hurrah! the promotional campaign of the combined forces of revenant, xeric and other business men for the much-talked-about boxset has broken loose. several magazines grabbed the chance to prepare or bring a (p)review or special, songs got broadcasted, and everyone's getting infected with a beefver [beefheart fever]! and i'm very glad i've updated and improved this pages with some of the nice pictures that are part of the promo material that is being handed out - like a ceedee and press kits and all that! i really hope you like them - although i had to steal them....

but i don't feel guilty - as i think to have been stripped in a comparable way. for revenant & co may send out loads of overwhelming stuff to all sorts of people, but they seem to be very dainty in their choice who's important. they prefer to only mail to media ramparts and who knows what other big shots (commercially seen) that can intermediate to really 'grow fin(ance)s' - and that hope to have a quick one with that nice, marketable beefheart too - so, unfortunately not to me!!!

i know, it's because i run a marginal internet fansite with no (on-line or hidden) relation with the biggest or the good mail order services (of course not: ány sponsoring would make me lose my independence and mean the end of objective purchase advices)... or maybe it is because i first want to taste the finished product - of which till now only the book and at the best two-fifth of the rest seem essential - before starting to say more than that it's 'promising'...?

okay, they have the right to decide themselves who they want to send free stuff and publication material - but there's more. now that all the difficult work has been done and it's time for the finishing touch, the record company seems to have changed its vision on the 'grow fins' matter. because at once they totally oversee the loving beefheart fans [like me?] who helped them with and through the box set by providing useful advice and material for free - or have those beefheartians just been naively dumb to spill precious time and efforts for a kick-after as reward?

the front cover of the promo (and the first double elpee):

picture by ed caraeff

yes, i agree this sounds like i'm complaining at random again, as usual. you probably suppose that revenant has just accidentallly forgotten me, like i thought for a while - till i got an e-mail from another beefheartian (without knowledge of my circumstances) who is pissed with the company because, after a lot of help he gave, he didn't even receive such a simple token of appreciation like the relatively low cost promo ceedee. against the voluntary promise they made me too to send some interesting stuff - as well as keep my website up-to-date informed - they now show what they were after...

[on the other hand, all i did - can't speak for others - was, as soon as they approached me for this project, to send them a rough basic list of more than 50 useful tracks to start looking for (with indications where to find it), and offer them the modest information on this website - which has thankfully been used by john french for the liner book, as he has told me - and after some insistence even e-mailed them my collection of [quite unknow] scans, and just put all their important messages on this site whenever they asked me to. it's a pity that was the only, insignificant contribution i could make - lack of time prevented any basic help... so, they might be right after all.]

very sad, but, well, i suppose that's how if often goes [as known from the record giants] when you're not cómmercially interested in captain beefheart (or any other artist) but from an artistic or human point of view: the producers / makers need crazy devotees to come up with a good product, but when they're of no longer use they're only interesting as a buyer. it seems like uncontrollable urge to help leaves the blind lovers of the captain empty handed - as they only cost free copies, while others who mainly just contribute(d) loud cheering from the tribunes get attention and give-aways - because they bring the profit.

MAKES IT NECESSARY FOR ANYONE TO THINK ABOUT IT
BEFORE OFFERING HELP TO ANY CAPTAIN BEEFHEART PROJECT
WHICH DUMPS YOU AFTERWARDS

*

get me clear: the above is not an opinion about the box set nor will this nasty circumstance influence my review to come. however, i'd already like to share one of the possible minor points of  the release with you. because i wonder why almost every picture from the promo campaign is from the don't-miss-it weird 'trout mask replica' era - as if that's all captain beefheart has done.....

[19.05.99]