Tributes are continuing for Captain Beefheart with a number of former band mates recalling their time with the musician.
Never an easy man to get on with, Captain Beefheart was an unpredictable and at times tyrannical bandleader. Yet through his ceaseless searching for new forms, the songwriter helped to inspire all around him.
Sadly passing away last week after a battle with multiple sclerosis Captain Beefheart left behind him an impressive legacy. Tributes are pouring in, with one time Magic Band guitarist Gary Lucas paying his respects.
Writing for the Wall Street Journal the avant garde musician spoke of the impact Captain Beefheart had on him. "I never met anyone remotely like him in my 30 years in “this business of music.” He made up his own rules, was sui generis and sounded like no one else. Steeped in gutbucket blues and free jazz, Van Vliet operated on the highest of artistic and poetic levels that left most people bewildered and scratching their heads."
"But if you were willing to put in the work to really LISTEN – his music was not a background experience – you would be rewarded with a searingly honest beauty and a breathtaking complexity that made most other efforts in the pop arena seem cheap and disposable."
Read the full article HERE.
Meanwhile, friend and admirer Peter Gordon has reminisced about his time with Captain Beefheart. A noted musician, Gordon's own work was recently compiled by DFA Records for a new collection.
Speaking to The Daily Swarm, Peter Gordon revealed the close connections between audio and visual art in Captain Beefheart's work. "Captain Beefheart’s music, among many things, was about precision and clarity of vision. He saw music as shapes, rather than musical forms, and there was a exactness in what he expected."
"It was not pretty, at times: he could be quite a tyrant. Don would often summon musicians and demand that a particular part be performed immediately. If there was a mistake, and there usually was, the musician was ordered downstairs to a practice room to perfect the part."
As an aside, Peter Gordon adds: "And before I had heard of Duchamp, I saw Don Van Vliet take a slice of toast with melted cheese, lacquer it, and nail it on the wall."