Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band
The Red Pepper, Arcata CA
22 January 1981

Unknown cassette recorder > WAV file > flac (via TLH)

It's great to hear a new live recording of the Captain and this one has never been circulated before. 
It was sent to me by the taper after he'd found it in a box of old cassette tapes and he asked if I'd pass it on to other Beefheart fans. (He wishes to remain anonymous.)   
It's taken me a while to get this together but here it is ...

Recorded a week after the legendary 40th birthday show in Seattle the band are still on top form at this small club in Arcata.

Tracklist:
01 bass solo
02 Nowadays A Woman's Gotta Hit A Man
03 I Wanna Find a Woman That'll Hold My Big Toe Till I Have To Go
04 Hot Head
05 Ashtray Heart
06 Dirty Blue Gene
07 Best Batch Yet
08 band introductions
09 Safe As Milk
10 One Red Rose That I Mean
11 A carrot is as close as a rabbit gets to a diamond
12 Bat Chain Puller
13 Sugar 'n' Spikes
14 Sheriff of Hong Kong
15 Suction Prints

Band:
Don Van Vliet
Moris Tepper
Rick Snyder
Eric Drew Feldman
Robert Williams
Gary Lucas

No surprises in the setlist.
It's not the best quality recording you'll ever hear - you've been warned so no whinging about it! 

There are many faults:
- cuts into first track
- distortion on the edges of the sound
- a constant ticking probably from the original tape machine
- a short break in 'Sugar 'n' Spikes' at about the 48 seconds mark

I have not EQ'd it or messed around with the sound. If anyone feels they can improve it please go ahead and try.

It is what it is ... and it's not bad if you can listen through the faults ... I know many fans will enjoy it despite the sound issues.

Included is a scan of the poster for the gig which Don mentions during one of his between song chats.

Trade freely.
Don't convert to mp3 etc.