Wednesday 9 October 2013

Captain Beefheart

Here's Don Van Vliet (1941-2010), better known, of course, as Captain Beefheart.

The twenty-eight songs comprising his 1969 masterpiece Trout Mask Replica were written in an intensely creative eight-hour burst after which The Magic Band (consisting of the Captain himself and Zoot Horn Rollo, Antennae Jimmy Semens, The Mascara Snake, Rockette Morton and Drumbo) rehearsed non-stop for a year. The whole double album - dense, erratic, overwhelmingly original and without equal in modern music - was recorded in a single six-hour session. I love the whole record and I love this song. It's completely American. Click on the title and sing along.

The dust blows forward 'n the dust blows back

Once or twice each year the mood takes me to play the whole record straight through (now of course as a single dinky compact disc), but I've held on to my original vinyl in the gatefold sleeve. It's the Burgess Shale of avant-garde music. Dig it.

© Columbia records/Don Van Vliet



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