The Captain jumped ship in December 17, 2010. I think it's a grand idea. He posted Dachau Blues from Trout Mask Replica this evening. I'd like to post something that reflects a side of Don VanVliet rarely seen. He really sings purdy here and it's a pretty song played by this 1970 version of the Magic Band on BBC. I'm not sure what to suggest as an official name of a Beefheart Festival....
.....but this is The Night Of The Living VanVliet
I'm a little whacked tonight after a day in the tundral Dordogne Deep Freeze. I have a barn full of hay and neighbors with 18 horses, and they got a call from the farmer who keeps cows on the pasture across the road who couldn't get up here this week to bring hay for them...so he bought hay from us and asked us to deliver it to the cows. So all together we moved 6 rolls out of the barn, delivered them on a tractor and in a van to 4 different locations and had to haul water from my house to my neighbors' donkeys because their water was frozen solid. The schools have been closed for a week and finally today, the post man made it down the road. I feel like I'm back in Michigan.
11 comments:
I've recently been listening to Unconditionally Guaranteed which contains this song and others like it, quite the departure from his usual thing.
On Wikipedia I read that he hated this album and once advised fans to not buy it.
That's one of the things I love about him, the total disregard for the record companies and usual norms of society. Imagine telling people not to buy your music.
what's most fascinating about the song and the performance is his utter commitment. he makes it work in a way that no one else could have. I remember when he released the record, unconditionally guaranteed and the controversy it caused artistically but I think seen through the lens of time, it only serves to amplify the real talent of van vliet....and it's something that in the scope of his real achievement could be easily ignored. I just see it as part of his total work...it's almost saying, I can do this now shut up and let me lick your decals off baby...which was his next and probably one of his most most brilliant recordings!
He and Zappa, they were both great live!!! Thanks for the post, Patrick!
I bought Trout Mask Replica at a used record store in Amsterdam. Years later I found out it was a double album. What a thrilling discovery!
Nice video by the way...I hadn't ever seen this one.
is 1970 accurate? no. maybe 1974.
CLICK on Band Line-ups
http://come.to/beefheart
LONDON 1974 a.k.a. LIVE london '74
live 09.06.74 (partly) released (1975/94/)2006
advice by don van vliet: ASK YOUR MONEY BACK
SET / TRACK LIST
mirror man 4:43 mirror man 1967 *
upon the my-o-my 4:04 unconditionally guaranteed 1974 *
full moon, hot sun 3:25 unconditionally guaranteed 1974
sugar bowl 2:51 unconditionally guaranteed 1974
crazy little thing 3:55 clear spot 1972
keep on rubbin' (otis hicks = lightnin' slim) 10:55 (unreleased cover 1974) **
sweet georgia brown (bernie - pinkard - casey) 5:49 instrumental (unreleased cover 1974) **
this is the day 7:42 unconditionally guaranteed 1974
new electric ride 3:16 unconditionally guaranteed 1974
abba zaba 3:11 safe as milk 1967
peaches 6:03 unconditionally guaranteed 1974
'radio concert advert' 0:29 promotional audio ad **
total time 56:59 minutes
* = previously on several compilations (read on)
** = only on 'live' ceedee (read on)
the 'tragic live' band
according to don van vliet shouldn't be mentioned
Anonymous, I think you need to beef up on your beefheartology here. Listen, I saw the Magic Band live in Detroit in 1972 at Cobo Arena. They opened for the Kinks. At that time, they were promoting Clear Spot. The great vinyl release in the clear plastic sleeve, which I still own.
At the time, the Kinks were touring with the Everybody's in Showbiz album. It was a great show, The Magic Band used the riser of Cobo to come on stage in a classic Caddy El Dorado Pimp Mobile.
It was a very radically different band, Clear Spot, albeit was a sort of attempt by Don to walk the line between his dada rock and commercial tastiness, but he was as uncompromising in his art at that time as he had been at any time in his life. What the band did had nothing to do with Unconditionally Guaranteed musically or Physically....the Beefheart in the the video here is the way he looked in 1970. I of course will check out your link and the set if you have it on line! It sounds very interesting. But don't you think, chronologically speaking that the set list has nothing to do with what Beefheart was doing in the time frame you suggest?
Even more...I tried to find something that you might have seen to give you the idea that this piece was from 1974, and I found a video of the same performance I posted mis labeled as 1974. Obviously, this is a case of someones sloppy anthology...to me, from my own life, observation and experience, your proposed date is incorrect. Go back and do some research, please.
I am going to post a performance of When Big Joan Sets Up from 1971 which was posted on the Channel 57 Detroit Alternative Rock program, TubeWorks...
There you will see the Magic Band I saw in Detroit at Cobo just a few moths later with Beefheart playing sax under a DADA Sun like a little lamb who just ingested too much ergot infested hay.....
Just look at the band members in the video. No Zoothorn Rollo or Rockette Morton who were in every Magic band from Trout Mask Repilica 1969 until they left with Art Tripp in 1974 after Don Van Vliet used lame producers who overdubbed and ruined the basic tracks for Unconditionally Guaranteed that were recorded live in the studio in only three days. Those basic tracks sound good.
