captain beefheart interview - let's hope the hip people choose life instead of death on their hip (england late march 1972)

from musiczine england 1 february(?) and 1 april(?) 1981 MOONLIGHT DRIVE #1/81 and #2/81
by phil maltman
is 23, 27 and 28 march 1972 interview

note:
* longer transcription published in fall 1994 as 'let's hope the hip people choose life instead of death on their hip' on website PHILIPMALTMAN.com
* slightly edited introduction and text

while 'the spotlight kid' captain beefheart was touring england in 1972 he had some chats with phil maltman around the time of his concerts at the albert hall in london. phil never published this interview and it seems a shame not to do so now [late fall 1980], at the time of beefheart's reappearance in this country.

real good, yeah, we've had a lot of nice talks. also i enjoyed the people last night, i really did. i did have a little trouble with the fact that there was only one microphone on the stage.

i have heard that when everybody asks for more, you would whistle the tune 'more'?

no, because i really feel that - well, like, i don't need to come back on, but if they wanna be the switchmen for a little while, i'll let them do it. i must admit i enjoyed coming back, but i don't believe in comebacks. i am always a never was; there ain't no never the same - do you know what i mean? i mean, i've never seen the sun setting, i've seen it móving.... i have set on my ass a lot, too much in my lifetime, but i know the sun has never had a day off. they try to pretend it's an off day or something, but every day of my life has been really nice, even though i haven't always admitted it.

and done hundreds of paintings and so on. what's your working day like..., or just a day....

i don't work though, i just play.... the same thing i did when i was a child. i would go out and play and, all of a sudden, i would be interrupted in the garden, seeing butterflies as big as my eyes..... somebody saying 'it's time to come to dinner' or 'come on to dinner'. when i wasn't hungry i would stay longer, if i was i would go eat, that's what my day was like.

eureka...: that's where the rabbits go two miles an hour and the trees walk right into the ocean - the redwoods.

bill harkleroad (aka zoot horn rollo - t.t.) was telling me about the whales.

oh yeah, the whales cleaning their barnacles out there - and they sing! a fellow named mike tierson recorded that and gave me a copy.... but i had heard that a long time ago.... like, the other night i got on that horn with ed marimba (real name: art tripp), you know, at the end there or whatever it was. anyway, i was playing my horn with him on that 'spitball scalped a baby' and i felt i was communicating with not only people but...: dolphins and whales.

i feel that i sound like a whale.... i definitely think that those things are very intelligent. they are not going to find out how intelligent they are by cutting into their brains, and all that bullshit that the scientists do under the auspices of inserting a ruler into their way of life.

i would never allow anyone to insert a ruler into my way of life - that's all i haven't done, that's what an artist does: rebut, but not rebut too much. i mean, i don't give a damn, i think they're all disconnected or they wouldn't want to do things like that...

a monkey, you know, is a smart animal. why can't man be as smart as a monkey? you have never seen a monkey try to operate on a man's mind, but you have seen men try to operate on a monkey's mind - that's ridiculous man. i don't want anybody messing with my mind, and i don't want to be the monkey that monkeys with a monkey's mind.

that's interesting what you say about tampering with people's minds. from what you say i shouldn't think you have much faith in art schools.

not much, not really. but i think some people need those things to get them going after they have been stopped by themselves, you see?

but just things like, you say your working day is play..., they don't take that kind of attitude....

then they are very retarded art schools. if they were the other way, it would be nice, man.

i know you didn't go to art school, but are there any in the united states that you know or have seen?

mine, i think.... i mean, with zoot horn rollo and rockette morton (mark boston) teaching me, and me teaching them, us playing together..., well, i thought it was awful nice, it should have been filmed. but frank zappa - i was on his ('straight') label at the time - i begged him to film a day's activity at the house.

i couldn't get the money myself.... he didn't even give us any amplifiers till three days before we did 'trout mask replica'. i told him, i said: 'excuse yourself, move aside and allow me to go onto a label which - rather than buying bullets for vietnam - can afford to let this be seen'. and at that time i was willing to conduct that school, as well as all of us. but not now. now i'm putting my art out myself, you see?

but i think it's all right on that album, i think that that's a definite way, a very important contribution to the world, very free and open. i wrote it in eight and a half hours. words and music, and there was no thought in it other than the playing of it. come to find out that the damn words aren't on it over here (don means the absence of the lyric sheet to the british pressing - teejo)!... people paid money for that album and got an incomplete album!... i would like to do something about that.

