It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 3:53 pm

All times are UTC




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 11 posts ] 
Author Message
PostPosted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 7:09 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2009 2:40 pm
Posts: 70
Location: Where the light is beautiful
There was a topic about this on the old forum. and since I'm both a Beefheart and a PJ fan I find it very interesting to find similarities between both.

yarnforhair wrote:
the main riff of "Heaven" by Peej and the main riff of "Tropical Hot Dog Night" by CB
-lyric "don't you wish you nevahh met her" from Rid of Me and Dirty Blue Gene
-lyric "meet the monster tonight" from Meet Ze Monsta and Tropical Hot Dog Night


bruise wrote:
'I Think I'm A Mother' is reminescent of Beefheart's 'Dropout Boogie':

You wanna do what?, you wanna do what?
I told you what, I told you what
You wanna do what?, you wanna do what?
I told you what, I told you what

Go t'school, go t'school
Go t'school, go t'school
Just cain't, just cain't
Just cain't, just cain't
Dropout, dropout, dropout, dropout

Cain't get a job, cain't get a job
Don't know what it, don't know what it
What it's all about, what it's all about
You told her you love her so bring her to mother
You love her, adapt her, you love her, adapt her
Adapt her, adapter, adapt her, adapter
'n' what about after that
what about after that

Support her, support her
She says you'd support her
Get a job, get a job
Get a job, get a job
You gotta support her
You told her you love her so bring her to mother
You love her adapt her, you love her adapt her
Adapt her, adapter, adapt her, adapter
'n' what about after that
'n' what about after that


Dr Dark wrote:
This ones more of a stretch, but the melodic structure of Teclo and Beefheart's "Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles" are similar.

Beefheart's spoken word "Man With The Woman Head" (which appeared on Zappa's Bongo Fury album) seems similar in concept to PJ's A Woman A Man Walked By.

Polly's opening lyric for To Bring You My Love may have been inspired by the opening line of Beefheart's "Sure 'Nuff and 'N' Yes I Do" from Safe as Milk:

"Well I was born in the desert, came on up from New Orleans"


bruise wrote:
I found another similarity between PJ and Beefheart:

the second verse in "Zig Zag Wanderer" (from the album 'Safe As Milk') goes

You can jump, you can holler
Never lose what I found
Heaven's free 'cept for a dollar
You can zig, you can zag
Whoa I'm gonna stay, gonna stay around

Similar in rhytm and rhymes to Down By The Water's

And now I moan, and now I holler
She'll never know just what I found



beafheart.com wrote:
P.J. Harvey

"Rid Of Me"
1993 UK CD Rid Of Me on Island Records
1993 UK CD 4-Track Demos on Island Records

In a section of the song Polly Jean sings/snarls "Don't you wish you never met her?" several times, a direct quote from 'Dirty Blue Gene'.

Thanks, George Shirley for pointing this one out.

"To Bring You My Love"
"Meet Za Monsta "
"Down By The Water"
"I Think I'm A Mother"
1995 CD To Bring You My Love on Island Records CID8035

Polly Jean grew up listening to Beefheart's music (her parents were fans) and talks to Don regularly on the phone. After listening to several albums of her music I found the songs rolling around in my head and changing into Beefheart songs - she's definitely influenced on a subliminal level.

'To Bring you My Love' begins with "I was born in the desert...".

'Meet Za Monsta' is a direct response to Don's invitation on 'Tropical Hot Dog Night' for 'all you young girls to come out n meet the monster tonight'

'Down By The Water' is melodically very similar to 'Zig Zag Wanderer' and 'I Think I'm A Mother' bears an uncanny resemblance to 'Dropout Boogie'.

Thanks to Toby Manning for pointing out 'Down By The Water' and 'I Think I'm A Mother'

2000 UK 7" A Place Called Home
In the notes on the back Polly dedicates this record to Don & Jan van Vliet


Some more:
Her music publishing company is called "Hot Head Music", a reference to the Beefheart song "Hot Head"
On her Myspace she names just two artist as influences: Bob Dylan and Captain Beefheart
She personally knows the Captain and always ask his advice when she has written new songs. apparantly the Captain likes here demos better than her finished songs (or so I once read in a PJ interview)
She often works together with Eric Drew Feldman, former member of Captain Beefheart's Magic Band


Last edited by Bloozzy on Thu Aug 13, 2009 7:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 7:11 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2009 2:40 pm
Posts: 70
Location: Where the light is beautiful
The title of A Woman A Man Walked By may be derived from the Beefheart painting Woman and a Dog Walked By

Image


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 7:29 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2009 2:40 pm
Posts: 70
Location: Where the light is beautiful
Some more from the Beefheart site...

Quote:
"Beefheart's work ... used to make me feel ill" - PJ Harvey

PJ Harvey's new album A Woman A Man Walked By, recorded with long-time musical collaborator John Parish, features former Magic Band member Eric Drew Feldman on keyboards.

John Parish and PJ Harvey are both Captain Beefheart fans and significant musical similarities to the work of Captain Beefheart have been noted by most reviewers. Even the publicity material for the album at PJ Harvey's MySpace page flags the Beefheart connection.

In a video at Island Records website John and Polly can be heard talking about their musical influences. Polly explains how she first came to appreciate Captain Beefheart:

I'd heard Beefheart when I was really young through my father and my mother ... they had all of Beefheart's work, but when I was a child it just used to make me feel ill. I didn't understand it. And then when I met John when I was sixteen / seventeen he introduced me to many things, one of which was re-introducing me to Captain Beefheart, and he gave me a cassette of Shiny Beast which I still have.


