Born in 1941 Don Van Vliet declared that he only ever spent half a day at school. Despite this he was a talented sculptor as a boy, and friends with Frank Zappa in his teens. Together with the Magic Band he was responsible for probably the most experimental, groundbreaking and insane records ever released including Safe as Milk, Trout Mask Replica, and Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller). ‘Trout Mask Replica’ is The Simpsons creator Matt Groening’s favourite record of all time. It is also number #58 in Rolling Stone magazines ‘Greatest Albums Ever’. Surprisingly it never made the charts in America and spent just one week in the UK top 40.
His influence has touched musicians ranging from Tom Waits and Kurt Cobain, to The Kills, and Talking Heads. Music lovers continue to rediscover his records today, and in the late 60’s and early 70’s, he blurred the lines between music and art in a way no-one had done before and few have attempted since. A word of warning though, Captain Beefheart’s musical journey is not for the faint-hearted. It takes patience and dedication before it’s real magic appears before you.
The hard work can be worth it though, and you might even look at things differently ever after. Flush the Fashion spoke to author and leading authority on Captain Beefheart, Mike Barnes about the musician / artist / psychic / genius / madman that was Don Van Vliet.
What would be a good introduction to Captain Beefheart’s music?
Mike: For a first port of call I would say ‘Clearspot‘, because it’s a lot more accessible. It has a sort of a New Orleans Swamp Rock feel, but still has the all the Beefheart elements and is artistically really strong (check out ‘Big Eyed Beans from Venus). It’s also a record you can put on and unlike some other Beefheart records, people won’t immediately tell you to switch it off!
What thing surprised you most when researching the Beefheart book?
Mike: It was Dons’ Charisma and how he had such a hold over people, for instance during the Trout Mask Replica era, the Magic Band were virtually locked up in the The Woodland Hills House together for 9 months on end in this almost Charles Mansonesque cult with very little food and money (while Don was sent food parcels from his mum). He was an only child and had a lot of attention, because of this he was always very demanding of people, at the same time paranoid and insecure too. His need to dominate mixed with his insecurity to create a slightly monstrous tyrant at times. They were kind of scared of him in a way but he was also amazing company, at times he could be wonderfully charming, witty and intelligent. Was it easy tracking down some of the musicians and characters from Beefheart’s life for your research? Mike: Not as easy as it is now thanks to email, it was more phone calls and faxes and cold calling people, this was in 1994 and the reception I got wasn’t always the best especially from people still in contact with him. Don used to spend A LOT of time on the phone with his friends. The unusual thing was they couldn’t call him, he had a phone he rang people on he wouldn’t answer. So sometimes people would have to wait for a call. People were frightened of being struck out of his circle of friends.
Your favourite Beefheart album or song?
Mike: ‘Dr Dark‘ from ‘Lick My Decals Off Baby’, its one of his more radical compositions. I was in my late teens when I bought it and went through a process of trying to figure out what the hell it was all about. The music is there, but it doesn’t make any sense because of the way it is assembled. At first I couldn’t handle it, but the next day it drew me back and I suddenly realised it was meant to be like that. Structured but in a way that people were playing across each other. I thought ‘Wow, I’ve never heard anything like this stuff before and as I was a drummer at the time, it opened up my sense as to what could be done with rhythm and structure in music. My friends as they hadn’t been through the process would beg for it to be taken off. Because it (and Trout Mask Replica) is so different from anything that has ever been made and that still stands today.
FTF:Everyone who had a working relationship with Don had a rough time at one stage or another and he could be a hard taskmaster. His methods were strange and he would physiologically bully and break people down to get the results he was looking for. A moderate example of this was once in a recording session, while unhappy with the band he told them to play the song ‘upside down’ until they could understand the piece properly. Eventually he allowed them to play it ‘the right way’ again. Emotionally he pulled people back and forth, sometimes to achieve musical results and sometimes just for his own amusement.
