The Official Cap'n Beefheart Thread

[RonManager]

There you go.

You left out "I am a big fan of Captain Beefheart"! Me too.

As, indeed, is any right-thinking person!

I'd have thought it completely the opposite - you need to have a certain degree of whackyness in the nicest possible way to like or 'get' The Captain

Fair point!

Is that not why they invented hallucinogenic substances??

As gratifying as it is to see this thread turned into an appreciation of the good Captain, it may be distracting people from the original purpose. Maybe someone who is not so tight as me and has paid their dues could start a new thread where this discussion could continue. Maybe something along the lines of ‘Would Jose & Jos cut it if we reach the premier league next season or should we bid for Rockette Morton & Drumbo to keep things tight at the back’ or ‘Does sticking your horn over the microphone and playing random notes at speed qualify you as a) Genius, b) a suitable replacement for half-time entertainment, c) a more than adequate substitute for Guly if the diamond formation isn’t working?.

[RonManager]

Although I'm not a massive follower of the Captain, I was always aware of his music due to my elder brother playing his stuff in his bedroom, trying to drown out my (Tamla, Rock etc etc) stuff in the family home way back along.

 

However, I am a total PJ Harvey addict and it may or may not interest you to know that she holds him in very high esteem, not only as a musical influence (due to her parents record collection) but as a personal friend. In the harder times she says that there would be many a call to him and he helped her massively, especially coping with the unexpected and sudden 'fame' in the early days of her career.

[Fowllyd]

What a fine thread - heartfelt thanks to Mr Manager for starting it!

 

My brother bought a copy of Trout Mask Replica back in the 70s, when we were both in our teens. I remember being quite blown away by it, and still feel the same when I listen to it now. That said, I like his earlier stuff even better in some ways - there is some wonderful stuff on Safe As Milk.

 

Don Van Vliet was, by many accounts, a very strange and often disturbing individual. I've read accounts of how he treated his band, especially in the early years, which make him sound like a musical version of Stalin (though perhaps more of a multi-instrumentalist that Josef Vassrionovich could ever claim to be). But, tyrant or otherwise, he and his band produced a lot of truly wonderful music. Massively influential over the years, too, as Ron's mention of Polly Harvey shows.

 

What two words would one most closely associate with a squid eating dough in a polyethylene bag?

[Surrey Saint]

Aside from the great music the names he gave his band members were a delight also. Winged eel Fingerling and Rockette Morton cvome to mind.

[shurlock]

Apart from the Spotlight Kid/Clear Spot, the rest of his work is meh -no matter how hipster I'm trying to be.

[scotty]

He's no frank zappa......as shurlock so eloquently puts it, "meh"

[crouchi]

Beefheart responded to Bono's collaboration request with the note: "Dear Bongo. No."

[jasonb]

Beefheart fan here too!