Guest book » Guestbook part 03: February 1999 to June 1999

I love Beefheart, what else can I say.

Oh, man, that’s so heavy! Elle Guru on a Warner Bros. sampler disc (The Big Red Ball) turned me on to the Captain; it made me smile, and I haven’t stopped since. Saw CB&HMB in ’71 in Providence (with the chimp act opener!!), and in ’73 at Winterland (SF) sandwiched between Roxy Music and the Mahavishnu Orchestra – one intense evening! But the best live CB show I ever saw was at the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach, CA circa 1977. There wer so few people that the Captain invited us first-show fans to stay for the second (and we did). Even with Larry “Wild Man” Fischer inviting himself to our table it was a great show, the best live concert of any kind I have ever seen. Thanks for the music, Don – it makes me happy.

just wanted to thank you all for the further education into the genius of Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band. Was always floored by Trout Mask Replica, but never bothered (and I have no excuse, by the way, other than mental laziness, perhaps) to venture forth (or backward) in the catalogue of Mr. Van Vliet. Just purchased Safe As Milk. Let’s just say this…my next handful of purchases will be complete when I have all of the material, including the new box set. Thanks for your web site, and providing all of this fantastic information. You’re performing a social service, whether you like it or not. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

AT LAST !! – i’m not alone ! Thanks to all of you that have made this site so good. Its so hard to find other people who appreciate the Don and his work. The site has been a revelation.

Hi folks! I’m one of those maniacs, who, at age 12 bought four Frank Zappa/Mothers within a month and read as much as I could find about FZ, especially who the “weird” guy himself liked to listen to. Then it was on to scoop as much stuff as possible mentioned by FZ which included Captain (Don VanVliet) Beefheart. After hearing a ton of this stuff I figured I was right after all in thinking the radio was 99.9% shit and that THIS was what I really wanted to listen to. Of course the drawback to all this was that trying to expose my neighborhood buddies to any of this (i.e.,people like Zappa,Beefheart,Varèse,Stravinsky) was way too overpowering to them and ended up with Sal “Butch ” P. – an unusually large kid for 14 – punching me in the mouth, declaring, “You’re just fuckin’ fucked!” Well,so much for Mr. P.’s appraisal of me, I was entirely undaunted and continued my “fuckin’ fucked” ways and even took my pale-white teenaged self into an entirely black section of Boston because, after a ton of phone calls, the only store that carried some old blues LPs was there. I believe the cashier was a little more than surprised to see some white kid come in, riffle through the bins and present him with 3 albums and say,”how much?”. But, specifically, after hearing Beefheart (I don’t think that the black neighborhood record store carried *him*) I awaited more and more but I only find him on occasion when somebody at some record store just happened to put in specifically for him. I was truly delighted when I actually found a Beefheart album. I know that my voice was very quick to change in my early teens but I still wonder if trying to sing “Electricity” had a permanent effect on my larynx! My father’s friends and customers soon learned that when they called the house and got the *lower* of the two male voices it was Junior. The only opportunity I had to actually *see* C.B. was the time in ’81 when he appeared at “The Paradise” in Boston but I couldn’t find anyone who would go with me and then found out that I had a wedding to go to which put the kibosh on any ideas about getting to the club that night. Pheeeewww! *That* really sucked! But at least I have a rather respectable C.B. LP/CD collection here, always within arm’s reach, and, now I see this Web site and others like it devoted The Captain so I can at least take comfort in that! I’m really happy to see this! Keep in up and running!

Oh man! I must admit…I’m quite impressed. Wish I’d hear from the man in person. Thanx for al the bootlegs people! These are propably my last words. Next week my phone-bill arrives and I’ve just downloaded your complete archive…Say hi to the man for me. DER ARBEITER “The Ultra violent Space Machine…avant-garde rock at it’s best”

“what this whirrrld needs is a good two dollar room anduh good two dollar brum’ ” checkin’ in from New Orleans, getting lost and found. glad to find this site. saw the Good Captain and Magic Band at Tipitina’s during Bat Chain Puller era. Eric Burdon played there, so did Mose Allison. The crowd stood up with electricity as soon as they walked onto the stage and it didn’t stop . . .

In 1970, when I was a high schoolteenage fan of Frank Zappa, intrigued by a strange personage on the “Hot Rats” album cover, I picked up a copy of “Trout Mask Replica”. It opened my mind and altered my life. I walked around Northport high school with that album under my arm, playing it for anyone interested. Most people found the the music too bizarre and the message too personal. I loved it. I still own about a dozen Beefheart vinyls, and attended half a dozen local Beefheart concerts back in the 70s. What ever happened to him? All my 70s poetry was influenced by him. He was one of the central influences in my life. Thank God for your website!

