The Great One died earlier this year, magically at the age of 69. The man who painted with sound and ended his days painting with paint. As with his music, his visual art did not simply defy convention, it refused to acknowledge it.
The Captain was not like us – he was a precious idiot-god. Probably functionally illiterate, seeing music in drawings and drawings in sounds, I doubt anyone could have ever seen the reality he perceived – an endless source of grief for him, especially when bumping into immovable objects like Zappa.
He was without a doubt the man who poisoned me – life changed when at age 16 I had my mind permanently deformed by Doc At The Radar Station. I blaspheme by considering this his greatest work, alongside Lick My Decals Off Baby. Trout Mask is, dunno, beyond me, but still a masterwork, a communion for once a year perhaps, a sacred experience – black putty music. But Doc and Decals do it for me.
So, 35 years later, something all of us with fins have been waiting for, is finally being released from the vaults of Virgin records after being stuck in legal limbo. Bat Chain Puller is coming. There are many tracks from this that were subsequently re-recorded and added to later vinyl, much of it amongst the best of the best, like the sublime Owed t’Alex (raw live version, no doubt in a pub with sticky carpet and a faint vomit smell, the way I like it)–
Here’s a cut from Doc: Sue Egypt –
And one from Decals: Buggy Boogie Woogie (probably my all time fave) –
I salivate at the prospect of Bat Chain Puller.
December 23, 2011 at 12:17 am
That is some good shit! I should know more… and, I will.
I met Frank many years ago after a show in the capital of my state. As I’m sure you, Frank didn’t party… but the band did!
At the time, I was a teen, and we were in the bar of a Holiday Inn. Being a minor, I was drinking soda. After few drinks the waitress wanted to see an ID.
After some confusion, the manager of the bar appeared, and he, too, wanted to see an ID. Well, I was kicked out of the bar. At that, the rest of the band left in protest.
Remember, this is 1975, an I was just a kid. As it was, we all retired to the 2nd floor of the Holiday Inn in….
December 23, 2011 at 12:33 am
I respect Zappa as one of the great intellects of last century. But then… you hear Beefheart…
Beefheart was an idiot savante. I think even Zappa was jealous. Yes he did shatter glasses with his voice. And the derangement is just raw beauty. A tyrant, a despot, an asshole that drove people over the edge. But the noise he made…
Buggy Boogie Woogie – guitar and a broom. And Safe as Milk – you want psychedelia, ok, I’ll give you cunts psychedelia –
December 29, 2011 at 10:18 pm
Until recently, you were the only other person I knew who had an appreciation for Captain Beefheart. Thanks for this. I should listen to him at least once a year.
December 23, 2011 at 1:03 am
December 23, 2011 at 1:07 am
Thursday nights on WRFL… Google it!
December 24, 2011 at 6:12 am
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