Jesse Hackett
Dropout Boogie
2016 Various Artists : Extraordinary Renditions on Deek Recordings
Released as part of an oddball various artists covers compilation this is the only Beefheart cover.
Jesse Hackett is a London based musician who was a member of Gorillaz. His version of Dropout Boogie is an amusing electronica take on the song with an added sample from Don.
As far as I know this song has only had an online release. There are a couple of versions of Youtube.
You can hear just the audio of the song here:
However, it’s best listened to whilst watching the very inventive and comical video which has been created for it based on the famous Beefheart Beat Club appearance:
Alvin Youngblood Hart
Ice Rose
1998 US CD Territory on Hannibal HNCD1431
In an interview with Down Beat magazine (September 2003) Hart said:-
Beefheart is a major inspiration. Maybe a lot of people don’t get it, but I feel like I get it. He’s a cartoon character, just like Rocky & Bullwinkle. He’s part Howlin’ Wolf and part Ornette Coleman. It just “always seems to come out right”.
Hardy Hepp
Mirror Man
1985 Germany vinyl Sunboat on Mercury 824-056-1
1985 Germany CD Sunboat on Mercury
This German-Swiss musician/poet was once in the Swiss band Krokodil. He takes some of the lyrics from ‘Mirror Man’ and shuffles them with his own song ‘Hardly Healed’. He claims that he co-wrote it with Don, although there is no evidence and Don claims not to have met the guy. The song is listed on the album as ‘Mirror Man Me’. A curiosity!
I have also heard live versions of this which appear to be Henry Kaiser’s band. Can anyone throw any light on this?
Arno Hintjens
Gimme Dat Harp Boy
1991 Germany CD Charles et Les Lulus on Virgin 261 722
1991 Holland CD Charles et Les Lulus on Virgin 7878622
Hot Head
1994 Holland CD Arno & The Subrovniks : Water on Delabel DE7243 8400702 7
1997 CD Give Me The Gift on Caroline Records/Gift X
Robyn Hitchcock
Big Eyed Beans From Venus
1988 Live
Clear Spot
1993 – 97 Live, four times in all
Orange Claw Hammer
2002 Live
My Human Gets Me Blues
Neon Meate Dream Of An Octafish
2003 Live at Maxwells
Although he’s not recorded any Beefheart songs (as far as I know) ex-leader of The Soft Boys Robyn Hitchcock has played the above tracks in live concerts.
Thanks to Gene Hopstetter for the info about the 2003 covers. He also told the Radar Station:-
Robyn Hitchcock, during a performance at Maxwell’s this last Halloween, did an impromptu recitation of My Human Gets Me Blues and Neon Meate Dream Of A Octafish. He asked his audience, “You don’t know that one?” and even said “I’ll have to buy you all a copy of Trout Mask Replica for Christmas.”
Hitchcock’s song ‘Wafflehead’ may be a slight nod towards Don’s ‘Hothead’ and some of his other songs have titles that have a Beefheart flavour to them – ‘Tropical Fish Mandala’, ‘The Shapes Between Us Turn Into Animals’, ‘The Man With The Lightbulb Head’ and ‘Black Snake Diamond Role’ (an album title).
Another Beefheart connection is that Moris Tepper has also played with Hitchcock in the studio.
Robyn Hitchcock and the Imaginary Band
Robyn Hitchcock put this band together for a series of concerts during 2011 as a tribute to Don by playing the entire Clear Spot album.
See our page about Imaginary Band shows
Hobo Chang
Love Lies
no recording details known
An mp3 of part of this dub reggae version was available on their website which has long since disappeared.
Hoi Polloi
Zig Zag Wanderer
199? Australia 7″ Club Subterranean/Zig Zag Wanderer on [no name or number on record!]
Hoppy The Frog
Safe As Milk
This track is included on the Genus Records’ Mama Kangaroos tribute album
Horenslerps
You Should Know By The Kindness Of Uh Dog…
19?? ????
I have no idea who these are or whether the track has been officially released. A good attempt at one of Don’s poems.
Benjamin Horrendous
A Carrot Is As Close As A Rabbit Gets To A Diamond
2002 UK CD Arse Inferno privately released
Guitarist from The Fourfathers goes solo and plays a stonking amped-up version of this instrumental. Many of the other tracks on the album show obvious Beefheart influences.
Sure Nuff ‘n’ Yes I Do
2003 UK CD Bone Thug privately released
Some nice slide playing on this cover of ‘Sure Nuff’. The album includes a track, ‘Magic Show’, about Ben’s experience of seeing Don live. Some great fractured rhythms plus poems with a Viv Stanshall/Ivor Cutler feel to them.
I’m Gonna Booglarise Ya, Baby
White Jam
Blabber ‘n Smoke
When It Blows Its Stacks
Alice in Blunderland
The Spotlight Kid
Click Clack
Grow Fins
There ain’t no Santa Claus on the Evenin’ Stage
Glider
2009 UK CD Messin with the Kid privately released
More about Messin’ with the Kid can be found here
Ben’s website can be found here http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~bgwaters/
Jonestown
I Love You You Big Dummy
1990 US 7″ I Love You You Big Dummy / Twenty Five Years on Sympathy For The Record Industry SFTRI 89
This is a cover of Magazine’s cover of ‘Dummy’. Some solid punk aggression on bright red vinyl.
