The Official Captain Beefheart Thread

[Lord Larehip]

Originally Posted by Kamikazi Kat

Never heard of it. Is it really that bad?

Regarding getting into Beefheart, I think his debut is a good start, but if you want to get into his more experimental style more, Lick My Decals Baby is great. It's up there with Trout Mask in terms of inaccessibility for most, but I think it's a bit easier for most to get into.

Doc At the Radar Station is just superb. "Ashtray Heart"--I mean, come on, man!

[big break]

Start with the plastic factory song and sure nuff yes I do.
Appreciate the poetry. Then go into his other stuff. He had all them minute long songs
on trout mask because he found if the music got too steady and hypnotising
he was playing to the hypnotised. Thats why he changed time signatues
so much , he wanted to make music for people who were awake.
So as soon as you listen to a song and get stuck in the rythemic head nod he changed.
He thought it was cheesy playing to head nodders.
I think you have to get that about him going in.
Im a huge fan but still some of his stuff makes my ears angry.

[semiartificial]

I got in via Clear Spot ... Alan Freeman playing it when it was released on his Saturday show ... Big Eyed Beans!

[Frownland]

What are your favourite Beefheart lyrics? Mine's a toss up between My Human Gets Me Blues and Orange Claw Hammer. Well's pretty good too, as is The Host The Ghost The Most Holy-O.

My Human Gets Me Blues
I saw yuh baby dancin' in your x-ray gingham dress
I knew you were under duress
I knew you were under yer dress
Just keep comin' Jesus
Your the best dressed
You look dandy in the sky but you don't scare me
Cause I got you here in my eye
In this lifetime you got m'humangetsmeblues
With yer jaw hangin' slack n' yer hair's curlin'
Like an ole navy fork stickin' in the sunset
The way you were dancin' I knew you'd never come back
You were strainin' t' keep yer
Old black cracked patent shoes
In this lifetime you got m'humangetsmeblues
Well the way you'd been ole lady
I could see the fear in yer windows
Under yer furry crawlin' brow
Uh silver bow rings up in inches
You were afraid you'd be the devils red wife
But it's alright God dug yer dance
'N would have you young 'n in his harum
Dress you the way he wants cause he never had uh doll
Cause everybody made him uh boy
'N God didn't think t' ask his preference
You can bring yer dress 'n yer favorite dog
'N yer husbands cane
'N yer old spotted dog
Cause in this lifetime
You've got m'humangetsmeblues


Orange Claw Hammer
Uh thick cloud caught uh piper clubs tail
The match struck blue on uh railroad rail
The old puff horse was just pullin’ thru
‘n uh man wore uh peg leg forever
I’m on the bum where the hoboes run
The air breaks with filthy chatter
Oh I don’t care there’s no place there
I don’t think it matters
My skin’s blazin’ thru
‘n my clothes in tatters
‘n the railroad looked
Like uh “Y” up the hill of ladders
Ohe shoe fell on the gravel
One stick poked down
Gray of age fell down on uh pair of ears
An eagle shined thru my hole watch pocket
Uh gingham girl baby girl
Passed me by in tears
Uh jack rabbit raised his folded ears
Uh beautiful sagebrush jack rabbit
‘n an oriole sang like an orange
His breast full uh worms
‘n his tail clawed the evenin’ like uh hammer
His wings took t’ air like uh bomber
‘n my rain can caught me uh cup uh water
When I got into town
Odd jobs mam ah yer horse I’ll fodder
I’m the round house man
I once was yer father
Uh little up the road uh wooden
Candy stripe barber pole
‘n above it read uh sign “Painless Parker”
Lic-licorice twisted around under uh fly
‘n uh youngster cocked ‘er eye
God before me if I’m not crazy
Is my daughter
Come little one with yer little dimpled fingers
Gimme one ‘n I’ll buy you uh cherry phosphate
Take you down t’ the foamin’ brine ‘n water
‘n show you the wooden tits
On the Goddess with the pole out s’full sail
That tempted away yer peg legged father
I was shanghaied by uh high hat beaver moustache man
‘n his pirate friend
I woke up in vomit ‘n beer in uh banana bin
‘n uh soft lass with brown skin
Bore me seven babies with snappin’ black eyes
‘n beautiful ebony skin
‘n here it is I’m with you my daughter
Thirty years away can make uh seaman’s eyes
Uh round house man’s eyes flow out water
Salt water

[Holerbot6000]

Orange Claw Hammer is the one for me. It sounds like he is making it up as he goes along but the imagery is so brilliant. To me, that is quintessential Beefheart. If people want to know what the Captain is about, I play that song and they either seem to get it or they don't...

