Behind the Scenes
Captain Beefheart on Writing
For years I didn’t get the music. I’d slam my fists in anger over those who’d say how Beefheart knew. Funny how often those things you come to like among the most are ones that make you angry to begin with. Accumulation of a grime.
“There is only the slightest movement of the fingers that makes the v-sign different from the Nazi salute. Always watch that.”
“They’re about to poke their genitals into our cream cheese moon right now. That’s my eye; the moon is part of me. Why don’t they poke it in the sun? They’re not very daring.”
“I don’t think there’s any way you can *know* music. The minute you *know* it, you stop playing, and the minute a person stops playing, the music isn’t playing anymore.”
“For instance, the English language is the only language that has an *i* before *e* except after *c*. What’s before an *i*? Before my eyes is a sea. But the *c* I see is a sea. I’m not that word-oriented. I’m trying to use words like music so that they don’t take your mind anywhere that I want them to.”
“It’s hard to use the English language. I’d rather play a tune on a horn, but I’ve always felt that I didn’t want to train myself. Because when you get a train, you’ve got to have an engine and a caboose. I think it’s better to train the caboose. You train yourself, you strain yourself.”
“There are only forty people in the world and five of them are hamburgers.”
“I was able to turn myself inside out, and that’s all I’m trying to do.”
BONUS: 2x Beefheart on Letterman (worth watching in full)
Tags: captain beefheart, hamburgers
“There’s ten people in the world and the rest are paste”
“There’s ten people in the world and the rest are paste”
Fucking amazing.
Fucking amazing.
I still slam my fist in anger listening to his music. Back in the 80s i remember the likes or Robert Smith or Mark E. Smith would rave about how great he was and what an inspiration he was, etc. but i just didn’t get it. I guess you got to just consider the man apart from the music, and then he’s a piece of work…
I still slam my fist in anger listening to his music. Back in the 80s i remember the likes or Robert Smith or Mark E. Smith would rave about how great he was and what an inspiration he was, etc. but i just didn’t get it. I guess you got to just consider the man apart from the music, and then he’s a piece of work…
the man is something, but the music is too. for me it just had to hit me in the right way, which took a long time. now i find it something else.
the man is something, but the music is too. for me it just had to hit me in the right way, which took a long time. now i find it something else.
that clip at the end of the video sounded compelling…
that clip at the end of the video sounded compelling…
download ‘Ice Cream for Crow’. it’s a good start, but not as basic as Safe as Milk is. Trout Mask Replica is obviously his biggest known for its wildness, but I really like Lick My Decals Off Baby. his process of recording is something I could read about for a long time. forcing his backing band to practice and practice and practice for ridiculous amounts of time/recording without being able to hear what others are doing/etc. it’s systematically destroyed music.
download ‘Ice Cream for Crow’. it’s a good start, but not as basic as Safe as Milk is. Trout Mask Replica is obviously his biggest known for its wildness, but I really like Lick My Decals Off Baby. his process of recording is something I could read about for a long time. forcing his backing band to practice and practice and practice for ridiculous amounts of time/recording without being able to hear what others are doing/etc. it’s systematically destroyed music.
Beefheart on Letterman, Conjunctions on Letterman… nice.
Beefheart on Letterman, Conjunctions on Letterman… nice.
nah dude. clear spot/spotlight kid. beefheart recovering from trout mask by trying to sort of play it straight, but he can’t, not ever again. i prefer spotlight kid, but the one i got had both albums on one disc.
nah dude. clear spot/spotlight kid. beefheart recovering from trout mask by trying to sort of play it straight, but he can’t, not ever again. i prefer spotlight kid, but the one i got had both albums on one disc.
trout mask replica & 2ndarily lick my decals off……….the music is great, the liberated drums floating so that when they do occasionally kick in for the occasional 4/4 (which beefheart once characterized as ‘fascist’ — too bad) the effect is amazing. and the lyrics, at least at times……like ‘she’s too much for my mirror’ ‘pachuco cadaver’, ‘my human gets me blues’ are classic and probably influenced me a lot insofar as this was a portion of my idea of true lyric inspiration….right from howlin’ wolf through albert ayler and, sure, lsd.
i saw them twice and once in particular they were great. went downhill. i didnt like it when the lyrics sometimes became jokes that weren’t that funny twice or even once and the uncritical atmosphere of the tiny niche-market bred seeing the band as just a freakshow for stoners — which beefheart played into.