that's because of the 'straight' label. that's because he didn't want those words out there. he wanted to hold me back.

well, he's not an artist and i ám. you can understand it: i mean, they have always tried to put artists in a line.... there is no way i can walk a straight line, there is no such thing as a straight line. all nature is a circle, and he is a jerk in a circle, a circle jerk. he's a jerk. he said he discovered me: he didn't discover me, man, my mother gave birth to me.... not that mother, you know: 'mothers of invention' (the band frank zappa once was part of - teejo)...

all the time right now.... no, no..., i got a lot of books and i will be sure to send you one, without money or anything like that. some people are going to have to pay for it...: we have to eat.

one is called 'old fart at play', which is a novel, a humorous novel, not a novelty, no tees or squares or rulers or designs.... it's just - it's funny. i hope nobody takes it seriously: too much drug attention on it makes it into another pill....

that's one thing, the drug thing. i know how you feel about it, but does that ever stop you getting into people's music or writing because they have been using drugs?

no, no, not at all. but i don't particularly care to be around people who are on poison. poison pen letters aren't all that palatable to me, because it is against my system. i really don't think people need poison to distort, or whatever they want to do to their imagination.

i don't think it is necessary.... as a matter of fact, i think it is a hindrance. (jimi) hendrix (famous guitarist who died from drugs - teejo) certainly proved that...: he had so much to give, it was so good, it was too bad he never got off that. i would like to hear him now, in person, wouldn't you? i would, i mean that.

he was very much an entertainer in the same way as you are on stage. he held all that and he had so much, it just...

that is terrible man. i mean, it doesn't dilute the art for me, but i must admit - when i think about it - it seems a shame that someone that artistic would have to poison himself. whether he was forced to it by social fads or....

it must be difficult for you and the band to avoid people who smoke and take...--

not really, but i don't mind.... i mean, marijuana is a weed, let's face it. it's a weed and an excess of anything is harmful, but it doesn't freeze one's blood like hard narcotics. myself, i smoke occasionally, more occasionally than i should, but i am now beginning to cut down. but it's not that good to smoke, i don't think it's that good to put any emphasis, you know.... psychologically pot may be harmful because people say: 'that's my imagination.'

i notice they are holding up a joint like this as something new, and as i've said so often: i think that nów the joint has become part of the human anatomy. that may have been written before, i don't know - i don't read that much - but i say myself that if a joint has gotta be a part of the human anatomy, i don't think it is possible. the leader that runs out of the back of your leg is your leader, makes you move - not marijuana, you would be walking anyway. so why put that much emphasis in this day and age on one thing, is it to avoid everything else..., or what?

i suppose it is to make it respectable, like they try to make captain beefheart 'respectable' by saying your new album 'the spotlight kid' is a lot simpler and easier to get into than the rest.

i don't think it is any different, do you? i think it's even more raging than the others, and the feeling in the group is stronger and warmer than all the others. i don't think it was commercial, although it is palatable, it seems. i thought 'trout mask replica' should have been the most commercial thing that ever happened.

well, i think i should have been put across a lot better before. like i said, 'trout mask replica' was very important. you said: 'is there a school?' thát was a school. like a school of fish, swallowed by judas... - i'm just kidding.

the next album is 'brown star' (but eventually became 'clear spot' - p.m.). can you tell us something about it?

on that album 'big eyed beans from venus' is one thing: 'don't let anything get between us' - meaning to love people.... you know, big eyes as opposed to... (narrows eyes). another song is 'blue..., er..., sómething' ('her eyes are a blue million miles'? - teejo).

what happened to antennae jimmy semens (jeff cotton), the mascara snake (victor haydon) and drumbo (john french)?

well, my cousin is the mascara snake, so i'm in contact with him.... he is painting, and he is thinking about having a band of his own, though i wish he would do it and not think about it: he has always thought too much.

that's really funny. i mean, playing with us three years with rockette morton and zoot horn rollo and myself, a year and a half with ed marimba, and then just leaving.... but who is to question why? who is to walk after a cat?... all of a sudden you are petting a cat and it just leaves...!

i mean, where does it go? he wanted to leave; i can't say: 'you stay here!' - i don't have contracts with musicians. i really think he made a sad mistake.... i mean, it is sad when people want to hear him and now he's not playing.

although, i'm gonna tell you something. i wrote every drum part he ever played, every one of them.