Captain Beefheart RIP / Smithsonian Institute Blues

[stlsaxman]

Run time: 02:10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8LLN0NEwQg   Posted on YouTube: October 15, 2007 By YouTube Member: alargedog Views on YouTube: 16255   Posted on DU: December 17, 2010 By DU Member: stlsaxman Views on DU: 1085

 
Don Van Vliet 1941-2010

He wasn't really a political figure but in this song (and much of his music) he politely told the world- "You better FUCKIN' WAKE UP, MAN!!!!"


Humanity just lost one of the greats today. If you don't know his works, you better take a look.

[librechik]

1. Ice Cream for Crow perhaps the most approachable album

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Cream_for_Crow

but no more intelligible from the stream of consciousness on acid musician and composer.

[Laughing Mirror]

2. THe new dinosaur's walking in the old one's shoes

Dinah Shores shoes!
Dinosaur shoes ...

Always one of my favorites.

RIP dear man.

[stlsaxman]

3. Dinossuer shoes!

[Warpy]

4. WZBC in Boston seems to be doing a retrospective tonight

http://www.wzbc.org/ and they do stream.

It's sad that so few people seem to know who he was.

[stlsaxman]

5. THANKS!!!!!

[zulchzulu]

6. Check this out! RIP Don!

http://www.vbox7.com/play:a7846ee2

[zulchzulu]

7. BBC Documentary MUST SEE All six parts with links

Part one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M5YE_a4B1U&feature=related

Part two:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soNg-RSv6nY&feature=related

Part three:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXxH8shHd9I&feature=related

Part four:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9msDItyYvxo&feature=related

Part five:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LunCzAf6Z5o&feature=related

Part six:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_Prs_W5ffs&feature=related

[Warpy]

8. He was a lot more successful in the UK and other parts of Europe

than he ever was here. Here it was "adult oriented soft rock," strike up the bland, or slick, overproduced stuff. People here just by and large didn't get what he was up to.

However, the response here lets me know I wasn't completely alone as a diehard, hard core fan.

[stlsaxman]

11. This John Peel BBC documentary is as thorough as it gets. LOVE Matt Greoning talking of

his first experience with Trout Mask Replica... from "the worst dreck i ever heard- they're not even TRYING!" to "the best album ever made and i stand by that today".



... or Jimmy Carl Black: "Frank's GOOD... but Beefheart's the real thing!"


My favorite Beefheart quote: "There are forty people in the world and five of them are hamburgers".

[non sociopath skin]

9. A difficult man who made challenging, uncompromising music ...

... but he loved the blues and sang it real purty.

I feel privileged to have seen him live.

Sleep well, Cap'n Don.

The Skin

[90-percent]

10. Saw him live twice

Buffalo 1978 Toads Place New Haven around 1980. I bought Clear Spot when it had the clear plastic album cover. Part of the Captains black cloud over his entire music career is that this cleverly packaged album was released during the first oil shock in 73 or so, so they had to repackage it back into ordinary mediocre cardboard.

I saw my first Zappa/Mothers show late Oct 1971 and if you discover Zappa, then the discovery of his high school mate Don Van Vliet always immediately follows.

Zappa/Beefheart teamed up for Zappa's 1976 Centennial Tour, which can be heard on "Bongo Fury". Those two coming back together after so much animus had developed from Beefheart signing with Zappa's new "straight" label was joyous to all of us Zappa fans at the time. Zappa produced Trout Mask Replica exactly to Beefheart's specs, even though he felt it was wrong. Beefheart felt Zappa sabotaged his rise to fame, as Trout Mask wasn't exactly the latest Lady Ga Ga album. I think Trout Mask is the most amazing album of the last one hundred years.

I think Don finally found some significant success in the highbrow impressionistic painting world. His manager told him - painting or music, but not both, so Don retired from music and probably painted until the day he died. He left a wife named Jan and had no children.

there were some nice quotes from him about Zappa back when we lost Frank in late 1993. Zappa and Beefheart were my Beatles. My pledge name in college in the late 1970's was "Zapheart". I did not know of Don's passing until just now on DU.

I wonder how DU super member Octafish is taking this. (Neon Meate Dreams of an Octafish is a song from Trout Mask)

-90% Jimmy