Quote:
A recent interview in The Guardian with Polly Harvey stated that she is still in regular contact with Don and that he liked her new album (Uh Huh Her) a lot better than her last one (me too, btw). Unfortunately the interview is no longer available on The Guardian website, but she did go on to say that Don is one of four people whose opinion she thoroughly trusts. Two of the others were Vincent Gallo and John Parish though my poor memory lets me down when remembering the fourth.

In their review for the album, however, The Guardian kicks off with a tiresome cliche: people who buy Beefheart albums don't actually listen to them.

"Most record collections contain only two kinds of album: albums you like and albums you feel you ought to like.

The latter have sat on your shelf since the day you bought them, taunting your shallow taste every time you reach for something less difficult. They are often by Captain Beefheart, or Sun Ra, or Faust.

You bought them because you read somewhere that they were seminal and groundbreaking or because they came recommended by Lester Bangs or Kurt Cobain, or some other semi-mythic avatar of musical taste with ears apparently made of Teflon."

Personally I listen to Sun Ra, Beefheart and Faust just as frequently as I read The Guardian. Not because someone said I should but because life just wouldn't be the same without them.

Meanwhile, Polly was asked in an interview in smh.com.au what she had been listening to recently:

"... it's been the Fall!" Harvey almost hoots, as if that's the maddest thing ever. "But I go back to my staple diet since I was a kid and that's Howlin' Wolf, Captain Beefheart and Hendrix. If I go on tour, I make compilation tapes of those people because I have to play it all the time. It reminds me of who I am and what I'm doing."


And a part from a telephone interview between Bono and Captain Beefheart published in a Dutch music magazine in 2001

Quote:
Bono: Oh yes, Polly Harvey was swept off her feet too. For a while she toured with us and praised you.
Don: She´s nice.
Bono: Yeah, she is nice. Do you have a crush on her skeleton? [laughing]
Don: I don´t think Ray (Polly´s father) would permit that.
Bono: There´s nothing wrong with that. That´s a part of your music I don´t hear much about. It´s sexuality and salacity. There are many sexy skeletons to be found in them. And the vitality and wonder and the discovery and boredom of the usual. Those kind of feelings your work has given us.
Don: Thank you.
Bono: Yeah.
Don: Hear, hear.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 8:01 pm 
Offline
Moderator
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 5:22 pm
Posts: 2398
Location: ~ +38.4, -122.7
Excellent work. Thanks.

The 2006 Supper Club interview contains some great comments by Polly regarding Beefheart's music.
http://thegarden.forum5.com/viewtopic.p ... =thegarden

The Resonance FM interview was really great.
http://thegarden.forum5.com/viewtopic.p ... =thegarden

As far as I know, this broadcast was never captured. I never heard back from Joe Cushley about them rebroadcasting it either.


Another Beefheart/PJ connection is that with ex-Magic Band member Jeff Moris Tepper. Moris has opened for Polly on some of her earlier tours. She even played bass in his band for a handful of gigs in early 2006.

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


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 8:09 pm 
Offline
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Fri Jul 17, 2009 2:30 am
Posts: 1901
"Howlin' Wolf, Captain Beefheart and Hendrix???

My my my my ....

_________________
Click to see the PJ Harvey Gigography


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 8:20 pm 
Offline
Moderator
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 5:22 pm
Posts: 2398
Location: ~ +38.4, -122.7
There's a more subtle Beefheart influence as well. Don was a visual artist more than he was a musician. Polly's background is that of an artist as well. Don was/is pretty much an enigma to his fans, the critics and the general public. Sound familiar?

Don abruptly quit the music business in 1982 to concentrate on his painting (where he has been quite successful). Let's hope Polly doesn't get any ideas in that regard.

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


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 3:52 am 
Offline
Moderator
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 5:22 pm
Posts: 2398
Location: ~ +38.4, -122.7
John French's Magic Band will be at the "Ten Years of ATP" this December:
http://atpfestival.com/Events/TenYearsO ... icBand.php

The story goes it was Drumbo who transcribed Don's TMR musical ideas onto paper and taught the other Magic Band members the parts (usually while Don slept). Oddly his name was left off the credits for TMR.

French is writing a book about his experiences with Don and the Magic Band called Through The Eyes Of Magic. Hopefully out next year.

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


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 3:55 am 
Offline
Moderator
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 5:22 pm
Posts: 2398
Location: ~ +38.4, -122.7
DrDark wrote:
There's a more subtle Beefheart influence as well. Don was a visual artist more than he was a musician. Polly's background is that of an artist as well. Don was/is pretty much an enigma to his fans, the critics and the general public. Sound familiar?

Don abruptly quit the music business in 1982 to concentrate on his painting (where he has been quite successful). Let's hope Polly doesn't get any ideas in that regard.


On the other hand, Polly's other idol Bob Dylan IS still touring. However, from what I understand, maybe that's not such a good thing.

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


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 6:46 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2009 3:25 pm
Posts: 748
Location: Long Beach, CA
Well, remember, PJ did second guess herself and almost took off to Africa to become a nurse or something in 97-98 or whenever she was having her supposed 'meltdown'. ;)

_________________
"He intentado ahogar mis penas, pero el hijo de puta aprendió a nadar."

FaceplaceEl Jay


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:58 pm 
Offline
Moderator
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 5:22 pm
Posts: 2398
Location: ~ +38.4, -122.7
Interesting long series of Q&A with John French back in 2001:
http://www.beefheart.com/datharp/drumbo/index.html

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


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 12:11 am 
Offline

Joined: Mon Aug 17, 2009 4:11 am
Posts: 60
"Down by the Water" is "Zig Zig Wander" plus "Who's Been Talkin'" by Howlin' Wolf.


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 11 posts ] 

All times are UTC


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 63 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: