Or Miss Pop Star, Can I Have Some Fries with that shake?
“The dignity of the artist lies in his duty of keeping awake the sense of wonder in the world. In this long vigil he often has to vary his methods of stimulation; but in this long vigil he is also himself striving against a continual tendency to sleep.” -Marc Chagall
But what happens if the artists are force fed sleeping pills and Prozac?
Why is popular music in general devoid of quality today? With only a few rare exceptions popular music stinks.
Phew!
Some say that the 60's were a turbulent time in the U.S. and the world and created a perfect environment and culture for innovative and creative music. But aren’t these days turbulent as well? So where's the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young , or Country Joe & the Fish of today to sing about our involvement in Iraq? Or where is the Paul Simon of today to protest the government's stance on stem cell research? Where is the new Bob Marley to lift our spirits and encourage us to “Get up , Stand up”? All we get now is a Paris Hilton CD. Paris Hilton? Isn’t she famous for …what is she famous for? An extremely amateur porn flick? And a few dribbling morons actually gave her CD good reviews.
Before anyone accuses me of painting a broad brush stroke condemning all our current music, let me say that in contemporary times, there has been a small amount of music of quality. Phish, Mars Volta, Midnite, and many more I am overlooking . Even some politically-minded music has surfaced such as U2, or Lincoln Park’s latest, but nowhere near the creative zenith of earlier times. Remember when the Dixie Chicks came out against President Bush and the Iraq war. They paid dearly at the hands of big business for their outspoken views. That's a far cry from the politically-charged days of the 60’s when many artists were speaking out and having an impact.
There are only a few artists or bands that can reliably sell out huge arenas today. These tend to be the icons: The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Police, Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Genesis and or Peter Gabriel, and The Eagles. In fact music and tour promoters, large venue owners and ticket companies are all worried about concert sales taking a plunge after these artists stop touring. They know it's going to be hard to sell out big arenas after the dinosaurs become extinct. Who are the artists of today who will reach that status tomorrow? I do not know. But let’s have a look at what is “popular” now compared to previous years.
The top sellers of 2006 (no data for 2007 yet) were:
1. High School Musical, A Disney TV show soundtrack 2. Me and My Gang, Rascal Flatts, 3. Some Hearts, Carrie Underwood, 4. All the Right Reasons, Nickelback, 5. Futuresex/Love, Justin Timberlake, 6. Back to Bedlam, James Blunt 7. B'day, Beyoncé, 8. Hannah Montana, Soundtrack , 9. Taking the Long Way, Dixie Chicks 10. Extreme Behavior, Hinder.
Now lets look at the top sellers in 1968:
1. Jimi Hendrix Experience, Are You Experienced? 2. The Graduate, Simon & Garfunkel 3. Disraeli Gears, the Cream 4. Magical Mystery Tour, the Beatles 5. Waiting for the Sun, The Doors 6. The Who Sell Out, The Who 7. Bayou Country, Credence Clearwater Revival 8. Music from Big Pink, The Band, 9. Beggars Banquet, The Rolling Stones 10. Cheap Thrills, Big Brother & Holding Company (w/Janis Joplin)
I really don’t need to make the comparisons do I? There is more artistic quality in any one song on any one of those albums from 1968 than all releases since 2000 combined. Why? Certainly there is great music being made, there must be. But we are denied the exposure by business practices that are questionable for selling hamburgers, let alone art of any kind.
In an interview with Joe Walsh on Sirius Radio Joe said “there is not nearly as much improvisational rock anymore.” When asked what bands he thought were decent these days, he couldn't think of any for a while, and then finally said he thought the Goo Goo Dolls were good. Maybe I'm some kind of pitiful aging curmudgeon, but does Kevin Federline really belong in the music industry? His nickname is K-Fed. Well I’m “fed up “. I think K-Fed, J-Lo, X-tina (Christina Aguilera, really, not a joke) and A-Rod all need to hear what real music sounds like and Fed- X themselves to Antarctica to entertain (or annoy?) the penguins.. I mean they might be talented but I don’t hear the evidence of it in their work, I want something more than a decent voice, an empty head and a jiggle or 2. Perhaps a little musical composition and gee wiz, some inspired performance, or maybe a little poetry or at least lyrics that have a little more depth to them then a stick man. Isn’t this supposed to be a creative art form? Where the hell is the creativity? Where is the art?
