Electricity
A poem by Herb Bermann set to music for the debut album, with a theremin and a vocal reported to have shattered a microphone.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band, from Safe as Milk (1967)
- Released
- 1967
- Length
- 3:07
- Album
- Safe as Milk
Electricity began as a poem by Herb Bermann, who gave Van Vliet permission to adapt it to music. Unlike most of Safe as Milk's blues rock, it showed the band's unconventional instrumentation and Van Vliet's unusual vocals, with Samuel Hoffman on theremin. His vocal performance is reported to have shattered the microphone recording him.
He also claimed that A&M dropped the band after co-owner Jerry Moss heard the song and called it too negative. At the Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival on Mount Tamalpais in 1967, a warm-up for Monterey, Van Vliet stopped the song, straightened his tie and walked off the stage. Ry Cooder quit afterwards and the Monterey appearance was cancelled.
On stage
- 1967, Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival, Mount Tamalpais Van Vliet stopped the song and walked off the stage; Ry Cooder quit and the Monterey Pop appearance was cancelled.
Covers and versions
- Sonic Youth (1988) For the tribute album Fast 'n' Bulbous; later on the 2007 deluxe reissue of Daydream Nation.
- Racebannon (2002) On In the Grips of the Light.
More songs by Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
Abba Zaba, Dropout Boogie, Moonlight on Vermont, Big Eyed Beans from Venus, Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles
Sources
- Electricity (Captain Beefheart song), Wikipedia
- Safe as Milk, Wikipedia
- Captain Beefheart, Wikipedia