Prime Quality Beef

<i>Prime Quality Beef</i> offers a smorgasbord selection of live recordings and studio outtakes from disparate points in Captain Beefheart’s career. Much of the material included here comes from the radio broadcast of a 1974 Kansas City concert. The Captain draws much of his set from his controversial, supposedly “commercial” <i>Unconditionally Guaranteed</i> album. During the show, Beefheart howls and growls his way through such smoldering tunes as “Upon the My O My,” “Keep On Rubbing,” “Full Moon Hot Sun” and “Crazy Little Thing.” The dreamy “This Is the Day’ and a off-the-cuff version of “Sweet Georgia Brown” offer a chance for the Magic Band to soften the mood a bit. The studio cuts mostly date back to Beefheart’s tenure with Blue Thumb Records in the late ‘60s; “Gimme Dat Harp Boy” and an alternate version of “Beatle Bones & Smokin’ Stones” are presented without the studio effects that marred them when they first appeared on the <i>Strictly Personal</i> album. These archival odds and ends provide some tasty morsels to a committed Beefheart fan.