Where is the art in today's music?
Here are the top 5 recordings right now in the Summer of 2007: 1. T-Pain - Epiphany 2. Fabulous - From Nothin’ to Somethin’ 3. Paul McCartney - Memory Almost Full 4. RiHanna featuring Jay Z - Umbrella 5. DJ Khaled - We The Best
Lets see what the top recordings of the summer of 1969 were. 1. Abbey Road -Beatles 2. Three Dog Night 3. Led Zeppelin 4. Tommy - The Who 5. Blind Faith 6. Let it Bleed Rolling Stones 7. Nashville Skyline - Bob Dylan 8. Johnny Cash at San Quentin 9. Crosby, Stills & Nash 10. Blood Sweat & Tears 11. In the Court Of the Crimson King - King Crimson 12. Kick Out The Jams - MC-5 13. The Allman Brothers Band (Debut)
And here were the top 5 albums of 2005:
- Mariah Carey - The Emancipation of Mimi - 50 Cent - The Massacre - Kelly Clarkson - Breakaway - Green Day - American Idiot - The Black Eyed Peas - Monkey Business
Here are some of the top albums of 1975: -Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen - Still Crazy After All These Years - Paul Simon - Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd - Physical Graffiti - Led Zeppelin - Katy Lied - Steely Dan - Siren- Roxy Music - A Night At The Opera - Queen - Another Green World - Brian Eno - Young Americans - David Bowie - Mothership Connection - Parliament - Live! - Bob Marley and the Wailers - 10 cc - The Original Soundtrack - Captain Fantastic - Elton John - One of these Nights - The Eagles - Slow Dazzle - John Cale - Blow By Blow - Jeff Beck - That’s the Way of the World - Earth Wind And Fire - Radioaktivität - Kraftwerk
Is it just me, or is there a glaring difference between the 21st Century lists and the 20th Century lists? To be fair, Green Day is a decent band and McCartney’s album shouldn’t count since he’s of the 20th century ilk. Monkey Business doesn’t suck, but does it hold a candle to anything on the ‘75 list? Am I bashing contemporary musicians? Not really. It’s not their fault. The bloody knife rests in the pale bony hands of Captain Commerce. Applying McDonald’s fast food approach to art has really destroyed the business. Where there once were thousands of small labels owned and staffed by people who genuinely were interested in music choosing artists to record, there now are only a handful of giant corporations with no more interest or knowledge of music than of the cheap toasters they manufacture in countries without labor or environmental laws to impede their profits. It is the music industry itself that has transformed a series of free markets into a giant conglomerate monstrosity uninterested in the music or it’s creators. Only it’s profits. In their rise to control the industry, they have nearly strangled it. The commerce side of music has changed so drastically that it is barely recognizable. I think that is one of the main reasons there is such a chasm between today's music and the creations of yesteryear. Like sports and medicine, music as an industry has been a casualty of big business and American capitalism.
No longer does the actual music quality drive the industry. Instead, the people with the money and power at the record companies notice some bad music selling to young people , and therefore decide that from then on they're only going to find and promote that type of bad music since it made a few bucks and cost little to produce. They've totally stopped listening to the music and instead only listen to the dollars.
Today's record company executives are clueless about music
No longer does the music they create determine the success of a band. Instead, entertainment conglomerates tell fans what to listen to, and that determines the success. They do this because they have such a strangle hold on the media. We only have the illusion of choice now. A vicious circle has begun where the whole industry is inexorably spinning down, unable to grasp the sides of the toilet they created, circling downward uncontrollably into the abyss of painfully bad music.
Some bands occasionally slip through the vortex relatively intact, sidestepping the institutionalized procedure of "success" set in place by corporate executives. Dave Mathews and Phish are great examples of this. They became hugely successful in spite of the music industry. Because they were so good and so tenacious in touring and jamming, they attracted a large fan base. The industry stepped in to claim a piece of their pie, plain and simple. The fan base Phish developed gave them a power that most artists today can never have. Most other artists have to do what the people with the purse strings tell them to do. And that more often than not, leads to bad music. Another thing that contributes to the poor music of today is technology. These days, Hollywood actors who can't sing can have singing careers. The engineers touch up their voices, and use every digital sound technique there is to make a below average product sellable, just like the magazines airbrush the models and actresses to complete the illusion. Those of us behind the mixing desk refer to this as “polishing the turd”.
