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Captain Beefheart

Avant-garde rock legend and visual artist Don Van Vliet, who performed under the name Captain Beefheart, began experimenting with eccentric rock’n'roll sounds in the mid-1960s. His first two releases with the Magic Band drew positive notice from some connoisseurs but failed to connect with the wider public.

Van Vliet next forged a close creative partnership with Frank Zappa, a former high school classmate, who signed Beefheart to his Straight Records and produced 1969′s Trout Mask Replica. While the bizarre double album was not a major commercial success, it quickly became a cultural landmark.

Van Vliet effectively redefined the frontiers of popular music, singing snatches of surreal imagery in disturbing tones over music that drew on blues, jazz, psychedelia, and a thousand other subgenres. "Trout Mask Replica" is still cited today as an essential art-rock document.

His Trout Mask Replica was Number 58 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In a 1969 review, Lester Bangs called Trout "a total success, a brilliant, stunning enlargement and clarification of his art."

Don Van Vliet was a complex and influential figure in the visual and performing arts. He is perhaps best known as the incomparable Captain Beefheart who, together with his Magic Band, rose to prominence in the 1960s with a totally unique style of blues-inspired, experimental rock & roll. This would ultimately secure Van Vliet's place in music history as one of the most original recording artists of his time.

Van Vliet continued recording as Captain Beefheart with a rotating group of Magic Band members through 1982. In later years, he shifted his primary focus to creating visual art, a world in which he won some acclaim. The Michael Werner Gallery displayed his work for decades, with their most recent Van Vliet show occurring in 2007. Earlier one of Van Vliet’s paintings was reportedly being offered at an asking price of $40,000. Like his music, Van Vliet's lush paintings are the product of a truly rare and unique vision.

Van Vliet's creative vision exerted an influence on a wide range of musicians, including the White Stripes, Tom Waits, Devo, PJ Harvey, the Talking Heads and John Lydon. Avowed admirers include members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Clash and "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening.

 

"Back in my formative years, my buddies and I were looking for the furthest limits in pop music," Groening, who helped reassemble the Magic Band to play the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that he curated in Long Beach in 2003 commented.

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21
Extended Analysis

Trout Mask Replica

Read "Trout Mask Replica" reviewed by Eric Gudas


“No Instruction Sheet": Trout Mask Replica's Unfathomable Origin Story If you were a teenager who liked freaky stuff, on a June day in 1969 you could bicycle down to your local record store and buy a brand-new, shrink-wrapped album with a man covering his entire face with an actual fish head on the cover. A double-LP set, it cost your whole month's paper route money, but there was something about the guys on the back-cover photo, who looked like refugees ...

178
Album Review

Captain Beefheart: The Dust Blows Forward ( An Anthology)

Read "The Dust Blows Forward ( An Anthology)" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Source material is always a coveted treasure for researchers and collectors. Captain Beefheart is frequently cited by the avant guarde musician in both rock and jazz as the inspiration for recordings and even careers. HisTrout Mask Replica,the holy grail of vinyl, is listed as many a critic’s top recordings of all time. Captain Beefheart AKA Don Van Vliet, born 1941, acted as artist then musician, the motivation repeated most recently by David Byrne (Talking Heads) and Beck. The Rhino Records ...

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21

Recording

Rare TV Performances By Capt. Beefheart And His Magic Band "The Lost Broadcasts" To Be Released On DVD

Rare TV Performances By Capt. Beefheart And His Magic Band "The Lost Broadcasts" To Be Released On DVD

Source: Glass Onyon PR - William James

London, UK: Don Van Vliet, (1941-2010) better known to his legions of fans as Captain Beefheart was one of the most enigmatic figures in rock music. Unashamedly an artist, rather than a pop star, he forged his own idiosyncratic furrow through popular culture, producing some of the most innovative and uncompromising music ever committed to recording tape. From the age of three he painted and sculpted, and had an obsession with animals and the natural world. As a teenager he ...

36

Recording

Zappa Family Trust to Release Beefheart's Bat Chain Puller

Zappa Family Trust to Release Beefheart's Bat Chain Puller

Source: JamBase

RELEASE AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW; SHIPPING PLANNED FOR WEEK OF FEBRUARY 13 The Zappa Family Trust is for the first time ever making the legendary Captain Beefheart album Bat Chain Puller available in its original format. Recording for the album began in 1976 and was completed but was never released on Frank Zappa's label that Beefheart was signed to at the time, due to “all the usual financial difficulties in the proverbial record business, including breach of contract with the ...

51

Obituary

Captain Beefheart: R.I.P.

Captain Beefheart: R.I.P.

Source: JamBase

A TRUE ORIGINAL SHUFFLES OFF Don Van Vliet, better known to the world as Captain Beefheart, passed away last Friday, December 17, after a long battle with multiple sclerosis. He was 69 years old. An inspired madman, a true blues soul, a painter of some renown, a lyricist and singer like no other, the Captain was a true original in every sense. From collaborating with kindred spirits like Frank Zappa and Ry Cooder to launching the careers of countless musicians, ...

55

Obituary

Captain Beefheart (1941-2010): An Appreciation

Captain Beefheart (1941-2010): An Appreciation

Source: Something Else!

By Mark Saleski Captain Beefheart died yesterday at the age of 69. The reclusive musician and visual artist has been missed by his fans for many years, and now we feel that absence even more. For many year, Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet) was a part of my life even though I was completely unaware of it. When I was a kid living in Maine, one of my favorite radio stations was WBLM, The Blimp. One of their promo spots ...

142

Video / DVD

Sat Eye Candy: Captain Beefheart

Sat Eye Candy: Captain Beefheart

Source: JamBase

WE'LL LICK YOUR DECALS OFF ANYTIME!

Yesterday was the 69th birthday of Don Van Vliet, better known to sonic freaks and general weirdos everywhere as Captain Beefheart, the leader of a Magic Band and carver of one of the most unusual musical mythologies ever. He also managed to charm Frank Zappa, influence a startling array of folks - ranging from The Clash to Matt Groening to Joan Osbourne to Tom Waits - AND reimagining the blues in a post-LSD world. ...

121

Recording

John "Drumbo" French Reunites Captain Beefheart Alumni for Solo Album

John "Drumbo" French Reunites Captain Beefheart Alumni for Solo Album

Source: Glass Onyon PR - William James

John “Drumbo" French has reunited fellow Magic Band alumni Bill Harkelroad (aka “Zoot Horn Rollo"), Mark Boston (aka “Rockette Morton"), Greg Davidson (aka “Ella Guru"), and John Thomas for a solo recording of all new compositions entitled 'City of Refuge'. The self-produced album was recorded in London and at various locations in the U.S., and lands stateside November 18th on Proper Records. “I think 'City of Refuge' is important because it re-visits a style of music that was founded by ...

Bonnie Kane
multi-instrumentalist
Dei Xhrist
vocals

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

The Dust Blows...

Warner Bros.
1999

buy

London 1974

80/20 Records
1994

buy

Ice Cream For Crow

80/20 Records
1991

buy

Rare Beefheart /...

80/20 Records
1991

buy

Abba Zaba

80/20 Records
1988

buy

Bluejeans & Moonbeams

80/20 Records
1974

buy

Videos

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