Hey Captain, I Dig Your Tweed Coat

Alex Waterhouse-Hayward took this photograph of Don Van Vliet wearing a Harris Tweed jacket in Vancouver during the last days of the final Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band tour in January 1981.

Two more of Alex’s photographs of Don can be seen at Alex’s website. I particularly like the concert shot which shows Don in eyeball to eyeball contact with a member of the audience who had had too much to think.

Many thanks to Alex Waterhouse-Hayward for allowing us to reproduce his photograph here.

Hot Head at the High School Talent Show
A spirited rendition of Hot Head was recently performed at Daphne High School Talent Show by Safe in a Ditch, a trio of 15 and 16 year olds.

Despite evident appreciation from one sector of the audience, Safe in a Ditch failed to be placed by the Daphne judges. Nothing daunted, a video of their performance was then put up at YouTube where real connoisseurs can come to their own conclusions about whether these boys have talent.

I asked Bradley Bittinger, one of the two guitarists with Safe in a Ditch, to tell me about their choice of material.

We chose Hot Head mainly because we all liked it, and it seems to “rock” a bit more than the other Beefheart songs we thought we were capable of playing. Another factor that influenced the song choice was the 3 minute time limit for our performance. We all figured out our parts to the song by ear.

Bradley and James Wamble (who sings and also plays guitar on Hot Head) get together regularly to play music. Among other recordings at their MySpace page are a spontaneous jam to China Pig, and a version of Poofter’s Froth, Wyoming, Plans Ahead.

Time’s runnin’ out

This still is from Bernd Hansen’s stylish video for Captain Beefheart’s Click Clack [now removed from YouTube]. Catch this now before Mrs Grundy finds out about it. There is more from Bernd at his website.

Another Captain Beefheart tribute with a short life-span is The Black Keys cover of I’m Glad. This is downloadable only until Friday 9th May at The Black Keys MySpace page [now removed]. A video of The Black Keys live broadcast for KCRW includes another outing for their cover of Here I Am I Always Am at about 22’30”.

The Curable Interns (Special Beefheart Edition) announce another short shelf-life for their collection of covers and tributes at MySpace [now removed]. On April 22nd they said that this material would only be available “for a week or two”.

I’ve no idea how long video of five Mallard numbers from a 1976 German TV show will be available at Zapateers but from that broadcast One Day Once is now at YouTube.