Ashlee Simpson is a good example of this. I mean when did lip synching become and art form? People have lost interest in this kind of nonsense. The industry blames their dwindling profits on file sharing and piracy. To some degree this is a factor, but I suggest not to the extent claimed. The corporate raiders who cooked the golden goose have been watering down the drinks and selling poor forgeries instead of originals. They have filled their art galleries with paint by numbers “Elvis On Black Velvet“, “Dogs Playing Cards“, and “Big-eyed Waifs.” While Van Gogh, Rubens, Goya, Chagall, Rembrandt, and Dali are discarded in the dumpster out back.
Real music is discarded, and meaningless drivel is declared wonderous.
I know that in any era there's going to be silly music acts like Ashlee Simpson, Kevin Federline and Paris Hilton. I realize that during Bob Dylan's time there were lots of feeble yet famous music artists as well. My complaint is that it seems like in any other era there was at least enough really fantastic and original music being created to balance things out.
“There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.” -Ansel Adams
The Eclectic Electric Music Of Captain Beefheart And The Magic Band
Don Van Vliet, or Captain Beefheart if you prefer, is perhaps the single greatest rock musician in all eternity, ( although Don would say " I 'm not a rock musician, I'm a soft person") and certainly one of the most original and influential geniuses of the 20th century. He and his Magic Band cohorts completely erased all musical dogmas and reinvented music on their own terms. The Beefheart style blends some deep Delta blues, free-jazz, cacophonous avantgarde and rock and roll, but what is unique about Van Vliet's music is the rhomboid, skewed, manic, aleatory and perfectly disturbing structure of his compositions.
The desert (where he grew up) could be a better key to understand his art than any of the influences that one can hear on his albums. Van Vliet also created one of the most original styles of singing ever, one that, again, revolutionized centuries of vocal music. The gruff, abrasive, werewolf-grade, warbling of Van Vliet had Its roots in the blues, but become something else entirely, covering 7 octaves sometimes jumping from the highest to the lowest in a single breath. If your new to the Capt., I suggest “Clear Spot “ as a great place to start, It’s one of my favorites and has all the great elements that make his music great but enough “normality” for the uninitiated to cling to. Van Vliet joined the newly forming Magic Band in 1965, and quickly took over as Bandleader. Their early output was rooted in blues and rock music, drawing comparisons to the Rolling Stones of the same time period but gradually adopted an experimental Daliesque approach. The 2 hardest albums to classify in all of rock music are "Trout Mask Replica" and "Lick My Decals Off Baby". When I first started this story, I thought It would be easy because of my familiarity with the music, but just listing the recordings, and writing a few sentences about them became a bit exhaustive. There can be no short Beefheart article. We merely scratch the surface here and it is still a bit lengthy. We have a couple videos this time out because seeing only one gives a very limited view of the work under review here. Watching an early performance would lead you to believe the blues was his medium. In a sense he reinvents blues in his own fashion. Beefheart is also known for his off and on friendship and collaborations with Frank Zappa over the years having known him since high school.
Lets have a brief look at the Captain's catalog:
The Legendary A&M sessions A fun album to listen to, especially if you are a blues fan. With the great cover of Bo Diddley's "Diddy Wah Diddy". It is very well produced but sounds "of the era". If you like other music from 1965 this is lots of fun.
Safe As Milk The first album featuring Ry Cooder on slide guitar. My favorite tunes from this album is "Zig Zag Wanderer" and "Sure 'Nuff 'N Yes I Do".
Lyrics: Well I was born in the desert came on up from New Orleans Came up on a tornado sunlight in the sky I went around all day with the moon sticking in my eye
Hey hey hey all you young girls wherever you're at I got a brand new Cadillac I got a Ferrari too Sure 'nuff baby sure 'nuff 'n yes I do...
video- Live on the beach in Cannes
With that first tune, you know your not in Kansas anymore. This album is steeped in Delta Blues but is uniquely a desert version, a much higher wattage visionary doodad. In this photo we can see that John Lennon was clearly a fan of "the Capt." as there are 2 of the "Safe As Milk" bumper stickers included with the original release on the wall at his home.
Mirror Man A 1999 re-issue features massively improved mastering and packaging, and also includes a selection of outtakes. aA live recording. An interesting album. "Mirror Man, Mirror Dog, Mirror Woman, Mirror Frog... " Most Capt. Beefheart albums have a healthy dose of humor.
