It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 7:55 pm

All times are UTC




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 30 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2
Author Message
PostPosted: Sat Dec 18, 2010 6:44 pm 
Offline
Moderator
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 5:22 pm
Posts: 2398
Location: ~ +38.4, -122.7
Pocket Knife wrote:
Aww. Coincidentally, I was just thinking earlier today that I needed to download some of his work and give it a try. Such a unique persona, sad news indeed.


Give this one a try. It is definitely one of the best and is still up:
http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-deta ... 3143&hit=1

Paradise Rock Club, Boston, Mass. (U.S.A.), December 5, 1980
This was the 2nd incarnation of the Magic Band, which included Eric Drew Feldman and Jeff Morris Tepper.

Polly would play there (for the first of many times) twelve years later on 1992-12-04

_________________
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JelqPcoaAB8"


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sat Dec 18, 2010 11:51 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 5:13 pm
Posts: 681
Location: dreamland Ohio
TMR & Doc At The Radar Station are going to be played quite a bit this coming week :( Thanks for the music, Captain

_________________
if there's a want for something new, you might find me at the start, or where it ends for you.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sat Dec 18, 2010 11:58 pm 
Offline
Moderator
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 5:22 pm
Posts: 2398
Location: ~ +38.4, -122.7
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF GUITAR PLAYING as given to moris tepper by captain beefheart. they are not arranged hierarchically - each commandment has equal import. also, to help clarify their intent, each commandment is followed by an exegesis.

LISTEN TO THE BIRDS
that's where all the music comes from. birds know everything about how it should sound and where that sound should come from. and watch humming-birds. they fly really fast, but a lot of times they aren't going anywhere.

YOUR GUITAR IS NOT REALLY A GUITAR
your guitar is a divining rod. use it to find spirits in the other world and bring them over. a guitar is also a fishing rod. if you're good, you'll land a big one.

PRACTICE IN FRONT OF A BUSH
wait until the moon is out, then go outside, eat a multi-grained bread and play your guitar to a bush. if the bush doesn't shake, eat another piece of bread.

WALK WITH THE DEVIL
old delta blues players referred to amplifiers as 'the devil box'. and they were right. you have to be an equal opportunity employer in terms of who you're bringing over from the other side. electricity attracts devils and demons. other instruments attract other spirits. an acoustic guitar attracts caspar, the ghost. a mandolin attracts wendy. but an electric guitar attracts beelzebub.

IF YOU'RE GUILTY OF THINKING, YOU'RE OUT
if your brain is part of the process, you're missing it. you should play like a drowning man, struggling to reach shore. if you can trap that feeling, then you have something that is fur bearing.

NEVER POINT YOUR GUITAR AT ANYONE
your instrument has more clout than lightning. just hit a big chord, then run outside to hear it. but make sure you are not standing in an open field.

ALWAYS CARRY A CHURCH KEY
that's your key-man clause. like one string sam. he's one! he was a detroit street musician who played in the fifties on a homemade instrument. his song "i need a hundred dollars" is warm pie. another key to the church is hubert sumlin, howlin' wolf's guitar player. he just stands there like the statue of liberty - making you want to look up her dress the whole time to see how he's doing it.

DON'T WIPE THE SWEAT OFF YOUR INSTRUMENT
you need that stink on there. then you have to get that stink onto your music.

KEEP YOUR GUITAR IN A DARK PLACE
when you're not playing your guitar, cover it and keep it in a dark place. if you don't play your guitar for more than a day, be sure you put a saucer of water in with it.

YOU GOTTA HAVE A HOOD FOR YOUR ENGINE
keep that hat on. a hat is a pressure cooker. if you have a roof on your house, the hot air can't escape. even a lima bean has to have a piece of wet paper around it to make it grow.

_________________
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JelqPcoaAB8"


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sun Dec 19, 2010 12:52 am 
Offline

Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 7:44 pm
Posts: 1121
Location: Sussex, England
Thanks for the commandments, Dr.

I found out late Friday night and the first person I thought of was you.
Hubert Sumlin is a true great too...

Some comments/tributes from fans here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12025433

Obituary on BBC's website:

Obituary: Captain Beefheart

With a growling bass voice, that whooped and hollered in the manner of one of his earliest heroes, bluesman Howlin' Wolf, Captain Beefheart became a hugely influential figure in rock music.

Artists like Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Franz Ferdinand, Oasis, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and The White Stripes are among those who have cited him as an influence.

Later, under his real name Don Van Vliet, he became an acclaimed painter.

He was born in 1941 in suburban Glendale, California, where his father drove a baker's van. He was an only child, and his grandparents lived next door. His family indulged his artistic talents - he was sculpting from the age of four.

As a teenager, he discovered the blues along with childhood friend Frank Zappa, who was to remain a friend, and rival, throughout his life.

Together, in Lancaster, California, in the Mojave Desert, Zappa and Van Vliet came up with the name Captain Beefheart and the latter formed a blues band, His Magic Band, in the mid-1960s.

Trout Mask Replica

Though the band's title remained with Beefheart over two decades, the band's membership was to change frequently.

