His last record came out in 1974 so when a musical recluse like Shuggie Otis releases a new record, it’s an event. And while Live in Williamsburg, released on cheapie, left-of-center Los Angeles reissue label Cleopatra Records isn’t particularly well-recorded or intelligently packaged—there’s no recording date, engineer or producer listed— it’s still Shuggie, on the road in 2013, with a new band, The Rite, that includes his son Eric on guitar and his brother Nick on drums.
Shuggie, born Johnny Veliotes, is of course, the guitar virtuoso son of the great R&B bandleader Johnny Otis, who began playing in clubs as a teenager before letting his quirky personality and a number of personal demons derail his career in the mid-Seventies after the 1974 release of Inspirational Information. Otis is best known as the writer of “Strawberry Letter 23,” a tune he recorded on his second album Freedom Flight (1971) and which later became a huge hit for The Brothers Johnson in 1977 when they included it, enlivened by their funkified arrangement, on their album Right On Time.
Engineeringwise, this recording is an example of just because you can doesn’t mean you should. The editing here is graceless and amateurish: a song ends, the applause starts only to be abruptly cut off and the next tune begins. Between song patter is cut to a minimum and after “Strawberry Letter 23” and a few goodbyes, the recording just stops. No fading or effort to smooth the transitions is ever attempted. Also, the bass is entirely too prominent here, but the saxophones of Michael Turre (baritone) and Albert Wing (tenor) though are decently recorded. Again, any Shuggie is worth a listen and perhaps just making and releasing this album—he was notorious for being glacial in the studio— will inspire him, at 61, to finally make a followup to Inspirational Information?
Another new live record for the music collector who already has everything easily obtainable, is the two CD Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band, Live From Paris 1977 released by something called Gonzo Multimedia. Obviously timed to coincide with the release of Rhino’s Sun, Zoom, Spark 1970 to 1972 boxed set (reviewed in February 2015 Stereophile) this is an audience tape which captures Beefheart and his young Magic Band running through suitably unhinged versions of tunes from Trout Mask Replica like “Dali’s Car,” “Moonlight on Vermont” and “Pachuco Cadaver” as well as material from Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)” like the title track and crazed blues stomp, “Suction Prints.” Led by Don Van Vliet’s acid growl, the recording quality here is very thin with frequent drop outs in both channels and really ugly, sharp transitions between songs, but then as Beefheart fans all know, rough, ramshackle lo-fi sonics suit this deliberately difficult, at times assaultive music like a fitted chain mail glove. Massively influential and (not surprisingly) invisible and a non-starter commercially, Beefheart records, when listened to with the benefit of time and perspective, are obviously where certain schools of punk and noise rock drew crucial inspiration. If you wait long enough, almost everything becomes influential. And in light of the disposability of much of today’s music, the mass of ideas here, cracked or not, successful or more likely just annoying, is impressive.
