Captain Beefheart
and his Magic Band - The Lost Broadcasts (DVD)
2012 Gozno Multimedia
Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart has always been a man of mystery. A childhood friend and protégé of Frank Zappa, he is one of the few avant garde artist that literally has an insane fanbase, ones that seek out whatever rare material they can find, including long deleted vinyl albums that may never see the light of day as a proper CD release & his array of artwork. His obscurity has only heightened intrigue, going into hiding in the 1980's, later being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, and sadly passing away in 2010 at the age of 69.
One of the rarest factions from Beefheart are videos in some form or another. Although hisGrow Fins box set featured a handful of early visual material on CD-ROM and few live bootleg CDs have shown up, so rare is it that we get to see him in his this raw form. Showcasing him and The Magic Band raising hell on Germen TV, is The Lost BroadcastsDVD. What might otherwise be seen by many as an odd performance, is true Beefheart, making a ruckus in the confines of the thirty minute show, running from an over three minute bass solo through various performance antics of the Captain including his psychopathic mannerisms, spaced out poetry, blues infused howling and soprano sax wailing.
The band themselves are off the heels of Clear Spot and Spotlight Kid albums, and you can tell that everybody including the cameraman is almost clueless into what is going on, but that was always the spontaneity of Captain Beefheart's live shows. Still though, it's a rare look into one of rock's most extreme cult artists - It might only be for Beefheart completeists, most of his fans are.
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