While we at The Radar Station are waiting to get our hands on a finished copy of John French's long-awaited book, Beefheart: Through The Eyes of Magic, published on January 11th, I have assembled some Beefheart-related news items and trivia which we didn't get round to mentioning in 2009.

Captain Beefheart's final album, Hoboism

Head of No. 6 Records Terry Tolkin recollected Captain Beefheart and Bob Krasnow in an interview with Warped Reality Magazine. Talking of gaps in the No.6 catalogue Tolkin said:

The last one was a Captain Beefheart EP called Hoboism, a fantastic track left over from the Bat Chain Puller sessions. I had become quite friendly with Don Van Vliet through my years at Rough Trade and then especially Elektra. Elektra's CEO was Bob Krasnow, the last of the great 1960's A&R guys to run a major label........I went out to Don's house in Eureka, California. Kras had produced Beefheart’s Safe As Milk LP and then signed him to WB. Things somehow turned acrimonious after that and they hadn't spoken in 15 years. I had persuaded Don to let me back up a mobile studio onto his front lawn and we were going to record a LP of old blues songs. I had flown out there to meet him face-to-face for the first time and kinda seal the deal. Well, instead of coming together over the next three days, it mostly fell apart. Don used his wife, Jan, to say that they didn't want Hoboism to be the last word on his career and that they couldn't find anyone they like to play on the blues album.

Bob Krasnow's memories of working with Captain Beefheart on Safe As Milk, can also be found at Warped Reality's interview with Terry Tolkin.

Don Van Vliet in Chelsea

Four small works by Don Van Vliet are showing at Zach Feuer Gallery in Chelsea until January 23rd. Part of a group exhibition entitled Jr. and Son’s, Don's creations hang next to the work of S. Clay Wilson and are pictured in situ here at the Zach Feuer Gallery website.

Zach Feuer Gallery, 530 W. 24th Street, New York, NY 10011
Tel: +1 212 989 7700 info@zachfeuer.com www.zachfeuer.com
Exhibition dates: December 12, 2009 – January 23, 2010
Gallery hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 10-6

Blood-drenched rock stars run amok at the Vliet place

Captain Beefheart's celebrity gate-crashers bring gift of beetle bones

It would be hard to find two rock stars who are more fixated on Captain Beefheart than Alison Mosshart of The Kills and Jack White of The White Stripes.

Both groups have recorded Beefheart songs and continue to play them live. Jack White dressed up as Captain Beefheart on the photo shoot for Get Behind Me Satan and in interviews Alison Mosshart regularly expresses her yearnings to be with Don Van Vliet.

There’s one musician who’s alive but isn’t working anymore that I would do anything to do something with – and that would be Don Van Vliet from Captain Beefheart. And I think it would be surprising just because he doesn’t do music anymore (laughs). That’s my favorite band, you know… yeah, I’d like to just be in the same room as that man. - Alison Mosshart in Sunfiltered, July 2009

Alison Mosshart has even become the latest celebrity collector of paintings by Don Van Vliet, one of which is the showcase piece of her art collection, though Mosshart clarifies: I collect for the money. - Alison Mosshart in Black Book, June 2009

So when Alison and Jack got together this year to record a video to promote Dead Weather, their joint project, it was hardly surprising that they decided to visit Don Van Vliet's old stamping ground of Lancaster, California.

Having just pumped each other full of bullet holes, Dead Weather cohorts Jack White and Alison Mosshart decided to relax with a visit to the childhood home of their shared musical hero, Captain Beefheart.

"We were covered in blood," Mosshart says fondly of the July pilgrimage. "Fake blood from head to toe, with 70 bullet holes through us. You know, we were just totally gross. We showed up at his house and left a bunch of beetle shells — dead beetles we'd found in the desert — and some burned sticks under his tree. It just seemed appropriate!"

Mosshart says the family now living in the Lancaster, Calif., house had never heard of the eccentric musical genius who had spent years there listening to R&B singles with schoolmate Frank Zappa.

"A bunch of dudes with no shirts came out of the house, and they had no idea who he was. And because we were all covered in blood and we had the film crew with us, all these kids were coming out of their houses and were like, 'Is this an episode of Cops?'"


from: Death becomes them: Alison Mosshart and Jack White kill some time with the Dead Weather by Bill Forman in The Colorado Springs Independent, 13 August 2009


New Rockette Morton album

Described as incorporating Jazz, Swing, Blues, Rock and Country in a very unique instrumental collection from two very unique individuals, Bret Short and Rockette Morton, Short n Morton is available at cdbaby.