Strictly Personal I like this but Don hated it. The producers added phasing effects all through it without Don's knowledge or approval. Of course the Capt. was right, the "trendy at the time" (1968) psychedelic production dates what would have been timeless. The Capt. said the "Fizz" they added destroyed his songs. There is a clear distinction between the albums up to Strictly Personal and that which followed. After this point, nothing was to sound quite the same ever again....
Trout Mask Replica This groundbreaking album has been in every "Top 100" list since it's release in 1969. The sheer audacity to release something like this has no equal in history. when I bought this double album, I played it once and was so musically offended by it, I literally threw it out the window. Something made me retrieve it and it slowly grew on me becoming an absolute favorite. There is no precedent for Trout Mask. It is quite likely the most completely original explosion of creativity ever captured. . Every preconceived notion of what music is disappears in a wave of dissonant polyrhythmic cacophony. Beefheart's surrealistic lyrics are light, dark, innocent, world weary, spiritual, and mundane simultaneously. Produced by Frank Zappa who captured the band faithfully with no agenda other than creating art, this is the avant garde by which all else is measured . There is not a commercial consideration to be found here, only the artistic vision of a genius. It has no equal.
"Old Fart At Play" by Don Van Vliet 1969 "Pappy with the Khaki sweatband Bowed goat potbellied barnyard that only he noticed The old fart was smart The old gold cloth madonna Dancin' t' the fiddle 'n saw He ran down behind the knoll 'n slipped on his wooden fishhead The mouth worked 'n snapped all the bees Back t' the bungalow
Momma was flatten'n lard With her red enamel rollin' pin When the fishhead broke the window Rubber eye erect 'n precisely detailed Airholes from which breath should come Is now closely fit With the chatter of the old fart inside
An assortment of observations took place Momma licked 'er lips like uh cat Pecked the ground like uh rooster Pivoted like uh duck Her stockings down caught dust 'n doughballs She cracked 'er mouth glaze caught one eyelash Rubbed 'er hands on 'er gorgeous gingham Her hand grasped sticky metal intricate latchwork Open t' the room uh smell cold mixed with bologna Rubber bands crumpled wax paper bonnets Fat goose legs 'n special jellies Ignited by the warmth of the room The old fart smelled this thru his important breather holes Cleverly he dialed from within from the outside we observed That the nose of the wooden mask Where the holes had just been uh moment ago Was now smooth amazingly blended camouflaged in With the very intricate rainbow trout replica
The old fart inside was now breathing freely From his perfume bottle atomizer air bulb invention
His excited eyes from within the dark interior glazed; watered in appreciation of his thoughtful preparation."
Lick My Decals Off Baby Many fans feel this is the finest hour of the Magic Band. It is certainly one of the best, yet has been out of print for some time.The music on this album is intelligent, beautiful, chaotic, complex, VERY AMERICAN and "too much for most mirrors" (Not easily grasped). One company in Germany sells it but they are asking $150.00 U.S. for it. (And I have heard the only ones available on the internet are bootlegs, be skeptical. ) When it finally becomes available in the U.S. again on CD, if you haven't yet heard it, you are in for a real treat if you purchase it. Produced by Don himself, this music is a continuation of the styles explored in Trout Mask Replica but arguably refined. The addition of Artie Tripp (formerly with the Mothers of Invention) on marimba gives the music a great new dimension in sound. Trout Mask and Decals are the most experimental and visionary work in the catalog. A stunning achievement! The "commercial" Don made to promote this album is absolutely and perfectly obtuse.
"DR. DARK" by Don Van Vliet 1970 Mama, mama, here come Doctor Dark Horse clippin', clappin' 'n his ol' hooves makin' sparks Black leather lady Lord carried her bags The hell horn, hell horn, hell horn Horn rim crimped Glasses look out on the pale hell bent Moon milk run O' lady go home Lord they done cookin' done Black lady Black leather lady Done had a white, white, white poor son Mama, mama, here come Doctor Dark Horse clippin', clappin' 'n his ol' hooves makin' sparks Gotta git me who I want to God, Lord knows I've got to oh see that Doctor Dark Mama, mama, here come Doctor Dark Horse clippin', clappin' 'n his ol' hooves makin' sparks Shed a tear on the meadow lark 'n like Tear t' drink T' brush away 'n tear apart 'n black 'n white 'n like Tear t' drink t' brush away 'n tear apart 'n black 'n white 'n like The moon a pail of milk spilled down black in the night Little girl lost a tear 'n her kite T' the night 'n like 'n light God, Lord knows I've got to oh see that Doctor Dark
The Spotlight Kid Spotlight Kid contains some very heavy, slow and spacious blues. Seen as a disappointment by many on its release in 1972, due to its restrained nature, it really shines through today as being another Beefheart classic, containing some of his most beautiful songs, such as Glider and Grow Fins.
