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Captain Beefheart

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Don Van Vliet (born Don Glen Vliet) (January 15th 1941 – December 17th 2010) was an American composer, singer and visual artist who was best known by his stage name, Captain Beefheart, for his musical work with a rotating ensemble of musicians as the Magic Band, with whom he toured and recorded between 1964 and 1982, and for his occasional collaborations with musician and producer Frank Zappa, who Van Vliet first met in high school.

Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band fused blues, free jazz and avant-garde with surreal wordplay; their 1969 album Trout Mask Replica has often been considered one of the most challenging and unique recordings in the 20th century musical canon. A prodigious sculptor as a child, Van Vliet himself was an eccentric figure, prone to constructing myths about his life. His vocal range has been variously reported as anywhere between three octaves to seven and a half. Though the Magic Band experienced little success, they developed a dedicated cult following, leaving an indelible impact on a variety of new wave, punk and alternative rock musicians from the 1970s onwards.

Van Vliet retired from music in 1982, after which he rarely appeared publicly. He returned to visual art, which proved to be a successful venture; his abstract expressionist drawings and paintings continue to command high prices and have been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide. By the early 1990s, Van Vliet was using a wheelchair due to multiple sclerosis; he would die of complications from the disease on December 27th 2010 at the age of 69.

Beefheart and The Residents

Captain Beefheart has often been noted as a formative musical and lyrical influence on The Residents.[1][2] The group's early demo tapes The W***** B*** Album and B.S. were sent to Warner Bros. Records executive Hal Halverstadt after the group learned that Halverstadt had signed Beefheart and the Magic Band to Warner subsidiary Reprise Records.[3][4] Beefheart was at some point intended to have been covered by The Residents as part of their American Composers Series of albums, though this never came to pass as the series was discontinued after only two albums.

For his part, Beefheart was apparently aware (and none too fond) of The Residents,[5] describing them in a 1982 interview with Trouser Press magazine as "...lousy. Smut. Trash poets... I am aghast at some of the things they write. Must have had a lack of oxygen as infants. They oughta leave octopus alone, because the ink they use looks better in the ocean. Underwater."[6] Recalling Beefheart's reaction a decade later, UWEB fan club president Uncle Willie noted that this meant Beefheart had "not only heard of them... but to make such an astute observation, he had obviously actually heard their music!"[5]

Former Magic Band bassist and keyboardist Eric Drew Feldman (nicknamed "Black Jew Kitabu" by Beefheart) became aware of The Residents and Snakefinger in 1979, and joined Snakefinger's backing band The Vestal Virgins in 1982, working on two studio albums with the guitarist before his death in 1987. In 2002, Feldman replaced Hardy Fox onstage with The Residents for their Demons Dance Alone live tour. When Fox retired permanently in 2015, Feldman became the group's main producer, and has continued to work with them to the present day.

Discography

Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band

  • Safe as Milk (1967)
  • Strictly Personal (1968)
  • Trout Mask Replica (1969)
  • Lick My Decals Off, Baby (1970)
  • Mirror Man (1971)
  • The Spotlight Kid (1972)
  • Clear Spot (1972)
  • Unconditionally Guaranteed (1974)
  • Bluejeans & Moonbeams (1974)
  • Bat Chain Puller (recorded 1976; released 2012)
  • Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) (1978)
  • Doc at the Radar Station (1980)
  • Ice Cream for Crow (1982)

With Frank Zappa

  • Hot Rats (1969)
  • One Size Fits All (1975)
  • Bongo Fury (1975)
  • Zoot Allures (1976)

Archival recordings

  • The Lost Episodes (1996)
  • Mystery Disc (1998)
  • Cheap Thrills (1998)

See also

  1. ↑ "I know that musically Captain Beefheart was an early influence. It was obvious to them that he was taking John Coltrane and Howling Wolf and twisting them around in a wonderfully unique and interesting way... How he twisted those influences to come up with his own thing was very avant-garde in its approach. That process inspired The Residents." Homer Flynn, Mondo 2000 interview, 1992
  2. ↑ "There was no attempt to imitate his style, but the freedom... And the lyrics, the strength of his lyrics - that was a definite influence." Hardy Fox, Mondo 2000 interview, 1992
  3. ↑ Jim Knipfel, "Somethin' Devilish: The Untold (And Finally True) Pre-History of The Residents 1963-1971)"
  4. ↑ Matt Groening, "The True Story of The Residents", The Official W.E.I.R.D. Book of The Residents, 1979
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Uncle Willie, "Standing Correctly", UWEB Newsletter Vol. 3, No. 3, October 1991
  6. ↑ Jim Green, "In Search of Captain Beefheart", Trouser Press, February 1983 (via beefheart.xyz)
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