Here you will find streaming audio files which make up a full interview which took place in California, July 1969, between Don Van Vliet and Meatball Fulton.

Divided into 5 parts, each part is just over 20 minutes long for your convenience. You may occasionally hear sentences abruptly clipped due to the original tape running out in the machine recording the conversation. I doubt there is a more complete audio version of this interview available anywhere.

This is a fascinating interview, with Don making a startling succession of inspired observations about music, art, drugs, literature, human society, nature etc etc. I tip my hat to Mr Fulton for somehow managing to keep the whole thing together.

This interview was was very kindly sent to me by Scott McFarland - many thanks to him indeed.

• Part one - (24 minutes 26 seconds)
• Part two - (21 minutes 37 seconds)
• Part three - (24 minutes 36 seconds)
• Part four - (20 minutes 48 seconds)
• Part five - (10 minutes 45 seconds

A 24 minute segment of this interview was released as a white-sleeved promo only album, featuring Beefheart on one side, and Ry Cooder on the other. Have a look at the track titles on these two scans (kindly sent to me by Dixigas) and tell me which side you'd rather listen to!