Grow Fins 1972 by Don Van Vliet.
"Now here ya come baby With yer tail draggin' the gravy Y' know yer P's 'n Q's What ya don't know baby Is you givin' me the blues Ya got juice on your chin Eggs on the drain-board Pie on the wall Dirt on the rug I come home late 'N I stumbled 'n swore Ya won't even give me a hug Ya had my things all laid out by the door I'm leavin' I'm gonna take up with a mermaid 'N leave you land lubbin' women alone 'N leave you land-lubbin' women alone Ya said ya had it together once Now yer head's around the bend I'm tellin' ya woman Ya better get it back together again I'm gonna grow fins 'N go back in the water again If ya don't leave me alone I'm gonna take up with ah mermaid 'N leave you land-lubbin' women alone 'N leave you land-lubbin' women alone Now here ya come baby With yer tail draggin' the gravy Ya know yer P's 'n Q's What ya don't know woman Is yer givin' me the blues"
A Live Performance From The Spotlight Kid Era
Clear Spot A glorious collection of tight punchy songs immaculately recorded by producer Ted Templeton ( Doobie Brothers, Carly Simon , Montrose, Van Halen). There isn't anything particularly odd about them. There isn't anything particularly normal about them either. A great Album. A must have. Mr. Zoot Horn Rollo, Hit that long lunar note and let it float! This will put a smile on the most sullen of human faces. Again if your new to the Beefheartian Universe, this 1972 release is your best entry point. "Big Eyed Beans From Venus" is one of the best rock songs ever! And then there's Golden Birdies...
"Those little golden birdies look at them"
"And the mystic Egypt tossle dangling down Old sleeper-man shish, don't wake him Up one hand broom star was an obi-man revered throughout the bone-knob land His magic black purse slit creeped open, Let go flocks of them
Shish look he's singabus Snored like a red merry-go-round horse And an acid gold bar swirled up and down, Up and down, in back of the singabus And the panataloon duck white goose neck quacked webcore, webcore"
1972 by Don Van Vliet.
("The Spotlight Kid" and "Clear Spot" are available together on one cd here.)
Unconditionally Guaranteed This album isn't one that Beefheart fans praise much, as it is not what one may expect the Captain to produce. However, it is an album that has a charm. The Magic Band plays simple love songs, admittedly with none of the twists and curves that you expect with Beefheart's music. Don had a history of bad deals in the music industry and in 1974 producers Andy and Augie DiMartino convinced him that he could be a commercial success under their guidance. The band hated being told what and how to play by the producers whom they felt were amateurs and quit when the album was finished. The Capt. did a tour to support the album with some session players, later referred to as the tragic band. Women seem to like this album more than men. It's got some great stuff on it despite being an attempt at a wider audience. Beefheart at the time said he was ‘selfish’ in the past producing a form of music which was highly elitist, in that few people were able to listen to it. My opinion is this is actually a great collection of songs played by excellent musicians who everyone expects to be strange and are not. It's atypical but has merit.
Moonbeams and Bluejeans This is the one Beefheart fans site as the worst. I would say you could in fact live without it. There are some good songs and some clunkers, Only recommended for completists. "The camel wore a nightie at the party of special things to do"... hmmm. Not exactly prime beef. Though I know people who like it.
Shiny Beast One of the best! The Capt. gives up trying to please others and returns to pleasing himself. Which of course pleases his fans as well! A true return to form. This captures it all. The humor, the unusual approach to songwriting, and the surrealism. A genuine milestone. The addition of Bruce Fowler (Mothers of Invention) on trombone is perfect.
