Dec 10
27
Captain Beefheart 1941-2010
“The moon was a drip on ah dark hood…”
I remember my first encounter with the music of Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band. Yes, amidst my father’s old record collection was a curious looking black and grey album with a die cut cover called Mirror Man. Looking at the track list and seeing there were only four songs, ranging from about 8 minutes to a little over 19, I knew that something like this just HAD to be good (not to mention how completely whacked out the band looked, in addition to the strange poems on the back cover).
Well, it turns out it was good. In fact it was more than good: it was fanfreakingtastic! Those huge blues soaked jams mingled effortlessly with the good Captain’s wildly ecstatic vocals shouting strange mind altering lyrics that would take a life time to decipher. I remember playing it for anyone that would listen and I went through a number of tapes (yes, tapes) that wore thin from overplaying.
Being the good music enthused boy that I was, and living in the pre-internet age, I hustled on down to the library and read everything I could on one Don Van Vliet. Time and time again I saw this strange string of words form an album title. A title so utterly bizarre – coupled with an equally bizarre cover that may just be the greatest cover of all time – and I knew I had to have it. That album was Trout Mask Replica and good Lord my little teenage mind was in no way prepared for what it heard: loud, blunt guitar notes danced with slow and methodical riffs that seemed almost impossible to exist.
I remember as well, the last day of my Junior year of high school when I heard “Clear Spot” on the radio. Yes, on an early summer afternoon this stunning track made it onto National Public Radio and for a fleeting moment all was right with the world. I rushed out that night to the local music store and purchased Spotlight Kid/Clear Spot, an album that has come to mean so much to me and my musical development over the years. The songs oozed with a dark blue glean that was just this close to accessible and yet oh so Beefheart in nature.
From his music to his lyrics to that big otherworldly voice of his, there was absolutely no one else like him. He was a true originator, a true moment of truth in music and creativity. His music was never anything but pure and always went straight to the very core of what music was possible of. He was one of the best, period.
Thank you Don, for all of your fast n’ bulbous lyrics laid atop some of the wildest music ever imagined. You booglarized my life, upon the my oh my.
“Ya done put mice in the radiator, razors in the clay…”
