Captain Beyond

Take two parts of Iron Butterfly, one part of Deep Purple, and one part of Johnny Winter And – the result is Captain Beyond. The concoction was created in 1971 when Larry “Rhino” Reinhardt, Lee Dorman, Rod Evans, and Bobby Caldwell joined forces in one of the most underrated rock bands of all time. Their self-titled debut album fits our Atypical Tuesday category as the original album cover sported a lenticular 3D effect that included floating circles in the design.

Dedicated to the passing of label mate Duane Allman, the band’s first LP was released on Capricorn Records in 1972. It was hoped that the star-studded lineup and 3D cover would enamor the record buying public. It didn’t, and the album stalled at the #134 spot for two weeks in October 1972. Unfortunately, most folks were never exposed to this particular band.

Detail of the 3D cover.

Today’s featured cut is the “A Thousand Days of Yesterday (Time Since Come and Gone),” which appeared in the first of two suites of music on side two of the album. This particular cut was end of the suite that also featured “Thousand Days of Yesterday (Intro)” and “Frozen Over.”

 Captain Beyond’s lineup would change after the release of this album as Bobby Caldwell would join forces with his former Johnny Winter And colleague Rick Derringer and was ultimately replaced by Brian Glascock. In addition, percussionist Guille Garcia keyboardist Reese Wynans joined the band in 1973.