Floppy Boot Stomp by Don Van Vliet released 1978 "The floppy boot stomped down into the ground The farmer screamed 'n blew the sky off the mountains Eye sockets looked down on the chestbone mountains 'n the sun dropped down, 'n the moon ran off, His heels 'n elbows pale as chalk 'n all the comets collided 'n blew t' dust For fear they'd be seen. 'n the sky turned white in the middle of the night 'n the sky turned white in the middle of the night 'n the big floppy boot stomped down into the ground 'n the red violin took the bow to do the hoodoo hoe-down 'n the red violin took the bow for to do the hoodoo hoe-down The farmer jumped in ah circle 'n flung his chalk right down Do-si-do the devil sho' showed 'n he broke of his horns 'n fiddled him down the road through the fork 'n the farmer's floppy boot stomped down Red tail squirmin' and the hot leg kicked 'n the fire leaped 'n licked And when the boot came up, the fire went out And hell was just an ice cube melting off on the ground. And the bold caught down for to do the hoodoo hoedown And the bold caught down for to do the hoodoo, the devil hoedown To the fork, huddlin’ in a hollow, standin’ at the crossroads With that bunged-up bandaged broken bum that fell in the wrong circle He had a sole red tail – once went red, now was pale Fe Fi Fo Fum he was summoned up from hell Booted down a spell By a square-dancin’ farmer By a square-dancin’ farmer, well That old bum was sticking out his thumb When the farmer drove up, said "Listen son", and the horse compared his hooves. "If you fall into my circle again I’ll tan your red hide And dance you on your tail, and pitch you from now to now Pitch you from now to now." And the hotlick kicked, and the fire leaped an’ licked And the hotlick kicked and the fire just leaped an’ licked And the hotlick kickin’ an’ the fire jus’ leapin’ an’ lickin’ And the fire leaped and licked."
Doc At The Radar Station The Coup de gras! One perfect Beefheart album. I don't think it gets any better, some say it's abrasive. But its songs are far beyond the realms of praise, criticism and condemnation. Robert Palmer said of Beefheart’s music. "The rhythms that disintegrate before your very ears, the xylophone riffs that suddenly appear out of nowhere and cut across the polyrhythms set up by the other instruments, the impossibly dense and atonal chord clusters, all these effects are plotted in advance and painstakingly rehearsed. Casual listeners may still consider Beefheart a wild-eyed primitive, but in fact he's an American maverick composer who has created his own musical idiom - an idiom that's related to blues and rock-and-roll but also problematically tangential to them." There is nothing that compares to this. It's Capt. Beefheart at his creative best. Another work of swampy surreal genius.
Ashtray Heart by Don Van Vliet 1980
"You used me like an ashtray heart Case of the punks Right from the start I feel like a glass shrimp in a pink panty With a saccharine chaperone Make invalids out of supermen Call in a "shrink" And pick you up in a girdle You used me like an ashtray heart Right from the start Case of the punks Another day, another way Somebody's had too much to think Open up another case of the punks Each pillow is touted like a rock The mother / father figure Somebody's had too much to think Send your mother home your navel Case of the punks New hearts to the dining rooms Violet heart cake Dissolve in new cards, boards, throats, underwear Ashtray heart You picked me out, brushed me off Crushed me while I was burning out Then you picked me out Like an ashtray heart Hid behind the curtain Waited for me to go out A man on a porcupine fence Used me for an ashtray heart Hit me where the lover hangs out Stood behind the curtain While they crushed me out You used me for an ashtray heart You looked in the window when I went out You used me like an ashtray heart."
Ashtray Heart On Saturday Night Live
At the end of Captain Beefheart's performance of "Hot Head", on a Saturday Night Live broadcast, actor Radames Pera can clearly be heard saying "That's shit!" According to Beefheart, the heckler had a conversation with drummer John French about the nature of The Captain's music. He was in the front row of the next gig cheering and became a huge fan of the band and a personal friend of Don.
Ice Cream For Crow The Swansong. After recording this album in 1982, Don quietly walked away from the music business never to return. Ever since Don has been painting. His art commands a high price and he is well respected in the art world today. In fact a new installation of 15 of Don Van Vliet's paintings has opened and runs until the 6th of July 2007 at the Anton Kern Gallery in New York.
Would you like to purchase a Don Van Vliet Painting?
"Men let your wallets flop out and women open your purses"... here's information about buying Don Van Vliet's magnificent paintings. Please direct all enquiries to:
The Michael Werner Gallery, 4 East 77 Street, New York 10021.