After establishing themselves with a small but devoted following, the band, augmented by a 20-year-old slide guitarist named Ry Cooder, made their first album, Safe as Milk, in 1967.

Although blues-inspired, the album reflected the era of psychedelia by its surrealist tendencies. It also hinted at the avante-garde that was to become Captain Beefheart's trademark.

Various record labels wanted to establish Captain Beefheart as an American alternative to the British blues bands of the 1960s or as a pop band to rival The Beatles.

But Van Vliet would not allow them to curb his artistic expression and there were frequent fallings out.

Many fans regard his masterpiece to be the 1969 album, Trout Mask Replica, a dadaist blend of blues, free-form jazz, rock and beat poetry.

Legal disputes

Sometimes manic, always unpredictable, the album was at first deemed as impenetrable. Yet, to its supporters, it showed itself to be a complex mix of metaphor and use of wordplay. "A verbal prankster" was how British DJ John Peel described Beefheart.

The album was produced by Frank Zappa who gave his friend full artistic rein.

"If it had been produced by any professional, famous producer," Zappa said later, "there could have been a number of suicides involved."

John Peel described Beefheart as being " driven in pursuit of his music to the borderline between imbalance and genius."

He suffered constantly from anxiety attacks. For Trout Mask Replica, he kept his musicians in a house for the eight months it took to write the double album, only allowing them out once a week to get groceries.

There was very little money with which to buy anything but the most basic of provisions. The conditions were described by one band member as "cult-like".When Zappa eventually got to record the album, it took less than five hours. The lyrics were nonsensical and surreal, and the band members were given nicknames like Mascara Snake, Zoot Horn Rollo and Rockette Morton.

The album dispensed with a regular rock beat, constantly changing its songs' time signatures. "I don't like hypnotics," said Beefheart, "I want things to change like the patterns and shadows that fall from the sun."

Artist

His next album, Lick My Decals Off, Baby was equally experimental in nature, but subsequent offerings such as The Spotlight Kid and Clear Spot were far more commercially viable.

Beefheart's often errant behaviour caused no end of problems with record companies and, in the 1970s, he became embroiled in various legal disputes which precluded his ability to tour. This deprived audiences of one of the finest live acts of the era.

He also proved too hard a taskmaster for many of the band members and there was constant to-ing and fro-ing.

His next two albums Unconditionally Guaranteed and Bluejeans and Moonbeams were derided by fans as being too commercial, but the later Bat Chain Puller and Ice Cream for Crow were acclaimed.

Throughout his music career, Captain Beefheart kept up a prolific output of sketches and paintings. He was eventually persuaded that if he was to be taken seriously as an artist and not regarded simply as a musician who paints, he should give up music.

He returned to his home near the Mojave Desert in southern California and became reclusive. He became more and more renowned as an abstract expressionist whose work, like his music, is regarded as original innovative. It fetches high prices.

Eventually, Captain Beefheart/Don Van Vliet was unable to paint after contracting multiple sclerosis.

His work, whether in music or drawing, was never mainstream and only ever gained a relatively small following, but he was a larger-than-life character who pushed the boundaries of his art in a way which influenced many who followed in his wake.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11811289

_________________
Wiggins is so superbly unassuming, he looks like he's about to say 'Pop the gold medal in the post, I'm nipping out for some biscuits'

Mark Steel


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sun Dec 19, 2010 4:53 am 
Offline
Moderator
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 5:22 pm
Posts: 2398
Location: ~ +38.4, -122.7
^ That's an excelllent tribute from the BBC. Thanks for copying it here. It's a little surprising that Polly wasn't also listed with Tom Waits, Nick Cave etc.

Gary Lucas was Don's manager in the early 80s and helped Don with contacts in the art world in NYC. It was Michael Werner that told Beefheart that he had to quit music if his art was to be taken seriously.


Nowadays A Woman' Got to Hit a Man:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zfhyoaeqHI

From Clear Spot (1972). Bill Harkleroad (Zoot Horn Rollo) does a great slide solo on this one. If you're looking for a way into Don's music, start with this (double) album, Clear Spot/The Spotlight Kid. The Magic Band at their peak.

Hot Head:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASDCoI2bk14

From Doc At The Radar Station (1980). Polly named her Publishing company Hot Head Music. Don named his publishing company God's Golfball Productions.

_________________
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JelqPcoaAB8"


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sun Dec 19, 2010 10:15 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Sat May 01, 2010 7:27 am
Posts: 392
Location: Luxembourg
So sad.

There was rarely an artist so influential and yet unknown to the public...

_________________
Image
My PJ Harvey gallery


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sun Dec 19, 2010 11:39 pm 
Offline
Moderator
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 5:22 pm
Posts: 2398
Location: ~ +38.4, -122.7
I'd be surprised if Polly didn't dedicate the new album or at least the upcoming run of shows in Don's memory.

Wonder if she dedicated last night's secret show to him?

