BILL HARKLEROAD TELEPHONE INTERVIEW

from 1 september 1994 england fanzine STEAL SOFTLY THRU SNOW #4
by john ellis
is ±12 january 1994 usa interview BILL HARKLEROAD

notes:
* held on the occasion of the 'beefheart remembrance day', an annual usa radio program around 15 january, don van vliet's birthday
* text smoothed and not all whos and whats and whys explained

part 1 - part 2 - part 3 - part 4 - THIS is PART 5

*

did you ever meet son house?

no.

i just think he's so incredible.

he was. another guy that's just great was bukka white: some of the earlier things i've heard.

and that robert pete williams album, that 'grown so ugly' comes off: that's just incredible.... is there anything you want to say to sum up your experiences? does it come out to a plus all together? are you glad you did all of it in retrospect?

this is kind of - probably unfair of me - like imagine what you did twenty some odd years ago. how could you even remember whether it was a plus or a minus? everything becomes a plus: a car runs over your leg and it hurts like hell, but the emotional growth that comes from it twenty years later: you go: 'jeez, i really grew from that'!

that which doesn't kill me, makes me stronger.

it's not something i would get in line to have happen to me. it was an excruciating experience, umm, most of the time, but i feel extremely fortunate that i was able to meet someone like ornette coleman or some of the people who were doing some - what was that guy's name? jean pierre hallé or something like that: lived with the pygmies.

that name sounds very familiar.

the guy who worked with the whales. salvador dali, harry partch - more the people who weren't rock 'n' roll people because i started off playing 'trout mask replica'.... rock 'n' roll went out the window in '68 for me, so it was more the chance to meet these people.

playing with various people was the good part of it. sure, i learned a hell of a lot about music in an artistic sense - not in any type of formal training; i had to do that later... but all in all it's strange now. i look at a high school yearbook picture of me and i can vaguely remember where my zits were - it's like 'what!'. it is really weird.

what's strange is that i still get phone-calls like you are calling me - i had three calls this month, you know, like it's getting bigger. it's like right now i should be getting royalties on all these albums.... he owes me money! he owes me money! he is supposed to pay us the percentage of the royalties for those things that are selling more now than they ever sold!... i mean, i manage a music store: i know how often we have to re-order - and this isn't people who know who i am.

when you were talking of the trouble with the mallard album - do you think he has been getting royalties?

sure, why wouldn't he? this is warner brothers records.

well, i don't know. when 'rolling stone' chose 'trout mask replica' as one of the fifty greatest albums ever made or something, they listed the sales. it was in print for virtually till ceedees came out: they said it had sold something like 100,000 copies....

right!, that's probably fairly accurate.

then why did they keep it in print? that is what i couldn't understand.

well, that's a good question. they didn't pay much for it: it's all profit. it costs them a dime to make the thing. i mean, we recorded it in one day - that's not a lot of studio time.

that's amazing.

we spent fifty or forty grand to record 'clear spot'. i mean, why did the 'warner brothers' have [the band] 'little feat'? they never made a dime on them till way late, they cost them money - there are certain 'critic gives them a good name' type of albums.

right. like they used to call those samplers 'loss leaders', almost like that.

absolutely. it's like this: 'we're cool, but we're going to pump out this pablum and sell it to make our money'.

i always wondered too. 'reprise records' was started by frank sinatra, he started the label, kind of his - i wouldn't say: vanity - label, since i'm sure they make money. i wondered, he must not have been involved with reprise by the time you all did your recordings - or are....

i can't imagine. who knows: at that level? to me the business at that level - now that i'm at the retail end of it, i'm working with it and really seeing it at a street level to where i see it as these huge conglomerates....

i mean, who knows if john giotti owns it or not, the mca label and the connection there with the mafia. i mean, it is just like they are this little bastard son of the movie business and it is just like this creepy little insidious little thing and they are just selling 'tide soap': there's no art involved in it at all.... don't think there ever has been.

i mean, there was some for me if i looked at ecm records of the seventies. man, they were doing some shit - those were real musicians playing free, just having some freedom to do some art; and they didn't make any money except for some keith jarrett albums.

yes, he has vanished commercially lately.

yes, he has been doing some classical stuff like shostakovich and some other things, so they're just selling shit. who knows, or almost who cáres you have just got to peek through the cracks and find things you like - it's kind of interesting.

one last thing: are you available? what are your new music aspirations?

nice way to put that!

was that clumsy enough?

no, it was very good, like a topped five iron golf shot. anyway, yeah, i'm for hire. send me money, give me a job! no, it's: i have been doing this bedroom midi thing for a while and before i get too old to get up, walk around and plug in an electric guitar, i'm thinking about: 'i would like to be doing some playing with human beings again'.

i don't necessarily miss playing in front of people who you know couldn't care less about the custodial musician on the stage, but playing with people actually getting paid a little bit to do that, would be a lot of fun. so i would be up for a gig. i even went so far as to answer the 'red hot chili peppers' vacancy advert, but i figure i wasn't young enough to be naked with tattoos....

well....

they called me back though!

they did, i'm sure.

they said: 'meet garth the roadie behind some building and he will see if you're cool or not...', and that's when i decided: 'no!'.

most people that i know of who are into captain beefheart are also big fans of the band individually, so maybe - well, new york, there you are! it's out there.

right, new york! oh, the big one.

yes, so maybe the big apple will bite you.

oh, oh. as long as they get me a safe little room - drive me around....

again: thanks very much for talking.

you bet.... yep.