To complete the tale of my first Beefheart gig back in the sixties – on the eve of my crucial A-Level exam.
Well I did think about it for a minute or two. My whole future rested on that exam. To go to the gig meant no last-minute revision (the only type I ever did) and going in knackered with a few hours kip. It was a no-brainer. This was the original Beefheart Magic Band – Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band (Alex St. Clair Snouffer, Jerry Handley, Jeff Cotton and John French/Drumbo). A must see.
The atmosphere was electric. The place was heaving. The band on top form. The music pulsated with throbbing power. Drumbo’s drumming was a thunderstorm of complex rhythms. The bass throbbed right through you vibrating all your internal organs with powerful waves of physical energy. The guitars were strident, weaving magic with intricate interconnecting patterns. Then that voice!! The Captain was like a demented Howlin’ Wolf powering over the top with an avalanche of sheer power, an unleashed cosmic force! The whole band thundered along like a stampeding herd of buffalo, a runaway express, and we were all riding it like on the crest of a giant wave, a wave that roller-coasted along and crashed all around us in an aural explosion.
There’s something incredibly different about Beefheart and the Magic Band. The music is unbelievably complex, yet simple. Once you immerse yourself in its mesmerising groove it transports you. There is primitive magic at work with a sophisticated intricacy. The power is immense. It operates on so many levels – the blues-ridden beat, the basic pulse that drives, underpins a multi-layered mesh of interweaving patterns. Bo Diddley and Howling Wolf melded to abstract art in music form, Dali and Picasso expressed in sound. Once you experience it live and connect with the primeval force alloyed to the twenty-first century esoterics you become lost in it.
I was caught up in the throng, bouncing and jumping in time as the incredible waves flowed through me. We were all connected by some unifying mystical force – the power of music. The whole audience was one superbeing feeding off the energy the band was delivering. There’s nothing gets close! This is the energy that bound our primitive ancestors together when they danced themselves into trances around their camp fires. This was the energy of the brotherhood of the hunting group, the ecstatic festivals, the village celebrations. A music creating unity and excitement!
Life changed! I was not destined to be a doctor!
Best gig ever!
Of course, I didn’t get back until three in the morning, I missed out on my uni place by one grade!
