I was roady for Don when he and the band came to England in the 70s. The first moment the band started up, for me it was like walking through a door of perseption. I had ever heard anything like it! I was stunned. Don was really freindly and appreciative for my roady efforts. I miss him, the good memories will never leave me. Tim Branston (Terry Dactyl and the Dinosors)
"But Beefheart...Beefheart is the real McCoy. You ain't gonna get more avant-garde than Captain Beefheart" - I'm still miles away from that bit but I recall it with much vividity from nearly twenty-five years ago when this was first on the telly.
I saw this docu many moons ago and enjoyed it, but, watching it tonight on You Tube - I thought, wow, we were a lucky generation, spoilt with thinking, talented people, not afraid to stretch their musical muscles. I linked my daughter into Capt. Beef’s music and that really made me proud knowing she just got it! Love to all you Beefheart peeps out there x JaneR
Me also, your comments are indeed like only the gifted can tune into this very cleaver character who had a special almost saintly presence, anyone who thought well of him are the chosen few!.
@@astragreen hey Pal, To clarify, I was just really chuffed my daughter dug some music/musicians I thought a great deal of. I’m not looking to preen on some gilded plinth . Okay, can we be friends now? JaneR
I love that you shared with your daughter and she just got it. Makes me feel the love you two share, thanks My daughter just turned 23 on Jan 25, hasn’t spoken a word with me since just before her 14th BD 😭 I’m afraid between my failing her and the collapse of social society that is today it’s influence has a stronger grip than my undying love I have for her. Thanks for sharing I’m looking for love in all the off beat places, and it’s everywhere 🩷🙏 Blessings and Love Amen
I had the pleasure to meet both Don and FZ in NYC.Saw both of them several times perform.Including together on the BongoFury tour in 75.God bless and RIP.
Fortunate enough to see the Captain on the "Doc" tour at the University in Bellingham WA. Capt. had a bottle of "Perrier" water that seemed out of place till it came time for him to play harmonica. He opened the bottle and use the water from "Source.Perrier" to wet the reeds on his 'harp' before playing it! Great laugh from the college town crowd. Class on another level. Cheers! -dugair PDXtc.
I saw Captain Beefheart in about 1975 or so. I knew about him because of Zappa so i was interested. I was about 5 rows back from the stage a little left of center when he got a real strange look on his face . He looked scared. I turned to look behind me and a guy who was definitely freaking out on acid was screaming at him and coming through the crowd heading Dons way screaming No, No No. Don was scared and quickly stepped back and to the side. A bunch of people grabbed the guy that was tripping bad and pulled him out of there. It definately threw Don off his game. He was nervously trying to look through the lights into the crowd for the rest of the show. I guess Don freaked the acid guy out and the acid guy freaked Don out. It was interesting to see.
Trout Mask was Don’s magnum opus. I loved that record with all my being. When I was young, I was quickly bored. There’s no way to get bored listening to Captain Beefheart and I didn’t. The brilliance is spread out across his many records and I digested them. Not ‘listened’ but digested. There are themes of his that are as fresh in my musical brain today as at the moment I learned them 50+ years ago. The most important influence I took away from the Captain would have to be the pleasure I take challenging an audience to like what I’m doing. I’ve always felt that was a gift to a listener and I still do. To this day, I have a sense of humor in my words, a verbal prankster as John Peel called it. To me, the words make total sense while the least imaginative get viscerally angry with me. Thankfully, there’s a lot of space between.
be sure to give Mr Bungle a listen to. Might i suggest a song named PINK CIGARETTE give the video a go mate. early album is def very hard rock/metal bits infused w jazz. then theres just avant garde whackiness of latter albums. Mike Patton the singer has some pipes as well as the band being musical geniuses. something there for everyone. i would have to say Mr bungle was heavily inspired by Zappa and Captain very much. they have been around since 80s to current. they are very good live. genuine like Beefheart and Zappa. Cheers
@@johnryan3913 Seeing as Trout is a far more individualistic, even outré record, I would state the exact opposite - that the later records betray another, possibly moderating influence, where Trout is more pure, avant gardé and irascible Don Van Vliet. That said, I like every one of the Captain’s adventures, including even Moonbeams, an exceptional piece I can’t find anyone else to admire. That stark contrast IS Captain Beefheart.
I have deep appreciation for his approach to music. The style is all his. Those talented Magic Band members certainly contributed to the sound. From Safe As Milk to Ice Cream for Crow Don was a Bright Light in a Dim World. RIP.
The way he rubs his hands together, his intense focus, lack of empathy for others etc are all signs of Asperger's syndrome. Was Don ever tested for it?
A good friend once told me that "Trout Mask Replica", one of his favorite records which he played often at high volume, was a major factor in the divorce from his first wife.
An exquisite essential substantive archival journey so well done leaving waves to "swim"in its wake for creative minds to ride with and on for an eternity. "Enjoy the environment...absence of space between the opposite minute" in the "wet of the ocean...dry of the desert."
Its so nice to hear Yer man John Peel esq talk in those dulcet tones again. I miss him. Wonderful doc on the Captain btw, I am now going to catch up on all his records..
They absolutely loved Lamps and especially Green Shag Carpets and He was known to collect toenail clippings and hide them on the top shelf of his bedroom closet. How Cool Man! Rock on Dude!!! So Groovy!!!
Never saw this video before so just Wow, thank you for the upload. Just amazing. Saw his first Royal Albert Hall show when as prequel a ballerina came on stage and danced a while before Rockette Morton appeared, went up to her and asked for a light for his cigar. She obliged and he started playing... Just amazing. Trout Mask is my all time favourite too. Only took 20 or 30 times to get into it! Cheers
Yeah Captain Beefheart was ahead of its time, and now a sound that could never be realized. It's a dimension that can't be realized in this digital age. It's too real.