Bob Jordan
My Head Is My Only House
1997 tape Live and Let Live on Qorq Productions 032PS
Solo acoustic performer from Boston(?) recorded live at the AS220 Club.
Juicy Lucy
Willie The Pimp
1970 UK vinyl Lie Back and Enjoy It on Bronze Records
1995 UK CD Juicy Lucy/Lie Back and Enjoy It on Beat Goes On Records BGOCD279
Juicy Lucy’s singer had a rough growl at times similar to one of Beefheart’s voices. The band was led by steel-guitarist, Glenn Ross Campbell of legendary US 60’s psychedelic band The Misunderstood.
Henry Kaiser
Alice In Blunderland
1977(?) US(?) 7″ Monster Island on Visible Records V-7771
Kaiser says that this was the first Beefheart tune he learnt to play on guitar. I think this is probably the first version he released. As with the original it’s mainly a lead guitar piece but there’s also a sax break in this version with Bruce Ackley on soprano and John Gruntfest on alto. ‘Alice’ is dedicated to Langdon Winner.
I Love You You Big Dummy
1988 US vinyl Those Who Know History Are Doomed To Repeat It on SST Records
A Carrot Is As Close…
Alice In Blunderland
Flavor Bud Living
I Love You You Big Dummy
Mirror Man
1988 US CD Those Who Know History Are Doomed To Repeat It on SST Records SST198
Flavor Bud Living (live)
1990 UK vinyl Heart’s Desire on Reckless Records RECKD 19
1990 UK CD Heart’s Desire on Reckless Records CDRECK
19
Japan In A Dishpan
1991 UK CD Hope You Like Our New Direction on Reckless Records RECKCD 21
I Love You You Big Dummy (live)
Alice In Blunderland (live)
19?? tape – unknown venue – not officially released
This could be a Crazy Backwards Alphabet show (without John French though).
Dali’s Car (live)
1977 US vinyl Ice Death on Parachute Records
A Carrot Is As Close… (live)
19?? tape – unknown venue – not officially released
Henry Kaiser & Max Kutner
Glider
2018 CD Wild Courses on Iluso Records IRCD15
Longtime Beefheart fan has teamed up with one of the new generation of Magic Band guitarists. Max Kutner played with the Grandmothers before replacing Denny Walley in the reunion Magic Band.
On this CD of instrumentals the duo recorded all the tracks live using guitars and basses with coursed pairs of strings – ten different guitars across 12 tracks. Their version of Glider is a delight.
Kill Me Tomorrow
Hot Head
2004 US CD The Garbageman and the Prostitute on Gold Standard Laboratories GSL77CD
I’ve been told this is quite a good version from a post no wave style band from San Diego showing influences from Pere Ubu, Sonic Youth and Devo.
Formed in Portland in 1997, the husband/wife duo of Wince and Zack Wentz moved to San Diego. This release is a multimedia effort – there’s the combined CD and DVD plus a pulp novel.
The Kills
Dropout Boogie
2002 UK CD single Black Rooster on Domino RUG144CD
2002 12″ EP Black Rooster on Dimmak Records DM-036
A male/female duo, strangely named Hotel and VV, recorded this great version of ‘Dropout’ live (in the studio?). Only 704 copies of the vinyl version were pressed.
The band also perform this as part of their live set.
The King of Luxembourg
Long Necked Bottles
see Fast ‘n’ Bulbous Tribute Album
Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles
1988 UK vinyl SIR on Cherry Red ACME16
2000 Japan CD SIR/Royal Bastard on Cherry Red ACME16CD
The King Of Luxembourg is one of the guises of musician/composer Simon Fisher Turner who composed the soundtrack for the Derek Jarman films ‘Caravaggio’, ‘The Last Of England’, ‘The Garden’, ‘Edward II’ and ‘Blue’.
He plays live with a group of musicians which he refers to as “my Captain Beefheart Magic Band”. His website is here http://www.mute.com/mute/sft/sftbiog.htm
King of Siam
Orange Claw Hammer
This track is included on the Genus Records’ Mama Kangaroos tribute album
Kiss Kiss Kill
Lick My Decals Off Baby
This track is included on the Genus Records’ Mama Kangaroos tribute album
Albert Kuvezin & Yat Kha
Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles
2005 CD Re-Covers on Yat Kha Recordings/Plane YAT004/Plane88918
One of the more unusual cover versions. Yat Kha are a band from Tuva, a small republic in the Russian Federation, just north of Mongolia. Their singer Albert Kuvezin has a distinct vocal technique – hoomii or throat-singing which is traditional amongst Tuvan shaman, although it can also be found in Mongolia and Siberia. The deep slow sound produced uses the skull as a resonator and lends the songs on this album a strange, almost disembodied, feel.
The album is a collection of covers of rock songs that were special to the band during the darker days of the Soviet Union and also includes amongst others Joy Division’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’, Motorhead’s ‘Orgasmatron’ and Iron Butterfly’s ‘In A Gadda Da Vida’… yes, honestly!
Kyra
Here I Am I Always Am
1998 UK vinyl Here I Am on Vinyl Japan ASKLP71
1998 UK CD Here I Am on Vinyl Japan ASKCD71
Flemish punk singer Kyra Rubia’s first solo album after being in Thee Headcoats and Kyra Rubella & The Shanks. Billy Childish and the other Headcoats appear on this album too.
A rough and ready approach to singing Kyra rips her way through this early Van Vliet song.