My perspective will be different than most who knew Elliot as was in the band for just a few weeks in 1975, the Knebworth
band, Soundstage Show public television and the Roxy, Hollywood. I also did some recorded jams with Beefheart, Jimmy
Carl Black, Elliot and myself.
He was a serious guy. He worked hard on his guitar parts to be exact. I sometimes switched back and forth between guitar
parts from the albums. Elliot never complained about having to then switch his guitar parts.
One night I stayed at Elliot’s home. He had a lot of dental floss strands draped over a door knob, don’t know if he cut them to be that length or if they came like that.
We played some Beefheart albums so he could listen/learn the parts. He said, “Hey Tweezer Head, figure my part out.” I though he was insulting me, maybe about the shape of my head, but he said no, it was because I was good at picking out the parts. As you probably know, he was allowed to play freely on “Alice In Blunderland”. It was all improv, but he wanted to play it like the record. I asked him “Isn’t that you playing on the record?” He said yes, but he couldn’t figure it out. That was the thing with playing with the Magic Band — you had to play it just like the record or people wouldn’t believe that was the way it was written. With an improv it’s obviously not written.
When he slept it was on the floor in a sleeping bag. I could only see his head and his beard flopped over the outside of the bag. I woke up in the morning and he was out there sun gazing. “Vitamin D, man.” He then told me “Don’t get any grass
clippings on the floor
He was a good band mate, but he was always pretty serious. He never complained to me.
I talked on the phone with him years later. He did not have email, as he didn’t want to be traced or something like that. We talked guitars and he said he really wanted a Gibson Les Paul TV 1958. The yellow one. So I mentioned I just watched a Youtube video about Mike Bloomfield’s 59 Les Paul. Elliot said Bloomfield called him up once to play guitar with him as Mike was going to play piano. And he said he used Mike’s Les Paul. Yes, THAT Les Paul, THE Les Paul, the Magic Les Paul with the sweet tones. I said WOW, of course. Elliot said, “Man, it was really a piece of shit! “Guess he didn’t like it. I felt better after that. I wouldn’t have to go seeking that guitar to buy it or just play it.
I wish I could have seen him again.