Captain Beefheart rare 1978 album to be released

The widely bootlegged Captain Beefheart album, Bat Chain Puller, will finally get an official release in January.

Mike Barnes, who wrote a biography on Beefheart, told the site The Wire "The tape is owned by the Zappa estate and although Don didn't want it released they've been true to the work. Not only that, its availability was announced on the anniversary of Don's death and will be released on his birthday."

The album was originally produced by Frank Zappa and was expected to be Beefheart's comeback LP. In May of 1976, the relationship between Zappa and his manager, Herb Cohen, went south and all of Zappa's current work was held up by lengthy litigation. Beefheart was not able to release any of the album until he went back in the studio and rerecorded the tracks. The original tapes were left in the Zappa vaults but a new version of the album, that included only four of the original songs, was released in 1978 with a new band as Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller).

The final version is mixed by Denny Walley and John French of the Magic Band and will contain the original twelve tracks plus three bonus tracks.