Here at the Radar Station we were saddened to learn of the death of Elliot Ingber on 21st January, he was 83.
This is Don’s simple but expressive sketch of ‘Mean E’ taken from the cover of The Spotlight Kid album also included this poetic sketch, also by Don :
No B.O. for this boy
it’s like a winged eel fingerling
crawling thru lime jello
it’s like chrome black eyebrow
rolled out real long
a paper brow magnifying glass
fried brown, edge scorched, yoked
like a squeak from a speaker
behind forehead of the time,
licorice schtick open tube of
valuable JuJuBees.
Our short tribute to this eccentric character and brilliant guitarist is below. You can also follow these links to read further tributes :
Please check back later as we hope to add further tributes from Rick Snyder, and Elliot’s brother, Ira.
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A short look at Elliot’s career with the Magic Band
Known in the Beefheart fraternity by his Magic Band alias, Winged Eel Fingerling, Elliot made his mark on a number of Don’s songs. He first came to Don’s attention when he was a member of the Mothers of Invention, they bonded over a mutual love of blues and Don did consider him for a while as a replacement for Ry Cooder.
In 1969 Elliot was recorded jamming with Zappa, Don and John French on Alley Cat (lyrics improvised by Don) :
Elliot’s involvement with the Magic Band didn’t begin until after the release of the Lick My Decals Off Baby album when he toured regularly with the band as a second guitarist during 1970, 1971 and 1972.
A shy and unassuming character Elliot would always seem to hiding at the back of the stage. Somewhat eccentric and a bit of a space cadet, he once famously played several songs of the set without his amp turned on.
He was in and out the Magic Band during those years as he didn’t always enjoy playing the music and on tour wasn’t always able get his preferred macrobiotic food.
In the studio with the Magic Band, although he wasn’t keen on learning or developing new material, he did make his mark on a number of Beefheart’s songs. He created that stonking riff for I’m Gonna Booglarize You Baby and the mind-blowing solo on Alice in Blunderland – the only Magic Band musician allowed to improvise by Don. He also did the musical arrangement for Golden Birdies (typically without credit from Don), convincing Don that that was how he should do it – so, at times, it seems he wasn’t quite so shy and could be assertive and maybe Don was willing to listen to him because they were a similar age.

The weird promotional film for the Decals album was all Elliot’s idea.
On the 1974 album, Bluejeans & Moonbeams Elliot even managed to get a co-writing credit on one of the better cuts on that lacklustre effort, Observatory Crest. His brother, Ira, played bass on several of the tracks.
After a break from the band he rejoined in 1975, taking part in the Knebworth festival and Roxy shows, with Greg Davidson on guitar, in July and then on the US, UK and European tours, with Denny Walley on guitar, at the end of the year. He then left the band again, not wanting to learn the new material for the planned Bat Chain Puller album and was replaced by Jeff Moris Tepper.

During the 1975 tour whenever any photographs were taken of the band Elliot would either have his back to the camera, have a bag over his head or conceal his face behind a convenient sign. Presumably he was on welfare and registering as unemployed and didn’t want the powers-that-be to know that he was out of the country and working!

I am not aware of any interviews with Elliot apart from the very short one that appears on the 2006 DVD Under Review : Captain Beefheart. Sitting in a car Elliot explains how Alice in Blunderland came about :
I dunno what the idea of the song was before that, all I know is that Zoot Horn Rollo came to me and said that Captain Beefheart wanted me to play on this particular track. The rhythm section, the bass and the drums, I thought were wonderful. It was a set deal, all I had to do was play the guitar.
It was a little longer than what came out on the record and I thought it was too long, and you know, I opened my mouth and said ‘this is going on too long’. For what’s there was cut down from a longer piece, not much longer but just to the point where, at the time guitarists solos were just kind of, like, you know what I mean, getting a bit much. So that thing was cut down a little bit to, like, get it more short and to the point than it was.
I thought it did what it did.

Nice piece! I used to drift off listening to Alice in Blunderland. Hypnotised.
RIP.