Fine website. Takes a lot of work, doesn’t it? The photo on the News page looks exactly like a concert I saw at the Wiskey A go-go. I did shot several photos there, and Beefheart didn’t like seeing a camera pointed at him, and had the stage lights turned WAY down. I ended up with several etheric 3-second-exposure images that worked quite well.

What this world needs is a good two-dollar broom and a good CAPTAIN BEEFHEART TRIBUTE BAND.I remember there was a band in upstate New York called Men and Volts (Duplex Planet editor David Greenberg was the bass-player I believe), who started out as an all-out Beefheart tribute band but, finding it difficult to get gigs that way, soon turned toward writing their own material and put out a few very good albums. But yes, I know I am only one of many who would love to be able to go out to some club and hear a band rip through at least one solid set of Beefheart material…but only if they did it right – not taking the easy way out and just doing stuff from “Safe as Milk” and “Clear Spot,” but also a decent percentage of finger-twisting exercises like “My Human Gets Me Blues” and and “Hair Pie” as well. I would love to be able to take my lady love by the hand and escort her out into the dancefloor to adapt our salsa cha-cha steps to something pretty and lyrical like “Ella Guru” or “Hot Head.” If there are any Beefheart tribute bands out there (especially in the greater Chicago area), could you please speak up and make your presence known on this message board, so lady love and I can come out to hear you? I’ll make sure she remembers to wear her brand-new cha cha pumps.

This is the place I visit most in the Internet. I grow up with The Captain, he is like a family member to me.

My arms were just two things in the way until I wrapped them around this site. Flash Gordon’s Ape lives in my neighbours yard…

Am I related to this Beefheart guy?

“The Stars are matter, We’re all matter, but it doesn’t matter…” I wish I’d said that. Anyone elase read Zoot Horn Rollo’s book. Any comments?

Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band were the last bleeding gums of my childhood! My swim trunk of yearning…. Yes! Love, Frank

The genius of Van Vliet is omnipresent in my mind. In 1991 I formed a band, Ant Man Bee, after the trout mask song and we have been a staple of the Columbia MO, music scene for many years. Playing at the Blue Note we have opened up for bands such as Ween, Blue Meanies, and King missle. Our sound is an inspired hybrid of poetry, noise sculpture, and rockin boogie woogie. All hail the Captain!

I don’t usually waste my phone bills writing to phantom screens, but as we’re talking about the great man himself. How much will the boxset be on both c.d and vinyl? Will there ever be a better album than Shiny beast? And has there ever been a beefheart tribute c.d (you know, everyone’s favourite contemporary pop stars reworking beefheart material)? I ask this last one not through a will to buy one but to beg anyone out there thinking about it to include my electronic grinding, snarling cover of White Jam.

I’ve really enjoyed the Radar Station and visit it almost daily. There is so much info on the Beef, that I am slowly trying to absorb it all. I was curious if any other bands have done “cover tunes” of the Capt’s music? I was 14 years old when Clear Spot came out and have been a fan ever since. Keep up the great work and I will continue to visit this awesome page. I’m new to computers and slowly learning. I will pass this site on to my fellow “Beefladites” thanks a lot – SNOTTY DICK

Like a squid eating dough in a polyethylene bag your site is essential.

Hoping against hope that this might be read by the man himself, I leave the only words worth leaving: thank you….

Pleased as punch to discover this site from advance cassettes and notes from the upcoming RHINO anthology, THE DUST BLOWS FORWARD. Heard that the Captain was not in the best of health. I hope this is just blarney. I enjoyed my almost-interview with Don in the early ’80s, and am hoping to re-visit it for kernels of corn in a piece for STEREOPHILE, text space willing. My love to you all, site managers, Beefheart fans, the Captain and his beloved Tennile (yeah, that was lame…sue Egypt). Miss your music, Don, but glad you got out of the music business with your brain pan intact and returned to your first love, which afforded you the respect and (hopefully) the financial return to stay focused in the creative moment. Hoping your are not under duress, I remain your friend and fan, Chip Stern/Contributing Editor, STEREOPHILE

Back in the 70’s, a thoughtful concert promoter slotted my bro-in-law’s Beatles cover/showband as Don’s opener at a US show. His audience hurling abuse and other things, Don walked on and insisted they show some manners or else! Hearing of this, I was impressed with his class and sought out his music. Life was never the same.

