who THE FUCK voted crap?
just curious, really.

ant man bee wrote:I got to hang out with Rockette after one of these shows

I managed this too, he was great value and astoundingly friendly, even in the face of the two drunken clowns hyperbolising in front of him. My biggest problem was not hopping up onto his knee and telling him what I wanted for Christmas, he was so furry and cuddly.

PEPPER! wrote:this is an interview with John French (Drumbo) from a couple of years back. it's pretty interesting:

http://vpinterviews.blogspot.com/2005/0 ... -band.html

mostly it's about working with Beefheart and about the Magic Band performances that he and other former members have done over the last few years.

as a side note he talks a little about being a born-again Christian. my impression of the born-agains I've known personally is that they were frightened into it by the complexity of the world, but I wish more of them had this guy's attitude.

On the last tour they did in the UK, the band I play in opened for them and after we'd finished we all walked back into the dressing room bit offstage. The dressing room is an L-shape. We were being pretty loud in a kind of mock-jock fashion and high-fiving each other and just generally being stupid in a way that you only can when you're safe in the knowledge no can see or hear you and you've just opened for your favourite band and survived.
Our drummer Elvis shouted something along the lines of
"FUCKING YEAH FUCKING NICE ONE FUCKING TITS YEAH TITS TITS TITS"
or words to that effect as he walked through the dressing room, round the corner of the L-shape to find John French and wife on a prayer mat, praying at the far end of the dressing room. A beautiful moment.

Rockette Morton seemed to not mind. He had bought a 'Darwin' take on the born-again fish symbol sticker too.



and here's Denny Whalley after his strap button went AWOL and he had to sit in a chair for Moonlight On Vermont.



Good times!

Completely unrelated Polaroid remembered when looking for the Magic Band ones:



How amazing is that? (I didn't take it)

The Captain Beefheart: Under Review DVD is worth checking out, if only for the parts w/ John "Drumbo" French. That guy is awesome. I think it also might be the only commercially-available Beefheart doc out there.

Brett Eugene Ralph wrote:

pdc_heavy wrote:Any good books on this fella yet?

NOT CRAP, btw.

There's a decent biography. I think it was published in England. I loaned it to somebody, so I can't check the author for you. I think it might just be called Captain Beefheart.

Mike Barnes is the author, it is good

Artist: Don Van Vliet

Title: Riding Some Kind Of Unusual Skull Sleigh

Ever since he retired from the music biz, Don Van Vliet a.k.a. Captain
Beefheart has returned to his first love, painting, and his works have
sold all over the world. Now, Rhino Handmade is letting his fans have a
rare opportunity to own a piece of Beefheart: a numbered, limited edition
(of 1,500) set that includes an original, signed color etching cataloged
as 'Untitled (Self Portrait)' produced by Van Vliet especially for this
Rhino Handmade release. It's housed inside a deluxe slipcase that also
includes not one but two museum-quality books, one entitled 'Riding Some
Kind of Unusual Skull Sleigh' (88 pages) that includes an essay by art
historian Ben Watson and full-color reproductions of 60 of Van Vliet's
paintings and drawings, some of which are previously unpublished. The
other book, entitled 'Splinters' (96 pages), presents portrait photos of
the artist taken by Anton Corbijn, along with a selection of personal
archival material -- snapshots, clippings, drawings, sketches -- chosen by
Don and Jan Van Vliet and never before seen. And, to top it all off, the
set includes a CD containing 11 previously unreleased spoken word pieces
spanning 1977-99 AND a DVD featuring Anton Corbijn's 'YoYo Stuff', a
filmed observation of Van Vliet at work.

$499.95 We will ship this overnight only (signature required) for an extra
$15.95-it's that valuable and irreplaceable.

http://www.rhinohandmade.com/artistink/index.lasso

Damn. Haven't googled yet, but I'm assuming he doesn't have any reasonably priced art books. I do love his paintings.

mattw wrote:The Captain Beefheart: Under Review DVD is worth checking out, if only for the parts w/ John "Drumbo" French. That guy is awesome. I think it also might be the only commercially-available Beefheart doc out there.

I have that it's pretty good. I also liked the Gary Lucas parts near the end and I think he tells a pretty funny road story or something on one of the deleted scenes.

I have a Captain Beefheart t-shirt. I don't usually go in for t-shirts that advertise musicians, rock bands etc but this shirt is so cool I couldn't resist. Anyway it's the picture is from around the Ice Cream For Crow video/cover shoot by the looks. Anyway I live in rural New South Wales where it would seem that I'm the only person within about 500km that's even heard of the Captain. I was out and about one day a bout a year ago in a nearby larger centre and two people on the same day in different places ask me if it was a picture of me on the shirt. This is odd because I look absolutely nothing like Don Van Vliet and who in their right mind would wear a picture of themselves on a shirt. My girlfriend still mentions it when I wear the shirt.

boilermaker wrote:who in their right mind would wear a picture of themselves on a shirt.

Don Van Vliet.