[Frownland]

Originally Posted by Holerbot6000

Orange Claw Hammer is the one for me. It sounds like he is making it up as he goes along but the imagery is so brilliant. To me, that is quintessential Beefheart. If people want to know what the Captain is about, I play that song and they either seem to get it or they don't...

Definitely some great imagery. I can't tell if the woman he's talking to is actually his daughter or if he's wrought by guilt and thinks of every woman as his daughter. I'm leaning towards the latter because of the 'I'm the roundhouse man I once was your father' line.

[Frownland]

The Magic Band is set to release an album of new material. It'll be sans Beefheart of course, but they still have John French and Rockette Morton (given that his health doesn't take another dip), and Drumbo is as much a part of the music as Beefheart was. I'm hopeful.

[Lisnaholic]

^ Well, let us know when that comes out please.

Anyone have an opinion on Jeff Cotton' s Mu album, btw ? I like to see old threads bumped, so here' s a chance for someone to breath life into a thread that deserved more attention :-

http://www.musicbanter.com/prog-psyc...mu-1971-a.html

Rather more on topic, almost every track on TMR has stellar lyrics; I agree with Frownland about MyHumanGetsMeBlues. I also love the words of Old Fart at Play, Pachuco Cadaver, Pena Her Little Head Clinking, etc etc.

A fave that's not on TMR is Bellerin' Plain:-

Parapliers the willow dipped
Rolled roots gnarled like rakers
This hollow hole don’t hold no jokers or fakers
Don’t fall by no jokers or fakers
Puller down to the stirrin’ hay acres
Parapliers pinches uh levy ‘n pulled way thru the toe
Foothills, locomotives walked ‘n sugar beets rolled
Down the tracks
Sunburn bounce soot off the black smokestacks
Parapliers pinched up slow down the sky
Blue ‘o’ poured the engineer’s voice
Whstlin’ down low ‘n piped like clacks
By the ol’ scarecrow
‘n pots ‘n pans burn the fireman’s hands till the
Kettle leaped fire round the belly ‘o’
The bayou boy bums with sunken gums
‘n pits his strength to the 7th sons down
Parapliers rumbled like uh straight iron gun
Like uh red hot iron thru the egg white ‘o’
Sunnyland drum, horn blow
Sun like uh bubble pop yellow, down she go
Mah cowcatcher whistled like uh steel flash scream
Hose sucked out for water ‘n the wheeldriver
Sparkled like an Indian flint
‘n the fireman ‘n the brakeman bent ‘n waved his long red underwear arm
All aboard
The lantern flared ‘n the caboose waved uh green gone on

^ Has just the right mixture of brilliant, comprehensible and incomprehensible lines imo.

[Pet_Sounds]

I'm pleased to announce that I have seen the light and am now a Beefheart fan.

[Frownland]

^Good for you man, always awesome to have another member of the Beefhead collective.

Anybody ever listen to Beefheart's drummer, John "Drumbo" French's solo work? He has stuff under John French and Drumbo, and it's pretty awesome. Here's some background I found on a solo drum version of "The Thousandth and Tenth Day of the Human Totem Pole" that he did on his album "O Solo Drumbo."

Years ago, I did an album of drum solos called "O Solo Drumbo." Henry Kaiser had heard a recording of me playing drum solos at the London Musician Collective where I had been invited to play by Ed Baxter. HK wanted to record a drum solo album while I had my chops up. He requested that I add a drum solo version of "The Thousandth and Tenth Day of the Human Totem Pole" and I, being completely insane, decided to play both the melody and the drums parts simultaneously. I tuned the drums in a very odd fashion using a guitar tuner. Each drum had the top head taken off, and the bottom head was tuned to the not specified -- making sure all the lugs were the same tension, and then the top head was put back on and that head was also tuned to the right pitch. Once that was done I transcribed the drum part only as best I could for snare, HH, Kick and Cymbals. Then, I added in the melody, indicating which tom was which with a notation which didn't actually indicate the PITCH but the drum. It took me two and a half months working every day to barely master this. I think there had to be three or four edits made as there was not one measure of repeat in the whole thing and it is six minutes and 50 seconds long. It was the most challenging piece I'd ever done. For a couple of years afterward, I kept this configuration on my kit and this particular setup was photographed during the very first Magic Band reunion rehearsal with Bill Harkleroad, Mark Boston, and Denny Walley. Date was in October, 2001 -- a few weeks after 9/11. I believe the album was recorded in 1998, in October or November, so about 3 years earlier.