A photograph of a Trout Mask Replica CD has started to circulate on the web. This may be because of the particular woman who is holding the CD. Yesterday the picture appeared here - but it was first posted here on August 16th. Where will the photograph turn up next? Is this the most trivial story I've ever posted - or the most unlikely?

Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 6:28 PM  - 19 comments - post a comment

Our competition to win the 5 sets of EMI/Virgin's remastered Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band CDs attracted hundreds of entries from around the planet.

It's heartening to find out that in over 20 US States, in Canada, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, in the Middle East and right across Europe and Scandinavia there are so many men and women with enough interest in Captain Beefheart to take part. Everybody answered the question correctly so congratulations all round, and thanks for all the complimentary remarks about this website and the work which goes into it.

The title of the Don Van Vliet painting which is reproduced on the front cover of 'Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)' is of course Green Tom.

Jackie O'Neill, Alan Saul, Stuart Boros, Eric Hasler and Paul Mountford were the five contestants whose names were pulled out of the hat and EMI/Virgin sent off their prizes today.

I think EMI deserve a big thank you, not only for making this competition possible but for having enough commitment to the music of Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band to relaunch these albums in the way they have. Well done.

By the way, why is the painting called Green Tom? I've been asking around without success. Do you know?

Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 4:10 PM  - 2 comments - post a comment

EMI sent news today of some digital Beefheart wonderment which they've created for your especial delectation. A new page at EMI's website offers free downloads of Beefheart related computer and telephone add-ons.

EMI's geegaws and gimcracks include e-mail signatures, mobile telephone screensavers, computer wallpaper, a couple of computer alert sounds (which don't seem to be taken from the Virgin catalogue), plus flashing messenger icons. See and hear EMI's Beefheart freebies here.

In addition to this, the newly remastered Beefheart CDs on EMI/Virgin each come with a chance to order a Captain Beefheart ringtone. These cost £3 each, plus the cost of ordering. The ringtones are Sugar Bowl, Bluejeans And Moonbeams, Bat Chain Puller, Making Love To A Vampire With A Monkey On My Knee and Ice Cream For Crow. Sadly, the song Telephone from Doc At The Radar Station was not included.

Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 9:53 PM  - 2 comments - post a comment

A nice feature about Captain Beefheart has just gone online in one of The Guardian's podcasts. Beefheart fan Jon Dennis chats to John Harris (author of the Guardian's recent Mission: Unlistenable) about how best to get into Beefheart and why people should bother.

Their conclusion? Leave Trout Mask Replica to the hardcore weirdos, Clear Spot is one of the greatest albums ever recorded and everyone should be listening to it. It's hard to disagree.

I have often felt that our tendency to bang on about Trout Mask Replica as a pinnacle of artistic achievement in music (which I think it is) has probably done Beefheart a great disservice. Anyone curious about the music is going to be faced with an off-putting 70+ minute onslaught of oddness which usually takes a bit of effort to come to appreciate. There are no reference points for TMR since nothing else sounds like it.

Let's start talking up some of his other albums as well and shift the focus; they are likely to serve as a much more engaging introduction to this great music and will ensure people don't buy one album which they don't like and then write it all off. An appreciation of TMR is more likely to follow on and if not, well Clear Spot is a sensational album in its own right so who cares? Now there's a strategy!

Incidentally, the Mission: Unlistenable article contains one of the best descriptions of TMR ever, from Andy Partridge:

"You're running around stairs and gangways and gantries - things are swinging across, and you've got to grab them to get to the next level. It's like being trapped in a mad, giant watch. Do you know what I mean?"

Absolutely. Download the podcast, the Beefheart feature starts after about 17 minutes with a burst of Ice Cream For Crow.

Posted by Graham Johnston at 5:11 PM  - 10 comments - post a comment

Arthur Lee died on Thursday.

• Guardian article
• Guardian obituary
• Independent obituary
• Luckier in Love than later in life
• BBC news item
• Your tributes at the BBC
• Arthur Lee videos on YouTube

Needless to say it's a very sad day here at beefheart.com.

It's hard to grasp that the charismatic, vital and seemingly unstoppable performer that re-emerged five years ago on a determined mission to raise the profile of his great music has gone and there are no more shows. No more "Seven And Seven Is" encores, no more spine tingles caused by a solitary tambourine tap tap tapping the intro to "Little Red Book", no further opportunity to hear live performances of the mind-bendingly agile "August", possibly my favourite Love song.

Arthur's music had always been there with me since my late teenage years, and certainly always will be. I dragged my partner Ness along to see his first Brighton gig five years ago and she fell for him completely, even buying a pair of "Love" pants with the Love flower-powery lettering on the front (I made do with the more traditional t-shirt). We've seen him several times since then; it's always the best show in town and he invariably has the same effect on any friends we take along.

I particularly wanted Arthur to succeed in his mission to establish his rightful place in music history. Lauded by critics and regularly featuring in those top 100 albums charts, how many real people have actually heard of Arthur Lee and Love? He was no household name and that is inexplicable to me. A person who wrote music this good and sang with a voice positioned somewhere between Jimi Hendrix and Otis Redding should be up there with the Brian Wilsons and John Lennons of the world.