long comes this lalloid and lampy. you know the rest table dancing course, sign up, don and jan and arthurly. diddywahdiddy, lick your stamps, you know what happens next, here we are again, plain brown envelope, peach in each back pocket, don and jan are reading now, ice cream for don.

amazing web site im a big fan of the captain only been hooked up to the net recently – i might even make this my home page

I met him in Trinidad, a small town north of Arcata Calif. in 1973 -74 after I had seen a concert of his at Winterland in San Francisco where he 2nd billed to the Mahavishnu Orchestra. What a concert that was, but only two pics of the Captain. I was going to school at Humboldt State university when I saw him pull up to the Trinidad Post Office in his Hudson – what a car! I shook his hand and asked him if he was Captain Beefheart. After exchanging a few words, I told him I really appreciated his music and that I saw him at Winterland. Is it possible to write the Captain now? I certainly would love to tell him personally what a great influence he had on my life. I remember listening to Dr. Dark on acid in a treehouse I made in the san Mateo hills (SF Bay Area) when I just graduated from high school about the 70-71 time frame with two good friends of mine. One is dead, the other is a right-wing Christian fundamentalist zealot. They didn’t appreciate Beefheart the way I did, so I turned out this way, and they turned out that. Hello Ryk!

At last, an oasis. I was drowning in sand

Marvelous site. I had no idea of ‘Grow Fins’ nor its possibilities – hope my steady stream o’ drool don’t wash me away. Also the Radar Station music is better than Peel on the BBC these days

My first time was that glow-limned image staring out at me from the cover of THE SPOTKIGHT KID. “Interesting,” I thought and bought the disc sound unheard. Yeow. What a revelation. Every note and every emote changed everything. I never heard anyone’s music the same afterwards. By the time I saw him and TMB at the Whisky I had backtrack-collected the whole current catalog. When the lights flared and the band launched into “Moonlight on Vermont” I was exploded / blown / flabbergasted / gone / giggled / grinning-like-a-fool. That night I saw the Grail. There is not and will not and cannot be anything as great and gripping-grand as the Captain and his muse. I’m as American Christmas morning greedy as anyone and wish that new music still poured out like so much fractured water. I know better; nothing human lasts. But I will always tell my grateful tales, trying to find words to do justice to CB/DVV’s singular art.

Music just would’nt be the same without him. He shines like a diamond in the mud of monotony.

This site is indispensable. And the mailing list is great anyone who like this site should be on the mailing list. Thanks Graham.

thumbnailed in silence, i often sift through these pixels in glory that i had been introduced to don. thanks for the website. incidently, i record quite a bit using a vintage webcor mic. tra la tra la!

Beefheart is the absolute best. Ever since I read a review of Lick My Decals off Baby in Rolling Store mag. by Lester Bangs in 1970.Followed up buying the LP. I was hooked. No-one has ever compaired with Captain Beefheart. I has an extensive range and taste in music. Nevertheless, I’ve found nothing as gripping as cb&tmb. Period! Lov on Ya; Frank

Great site. When I see mummy … Congrats from many beefheartians in Croatia …

If not for Zappa and those select “perfectly” brilliant albums by Don I would be a musical idiot. At age ten I bought my first LP, Bongo Furry. Later, two weeks to the day, as the store phreak promised, I purchased a pristine used copy of ‘Trout’…… damn! Never been the same since. May your god be with both of you, Don & Jan…….Thank you. This is the only site of its kind. It has given me more pleasure than anything on the web(cor). Without Don/Zappa and so few others, I would not have made music my religion. This site deserves some presidential awards! p.s. I ADORE THE PAINTINGS GALLERY! looks like ‘Trout’ sounds!

There ain’t no Santa Claus, after all. But at least we were warned. Check out my Lonnie Johnson track.

40 year old Captain fanatic. I’ve been listening for 27 years faithfully. I would really like to get Don’s autograph. The site is wonderful and everything looks great. I would like to see more photos though and what about a screensaver of Don’s art. Great Job!!

Sorry I’m late. I absolutely cannot believe what I’m seeing! I don’t believe in god, but this is as close as it’s gotten. Talk about a resurrection. The best web experience I’ve had to date. Thanks. I could hardly believe my eyes watching that BBC Mothers video. Motorhead Sherwood, Bunk Gardner, Roy Estrada, the entire original crew isn’t it? I tell ya, I was transported.

My word! What a great Beefheart page, frankly the man deserves no less than the best. Looking forward to the box-set – its gonna be BULBOUS baby!