_________________
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JelqPcoaAB8"


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sun Dec 19, 2010 11:46 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2009 10:25 am
Posts: 684
Location: (not quite) down by the water (but close)
DrDark wrote:
I'd be surprised if Polly didn't dedicate the new album or at least the upcoming run of shows in Don's memory.


maybe she'll even decide to play some song of his. (she has done a few covers in the past, so why not a Beefheart song at this time.)

_________________
I'd do anything
To see you again
I'd do anything


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 2:49 am 
Offline
Moderator
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 5:22 pm
Posts: 2398
Location: ~ +38.4, -122.7
Pollyphoniac wrote:
DrDark wrote:
I'd be surprised if Polly didn't dedicate the new album or at least the upcoming run of shows in Don's memory.


maybe she'll even decide to play some song of his. (she has done a few covers in the past, so why not a Beefheart song at this time.)


You're right. If she doesn't, I'd expect a composition someday about Don and dedicated to him.


I Wanna Find A Woman That'll Hold My Big Toe (1970):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNxyrbpMb5U

The notes shown for this video are quite good:

"Lick My Decals Off, Baby (Straight, 1970), Beefheart is the sole composer. In a way this is his most intellectual work, because the album takes the traditional topics of blues, eroticism, freedom, trains and nostalgia, and sets them in a modern context of city alienation. Percussionist Artie Tripp (aka Ed Marimba), is added as a formidable complement to French, while Cotton is gone to play in Merrell Fankhauser's MU.
The sound is still fragmented in a myriad of surrealistic miniatures, employing celebrations of Dolphyesque clarinets (Japan In A Dish-plan), of convulsed false notes (Ballerin Plain), of street rallies (The Smithsonian Institute Blues), of absurd guitar solos (One Rose That I Mean). The best of his chamber jazz-blues is found in I Love You Big Dummy, with splendid confrontations between the pirouettes of the clarinet and the gargles of the voice, and in Flash Gordon's Ape, a revolting chaos of anti-rhythms, breath dissonances and free declamations. Beefheart reaches surrealistic heights in The Buggy Boogie Woogie, a meditation in muted tones. Ethnic cues peek through in Peon, a Mexican serenade, and from Woe-is-uh-me-bop and Lick My Decals Off, both with Caribbean flavors."

This user has uploaded the entire Lick My Decals Off album, including:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1-3SmIQM2s

_________________
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JelqPcoaAB8"


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Thu Dec 23, 2010 8:40 pm 
Offline
Moderator
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 5:22 pm
Posts: 2398
Location: ~ +38.4, -122.7
Very poignant farewell to Don written by John French (Drumbo):
http://blog.beefheart.com/2010/12/john- ... vliet.html

John wrote a book about his times with Don and the band called "Beefheart, Through The Eyes Of Magic".

_________________
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JelqPcoaAB8"


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Thu Dec 23, 2010 10:34 pm 
Offline
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2009 3:50 am
Posts: 588
Location: at the end of this burning world
DrDark wrote:
Pocket Knife wrote:
Aww. Coincidentally, I was just thinking earlier today that I needed to download some of his work and give it a try. Such a unique persona, sad news indeed.


Give this one a try. It is definitely one of the best and is still up:
http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-deta ... 3143&hit=1

Paradise Rock Club, Boston, Mass. (U.S.A.), December 5, 1980
This was the 2nd incarnation of the Magic Band, which included Eric Drew Feldman and Jeff Morris Tepper.

Polly would play there (for the first of many times) twelve years later on 1992-12-04


Thanks Doc =) I'm downloading and I'll be listening to it soon.

_________________
Contact The Garden Staff at gardensupport@gmail.com

Find us at
Twitter
MySpace
Facebook


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Fri Dec 24, 2010 10:22 pm 
Offline
Moderator
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 5:22 pm
Posts: 2398
Location: ~ +38.4, -122.7
The live shows are spotty (technically) since they're so old. That one is one of the better ones. The tracks written for that era are pretty intense though. The best intro to Don's music is the double album The Spotlight Kid/Clear Spot.

_________________
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JelqPcoaAB8"


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 6:27 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2009 10:29 pm
Posts: 135
DrDark wrote:
Very poignant farewell to Don written by John French (Drumbo):
http://blog.beefheart.com/2010/12/john- ... vliet.html

John wrote a book about his times with Don and the band called "Beefheart, Through The Eyes Of Magic".


Excellent read. Thank you.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 9:17 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Fri Sep 10, 2010 9:06 pm
Posts: 780


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 6:24 am 
Offline
Moderator
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 5:22 pm
Posts: 2398
Location: ~ +38.4, -122.7
Page 65:
Spoiler! :
Image

Page 66:
Spoiler! :
Image

Page 67:
Spoiler! :
Image

Page 68:
Spoiler! :
Image

Page 69:
Spoiler! :
Image

Page 70:
Spoiler! :
Image

Page 71:
Spoiler! :
Image

Page 72:
Spoiler! :
Image

Page 73:
Spoiler! :
Image

_________________
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JelqPcoaAB8"


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 30 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2

All times are UTC


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 24 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to: