12/18/2010
The Crow Barks At Swan
(Captain Beefheart dead at 69.)
It was around 1966 at the Port of Los Angeles, at what was then the Catalina Boat Terminal. My family was waiting to board the Catalina Steamer. In the waiting area there was a jukebox. Next to the transistor radio, the jukebox introduced me to a lot of music. For just 5¢ or a dime, you could hear a record, selected by you and on the spot! Jukeboxes were big, too! However, at Stan’s Drive In at La Brea and Beverly in L.A., inside the round, glass-dome structure, there was a dinning area, and upon every table was a mini-jukebox! You could flip through multiple menu-like pages, enclosed within the small, glass red & chrome contraption, to select any song for a nickel! Each song had a corresponding letter/number combination, like Z-12, for Tab Hunter’s “Young Love.” You’d put your nickel in the slot, punch in the two corresponding keys, and you’d get a song to enjoy right along with your Stan’s Double Cheeseburger & fries!
Now, back to the terminal. Someone chose a song that made my feet start tapping! The chorus was catchy and the body of the song was a combination of 50’s Do Wop, blues, and good old rock and roll. I had to find out who the artist was! I went over to the jukebox and located the listing: the song was “Diddy Wah Diddy” by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, on A&M Records. That was my introduction to The Captain.
I’d lost track of the Captain until two years later, when I began attending Fairfax High in L.A. Across the street from the school’s main entrance was a small record shop. I used to ditch gym class to spend an hour at Aron’s Records. I had little money, so I’d buy only used albums. The newer albums were in a bin by the window. Prices varied from $1.75 to 3 bucks. The very cheap ones were in cardboard boxes on the floor. I bought a lot of folk music, British Invasion stuff, and 60’s psychedelic/acid rock shit! Each one (with a hole punched in the jacket corner) for just 50 cents! Then, one day I came across a Beefheart album for a dollar. The album cover was designed to look like a large, yellow, U.S. Mail package. The album’s title was featured like a handwritten mailing address, right in the middle of the front cover, with “postage stamps” in the upper corner, sporting pictures of the band members. A red “stamp,” placed diagonally next to the “address” read: “Strictly Personal.” I recalled the name, Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band, so I bought it. The store clerk shook his head and chuckled as put the record in a bag. He asked me, “Don’t you ever buy any good rock albums?” I didn’t reply. I took the album and put it in my locker until the end of the day.
When I got home, I put the album on my portable Sears record player, which was mono; the L.P. was in stereo. The first song sounded like a hillbilly singing a Willie Dixon song, with a slide guitar hitting the wrong notes. Blues was popular back then, but this was far from “Diddy Wah Diddy!” The second cut, “Safe As Milk,” was the deal-breaker! This was the quintessential sound of Beefheart. I didn’t realize at the time that the Captain was our generation’s Thelonious Monk and Stravinsky. I loved that L.P.! Sadly, I’ve long since lost it.
A lot of kids I knew didn’t get Beefheart. Nor did they get Yoko Ono, David Peel, Wild-man Fisher, the Mc5, The Stooges, Velvet Underground, or even Frank Zappa. They’d listen to CSN&Y. I’d listen to my shit.
Beefheart was a significant musical influence on me. He taught me not to be afraid to use unusual chords. The song ‘”Sweaty Betty,” from my 1987 L.P., Loud Whispers & Silent Screams, was my Beefheart song. In the song’s chorus, I used a chord that’s not even included in standard chord charts. It is known as an “X-chord” among underground aficionados. To anyone with a musical sensibility unaccustomed to this type of chord, the music can be very disturbing and unsettling. This is one reason punk musicians were attracted to Captain Beefheart—his sound was shocking.
No doubt that Don Van Vliet was an avant-garde genius. He will be greatly missed!
I lift up my can of Bud Lite and give a toast to Captain Beefheart!
Here is a 6-part documentary from the BBC about the Captain.
It’s on youtube.
Captain Beefheart Doc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M5YE_a4B1U 
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