The Mirror Man Sessions features the complete remastered contents of Mirror Man, albeit in a resequenced running order, and fills out the rest of the CD with a number of bonus tracks taken from additional recordings, both finished and unfinished, made around the same time for what would have been a double album titled It Comes to You in a Plain Brown Wrapper.
As a listening experience, the package will appeal more to those who value the instrumental Beefheart; the Mirror Man album is, of course, essentially a 50-plus-minute jam session, containing as it does only four songs, and the bonus tracks -- many of which appeared on the One Way label's reissue of Safe as Milk -- mostly consist of jams and instrumentals which push the boundaries of conventional blues-rock, with a Beefheart vocal tossed in here and there.
Some may miss Beefheart's surreal poetry, gruff vocals, and/or free jazz influence, while others may find it fascinating to hear the Magic Band simply letting go and cutting loose.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TarotplaneDon Van Vliet | Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band, Captain Beefheart | Play | 19:08 | 43 MB | 115 MB |
| 2 | 25th Century QuakerDon Van Vliet | Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band, Captain Beefheart | Play | 09:50 | 22 MB | 55 MB |
| 3 | Mirror ManCaptain Beefheart, Don Van Vliet | Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band, Captain Beefheart | Play | 15:46 | 36 MB | 94 MB |
| 4 | Kandy KornDon Van Vliet | Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band, Captain Beefheart | Play | 08:07 | 18 MB | 50 MB |
| 5 | Trust Us (Take 6)Don Van Vliet | Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band, Captain Beefheart | Play | 07:14 | 16 MB | 41 MB |
| 6 | Safe as Milk (Take 12)Don Van Vliet | Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band, Captain Beefheart | Play | 05:01 | 11 MB | 29 MB |
| 7 | Gimme Dat Harp BoyDon Van Vliet | Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band, Captain Beefheart | Play | 03:32 | 8 MB | 21 MB |
| 68 mins | 157 MB | |||||
| 68 mins | 407 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arlessa Barnes | Project Coordinator |
| 2 | Lisa Butler | Project Coordinator |
| 3 | Captain Beefheart | Composer, Harmonica, Primary Artist, Vocals |
| 4 | Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band | Primary Artist |
| 5 | Jeff Cotton | Guitar |
| 6 | Glenn Delgado | Project Coordinator |
| 7 | Christina DeSimone | Project Coordinator |
| 8 | Robin Diamond | Project Coordinator |
| 9 | Mandana Eidgah | Production Coordination |
| 10 | Elliott Federman | Mastering |
| 11 | Joanne Feltman | Archivist |
| 12 | John French | Drums |
| 13 | Felicia Gearhart | Project Coordinator |
| 14 | Laura Gregory | Project Coordinator |
| 15 | Jerry Handley | Bass |
| 16 | Jeremy Holiday | Project Coordinator |
| 17 | Glenn Korman | Archivist |
| 18 | Bob Krasnow | Producer |
| 19 | Robin Manning | Project Coordinator |
| 20 | Michael Mendel | Art Direction |
| 21 | Ed Osborne | Project Coordinator |
| 22 | Larry Parra | Project Coordinator |
| 23 | John Platt | Annotation, Compilation Producer, Liner Notes |
| 24 | Bruce Pollock | Project Coordinator |
| 25 | Mike Ragogna | Compilation Producer |
| 26 | Dana Renert | Project Coordinator |
| 27 | David Richman | Redesign |
| 28 | Alex St. Clair | Guitar |
| 29 | Catherine Seligman | Project Coordinator |
| 30 | Steve Strauss | Project Coordinator |
| 31 | Tom Tierney | Archivist |
| 32 | Don Van Vliet | Composer |
| 33 | Guy Webster | Photography |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |