captain beefheart electricity

OLD FART AT PLAY !
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saturday 22 november 1980 usa NEW YORK ny teevee saturday night live nbc studio


REPORT & PICTURE
gathered because of:

country AUSTRALIA medium TELEVISION date 13 february 2000
station ARENA program SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE 22.11.80

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craig jones warned at alt.fan.capt-beefheart:

If there's any Australians out there, be aware that the Arena channel on Foxtel and Austar cable is showing a re-broadcast of The Captain on Saturday Night Live this Sunday night, 13 February, at 11:00pm EST.

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NOTES

all around the world many television companies wrestle with a luxury problem: how to fill their overdone amount of broadcasting time? beside the more of the same crap they produce themselves they are fond of even dumber material to let it seem better in comparison. no wonder companies outside the usa broadcast or imitate a lot of american products (more of the same sitcoms, soaps, talkshows and 'disaster programs'): the quality of it makes them very cheap too.

it also is quite usual to show loads of repeats - especially the ones of which the originals are tens of years old (which means they are even cheaper). of course most of those programs are screened to let the viewers fall asleep, and it's a big exception when something intelligent turns up.

like will happen in fortunate australia, where the 'arena' channel twice a day brings old instalments of the usa bound 'saturday night live' shows, which mainly are interesting because of the musical guests in it. personally most of the names make me yawn - but not captain beefheart and the magic band of course. so i wish i could have the luck of the folks down under to see the show of 22 november 1980!

captain beefheart - live picture 'new york, saturday night live' tv program 22 november 1980

as a start, that instalment of the 'variety show' practically is the only live performance of the band that ever has been aired in their home-town the united states, and second: the captain and company made best of the situation! fresh back from the successful european doc at the radar station tour (the last concert had just been given in london on the 19th) the group stumbled into a new york teevee studio to stun the audience with two songs from the album: HOT HEAD and ASHTRAY HEART.

as the hastily formed band (intended guitar player john 'drumbo' french had withdrawn when he was supposed to quickly learn about forty songs) had been practising on them a lot during the tour, they brought the songs in an 'exiting cool' way.

only present in the first song RICHARD SNYDER - the last-minute addition, nicknamed 'midnight hatsize' - moves around like one of his predecessors, mark boston (rockette morton). except for a white bow on his hat he's in red, which makes him funny visible. as usual to drummers, ROBERT WILLIAMS is seated at the back of the stage in what looks like a former factory. on the right, the friendly ERIC DREW FELDMANaka kittaboo is standing behind a keyboard box first and later on swings with a bass guitar on 'ashtray heart'. in the middle of them JEFF MORIS TEPPER slides his guitar as if it is a dividing rod, just like beefheart commanded him to...

in the front: captain beefheart of course, plus red shawl minus clothes-peg. explaining his lyrics with theatrical gestures he sings with heavy enthusiasm and in the end even blows the microphone off the up-right with his sax - although that accident belonged to the live act. anyway, the fact that one can hear it happen proves that the performance was not a play-back - in case you might have thought so (as that is common use in teevee programs)!

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there's another funny thing worth being mentioned: in the outro with all the participants gathered on the stage captain beefheart and his comrades demonstrate some of van vliet's 'alternate ways of greeting' as known from a fragment of the 'lick my decals off, baby' commercial and a few pictures. there seem to have been several variations....

what more to say, except you should see the set to believe it? that his performance at the tv show appeared during years in which the program was in a depression, so it is a wonder that there even has been óne repeat of it since the original showing for twenty years: a few years ago by 'comedy central' in the usa (station name identified by craig - t.t.)....? or that colour footage of live beefheart in good light and with good sound is very rare (from ugly 1974 is out of competition of course) - i think you can count them on the fingers of óne hand....

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RECORD

audio versions of both songs can be found on the bootleg ceedee HOBOISM !

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PICTURE 2

for one or other reason - maybe i'm sympathetic after all - robert 'wait for me' williams, the drummer at the time, sent me a shot he took during the rehearsal for the live performance. looks like don van vliet (with some contours of jeff moris tepper behind him) also was a talented bullfighter....

captain beefheart - rehearsal 'saturday night live' tv program 22 november 1980 - picture by robert williams
picture by
ROBERT WILLIAMS

which means it may not be published in whatever way without his permission
if you have plans to use it you can email me to get in touch with him

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