rather than really going back to ‘diddy wah diddy- style blues (and this might have made more money than his wretched ‘bluejeans & moonbeams’ or whatever it was called albums of ballads supposedly pushed by his wife jan).
trout mask replica & 2ndarily lick my decals off……….the music is great, the liberated drums floating so that when they do occasionally kick in for the occasional 4/4 (which beefheart once characterized as ‘fascist’ — too bad) the effect is amazing. and the lyrics, at least at times……like ‘she’s too much for my mirror’ ‘pachuco cadaver’, ‘my human gets me blues’ are classic and probably influenced me a lot insofar as this was a portion of my idea of true lyric inspiration….right from howlin’ wolf through albert ayler and, sure, lsd.
i saw them twice and once in particular they were great. went downhill. i didnt like it when the lyrics sometimes became jokes that weren’t that funny twice or even once and the uncritical atmosphere of the tiny niche-market bred seeing the band as just a freakshow for stoners — which beefheart played into.
rather than really going back to ‘diddy wah diddy- style blues (and this might have made more money than his wretched ‘bluejeans & moonbeams’ or whatever it was called albums of ballads supposedly pushed by his wife jan).
pretty sure CBH is either in in Moma already or set for later in the year i remember hearing that.
this ruled to see people talking about mark e smith
everyone should listen to the song “the birthday song” by the fall if you are a writer and like words and are dramatic and whathaveyou
pretty sure CBH is either in in Moma already or set for later in the year i remember hearing that.
this ruled to see people talking about mark e smith
everyone should listen to the song “the birthday song” by the fall if you are a writer and like words and are dramatic and whathaveyou
His collaborations with Zappa on Bongo Fury and various other albums are pretty awesome too. I got Trout Mask Replica for christmas when I was 13 and it wreaked some serious havoc on my adolescent brain. Good stuff!
His collaborations with Zappa on Bongo Fury and various other albums are pretty awesome too. I got Trout Mask Replica for christmas when I was 13 and it wreaked some serious havoc on my adolescent brain. Good stuff!
I hated Trout Mask Replica for a decade. Now I love it.
I hated Trout Mask Replica for a decade. Now I love it.
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haha, i can totally see beefheart thinking krautrock was fascist, trout mask forever
haha, i can totally see beefheart thinking krautrock was fascist, trout mask forever
I like most all of his albums, but I’d be lying if I said I enjoyed the later ones more than Safe as Milk.
I like most all of his albums, but I’d be lying if I said I enjoyed the later ones more than Safe as Milk.
Great stuff. I’ve always repped Doc at the Radar Station for newcomers, but there are so many good ones.
If you can find it, there’s a fascinating bootleg of an hour-long LA radio interview he did about 10 years ago where he mostly talks about his music and painting process. Surprisingly open-faced about it, too.
Great stuff. I’ve always repped Doc at the Radar Station for newcomers, but there are so many good ones.
If you can find it, there’s a fascinating bootleg of an hour-long LA radio interview he did about 10 years ago where he mostly talks about his music and painting process. Surprisingly open-faced about it, too.
There’s a CB song on the “The Big Lebowski” sound track, “Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles”, that the Dude listens to. It adds a discordant-mellow note to the Dude’s otherwise uber-mellow, occasionally ironically-mellow (the Nixon bowling poster, the White Russians) persona. I like it. It’s a nice touch, a nice little addition. It helps round out his character.
There’s a CB song on the “The Big Lebowski” sound track, “Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles”, that the Dude listens to. It adds a discordant-mellow note to the Dude’s otherwise uber-mellow, occasionally ironically-mellow (the Nixon bowling poster, the White Russians) persona. I like it. It’s a nice touch, a nice little addition. It helps round out his character.
anyone ever heard him singing “Black Snake Moan” a capella on some radio station, complaining about their mics? Wow.
I dl’d it back in the day but lost it along with the comp it was on, so I don’t know where it came from or where it exists now, though I’d love to if any of you do….
anyone ever heard him singing “Black Snake Moan” a capella on some radio station, complaining about their mics? Wow.
I dl’d it back in the day but lost it along with the comp it was on, so I don’t know where it came from or where it exists now, though I’d love to if any of you do….
[…] 1. So I could be pulling this out of my ass, but I am going to guess the advice that “you are neither David Lynch nor Captain Beefheart. You might be Cher”, is straight from Butler. Why? Because the guy seems to be on a Beefheart kick as of late. […]
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