Also, Check Out Concert Dates on ELECTRICITY website
http://come.to/beefheart
CLICK on Band Line-ups
CLEAR SPOT july-november 1972
MARK BOSTON rockette morton * guitar * rhythm guitar ** bass guitar
ROY ESTRADA oréjon / audi hon * bass guitar
BILL HARKLEROAD zoot horn rollo * guitar * slide-guitar
ART TRIPP ed marimba / ted cactus * drums * percussion ** tattoos
DON VAN VLIET captain beefheart * vocals * harmonica ** wings on singabus
CLEAR SPOT TOUR december 1972-summer 1973
MARK BOSTON rockette morton * bass guitar * guitar
ROY ESTRADA oréjon / audi hon * bass guitar &out
BILL HARKLEROAD zoot horn rollo * guitar * slide-guitar
ALEX SNOUFFER alex (pyjama) st. claire * guitar * slide guitar #in12
ART TRIPP ed marimba * drums * percussion
DON VAN VLIET captain beefheart * vocals * harmonica
UNCONDITIONALLY GUARANTEED sessions fall 1973-mid march 1974 studio
MARK BOSTON rockette morton * bass guitar ** guitar &out
BILL HARKLEROAD zoot horn rollo * guitar * slide-guitar &out
ALEX SNOUFFER alex (pyjama) st. claire * guitar * slide guitar &out
ART TRIPP ed marimba * drums * percussion &out(37)
DON VAN VLIET captain beefheart * vocals * harmonica
studio guests: two members of next line-up
OFFICIAL release:
ten tracks lp/cd UNCONDITIONALLY GUARANTEED 1974
Magic Band live in Detroit in 1972 at Cobo Arena?
sat 28.10.72 usa NEW YORK ny town hall
sun 29.10.72 usa CHICAGO il syria
mon 30.10.72 usa PHILADELPHIA pa spectrum
tue 31.10.72 usa STONY BROOK ny new york state university
wed 01.11.72 usa DETROIT mi ford auditorium
thu 02.11.72 canada ST. JOHN'S nf [unknown]
fri 03.11.72 canada ST. JOHN'S nf [unknown]
I met Harkleroad and Boston in 1972 when they were rehearsing Clear Spot north of Eureka, California. I wrote lyrics for thye Mallard LPs after Bill and Mark and Art left the Magic Band to form Mallard.
We saw Captian Beefheart at The Troubadour in January 1973 and at Winterland in March 1973 opening for Mahavishnu Orchestra.
Don Van Vliet had to put together a new Magic Band to tour Europe in 1974 (known as The Tragic band, they recorded Bluejeans & Moonbeams in 1974.
Captain Beefheart almost hit me when I said in 1974 that he could turn out like Charlie Mingus (I meant it as a compliment. We were both thrown out of a bar north of Eureka in the college town of Arcata but we ended the argument in the street without exchanging blows.
Oncve incorrect information is on the web it can stay there forever.
Yes and this is a puzzlement for me...because last year there were a number of videos on youtube from the performance I am referring to at Cobo. They are not there now. The Magic Band opened for The Kinks when they were promoting Everybody's In Showbiz. I was there. It was a great show, Ray Davies sprayed the crowed with multiple beers as he performed Alcohol. The Magic Band I saw was absolutely brilliant on the edge of incoherent....perhaps if you did a little research, you coule help me out here. To me it is very interesting that I search and cannot find the videos of the Magic Band performance I saw on YouTube as recently as last year. Maybe you can help me? Because the Beefheart I see on this video, This is The Day is younger and much different than the Beefheart I saw in Detroit promoting Clear Spot opening for the Kinks. I am not making this up, this is my absolute recollection...I will do the research, but perhaps, it will spur you as a Beefheart academidian to help me resolve the mystery you have posed....this is becoming a mystery story in itself for me! I wish I had more time to devote to unraveling it!
SOME TYPOS CORRECTED:
Just look at the band members in the video. No Zoot Horn Rollo or Rockette Morton who were in every Magic Band from Trout Mask Replica Sessions in 1968 until they left with Art Tripp (Ed Marimba) in 1974and the three formed the band Mallard after Don Van Vliet used lame producers (Rhythm Of The Rain was their one hit) who overdubbed and ruined the basic tracks for Unconditionally Guaranteed that were recorded live in the studio in only three days. Those basic tracks sound good. They were traded online at one time.
Once incorrect information is on the web it can stay there forever.
I interviewed Captain Beefheart on the phone at KPPC FM Pasadena, California in late 1970 and played tracks from their new LP Lick My Decals Off (he said the title was about trying to get labels removed from his music). I worked with their manager Grant Gibbs raising money for Los Angeles Free Clinics in benefits showing films while Captain Beefheart And The Magic Band wetre rehearing The Spotlight Kid LP songs in Santa Cruz, California before they moved to the Eureka area. I ate at Merryman's Restaurant north of Eureka at Moonstone Beach where the owner let The Magic Band rehearse at his beach house there (Captin Beefheart thanks Merryman on the back cover of Unconditionally Guaranteed. (there may be some unintentional typos above).
Peace, Ted Alvy www.tedalvy.com
p.s. I had trouble signing on through Google so I posted as Anonymous.
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