Gary Lucas


The high point of Gary Lucas' year for me was his collaboration with Najma Akhtar and their winning combination of rock, blues and raga on the album Rishte. You can listen to tracks and samples from Rishte at MySpace and World Village.

And Beefheart saved Craig & other writings

The 12-year old anti-hero of Josh Lieb's new book for young adults is a Captain Beefheart fan.

I point to my beloved Captain Beefheart, a musician so brilliant, so evil, he drove his own band insane. He would not let let them eat. He would not let them sleep. He would not let them leave his house. He made them wear dresses (and they were not girls). He stripped them of their very names and subjected them to hours and hours of abusive group therapy session. When a dejected and desperate member of the band managed to escape the Captain's clutches, Beefheart snatched him off the street and dragged him back to the practice studio. It was cruel. Assuredly. Inhumane. Undoubtedly. Evil. Disgustingly so. And yet I defy you, today, to listen to Trout Mask Replica and say it was not worth it.



I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be your Class President by 'Daily Show' Executive Producer Josh Lieb has its own webpage at Sheldrake Industries.


The Downbeat 75th Anniversary Anthology: The Great Jazz Interviews includes an interview with Don Van Vliet. The book is reviewed at All About Jazz.



John French's Limb Independence by W. C. Bamberger is an essay which appears at online music magazine Perfect Sound Forever.



And Beefheart saved Craig by Jefferson Hansen is a book with an eye-catching title. The author tells me that it concerns a couple of teenage boys who are Beefheart fans in the 70's. Amazon review here.


A familiar face in the cosmic matter?

The other day, I was grinding and polishing a stony meteorite (as one does), and after polishing, there, leering out from the polished surface, was the captains face. I know this sounds rather like those names of Allah found in aubergines and such, but I'll get a friend to photo this and send you the image in case you might want to put it on your site - it really is quite astonishing

The image is best viewed small on the screen, about 10 cm x 10 cm, otherwise the detail obscures the image. The meteorite is a piece of one called NWA869.

Thanks to George Wake for sending this in.


An assortment of musical homage

Skeletonbreath - the band at MySpace.

Invincible Czars perform Upon the My-O-My at YouTube.

Ty Segal performs Dropout Boogie at YouTube. Album review of Lemons at Pitchfork.

Snow Patrol include a reworked Observatory Crest in their Late Night Tales compilation. The version Snow Patrol have chosen is not the original Bluejeans and Moonbeams cut but the A Carrot Is As Close As A Rabbit Gets To A Diamond version which is prefaced by Eric Drew Feldman's intro to Making Love To A Vampire With A Monkey On My Knee. Odd.

Bob Dylan's album Theme Time Radio Hour, Season 2 on Ace Records includes Ice Cream For Crow

Cracker give a guest shot on their album Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey to Patterson Hood from the Drive-by Truckers. On Friends Hood and David Lowery name check Captain Beefheart. See the video on YouTube here.

Now when you're on a date and you finally bring that girl home,
Put some Captain Beefheart on the stereo and you disconnect the phone
I'll show up drunk and raving, and then I'll pass out on the floor
Cause that's the kind of friend that you've got.


and finally........

According to The Guardian, The Jockey Club's chief executive, Simon Bazalgette was recently interviewed in the racecard at Cheltenham. Bazalgette said that his four ideal dinner guests would be "Richard Feynman, Vaseley (sic) Kandinsky, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Captain Beefheart."

Cal Schenkel is offering beautiful archival quality Giclée Prints of his acrylic on paper study of the Trout Mask Replica album cover artwork, 2009, hand-signed. 13x13in Personalized at no extra charge--specify inscription when ordering. See ralf.com

Old Skool Hooligans have a selection of Captain Beefheart t-shirts for sale.

Be quick if you want to see the video of Captain Beefheart's telephoned contribution to American Bandstand in June 1966 at YouTube. You can also read the story of Captain Beefheart's first TV broadcasts at Captain Beefheart Up Sifter

Impatient souls can whet their appetites for the revelations of John French's book at Proper Records website where there are twelve pages of extracts and photographs.

Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 12:11 PM - post a comment