Captain Beefheart

[zombywoof]

Captain Beefheart is one of those artists who just makes me rethink everything I thought I knew about music. His compositions live in a world of their own and play by their own rules, then break them. I don't know if I *get* Beefheart, but there's no other artist I've heard yet who excites me, frightens me, and totally enthralls me quite like Don. He's an original - there was no one else quite like him before and there hasn't been since. Pure imagination and artistry, creativity unhinged, unchained.

I'd say he's a genius, but I'm not sure the word does him justice. Genius is too conventional and too tame for Don. Even the mighty Henry Cow can't touch him (and I love the Cow); they're too learned. He's what happens when pure creativity is not tempered by 'training'

It amazes me most of all how his music hasn't aged a day. I just heard "Lick My Decals Off, Baby" for the first time - an album that is 44 years old - and it makes a lot of so-called modern music sound old hat and dated. It lives out of time. Its because of this that when I listen to Don, it makes me feel refreshed. Clean slate. A palette cleanser. No other artist does that. Not even Frank Zappa - and I love Frank.

So let's hear it for the Captain!

[Reginod]

Hear hear!

It's taken me a long time to start warming to the brilliance of Mr. Vliet, but now it has caught on for good.

[mkeneally]

Glad the Decals finally made their way to you Ian :-)

[rcarlberg]

Captain Beefheart is an acquired taste, but once you've acquired the taste nothing else will do.

And to think, he made a lot more money as a painter in his dotage than he ever did as a musician.

[FrippWire]

I came to Beefheart's music via a fierce Zappa addiction. I started with Trout Mask when I was still in high school. My initial thoughts were "they don't know how to play" and "everyone is soloing at once". I was so very wrong. It is some of the most sophisticated, original and technically difficult music that's ever been put to tape. And I love it. Just as I love everything Beefheart did including commercial disasters like Blue Jeans And Moonbeams. I especially love Decals and his trio of 80's albums Shiny Beast, Doc At The Radar Station and Ice Cream For Crow.

[walt]

I'm about to sink my teeth into Sun Zoom Spark 1970-1972.I've read the essay in the booklet and it's some of the best writing about an artist/musician i've ever seen.

On to the music..i'm sure to be 'booglarized'.

[polmico]

I'm about to sink my teeth into Sun Zoom Spark 1970-1972.I've read the essay in the booklet and it's some of the best writing about an artist/musician i've ever seen.

Mine arrived yesterday. I haven't had a chance to read it or listen to the outtakes disc (the only new material in the set for me). But the packaging was real nice.

My comments on Van Vliet? His lyrics stand on their own. You can put them on paper, and they're good enough. I don't say that about lyricists often, and I don't think that's really the goal (nor should it be) of a rock and roll lyricist.

[Kavus Torabi]

I was turned on to Trout Mask Replica at the age of seventeen, it completely blew both my mind and the way I thought about music. I had no idea you could do THAT.

After the initial six month, every day obsession, it's still an album listen to regularly.

It inhabits such a unique place musically. It REALLY doesn't sound like anything else.

The recent Son Of Dustsucker that was put out by Dandelion and released under the name of Don Van Vliet is really something too, if you haven't heard it yet.

One of the absolute greats for sure.

[Oreb]

As much as his genius is undeniable, I doubt very much that he'd have achieved much alone.

Three cheers for the Cap'n, then, but 'Hip Hooray' for the Magic Band as well, particularly Zoot Horn Rollo and Drumbo!

[Baribrotzer]

No other artist does that. Not even Frank Zappa - and I love Frank.

So let's hear it for the Captain!

I've said this before, but:

Once upon a time, in Lancaster, California, there came into being a musical mind of incomparable brilliance, but so BIG that it wouldn't fit into one head.

So Frank Zappa got the left brain, and Captain Beefheart got the right brain.

[Scrotum Scissor]

I'd say he's a genius, but I'm not sure the word does him justice. Genius is too conventional and too tame for Don. Even the mighty Henry Cow can't touch him (and I love the Cow); they're too learned. He's what happens when pure creativity is not tempered by 'training'

It amazes me most of all how his music hasn't aged a day. I just heard "Lick My Decals Off, Baby" for the first time - an album that is 44 years old - and it makes a lot of so-called modern music sound old hat and dated. It lives out of time. Its because of this that when I listen to Don, it makes me feel refreshed. Clean slate. A palette cleanser. No other artist does that. Not even Frank Zappa - and I love Frank.