This site is brilliant! When I first heard Frank Zappa’s music, I thought he was strange, but Beefheart is even stranger, and really great… I became his fan immediately after listening one second of his music …

If Don is our moon to a flea then p’haps that’s why it looks like a dandylion. Yes I too measure my lack of thought and strength of heart against the Magic Band scales. I can still remember each Beefheart awakening oh so vividly: Trout Mask at Ian’s flat in Exeter,UK, the whole sense of ecological urgency in Smithsonian Inst. Blues, Blabber and Smoke and so many others, singing Dust Blows Forewards… at all the Mike Watt and Frank Black gigs like we were condemned, drunken prophet pirates screaming the skeleton key to the rest of the crowd, or every time I tried to perform Blabber and Smoke I would choke-up with tears and my throat would constrict with emotion untill I finally realized that the way to do the song was with Don’s million-miles of gravel road voice to plow through explode his vital words on numb ears…and many more. Why is it that in the “land of the free” a voice so visionary and true is kept such a secret and yet is such an underlying principle in popular culture? I have been known to give public lectures on the philosophies of Zappa and I am beginning to see a golden thread that binds not only Don’s work but also that of Joni Mitchell, Beck Hanson, Yoko Ono, Albert Einstein, Lou Reed, Alan Ginsberg, Frank Zappa, Harry Smith, Firesign Theatre, Rick Rubin, Sun Ra, Lord Buckley, John Peel,…Graham Johnston, etc, etc… a yearning for people to wake up to a grand unification theory – not wanting to catorgorize for fear of leaving out the truth and thereby accepting anything as a way to “rock-on,” “get yer ya yas out,” or for the baby to be “booglarized.” I could go on and on but instead I’ll faithfully let everyone else say what needs to be said. Thank you Don and all the Magic Bands and thank you all for leaving such needed words of grace and excitement. Yes the world is smiling a little brighter because of this endevour.

I blue no more!!!

“So this is a drive-in restaurant in Hollywood……” Excellent site!!! I’ve already spent much time here and will continue to spend more. Many accolades to the mastermind behind it all!!!

Just found this site. Only one German entry in this guetsbook-unbelievable because the Captain still remains one of the greatest musicians, believe me. I’m nearly 50 years old and still a Captain fan, but Hendrix is my favourite. The Captain is rather unkown in Germany, though my nephew’s got all his records. Greetings from Germany -RR. I’ll put a link on my homepage.

It’s nice to know that “it did to me and it (obviously) did it to you”. Love it. Sang along on stage with the Captain in Phoenix back in’73. Still consider TMR the best of anything ever recorded. Back in my communal living days, for a period of about 8 months, Trout Mask was the the only music played! Was fortunate enough to see the Captain and band three times; the aforementioned Phoenix, at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago and at a club in Minneapolis. As for the Captain – if your’re listening “it’s alright, God dug your dance…”. Thank you.

Congratulations on a site where Beefheart devotees can gather and enjoy the good Captain’s great body of work. Representing the quiet and select, up to now disjointed but soon to be counted Mexican Magic Band mates, rest assured that I’ll be back, and not alone. Been a devotee since 1969, when I heard Strictly Personal on the same college radio program I later did for years, before joining the now dormant Mexican Van Vliet inspired band Natabeafh. Later, since I will never leave!

Awesome.Kandy Korn touches my soul like no other…. If you know the captain you know where i’m at

I’ve spent the last few years trying to track down a CD of ‘Lick my decals off!’ Not only do I find it here, but it is merely a small part of a wonderfully rich site. A great tribute to the man! Who ever is behind the Radio Show should be complemented on great set of selections.

Wonderful site. Very complete. I am amazed at the number of young artists/musicians who continue to be influenced by TMR. I only wish more film existed of the live shows. May the match always strikes blue on the railroad rail.

Briliant web site somewhere for old farts to play

Don’s the man.Thats all there is to say.

ian & alex say hello,was that trex i saw on the back of your wife’s horse, sheriff?

My Budgie and I have been fans since just before Yellow Brick Road was released. We’ve seen you live at Harpo’s in Detroit about ’80.Thank you for all the pleasure and mystery that you’ve given us!!

I was priveleged to meet the man in Liverpool about `71, He`d been told he couldn`t take his Art on board the plane so he painted about 9 new paintings on the way over! I went to see them at the Bluecoat Chambers in the `Pool, only wish I could of bought one. At the gig he was wheeled on in a wheelchair! We recorded the gig on a primitive tape deck but it still sounds great today.