Tuesday, 18 November 2014

Experimental Rocker Captain Beefheart Lives On

Captain Beefheart in 1970ENLARGE
Captain Beefheart in 1970 MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES
During his career, Don Van Vliet amassed a list of idiosyncrasies—chief among them anointing himself Captain Beefheart. Beginning with a musical imagination that was strange even for the 1960s, Captain Beefheart created some of the most confounding albums in rock history. Later, as a visual artist, he continued to bewilder and transfix.
“He was a sui generis character,” says artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel, who revered Captain Beefheart as a rock oddity and later befriended him when he veered toward art. “He crossed into some place that nobody ever went to or has been since.”
ENLARGE
Musically Captain Beefheart, who died in 2010, made his friend Frank Zappa seem prosaic by comparison. He is best-known for his 1969 album “Trout Mask Replica,” whose wordy, swerving songs favored psychedelic non sequiturs and instrumental parts played in different time signatures. Other absurdist blues-rock followed that record, including material compiled for the new box-set “Sun Zoom Spark: 1970 to 1972,” out Nov. 17.
In a magazine profile from 1980, celebrated rock critic Lester Bangs called Captain Beefheart “one of the giants of 20th century music” and compared his sound with the heroic blues moaner Howlin’ Wolf and “several species of primordial beasts.” Professed fans of Captain Beefheart’s include Tom Waits, The Beatles, Kurt Cobain and Jack White.
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Don Van Vliet (born Don Glen Vliet; January 15, 1941 – December 17, 2010) was an American musician, singer-songwriter, artist and poet known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. His musical work..
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Don Van Vliet (born Don Glen Vliet; January 15, 1941 – December 17, 2010) was an American musician, singer-songwriter, artist and poet known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. His musical work..
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