Some of the greatest Beefheart photos were taken by Anton Corbijn,
who writes here. Originally appeared in Mojo Magazine, December
1993
I am a photographer who is a friend of Beefheart's, rather than
being an authority on him. When I met Beefheart on an NME assignment
in September 1980, I didn't know much about him at all. I met him
at the County Museum of Art in LA and suggested photographing him
in the desert, where he'd just come from. He said yes rather reluctantly,
and we drove for two-and-a-half hours. It helped that I could pronounce
his name properly. Once we'd found the spot to do the pictures,
he took off his hat for one shot only and then put it back on, saying,
My wife's not gonna like this.
I liked his eccentricity, and I also figured he was like a kid.
There's a lot of that in me, so we really got on. When he came to
England to tour for Ice Cream Far Crow, I photographed him again
and we spent some more time together. He didn't get on very well
with the tour manager, so they got me to take him to the gig at
The Venue. We made stupid, weird jokes, like this one time when
we were in a hotel talking about fish and chips and I said 'chish
and tips'. He loved that he still comes back to it. He remembers
everything, like this old Hell's Angel we saw when we were driving
out to the desert. He'll remind you about things like that 10 years
later.
I didn't get in touch for ages, but when I did my book, I asked
him if he'd do a painting for it. That was 1987, and I've been to
see him quite a few times since, especially when I was living in
LA. We still speak on an irregular basis.
He lives right on the ocean, and it's really beautiful. I've had
really good times with him there, just laughing and watching videos.
What I want to do with him now is make a film there, because I really
think there should be a record at him on film. I was really nervous
when I asked him, because I didn't want to abuse the friendship,
but he said he'd been waiting for me to ask! Now The Late Show has
approached me to be involved with a special on Beefheart, so it
looks as if I'll get to make my film about Don.
There's so much power in him, and it doesn't get around, despite
the fad that he's a successful painter now and is with a great gallery.
Certainly he's living a lot more comfortably off his paintings than
he did off his music. But his music is still so influential with
young bands, and people want to see what he's up to.
I think the key to Don is the combination of his genius and his
playfulness. He does love playing and seeing how people react. He's
very ecologically-minded, which is why he lives by the ocean. His
paintings are full of birds and animals. I heard that when he recorded
one album, he called in a tree surgeon to make sure the trees nearby
wouldn't be damaged by the sound. He's still like that. A guy got
attacked by a shark in the ocean near his house and his response
was that the guy shouldn't have been there!
Don and Jan are great together. She arranges everything for him,
because he's very bad with that. She keeps a good filing system
and that kind of thing. He still listens to a lot of music, even
though he'll never record again. He loved hearing his albums on
CD, because he'd never heard them clearly before. He still listens
to blues and jazz. I get calls from him and he'll say, Listen to
this, and I sit there listening to same song far 10 minutes!
I don't think my work with Don has influenced the way he's perceived
- it’s not like my work with U2. The picture with the hat happened
to became quite well-known, but it's not as if he never wanted to
be photographed by anyone else. There are a lot at other photos
around from that period. I remember in the Rolling Stone review
of Ice Cream For Crow they said, How can any artist put such a terrible
photo on a cover?!"