Anyone who accepts the cliche that only Forever Changes is worth bothering with has a wonderful surprise in store one day. "Love", "Da Capo", "Four Sail", "Out Here", "False Start", "Vindicator" and "Black Beauty" all have their flaws but are wonders well worth beholding. Even "Reel To Real" and "Arthur Lee and Love", the final albums recorded under the Love name which were so critically panned that they've been virtually written out of history, still have enough strong material for me to even forgive the presence of Satan's own slap-bass on one tune.

Tragedy is a greatly over used word but the loss of Arthur Lee, a man whose performances suggested he was at his peak rather than merely revitalised with something to prove, truly is tragic in my opinion.

Tonight I can only don that pair of "Love" pants, raise a glass in honor of the Ricochet Man, as Don Van Vliet recently referred to him, and go "Oop ip ip, oop ip ip YEAH!"

Thanks Arthur.

Posted by Graham Johnston at 10:38 AM  - 3 comments - post a comment

Virgin/EMI are to rerelease their entire Captain Beefheart back catalogue on CD on Monday 7th August. The albums have all been remastered and Captain Beefheart biographer Mike Barnes has written informative liner notes which set out the context and circumstances of the creation of each album.

The Virgin/EMI publicity machine should ensure that Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band get more publicity in the near future than they have had in years. Some people will come to listen to Captain Beefheart's music for the first time, others may be tempted to listen again after many years. The Virgin catalogue has a range of Beefheart's musical styles to choose from, so those unfamiliar with these albums can read The Radar Station's overview of each one by clicking on the titles below.

Virgin's first Captain Beefheart studio album was ‘Unconditionally Guaranteed’ (1974). ‘Bluejeans & Moonbeams’ followed later that same year. ‘Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)’ (1978), ‘Doc At The Radar Station’ (1980) and ‘Ice Cream For Crow’ (1982) complete the Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band story.

Virgin's 2006 reissues of these CDs contain no previously unreleased recordings, although 'Ice Cream For Crow' does contain a bonus track, 'Light Reflected Off The Oceands Of The Moon' which was originally released on an 1982 ep and was later included in the Rhino compilation CD 'The Dust Blows Forward'

‘Live in London (Drury Lane 1974)’, whose cover design is shown here, is a concert recording which is being issued by Virgin Records for the first time, although two tracks did appear on the 1975 Virgin sampler album, 'V'. The new Virgin CD is the full version of the concert and includes two tracks missing from a 1994 CD of the same concert, 'London 1974'.

Mike Barnes in his liner notes writes that the first of those tracks, 'Keep On Rubbin' - AKA Mighty Crazy', "amalgamates two different takes on the same theme by Lightnin’ Slim and Lightnin’ Hopkins, and is as lewd as the title suggests."

The second track, 'Sweet Georgia Brown' is the jazz standard and features a clarinet player who Captain Beefheart tells us, "sucked a cosmic particle up the bell of his horn and illuminated his mind." It is not generally understood why this number was included in a Captain Beefheart concert.

The Capitol Radio ad for the concert is included as a bonus track. The sound quality of this CD is a huge improvement over the previous (non Virgin) issue.

It should be fascinating to find out how newcomers to Captain Beefheart react to these albums. I look forward to reading their comments. Perhaps some reappraisal of the music by people with entrenched opinions may also be forthcoming - that could be refreshing.

Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 8:37 PM  - 7 comments - post a comment

Virgin Records have kindly offered to send complete sets of their six newly remastered Captain Beefheart albums to five lucky visitors to this website.

All you have to do is send us an email telling us the title of the Don Van Vliet painting which is reproduced on the front cover of 'Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)'.

You'll find plenty of information about Don Van Vliet's art by clicking on the 'art info' link at the top of this page and following the links at the new page which opens.

If we receive more than five correct answers we'll put all the correct entries into a tapered stovepipe hat for a random draw to determine the five winners.

Conditions of entry

Competition closing date is 15th August 2006. No entries received after this date will be considered.

The five winners of a set of six Captain Beefheart CDs will be the five people who the judges consider to have answered the question correctly. In the event of a tie the five winners will be the people who answered the question correctly and whose names have been drawn at random. The judges' decision is final and no correspondence related to the judges' decision will be entered into.

Your email address and personal details will not be passed on to any third party. We hate spam as much as you do. The name, email address and postal address of the five winners will however be passed on to the record company to send out the prizes.

The winners will be notified before 20th August 2006.
Answers will appear online at this page shortly after the closing date.
All entrants agree to these conditions.
Send your answers to derek@beefheart.com by 15th August 2006.

Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 8:36 PM  - 0 comments - post a comment

It's not quite a full theme, but certainly enough sound files to "annoy your colleagues, family and friends" to quote Simon Pardoe who created them. The Beefheart sound files are available at Simon's website.

Posted by Graham Johnston at 9:02 AM  - 3 comments - post a comment