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In early / mid 2000 John French called on Radar Station visitors for some help writing his book, Beefheart: Through The Eyes Of Magic… From: Basil Storey Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2000 7:47 PM When the Trout Mask Replica music was played on stage, did the fans dance? Hardly ever. It seems like most folks would sit down and observe, but I’d be busting the damn bloody insanest body contortions. Were there any fans that made a particular impression on you? I rarely interacted with fans on tours. We were usually whisked in and out and seldom were able to actually talk with fans afterRead More →

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In early / mid 2000 John French called on Radar Station visitors for some help writing his book, Beefheart: Through The Eyes Of Magic… From: Bruno Ghezzi Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2000 4:48 PM Hi Drumbo, I think that “Dachau Blues” is the only cut Don plays bass clarinet on; in fact, it is a twin bass clarinet workout in which both Don and Mascara Snake play bass clarinet. There is no other cut on Trout Mask Replica in which Don plays b.c. My question is: Is this true? Bruno, This is a tough one for me to answer as I wasn’t at the session.Read More →

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In early / mid 2000 John French called on Radar Station visitors for some help writing his book, Beefheart: Through The Eyes Of Magic… From: Bob Jennings Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2000 1:11 PM I am especially interested in the design and manufacture of that “conga’ drum set Drumbo played at the Warehouse in New Orleans in 1971, but I am also interested in any of the equipment aspects of the Magic Band. Gear issues are always left out of biographies, but it would be cool to know what kind of guitars the Magic Band played in their Post-Szabo Archtop Period. Bob, Post-Szabo Archtop Period???Read More →

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In early / mid 2000 John French called on Radar Station visitors for some help writing his book, Beefheart: Through The Eyes Of Magic… From: Cisco Garcia Sent: Sunday, January 09, 2000 3:59 AM How abusive was Don? I’ve read reports that claim he was very nice, and I’ve read reports that said he was an overbearing, abusive taskmaster. Please set the record straight. Cisco, I suppose that he was both. When I worked with him, he was for the most part an abusive taskmaster. The later Magic Band members, especially Eric Drew Feldman, have a completely different vision of Don. I believe the differenceRead More →

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From: Duncan Lockerbie Sent: Sunday, January 09, 2000 10:59 PM Just how into drugs was Don? Was he really psychic? Duncan, Short questions with answers far too big for here, this will all be covered in the book. In the early days, Don was into “grass” a lot. He also experimented with LSD a lot and had a lot of associated mental problems when I joined the band directly related to his abuse of this chemical substance. Don had a lot to do with me getting involved and actually “indoctrinated” me to marijuana almost immediately upon my inclusion to the band at age 18. DuringRead More →

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From: Robert Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2000 6:16 AM John – do you guys now or then feel any kind of sense of lost opportunity playing in rock music? what I’m kind of saying is that the jazz players that played with the old greats like Parker and especially Miles Davis all went on to bigger and better things once they left/fired. I always thought there just didn’t seem to be anywhere else to go for the magic band members, since you guys were further out than the fusion music of Weather Report / Return To Forever/ Mahavishnu Orchestra / etc. Robert, This is oneRead More →

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From: Joe Ashworth Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2000 11:09 AM How did you create those incredible rhythms on TMR (Sugar n Spikes, Ant Man Bee, My Human Gets Me Blues, Frownland most notably) and what input did Don have exactly? Joe, Thanks for your questions. One song at a time: “Ant Man Bee”, this was totally a Don Van Vliet drum beat and the only one he ever actually played repeatedly on the set. I’m talking not only about the main beat throughout the song (which he named P-K-Ro-P — pronounced “peekaropee”), but also the alternate beat near the end is his. However, he “sang”Read More →

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In early / mid 2000 John French called on Radar Station visitors for some help writing his book, Beefheart: Through The Eyes Of Magic… From: Eric Clark Sent: Sunday, January 09, 2000 8:48 PM Greetings John, I have played a long time myself and respect what you do. Please talk about how the drum parts were developed. How much “freedom” you had within the framework of what you were given. And about the tuning of your drums, choice of cymbals etc. Were these things that you controlled or were others instrumental (oops and ouch for the pun) in directing the drumming and drum production. HowRead More →

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Introduction by John French As I began to write my book, Beefheart: Through the Eyes of Magic, the question plaguing my mind was: “What do Beefheart fans really wish to know?” One and a half years ago, Graham Johnston was kind enough to accept questions on his website to supply me with the answer to that question. I found that the questions themselves, many answered in the book, deserved acknowledgement in their own right and so I suggested to Graham that I answer the questions individually so that he could post the answers on the site. This turned out to be less simple than itRead More →

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In 2000 John French, aka Drumbo, was writing his account of his time in the Magic Band, Beefheart: Through The Eyes Of Magic. The author called on Radar Station visitors to send him their questions and suggestions for the book, to ensure that he included the details that you wanted to know. Many of you responded to this appeal and John French passed on his sincere thanks. Many of the questions were of a very specific nature and couldn’t be easily covered in the format of a biographical book. Since they were also very interesting questions well worth addressing, John suggested that his answers couldRead More →