Fast & Bulbous: Rolling Stone pays tribute to the Captain with a reprint of their 1970 cover story

[Amerigo Vespucci]

The Odyssey of Captain Beefheart: Rolling Stone's 1970 Cover Story
'I'm not even here I just stick around for my friends'

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-odyssey-of-captain-beefheart-rolling-stones-1970-cover-story-20101217



By Langdon Winner
December 17, 2010 5:20 PM EDT

"Uh oh, the phone," Captain Beefheart mumbled as he placed his tarnished soprano saxophone in its case. "I have to answer the telephone." It was a very peculiar thing to say. The phone had not rung.

Beefheart walked quickly from his place by the upright piano across the dimly lit living room to the cushion where the telephone lay. He waited. After ten seconds of stony silence it finally rang. None of the half dozen or so persons in the room seemed at all astounded by what had just happened. In the world of Captain Beefheart, the extraordinary is the rule.

At age 29, Captain Beefheart, also known as Don Van Vliet, lives in seclusion and near poverty in a small house in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. Although it appeared on several occasions in the past that he would rise to brilliant stardom as a singer and bandleader, circumstances have always intervened to force him into oblivion. In his six years in the music business he has appeared in public no more than 25 times.

Since virtually no one has ever seen him play, stories about his life and art have taken on the character of legend, that is, of endless tall tales. People who saw him at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco three years ago will now tell you, "I heard that he's living in Death Valley somewhere" or "Didn't he just finally give up?" But there is considerably more to the man that the legend indicates.

[Skink]

1. What?

who is this guy?

[Amerigo Vespucci]

2. Boyhood pal of Frank Zappa who collaborated with him, and had a career of his own

Abandoned music quite a while back to focus on his painting. Died today from complications with MS. That's the really, really short version.

:toast:

[Skink]

3. Thanks

I'm a sax player. And now Soprano only.

[Warpy]

4. If you're a musician, you really should know

His off the wall stuff influenced quite a few genres across the spectrum.

[callous taoboy]

5. Trout Mask Replica is a fine album.

[On the Road]

6. And Anyone Who Can Write Tropical Hot Dog Night

is all right with me.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

7. I have a lot of favorite Captain song titles, but the one that really got me was...

"A Carrot Is As Close As A Rabbit Gets To A Diamond."

:rofl:

[freebrew]

8. Good luck capt....

I was lucky enough to see him twice in concert, early 1970s.

Big fan, have almost all of his vinyl.

So sorry to hear of his passing. One of a very few truly inventive musicians.

[Still Blue in PDX]

9. I remember him.

Safe passage.