NWR: Don Van Vliet

J

Joel Stewart

Joel Stewart
Really hard to pick something that sums up his work, so I won't. I don't know if there's a winemaking equivalent here....I don't think he filtered his mind much, and his brain seemed to be seeded with local yeasts. He had a fertile imagination, which he put to fine use...over several decades.

How many fertile imaginations have not been put to use? Wasted imaginations wandering the halls of well meaning people's brains everywhere. Too many. I guess it takes courage to let your freak flag fly.

Saw he and his band once. Rowdy, intensely synchopated. Out, but rocking.

Safe as milk.
 
As chance would have it, it got into my brain about two months ago that I needed to listen to some Beefheart. I filled what ever gaps in his discography there was and began listening to just about everything I could; much of it repeatedly. His death came as a shock because I didn't know he had been dealing with MS for such a long time and also 'cause I had been thinking a lot about his music and how warped, twisted and beautiful it is. I can only wish I would've been able to see him live, but he stopped making music before I ever could have.

Not more than an hour ago, Sasha Frere-Jones posted a really great obit on Mr. Van Vliet. There's quite a bit of his own personal feelings in it, but that's the way his music tends to impact people; deeply visceral. He also puts a few links at the end of the article which are also amazing, such as the Lester Bangs interview from 1980.

He'll always be the Captain. Go hit the long, lunar note and let it float.
 
I saw the Captain and The Magic Band open for the Mahavishnu Orchestra at Winterland in March 1973. I was front of stage, dead center. By that point, I had heard Circle, Braxton, and late period Trane. The only Beefheart I had heard was on "Hot Rats". None of that prepared me.

Honestly, what I heard that night was not at all enjoyable to me.
 
I haven't thought about Captain Beefheart since I was an undergraduate. A friend was a rabid fan and we went down to NY to hear him in a small club. He was playing with Ry Cooder. I enjoyed it and am sorry to hear of his death.
 
Sorry to see him go. Yes, his music was challenging -- to say the least -- as was his personality. Interestingly, no mention in the obits I've read of his later career as a painter. I might just have to pull out my Trout Mask LP and play it tonight in memoriam.

Mark Lipton
 
Larry, I don't think it was intended to be enjoyed.

As is often the case with with an intense but variable body of work, some I found amazing and utterly
brilliant and some I couldn't appreciate at all.

A taper friend recorded CB in NYC in Oct 72 and Feb 73 but I didn't listen to those tapes till after I had
an appreciation developed. When I did hear them some years later, they click clacked.
 
what was that one song? 10 thousandth day of the human totem pole? Brilliant. Might be for art's sake his best late work....Ice Cream for Crow!

Also...

Bat Chain Puller (Puller, Puller...)

You know you're a man!!! - etc -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03lBIiJeEGQ

Quote:

I don't look like a desert person because I stay indoors most of the day and fool around at night. That's what the desert animals do - they don't have a tan either.
Don Van Vliet
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top