Was Don talented musically, or was it more a talent for creating art from music?
Mike: He had a primitive style to playing the piano, but he came up with some amazing stuff. A lot of past Magic Band members haven’t been happy with the way Don took the credit for writing all the music. Their input was never credited even though many of the parts were ‘composed’ by the band. Morris Tepper (Beefheart guitarist) commented on this: ‘you would come up with parts but they would be in pre existing musical landscape that Beefheart had created’ so he had to take credit for creating the environment. Beefheart was famous for his distaste of traditional musical structure and wanted his music to be an irritant. Or to quote him directly, like a ‘sandpaper on a shrimp’.
FTF: His composing methods were also strange, writing many songs on a piano in one take. These were then transcribed by John ‘Drumbo’ French for the band to copy exactly note for note. Strange, because in the traditional sense Don could not play the piano. It is a testament to the talent of the Magic Band that despite it’s apparently freeform structure and musical insanity, when playing live the band (excluding the more spontaneous activities of Don) reproduced the records to near perfect level. John ‘Drumbo’ French left the Magic Band many times but was drawn back by Don’s ‘spell’, and Magic Band members found life after the band difficult to adjust to. Like a War Veteran returning to everyday life, playing in a ‘normal’ band was a big come down once you had been in the Magic Band.
Mike: One ex-member had a really uneasy feeling after leaving the group and was convinced Don had put a ‘hex’ on him. There was a mystical quality about him and he found visiting a big city an overload on his sensory perception, most of the time preferring a simple life in the Mojave dessert. He was ‘in tune’ with nature and there are many witnesses to his seemingly telepathic and spiritual powers. FTF: Once in New York at Gary Lucas’s (manager and guitarist) apartment, Don suddenly announced that ‘something really heavy had gone down, you’ll read all about it tomorrow in the papers’. It was the day John Lennon had been shot. On many occasions he would walk up to a phone and it would ring as he was about to pick it up.
Do you have a favourite Captain Beefheart quote?
Mike: My favourites are: “It’s not worth getting into the bullshit to see what the bull ate” and “a psychiatrist is someone who wants to die in your past life”.
FTF: My own favourite quote is: “A carrot is as close as a rabbit gets to a diamond.” Trout Mask Replica was released on Zappa’s straight record label. He toured as part of the Mothers of Invention band several times, but Beefheart was suspicious of Zappa’s commercial mentality and they had a love/hate relationship. He famously called Zappa: “The guy who looks like a fly’s leg”. FTF: Don Van Vliet would refer to his art in musical terms and was a prolific painter and would sketch in notepads and on napkins wherever he was.
Although his later records are brimming with creativity when disillusionment and illness struck, he withdrew from the limelight and began to focus solely on his painting. He held several critically acclaimed exhibitions and was a respected artist in the art world. Unfortunately as time passed his health deteriorated from multiple sclerosis to a level where he could no longer paint. Don Van Vliet passed away at his home in California On Dec 18th 2010, after suffering from MS for many years.
Despite critical acclaim and his cult hero status he earned very little money from his music and lived much of his life hand to mouth or ‘chasing a buck’. One of the few people still in contact with him was PJ Harvey who had been a fan since an early age. Now after his death there is a chance he may get credit (both musically and artistically) for his endeavors. As that can also be true of many of the truly great artists of the past, hopefully Don would appreciate the irony.
We have only skimmed the surface of his life, but if you want to learn more about Don Van Vliet (aka Captain Beefheart), watch the documentary (part 1 below), read Mike’s brilliant book and look out for a huge Beefheart feature from Mike in Mojo magazine. And remember this, straight from the (Beef)heart… “The stars are matter, We’re matter, But it doesn’t matter.”
Further Beefheart viewing and books Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 Mike Barnes’s Beefheart book on Amazon. John French’s Beefheart book on Amazon. Touching tribute to Beefheart from John French
Brilliant piece. Loved it.