Telephone (212) 988-1623 Fax (212) 988-1774
Queries should be addressed to the associate director, Justine Birbil.
Prices start at $12,500 for the paintings, and drawings range from $2,500 to $4,500.
(The Michael Werner Gallery is where the paintings are on the permedent exhibition.)
No self-respecting fan of Don's music would be without these other fine recordings.
1. The Tubes - "Now" Don plays sax on "Cathy's Clown" and harmonica on "Golden Boy".
2. Blue Collar (original Movie Soundtrack) Don does the main theme " Hard Workin' Man" and this soundtrack reunites Don with Safe as Milk guitarist Ry Cooder. (Incidentally "Hard Workin Man" also appears in the film "A Civil Action" starring John Travolta, though is not on the soundtrack album for that film.)
3. The Zappa Collaborations a. Hot Rats b. Bongo Fury (hear a live recording excerpt from Debra Kadabra) c. Zoot Allures ( Harmonica) d. One Size Fits All (Don appears as Bloodshot Rollin' Red on "San Ber'dino".)
4. Mallard (Magic Band without Captain Beefheart) I love these albums. They are very traditional compared to Don's but the songs and playing are really great. They are available together on one CD now after previously being very rare. a. Mallard b. In A Different Climate
5. The Magic Band "Back to Front" ( Matt Groening, creator of "The Simpsons" and huge fan of Capt. Beefheart financed and wrote the liner notes for this great 2003 reunion album.) Also 21st Century Mirror Men, the live album and DVD of the Magic Band's performances in in 2003 and 2004 at the Royal Festival Hall, The Garage, Edinburgh Liquid Room, and the ATP festival in Los Angeles. Includes a bonus DVD.
6. Grow Fins Arguably the best box set ever put together for fans of a band. The 5 CD box set contains a 112 page hardcover book featuring John French's notes, rare photographs and a wealth of other information. A few videos and a raft of rare previously unreleased tracks. A pirates booty for fans. But a little pricey. Still this is what all box sets should be like, it's lavish.
Capt. Beefheart Quotes
"There's no competition with our music. It can't be compared or impaired, or impaled with points or justifications...It means absolutely nothing, just like the sun."
"I think most people try to get others to see through their eyes. And if you look through enough eyes, like in books, you end up not knowing how to use your own eyes. Then you have to be started by something. It all has to do with The One. People can't realize that a One is really a Zero split in half. It's like splitting the world in two; choosing up sides."
"You can tell by the kindness of a dog how a human should be."
"The past sure is tense."
"I'm like a woman because I have my periods, if you know what I mean. Every once in a while I get the cramps and do something far out. This album needs someplace to go, you know? So I sing with a definite woman in mind, not like those groups that have men on their mind."
(On making the more accessible albums.) "I would just as soon play the music on the new album because when I see all those people out there taking acid to get into *my* music, then I don't want to play that kind of music. I don't want to make people think they've got to use some sort of elevation to get into what I do. If I did that, what kind of artist would I be? Just another phoney asshole."
"A carrot is as close as a rabbit gets to a diamond."
"The largest flying land mammal is the absent mind."
"My music isn't that much different from the music that's in anyone’s mind. Because I conceive it so naturally, it's bound to be in their minds. Sooner or later, they'll catch on; they'll learn to enjoy it without understanding why. Unless they're so far out they can't get back. I don't really think they are. All tongues are connected, you know - we all drink from the same pond."
"Everybody's colored or else you wouldn't be able to see them."
"I don't want to sell my music. I'd like to give it away because where I got it, you didn't have to pay for it."
"The stars are matter, we're matter, but it doesn't matter."
"I'm not really here, I just stick around for my friends."
"I don’t like marches. I'll tell you why: war. It's very similar to disco."
"I'd always thought music was too formal, and I thought 'well, I'll get into this and fix it'."
"The most widely held misconception about me is that I'm a mystic. I'm not. I believe in black and white, I believe organically."
"I believe in varying degrees of disconnection. I don't believe in insanity."
"I don't look like a desert person because I stay indoors most of the day and fool around at night. That's what the desert animals do - they don't have a tan either."
"I needed to purge myself of all the attention my parents had given me - I wasn't neglected enough as a child."
Phew!
Where is the art in today's music?
Today's record company executives are clueless about music
Real music is discarded, and meaningless drivel is declared wonderous.
