whatever the relationship
between
the music of don van vliet (captain beefheart) and new wave,
it must be
more than coincidence that after fifteen years as a largely
ignored but
legendary eccentric, he is making music that is as strong and
strange as
any he has ever made, and is receiving more recognition than
ever before.
captain beefheart has always represented the final frontier of
rock weirdness,
but his vintage records were only taken seriously by a few at
the time
of their release. few critics - langdon winner foremost among
them - tried
to negotiate the maze of the music's roots and the essence of
beefheart's
ability to transform the elements of pop music into an
otherworldly language.
the first magic bands, which
recorded
'safe as milk' (1967), 'strictly personal' (1968) and
'mirror man' (recorded
1967, released 1971), were wild electric blues outfits that
presented in
pop / psychedelic form the contorted guitar rifts and
growling vocals that
are the essentials of beefheart's music. but it wasn't until
van vliet
was assured complete artistic freedom on frank zappa's
straight records
that he fully realized his conception.
he composed the twenty-eight
tunes for
'trout mask replica' in one day at the piano, and then spent
a year at
his home, teaching the material to his new band which
included drumbo (john
french) and antennae jimmy semens (jeff cotton) from the old
group as well
as zoot horn rollo (bill harkleroad), rockette morton (mark
boston) and
the mascara snake (victor haydon). with zappa producing they
recorded the
double-album masterpiece, beefheart laying down the vocals
without headphones
to hear the backing tracks.
the crucial difference between
'trout
mask replica' and the earlier records was beefheart's total
control
over the band. a band usually works off the lowest common
denominator,
the beat; but a blues singer, with just a guitar for
accompaniment, can
break up the beat according to the jerks and starts of his
feeling. this
is how a robert johnson or a son house would render a song,
with the whims
of the wrist offering spontaneous counterpoint to the
vagabond voice.
through note-for-note composing
of all
the instrumental parts beefheart was able to orchestrate
this process,
and that is the magic of the magic band. rather than work as
individuals
off a common pulse, they move, by a combination of fascism
and telepathy,
through the captain's personal rhythms. in this way he
arranged four or
five different melodic compliments, worming around each
other within the
twisted unison of his jagged musical motion. though one can
readily identify
rock and roll in the electric instruments, delta blues in
the vocals and
slide guitars, surrealism in the lyrics, and free jazz in
the horn solos,
the juxtaposition and recombination of these elements is so
original that
the whole process of classification is thwarted. and one can
understand
why a genius of this magnitude dismisses the question
of influences.
the classically-minded mallet
work of
ed marimba (art tripp) was the added element that broadened
beefheart's
palette on 'lick my decals off baby', a more concise and
lucid distillation
of the 'trout mask replica' style. personnel shifts,
stylistic changes
and a gradual attempt at commercialization of beefheart's
sound by various
producers characterized the next few albums until the magic
band broke
up after the hopelessly compromised 'unconditionally
guaranteed' in 1974.
'the spotlight kid' (1972) saw
beefheart
introduce keyboards [no way! - t.t.], revert from saxophone
to harp and
a bluesier feel, and top the sound with stinging guitar
leads by winged
eel fingerling (elliot ingber). oréjon (roy estrada), of the
mothers
of invention and little feat, took over bass and rockette
morton moved
to guitar for clear spot (1972). the album featured a horn
section, backup
vocalists and some gorgeous ballads, and achieved a unique
beefheartian
rhythm and blues, rhythmically sparked and well produced.
it wasn't until six years later
[i think
early 1974 till summer 1975 is a bit shorter - t.t.] when a
new magic band
was formed, again from former fans, again with beefheart in
total control
of every note, that he recovered his complex excellence. the
band's first
elpee, 'shiny beast (bat chain puller)' in 1978, was
recorded with a presence
and clarity that none of the earlier albums had. the
combination of tripp's
marimba, eric feldman's keyboards and bruce fowler's
trombone woven through
the revitalized two guitar riffing (by richard redus and
jeff tepper) redefined
the sound.
