This is the most recent purchase of my ten Beefheart albums — I got it in 1999.
It comes from the mid-late '60s Safe as Milk/Strictly Personal/Mirror Man period, which is the one I'm least familiar with. That would have been one of the things that attracted me — I probably forgot that I already had I May Be Hungry, But I Sure Ain't Weird, also from that period, since I don't play it much — but it would have been the £4.99 sticker that swung it for me.
I know I've read somewhere that some of the sessions, or mixes, from this period are considered better than others. The (uncredited) sleeve notes don't refer to this, and the album is on the dodgy-sounding 'Camden Originals' label so it's a fair guess that these are the less well-thought-of recordings. Let me check the sleeve notes for I May Be Hungry, But I Sure Ain't Weird to see…
Right, now I've stayed up much later than I meant to, first, finding out that it was the producer's mix of Strictly Personal that was disowned by Beefheart, possibly disingenuously (the Wikipedia entry for Strictly Personal has more on this). But then I've convinced myself that most of the tracks that appear on both Electricity and I May Be Hungry… are in fact the same versions, if mastered slightly differently.
I even dug out my copy of Colin David Webb's book, but that was written before either of the albums was released, so offers no final determination.
…Forget all that; some of these songs are just so damn catchy. I've been going around all day with "Hey, hey, hey, all you young girls" repeating in my head.
 MusicBrainz entry for this album
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