"...children running after rainbows, stocking poor..."

Damn, that is gold

And Zappa was the standup guy who came through for them.

One of the most underrated musicians ever! The other top contender is probably Bill Harkleroad, jajaja

@@nathangale7702 Yes indeedy. Drumbo said in his autobio that he'd have put Harkelroad above Clapton or Hendrix when he was playing in TMB. This is the guitarist who tried to approximate Antennae Jimmy Semens TMR parts, at the same time as playing his own, at the Amouges gig with Jeff Bruschele (sp?) on drums (and no Antennae Jimmy Semens, obviously). Drumbo said it was one of the most incredible things he's witnessed as a musician. And all he got for it was a legion of fans and "critical recognition"...unfortunately those things don't pay the bills :(

@@vollsticks I don't think I've seen that video, I'll have to check that out. I feel like if the Magic Band did a go fund me called something like "Pay the Magic Band What it Deserves for Providing Incredible Music to the World" they would probably make a good collection, jajaja.

@@nathangale7702 Couple million EACH is what they deserve...at least!

Stg

Awesome

Except sadly for John Drumbo French whose name was left off the album. It's still one of the most extraordinary drumming performances of all time.

@@Notecrusher I still know about him somehow, listened to the album last night, he's still a legend.

Live on in infamy....

Unless you've done this, you don't know. I mean, if we got free beer, we were UP. Money??? Hahahahahahahaha.

@@byronp2311 right... even got beer AND 🍕 one time. I thought I was a STAR!!! Lol!!

Went w/Out So Many Times, Still Here, Still Trying, Still Getting Back Up, After Getting Knocked Down... (UGH)

!

@@looplop that was in another doc, that don would sign anything put in front of him. Gee, a musician taken advantage of by the legal department, say it ain't so.

I don't imagine it was much better after its release, considering that TMR is one of the least commercial records ever made.

Yeah they talk like they were grand thieves for stealing a bit of food when they were starving

@@lastnamefirst4035 yeah that was hilarious, there are warmongers running the world and the guy sounds absolutely griefstricken that he stole food when he was hungry. What a world.

J.S Bach had to beg his employers for enough money to support his family. Mozart was buried in a pauper's grave. The Captain's crew had it easy.

Easy? Try telling that to any starving musician.

They had to rob from supermarkets to feed themselves

John Davey OH goddamn it is friend.

it wouldn't have been hard to find a part time job... why doesn't anyone think about that ... I mean 4 hrs a day or a few days a week? even as a dishwaher ... at least they would have eaten for free

I would nominate Ice Cream for Crow as being the best of the last batch, but they are all excellent.

@@3340steve "This is a toast!"

3340steve honestly I absolutely love that record, but Dons voice is not the powerhouse it once was. I think it isn’t the best representation of the craziness his vocal chords were capable of

I agree. Probably from smoking.

Those last albums are great, as is Trout Mask Replica, but I think my favorite will always be Lick My Decals Off, Baby. I also really like Mirror Man, which is more straight ahead and bluesy. That one is more of an emotional favorite though, because Kandy Korn was my introduction to Capt. Beefheart, when my brother played it for me when I was a kid.

What's funny is I was born in the eighties and bought steal this book twice and sold it once.

And you are not old. 🥕

@@JSTNtheWZRD No, I am, it's OK. 🥳

@@sarahtonin4649 my grandmother is in her eighties doesn't look it and can run circles around me.

@@sarahtonin4649 only as old as you feel.

"but i dont have a yacht!" - dvv

Lazy being the key word. Your acknowledgement is refreshing.

@@fwlweb5803 Waiting for you to acknowledge your personal failures. Any minute now.

Ehh...I know how to cook very well and I still eat lentils and rice regularly for that reason. I've been doing so since my "salad days" as well. Only now it's once or twice a week not everyday. Not because I'm lazy, I just don't care much about food. I like food that's too expensive and hate the kind of crap most people eat so it's a lot of lentils and rice like the young ones. Honestly I don't find I require much food, skinny people will freak out to hear me say it, but I find coffee and cigarettes sufficient most days with a couple good vitamins. Every other day some protein and calcium...and a full (small) meal about every three days. If I eat any more than the bare minimum it takes to get my recommended basic nutrition I get fat and stay fat. Then those skinny people start making hints of a different kind. Since they can't make up their mind about what they want my life to be like I'm just going to keep doing what works. Doctor thinks I'm healthier now, I feel better than ever. If I wanted a fucking cheeseburger I can just go get one, it's not all that oppressive really.