now the band's newest record 'doc
at the
radar station' refocuses the central angular guitars of
tepper and drumbo
in stark relief. produced completely by beefheart and done
mostly without
overdubs, horns and percussion pared down to a few integral
colorations,
the two slashing guitars etch out a rough surface.
mellotron, synthesizer,
french horn and piano offer symphonic relief like an
orchestra phasing
in and out of the airwaves with the band. there are two
brief instrumentals,
a solo guitar piece and a duet for guitar and piano.
beefheart hasn't worked with such
spare
materials since the similar tracks on 'trout mask replica'
and 'lick my
decals off, baby', and his vocals are more spirited than
ever. while jazzy
bass clarinet and marimba dance around modernist orchestral
passages on
the album's final cut 'making love to a vampire with a
monkey on my knee'
he delivers his most powerful line ever: 'god, please fuck
my mind for
good.' for the uninitiated this 'doc at the radar station'
may accomplish
just that.
spending time with don van vliet
isn't
much different from listening to his music: he opens his
mouth and you're
on acid. i interviewed him at the home of gary lucas, who
plays 'flavor
bud living', the solo guitar piece on the album, and his
wife ling, who
is beefheart's manager. while we waited for don and his wife
jan to arrive
i was entertained with beefheart outtakes, a great one from
'clear spot'
that should have been on the album and one from 'the
spotlight kid' that
rightfully wasn't. i was shown a tv commercial for 'lick my
decals off,
baby' which was banned because someone thought the title was
obscene. i
also saw some of beefheart's artwork, including a drawing
done in the dark
during a performance of the peking opera.
*
the interview began while
everyone was
talking and at various times ling, gary and jan joined the
conversation.
gossip, man. tape.
funny how everybody stops
talking.
do you blame us? after nixon? yeah,
he scared
me. he was so hip... well, i don't know. i don't like the
imitation of
ed sullivan that much .... that was it, man! ed sullivan was a
funny cat...
okay, ask me a weird question.
no, let's not start with the
weird questions.
(phone
rings.)
that song i did is right, isn't it?
'telephone'?
yeah...: 'plastic horned devil!'
let's see,
i'll show you.... i mean, really! (picks up receiver and
replaces it
upside down.) look at this!
gary lucas: 'it's like a
plastic horned
devil - a grey udder'.
great album, by the way.
oh, thank you. it is good, isn't it?
i think
maybe the best i've done.
a lot of people are saying that
---
no, but... the best i've done....
i'm not
even done.... finally hit a clear spot. i did the whole
thing... everything;
and that's the way it should be because that's a true
representation of
that band.
but it's not the first album you
produced
yourself. you did 'lick my decals off, baby' yourself.
oh, yeah. yeah, i even fired
somebody when
i did that.
who?
dick....
kunc?
kunc... i had to. i mean, i can't go
back
to the past. i haven't any idols and what i do is what i do.
anything else
doesn't work. isn't that odd?
yeah, you've often said you don't
have
many influences.
none.
you must've in the beginning.
no.
but the early magic band was a
very blues-based
thing.
but i don't.... well, 'electricity'
is blues,
you know: singing through you to me / thunderbolts caught
easily / shouts
the truth peacefully / electricity. blues is obvious.
'china pig'.
'china pig' was... you know what
that's about?
it's about a human being, how fragile a human being is. i mean
the body
as opposed to all the forces. i mean... it isn't easy. have
you ever been
injured?
yeah, i got hit by a bus....
ooooh man!... glad you made it.
really?
that's why you don't live in the
city,
right?
i don't live in the city because i
don't
need all those extraneous noises. they just absolutely... - i
mean, i feel
like a puppet, you know.... my ears, i've developed my ears,
or they were
developed and here i am with them. look at that! three and a
half inches
long, man! so it traps a lot of...: trouble.
i wanted to ask you about 'clear spot'.
did you intend to do sort of a rhythm and blues record and
get ted templeman
[the
producer - t.t.] with that in mind, or did he come
and lay his arrangement
thing on top of what you did?
