American rock Supergroup (music), supergroup featuring former members of

Iron Butterfly Iron Butterfly was an American rock band formed in San Diego, California, in 1966. They are best known for the 1968 hit " In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", providing a dramatic sound that led the way towards the development of hard rock and heavy metal m ...

Deep Purple Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock, although their musical style has varied throughout their career. Originally for ...

Johnny Winter John Dawson Winter III (February 23, 1944 – July 16, 2014) was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and record producer. Winter was known for his high-energy blues rock albums, live performances, and slide guitar playing from the late 1 ...

. Released in 1972, the album cover for the U.S. release included 3-D artwork (using

lenticular printing Lenticular printing is a technology in which lenticular lenses (a technology also used for 3D displays) are used to produce printed images with an Depth perception, illusion of depth, or the ability to change or move as they are viewed from diff ...

). The album was dedicated to the memory of

Duane Allman Howard Duane Allman (November 20, 1946 – October 29, 1971) was an American rock and blues guitarist and the founder and original leader of the Allman Brothers Band, for which he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fam ...

, who Captain Beyond drummer

Bobby Caldwell Robert Hunter Caldwell (August 15, 1951 – March 14, 2023) was an American singer and songwriter. He released several albums spanning R&B, soul, jazz, and adult contemporary. He is known for his soulful and versatile vocals. Caldwell release ...

had played with in an informal capacity. ''Captain Beyond'' is unique among guitar-driven hard rock albums in that it contains a wide range of influences, including Latin and jazz, often with various time signatures and a broad range of dynamics within the same song. Most of the album consists of three medleys of tightly arranged interconnected songs. The first starts with "Dancing Madly Backwards (on a Sea of Air)" and ends with "Myopic Void". The second starts with "Thousand Days of Yesterdays (Intro)" and ends with "Thousand Days of Yesterdays (Time Since Come and Gone)". The third starts with "I Can't Feel Nothin' (Part 1)" and finishes the album. Songs flow directly into each other without any lag time between selections, a feature that is shared with other more progressive bands of the era such as

The Moody Blues The Moody Blues were an English rock band formed in Birmingham in May 1964. The band initially consisted of Graeme Edge (drums), Denny Laine (guitar/vocals), Mike Pinder (keyboards/vocals), Ray Thomas (multi-instrumentalist/vocals) and Clint W ...

and Jethro Tull. All of the songwriting was credited to lead vocalist

Rod Evans Roderic Evans (born 19 January 1947) is a retired British singer known as the original vocalist of the rock bands Deep Purple and Captain Beyond. Evans began his professional career in The Maze before becoming a founding member of Deep Purple ...

and drummer Bobby Caldwell. However, the songs were in fact written by the group as a whole. Due to their still binding contracts with Iron Butterfly, guitarist

Larry Reinhardt Larry "Rhino" Reinhardt (July 7, 1948 – January 2, 2012) was an American rock guitarist who played with Iron Butterfly and Captain Beyond. At one time Reinhardt was known by the nicknames "El Rhino" and "Ryno". Early history Born in Florida, Un ...

and bassist

Lee Dorman Douglas Lee Dorman (September 15, 1942 – December 21, 2012) was an American bass guitarist best known as a member of the psychedelic rock band Iron Butterfly. He was also a founding member of the British-American supergroup Captain Beyond. ...

could not be listed as songwriters on this record for legal reasons.

Track listing

Personnel

;Captain Beyond *

–

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

Larry "Rhino" Reinhardt Larry "Rhino" Reinhardt (July 7, 1948 – January 2, 2012) was an American rock guitarist who played with Iron Butterfly and Captain Beyond. At one time Reinhardt was known by the nicknames "El Rhino" and "Ryno". Early history Born in Florida, Un ...

–

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 ...

s *

–

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

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 ...

–

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 ...

, bells,

vibraphone The vibraphone (also called the vibraharp) is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using Percussion mallet, mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone ...

, backing vocals, piano

References

External links

The Deep Purple Podcast - Episode #23 - Captain Beyond - Captain BeyondCaptain Beyond
on

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

{{Authority control Captain Beyond albums Capricorn Records albums 1972 debut albums