@@fwlweb5803 Examples of sloth and vanity are ubiquitous in the eyes of the ugly, the uncharismatic, and those with not much else to show as a virtue in life but employment. You know, I remember growing up when it was almost impossible to not get a job if you tried at all. So many of those who look down their noses made their humble estate by "getting while the getting is good." It's kind of shameful when they say such things. As for younger people...well, they never know what the fuck they're talking about so what can you do? Anyway, every rock and roll delinquent I ever knew growing up constantly reminded everyone they were a lazy go nowhere loser even if they weren't so I don't know who you're talking about, actually I hear the same from kids today. Who in America is it swearing they aren't lazy? It's like saying you're "OCD" it's basically just really corny small talk that's been over used for 3 decades. I'm seeing the exact opposite from over here, cowboy.

There's another related story of Tibet an lamas who moved to L.A. and all fell I'll. A nutritionist was brought in and looked at the situation and concluded the sole food they ate, rice, was polished in the US and that it was the bacteria and weavles they'd eaten with the Tibetan rice that had kept them well...!

hunger is the best sauce. not that i approve of hippie cults. but trout mask replica and lick my decals off are awesome.

same in the early days of the doors...

james wilson sounds perfect

yes

For sure, that's why people came & went. So many great musicians were in The Magic Band. Go to any Beefheart face book page. Us fans of his work know a thing or two about his life.

lead singer syndrome even hits the avante garde

And he had no justification for being pissed at them for stealing

Musicians don't work to live, like "normal" people. They live to make music, and everything else is secondary. Those guys knew they were creating something extraordinary, and that's what motivated them. Thank God.

Just noticed, I meant lick my decals, probably everyone knew that but still, correction.

Read Mike Barnes Book

Drumbo tells it best.

@Diomedes22 You're stuck in the Romantic paradigm of the genius. You're the one believing a fairy tale. Without the band the album would be nothing but a bunch of texts written on odd pieces of paper kept in a paper bag. And if you think he could have called in a bunch of expert but interchangeable musicians and done this album, you're believing another fairy tale. And please stop calling people "fools" - even if all you want to do is cut off any possibility of dialogue, it's insulting.

Lester Arbusto nice try

I love it. "Zappa was such a stand-up guy, he bailed them out of jail and never brought it up again... But he did take the money out of their royalties!"

100% agreed...but that's how some great artistic minds are. Most of the time they are so anti-social that the world just rejects them, but occasionally they are lucky enough to surround themselves with sympathizers who are patient enough to put up with their crap long enough to extract something truly great. We should thank the Magic Band more for their service to art.

@@nathangale7702 yes Mark E Smith of The Fall springs to mind🍺🚬🥴🍻

I don't think he was talented. His music sucks and he was a complete jerk. The guy was a charlatan.

Rock album yes the most creative, did you heard "The Black Saint & Sinner Lady"? It's a jazz album, before Trout mask, it's like the trout mask replica of jazz. I recommend.

What about _Finnegans Wake_? Couldn't put it down.

At Lester Arbusto: no, no, no. Capn Beefheart wasn't Irish...

@@futuropasado Oh yeah, I'm a big fan, big fan of Mingus!

Trout mask replica was #60 on Rolling Stones 500 greatest albums of all time in 2003. On the most recent poll it wasnt ranked. Was it because 440 better albums have come out since 2003 or because they polled a bunch of people born in the 90s? Btw, Beyonce's "Lemonade" is currently #12.

@Slappy Pretentious bullshit.

@@44thenazz You are not wrong. They could have simply rehearsed for eight months without having to be abused, beaten, and yelled at. Beefheart was a terrible person whose only talent was exposed through his fellow musicians, all of which had to make music out of literal piano banging when they were not starved or thrown down a staircase for not knowing how to "play a strawberry". I respect The Magic Band but not Don Van Vliet. "The best art comes not through suffering but emotion. Suffering stops you from holding your brush." - Musician, painter, and religious scholar B.C. Burrus

@@morganwalker9789 I believe Beefheart wanted to make the most far-out hardcore avant-garde album ever. And he kind of did, right?

I totally agree, this is so funny it's got me laughing my head off, the Captain has created a gold mine of pure comedy, it's so outrageous, why the band members didn't just leave, and carried on, absolutely, as funny as fuck

I wouldn't have left a band that had Frank Zappa producing them, no matter how hungry I was.

Never too weird for me. Not sure what that says about me. :-) But I'm pretty sure Beefheart's genius would have been doomed to complete obscurity without the genius of Bill Harkleroad (Zoot) and John (Drumbo) French. And of course Frank Zappa.

@Sarahtonin. Ah yes, this old nutmeg that keeps coming up. I guess Sr Christopher Wren Wouldn't be remembered without the toil and talent of the craftsmen that actually built his ideas. The Beatles needed George Martin to hone their raw talent and do all the orchestral arrangements. No one can do this stuff on their own. And talking about obscurity. Zoot? Drumbo? Rockette? Would anyone be talking too and about them now, without Don? Unlikely.

