As this virus continues to lock us up in our own homes I continue to find music a great emotional boost!
I am selecting an artist a day and playing them loud.
Today’s music is Captain Beefheart!!
I first discovered the good old Captain when his first album came out in 1967. I was fortunate to catch them at Middle Earth on their first tour and it blew me away – the best band I’ve ever seen live! That concert is right up there with Jimi Hendrix and Roy Harper!
Bill Harkleroad aka Zoot Horn Rollo is one of my heroes. I was fortunate enough to see the best band in the universe – Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band – a number of times back in the sixties and seventies. They were undoubtedly the greatest band that ever lived (and I’ve seen most of the biggest bands on the planet). Their interweaving rhythms, guitars and bass was the most complex and exciting sound to have been generated by any band. When that is coupled with Don Van Vliet’s (Captain Beefheart) incredible voice and poetry the result is in another planet.
Zoot was an amazing guitarist and remarkable individual. To see him play live in that band was a revelation.
This book is not a professionally written/ghost written book. It is not carefully crafted. It is Zoot reminiscing and talking about his experience in that band. I can imagine him talking into a tape-recorder with a friend. He saws he is not a writer, and he isn’t, but this is his story and recollections. I enjoyed it immensely.
Thanks Zoot. I loved your live performances and those brilliant albums you played on.
The Magic Band are still together (hopefully) with Drumbo, Rockette Morton and Denny Whalley. They are still brilliant. Still one of the best bands around even without Don. What I would give to see the band tour again and Zoot do a guest appearance!
I was entranced by Don Vliet the moment I heard him way back in 1967. Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band created some of the greatest music ever. That first album was just a taster. The live performance that year was probably the best I have ever seen.
Some find him discordant. But for me it gels together into the most original music ever recorded. His poetry was the same, that rich imagery and invented words.
Live the band were amazing. The Magic band still are but I can’t help but miss the Captain.
Way back in 1981 he gave the music up forever. He turned his attention to his other love – art, with equal brilliance.
His paintings from the deserts of California were carved from slabs of colour that sang with their own fluorescence. I could lose myself in those paintings in the same way I did the music.
It would have been good to sit out on the steps in the desert and watch that sun slowly sink towards the horizon. I can imagine it.
VLIET
Looking through Vliet’s eyes at scrawny black crows
Perched on jagged cactus vantage points
Before daubed hills and scrawled figures
Carved with sweeping strikes of thick textured colour
On a timeless backdrop of infinity.
Staring at distorted garish dreams of reality
Timelessly floating towards forever ……………forever……….
Along the tides of an invisible desert sea
And wishing we were caught within the waters of his eyes
In neon magic,
Breathing the ocean bottom together,
As we watched the sun slowly set
And sipped a beer.
Opher 4.10.97
What a combination – two of my favourites together! Captain Beefheart was always my favourite but Zappa came close.
This is off the fabulous Hot Rats album
“Willie The Pimp”
Got a little lady . . . walk the street
Tellin’ all the boys that she cain’t be beat
Twenny dollah bill (I can set you straight)
Meet me onna corner boy ‘n don’t be late
Man in a suit with a bow-tie neck
Wanna buy a grunt with a third party check
Standin’ onna porch of the Lido Hotel
Floozies in the lobby love the way I sell:
HOT MEAT
HOT RATS
HOT CATS
HOT RITZ
HOT ROOTS
HOT SOOTS
HOT MEAT
HOT RATS
HOT CATS
HOT ZITZ
HOT ROOTS
HOT SOOTS
A bit of good old moon worship lunacy – acid drenched poetry – the old time religion. This is an old favourite of mine.
Moonlight On Vermont
Moonlight on Vermont affected everybody
Even Mrs. Wooten well as Little Nitty
Even lifebuoy floatin’
With his lil’ pistol showin’
‘n his lil’ pistol totin’
Well that goes t’ show you what uh moon can do
No more bridge from Tuesday t’ Friday
Everybody’s gone high society
Hope lost his head ‘n got off on alligators
Somebodies leavin’ peanuts on the curbins
For uh white elephant escaped from the zoo with love
Goes t’ show you what uh moon can do
Moonlight on Vermont
Well it did it for Lifebuoy
And it did it t’ you
And it did it t’ zoo
And it can do it for me
And it can do it for you
Moonlight on Vermont
Gimme dat ole time religion
Gimme dat ole time religion
Don’t gimme no affliction
Dat ole time religion is good enough for me
Uh it’s good enough for you
Well come out t’ show dem
Come out t’ show dem (repeat five times)
Gimme dat ole time religion (repeat)
It’s good enough for me
Without yer new affliction
Don’t need yer new restrictions
Gimme dat ole time religion
It’s good enough for me
Moonlight on Vermont
A timeless bit of magic. We all need to have some electricity to shine on us and ease our dread.