All true.

As far as the "untrained" goes, I think it interesting that some of the acts most pronouncedly influenced by Beefheart were indeed ALSO both untrained and highly eccentric; the Hampton Grease Band, Rustic Hinge (with Drachen Theaker and the Arthur Brown-connection), the inimitable Swedes in Kräldjursanstalten (whose main force Mikael Maksymenko thought drum patterns in terms of technical tactics from his previous activity as icehockeyplayer, and who otherwise consisted of the identical twins Stefan and Tomas Agaton on bass/guitar, although Maksymenko later admitted to not always knowing which of them were whom. ).

Trout and Lick were the van Vliet masterworks, but I have a special affection for Beast and Radar Station as well, and I actually think Strictly Personalis a damn fine (if ever so "controversial") record now in retrospect.

[Blah_Blah_Woof_Woof]

Recently heard 'I'm Glad" from Safe As Milk - A far cry from Trout and Lick but still the Captain

[miamiscot]

I'm gonna throw Ice Cream For Crow out there too. Love the Captain. That said, Trout Mask Replica is one of the true masterpieces of 20th Century music.

[Facelift]

Safe as Milk and Shiny Beast are all-time favorites of mine.

[zombywoof]

Trout and Lick were the van Vliet masterworks, but I have a special affection for Beast and Radar Station as well, and I actually think Strictly Personalis a damn fine (if ever so "controversial") record now in retrospect.

Radar Station rules. She's not bad, she's ge-net-ic-ally mean.

(Thanks mkeneally for encouraging me to dig that one out this past summer)

[Phlakaton]

One of a kind for sure! I'll disagree with the Zappa end of that though. My preference still keeps Frank on top of the pile. He did far too many amazing things over so years to deny him that slot in my book. Don was certainly equally out there and probably more so on some things.

[zombywoof]

One of a kind for sure! I'll disagree with the Zappa end of that though. My preference still keeps Frank on top of the pile. He did far too many amazing things over so years to deny him that slot in my book. Don was certainly equally out there and probably more so on some things.

Oh, I never said I prefer Don to Frank, because I don't. I just said that Don is a palette cleanser - I always feel refreshed after listening to him; especially when I'm bored with everything else.

[Phlakaton]

Oh, I never said I prefer Don to Frank, because I don't. I just said that Don is a palette cleanser - I always feel refreshed after listening to him; especially when I'm bored with everything else.

Gotcha. I can go with that too. He's like a pre-meal cleaner bowl of sorbet... with some pickles - relish - and tobasco thrown in. haha. Cheers!

[zombywoof]

LOTS of Tabasco. And a squid eatingdough in a polyethylene bag.

[WytchCrypt]

Bought Trout many years ago and find it continues to grow on me the more I hear it (though I loved Moonlight on Vermont, Dachau Blues, and the fast and bulbous speech straight away). That lead me to read the Captain Beefheart bio and when I finished the chapter about him discovering the mellotron, I had to buy Doc at the Radar Station. That one has been a big fave from the first time I heard it and Sue Egypt is one of my fave tron tunes

[Scrotum Scissor]

Recently heard 'I'm Glad" from Safe As Milk - A far cry from Trout and Lick but still the Captain

Exactly. Along with "Zig-zag Wanderer", that's my fave Milk tune, displaying his obvious Otis influence.

[zombywoof]

IMO, you can't talk about Safe as Milk without mentioning Electricity!!

[zravkapt]

Even the mighty Henry Cow can't touch him (and I love the Cow)...

I just heard "Lick My Decals Off, Baby" for the first time...

Beefheart was an admitted influence on the Cow (as well as a lot of punk rockers). Decals is his best IMO. I love how Tripp's marimba takes the place of one of the guitars.

[walt]

"What this world needs is a good two dollar room and a good two dollar broom....".-Captain Beefheart.

Decals is a stone masterpiece,beginning to end.Just played it for the first time.

Wow.

[polmico]

Listening to the bonus disc from the new box. Is it worth the purchase? I dunno, but I wasn't just purchasing this box for it, and it's definitely good (quite good, actually). So I'm ok with everything.