The Beatles needed George Martin. Period.

@Cliff Yablonski Well, Cliff, I honestly had no idea! So, posthumously, four decades after discovering his work, I discover he was a bit of an asshole all along. I feel sorry for all the musicians that delivered the goods whilst putting up with his shit. However, am I going to deny D.V.V's seminal influence on all forms of experimental/leftfield music since the 70's? I just can't. Sometimes the art is more powerful than the artist.

@Johnny Morphine Yeah, I guess so. One man's repulsive asshole is another man's portal to ecstacy 🤭

piano and whistling

Frank Zappa had a book (The Real Frank Zappa) that debunked a few myths about himself. Don Van Vliet has a biography (googled "captain beefheart book"). This is cheaper and easier than reading. :)

Michael Nace I took lessons from Harkleroad in high school. That guy is the most blunt, bullshit-free guy you can imagine. Even throughout this film you can see him clarifying anything he says that might suggest he knows something that he doesn't, He took time out of his life to take an interest in, mentor, and make a demo for our flavor of the month, hair metal, high school rock band. He even went to our sophomore talent show to support us. Solid, solid dude. Love that guy.

Well he was very lucky to have John French, Drumbo, who painfully transcribed all of his piano and whistling tapes. No matter how amazing the other musicians were, I think without Drumbo, realizing such a singular, unique vision for Trout Mask would have been very difficult. He is also an absolutely incredible drummer

Dude, this was 1968... you've now idea of how weird it could get and myth is to real to describe it. To put it into perspective, people took large amounts of LSD and no one person knew it it would be heaven or hell.

Unfortunately the Magic Band never saw a penny of the millions that Trout Mask made. Beefheart was a thief.

that guy is Bill Harkleroad (aka Zoot Horn Rollo) a guitar player in the magic band.. His album "We Saw Bozo Under The Sea" is one of the finest you'll ever hear.

Thank you, man! I appreciate it. I thought it might be him, from the context, but I had heard that BIll was never interviewed on the matter of Beefheart. Anyway, I'll check that album out, too!

MrMasongray Huge album.

The Blonde One. NO!

Couldn't be, partly because it doesn't look anything like him. Secondly, he keeps saying "they" instead of "we".

No

Billy James (Ant Bee)

Is this a joke? Frank Zappa is one of the most legendary cunts in the history of music.

I don't know, you would have to believe that a lot of direct witnesses are just lying. I think it's more likely that Captain Beefheart was, in fact, as tyrannical as his stage name suggests...doesn't take away from his genius.

There were plenty of stories told years and years before he was ill. I well recall the vitriol the MB were using about him when they were interviewed by (NME?) after the Mallard album. There is no reason to doubt the accounts of French, Harkleroad and others. Don was one of my idols for years but I've long known his massive ego made him dishonest, manipulative and cruel. Nowadays I think much of his music is overrated - there's a lot of 'think of a riff, play it 4 times, think of another riff, play it 4 times. He never gave credit, either, to musicians like Harry Partch, John Cage, Howlin Wolf, Son House, Ornette Coleman etc. who were clearly a massive influence on him.

@@ykrgfk Thanks for giving a great explanation of your view, can respect that and you're probably right but I find no proof of it before he was ill. As far as crediting other musicians, some do and some don't. Greta Van Fleet has been great at crediting their influencers and thanks to their parents.

and Bill Harkleroad

Woah you're the Tyrone guy

mkfanforever58 sup

He was all for free speech.

Go on. Enlighten us..

@Diomedes22 When somebody says there's a case for both arguments and you respond by taking one side without presenting the argument, you're not likely to be taken seriously.

Damn right.

Yep and looking for a piece of CB's art money

..and I don't mean Frank Zappa, I mean the recent movie Frank!

The first misconception that needs to be dropped about this music is that it's "stoned." They smoked, sure. But they rehearsed until they could play it exactly as you hear it over and over again. Whereas, as someone pointed out, Vliet couldn't play the same thing twice. He wasn't a musician. On the other hand, had he been one, the album would be nothing like what it is. For one thing, had the songs been written like most songs are written, you'd never have texts like these. And yet they wouldn't really stand alone as "poetry" either. They had to be songs. That's what make the album what it is. Whether you like it or not is another question.

Look at him in 1972 then in 1974, he lost weight because his wife put him, on a strict diet and bought a treadmill

Oh well that's trashed him then, and I thought he was great. Sigh

Zappa gave 99% artistic control to Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band. That was his great contribution to Trout Mask Replica. It's fine to reconsider your opinion of Captain Beefheart, but you should still appreciate the music and the people like John French and Bill Harkleroad who dedicated about a year of their lives to produce it.