Shout your truth peacefully!
Electricity
Singin through you to me
Thunder-bolts caught easily
Shouts the truth peacefully
E-LEC-TRI-CITY
High-voltage man kisses
night to bring the light
to those who need
t’ hide their shadow deed
Go into bright, find
the light and know
that friends don’t mind
just how you grow
Bearded cowboy stains in black
and reads dark roads
without a map
seeking:
electricity, E-LEC-TRI-CITY
Light-house beacon straight
ahead, straight ahead
across blank seas to free
seeking:
electricity, E-LEC-TRI-CITY
High-voltage man kisses
night to bring the light
to those who need
t’ hide their shadow-deed
hide their shadow-deed (repeat)
Seek electricity………..
Beefheart on inequality – pulling back the curtain a little to sing about the hunger and desperation of people living in misery. There is nobody to come to their rescue. There is no help. People are working and dying in conditions that are beyond our imagination and nobody cares.
Ain’t No Santa Claus on the Evenin’ Stage
There ain’t no Santa Claus on the evenin’ stage
There ain’t no way t’ pull the curtain
‘N hide from hunger’s rage
There ain’t no town t’ stop in
There ain’t no time t’ stop in
There ain’t no straw for my horse
There ain’t no straw for my bed
There ain’t no comfort in cold boards
There ain’t no rumours or food for my stomach
‘N someday I’m gonna be saved
‘Cause I gotta eat ‘n drink ‘n breathe ‘n sleep
‘N I’m ah slave
Down in hominy’s grotto there’s ah soul die’n ‘n leavin’
Every second on the evenin’ stage
There’s ah soul die’n ‘n rottin’ ‘n pickin’
Some new kinda cotton
With his fingers broken ‘n his heart ‘n back forgotten
There ain’t no Santa Claus on the evenin’ stage
The Captain tackling one of the most terrible stains on humanity – the holocaust and genocide of the Jews.
There are still people out there who deny it all took place.
Dachau Blues
Dachau blues those poor Jews
Dachau blues those poor Jews
Dachau blues, Dachau blues those poor Jews
Still cryin’ ’bout the burnin’ back in World War Two’s
One mad man six million lose
Down in Dachau blues, down in Dachau blues
The world can’t forget that misery
‘n the young ones now beggin’ the old ones please
t’ stop bein’ madmen
‘fore they have t’ tell their children
’bout the burnin’s back in World War Three’s
War One was balls ‘n powder ‘n blood ‘n snow
War Two rained death ‘n showers ‘n skeletons
Dancin’ ‘n screamin’ ‘n dyin’ in the ovens
Cough ‘n smoke ‘n dyin’ by the dozens
Down in Dachau blues
Down in Dachau blues
Sweet little children with doves on their shoulders
Their eyes rolled back in ecstasy cryin’
Please old man stop this misery
They’re countin’ out the devil
With two fingers on their hands
Beggin’ the Lord don’t let the third one land
On World War Three
On World War Three
This is Beefheart’s take on Women’s Rights and equality. Women have been invisible for too long. They need to be given equal rights all round the globe.
Nowadays a Woman’s Gotta Hit a Man
Men you been lookin’ all around for the women
But they always been right there
Nowadays a woman has to haul off and hit a man
T’ make him know she’s there
Other night a woman came up ‘n hit me
Like I wasn’t even there
Yeah, mmm dawned on me, man
That a man been doin’ a woman unfair
Y’ gotta wait for your woman
Let her know you’re there
I knew I had to go out ‘n tell all of the women
That I knew they were there
Now ev’rywhere I go the women all know that I know
Mmm, there ain’t no other place to go but there
I’m talkin’ about women
Yeah, I’m talkin’ about women, man
They don’t have to hit me
To make me know it’s there
None o’ my women have tears in their eyes
You can ask ’em about me I swear
‘n they’ll tell you
That’s one man I swear
Yeah that’s a man
’nuff about tellin’ you this
Mmm, y’ gotta wait for your woman
Let her know you’re there
I knew I had to go out ‘n tell all of the women
That I knew they were there
Now ev’rywhere I go the women all know
That I know
There ain’t no, there ain’t no other place to go but there
I’m talkin’ about women
They don’t have to hit me, man
To make me know it’s there
None o’ my women have tears in their eyes
You can ask ’em about me I swear
Well I really liked this photo of Eric doing his thing. He was loving every minute of it and playing to the crowd – awesome.
Thanks Eric.
Now isn’t that amazing. Right place, right time.