If you understood the r&b/blues basis of his music and have an ear for the avant garde, meaning music that strays from standard song structures, you can “get it”. I love his poetry too. Beautiful, ingenious, often hilarious stream of conscious lyrics and wordplay. Everyone talks about Trout Mask as the pinnacle but I’ve always loved “Lick my Decals off..” and even the much-maligned “Strictly Personal”. He wasn’t necessarily musically illiterate because he obviously could play blues harp and his vocal’s definitely were a combination of Howlin’ Wolf with a dollop of beat poetry.
"the much-maligned “Strictly Personal” ?.......by a few maybe , because of the added phasing ? by some considered to be opportunistic "psychedelic brownie points" . It was around "68 still seldom done anyway , only by the 'Iron Butterfly" or 'Small Faces' . 'Strictly Personal' is still considered a classic despite the "much-maligned" phasing. Personally I found it gave the tracks an otherworldly underground ambience . Without the phasing it might've been a regular reasonably interesting rhythm and blues rock album, what the later released "Mirror Man" somewhat proved.
I never really got him, and I was scared when I listened to "Doc at the Radar Station" and LOVED it, it's an insane, twisted, fuck up of an album, I mean "Dirty Blue Gene" is glorious...help me!
Tbf a lot of his albums were ‘challenging’ - it took a strong stomach to sit through an entire album in one go. But he was also a lot more interesting than contempories like The Stones, Eric Clapton, The Band . . . . .
The very great and might Mr Captain Beefheart, I have a liked and fully understood the Captain and his music and I never took any drugs in my long life
@@richardk6659 beefheart would say this in interviews, but other members of the magic band have stated that it is untrue. Gary Lucas speaks of smoking weed with Don on a European tour, and I believe the band was high on acid during the mirror man sessions. I think it is true of Zappa though.
OH, please, enough self-righteous idiocy from undereducated monoglots. Time for a cup of jo? 😮 A trip to the church? The only things more hideous than dead children happily watching us while flying around on little white chicken wings are the people that believe in them, and USA is #1 in that addictive delusion. 😢
Trout Mask Replica is like great difficult books that are hard to read at the first time. Afterwards you find out that it is a masterpiece. It pays off! See what Matt Groening said in this documentary.
Funny to see Doug Moon show how his attitude that he couldn’t defeated any chance he had to adapt. I have an aunt who is the same about any modern technology
Clear spot was a favorite of mine. “Her eyes are a blue million miles” and “my head is my only house” may not have the advant garde that he was so known for but are two amazingly beautiful songs.
As a teen, a co musical writing friend of mine turned me onto Don’s music and we both ended up emulating his ethos if you will. We sounded nothing like his music but were musically eccentric. Unfortunately our music was quite out of place for the times. Don did get a resurgence when punk arrived but by then he was too old and less inspired though I did love “doc at the radar station” .
He was an avant garde Bluesman! His music was based on Blues but with a twist lyrically. Sometimes it sounded like a fragmented piece of Blues. He had no hits and retired to painting. I wish I could see his paintings. I bet they are interesting. Beef heart and Zappa were two originals! Both incredibly intelligent and innovative. RIP
@@mozlikelyii6932 His music was interesting, too. The live in Paris show is excellent! I wish someone would scan his Art 🖼 and put it on the Internet. It would increase the interest and the value, I think. People like to see samples and then they buy. Thanks.
One great adventure in music by some of the top of the creative minds of early experimental rock and their influences and realities of its life. Cool beans...
31:48 That sounds like Tom Snyder on the Tomorrow show. Great answer from th' Captain. Shame John Lydon and Keith Levene didn't just say something self-deprecating and throw the smug old man off his high horse when he interviewed PiL in 1982.
And you just know they’re only the tip of a much larger, crazier iceberg. That machine crossbow story is hilarious but I guarantee that was just one of many such occurrences that culminated in Ry’s decision to bolt for saner pastures.
I love Beefheart! First time I heard him I was tripping on acid and the album was Trout Mask Replica. It terrified me and I loved it. His Letterman interviews kill me!
Back in seventy-two, at seventeen, I'd clear a dance floor dancing to 'I'm going to booglarize you,' or 'Mirror man,' if you were a freak's DJ in North London UK back-then you probably remember me, as Beefheart's biggest fan high on magic lazar beans. While, 'Observatory crest' and 'This is the day' are a couple of sublime love songs.
When I played Beefheart for the wife she naturally hated it and said " it sounds like random noise". I said true,but they can play it the same way twice.
One of the few times being a spoiled only child had a positive effect....... Playing the heretic for a while ; apart from a track or three I never was able to appreciate "Trout" for the revelation it's considered to be. It'snot for lack of trying though ; even had it for a year , because I was *considered* to have it . Being one of those simpletons who mainly went for Don's "rock" phase. If it hadn't been for Don's more accessible material he most likely would've remained an unknown . Most likely his paintings got attention because of the popularity he gained from his years as a controversial "rock" performer.
i am a lover of americana and captain and his magic band spoke to something in me when i did not want to take life so seriously!!! even though i consider it very afon garde i love it!! peter ps i hope to go to america sometime soon!!!
First time I heard Willie, I was on mescaline. It was New Years Eve in friend's apt in Astoria, Queens. Friend took 1000 mikes of yellow sunshine and the evening was a bit paranoid. When Beefheart began singing, there were flames on the walls and a swastika in the shadows. Friend's roommate went autistic for the evening and was sort of goose stepping across the living room through Nazi decor & Beefheart doing Willie. There was more, but I won't bore you. Never did mescaline again.
