On the label of this scarce boot there's a crow on Don's boot. The cryptic sketch on this translucent blue vinyl 7" 'pirate' EP shows him languishing beneath a Joshua tree, a common sight in the the Antelope Valley of his teenage exile. He's playing a mouth harp - but he wears that Quaker hat too, complete with shuttlecock, thus transposing the timeframe to Woodland Hills and Trout Mask Replica... whoever the artist, the clues suggest this is most likely a post-Crow, 1982 onward issue. Certainly post-Trout, but there is no date.The self-color blue paper wrap, overprinted black, is an archivist's nightmare of 'out-of-time' image conflicts and portions of a teen-mag press cutting sporting its own journalistic errors. Add to this a label that declares the band to be "The Soots" and the only firm grip we have left on the reality of what is on this release is "Avalon '66" on the sleeve front and "Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band" on the reverse. "The Soots" were, of course, a completely disconnected thread in the weft of Beefheart mystique - relating to earlier Zappa & Vliet trains of thought and FZ recordings at 'Studio Z' such as "Cheryl's Canon" & "Metal Man Has Won His Wings".The four tracks on this "Blue Desert Recordings" issue are indeed from a live radio KSAN broadcast of the band, emanating from the famed Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco during 1966. All this, back in the days when Snouffer bagged himself a Fender in 'The Battle Of The Bands' and was much the group's driving force. This 7" has the kind of Delta Blues re-workings and Vliet's thunderous post-Wolf howlings that helped the likes of John Peel & Matt Groening become life-long fans and flag-bearers.This has four live-recorded covers: A1) "Tupelo, Mississippi" (John Lee Hooker), A2) "Somebody In My Home" (Chester Burnett), B1) "Old Folks Boogie" (Slim Green) and B2) "Evil" (Chester Burnett). The band line-up is probably Vliet (vc), Snouffer (gtr), Handley (b), Moon (gtr), Blakely (dr). These recordings are available elsewhere by the band, along with other numbers from the gig. However, this release is rather eccentric and clearly blue, as are the band's followers since the loss of Alexis Snouffer and now Don Van Vliet...