Captain Beefheart
FREE!
Review by David Rensin, Phonograph Record, November 1972
THERE ARE TYPICALLY three schools of thought surrounding Captain Beefheart. The first love him and feel he can do no wrong. The second find him ...
Captain Beefheart: The Country Club, Reseda
Live Review by Mark Leviton, BAM, February 1981
"YOU EITHER LOVE it or hate it," explained the guy standing behind me to his wary girlfriend during Captain Don's blistering set. "It's the weirdest ...
ARTICLES IN LIBRARY
Captain Beefheart, The Remains: Too Many 'Diddy Wahs'
Profile by Louise Criscione, KRLA Beat, June 1966
ONE GROUP is from Boston and claims to be protesting the British influence on American music. The other group is from California and proudly declares ...
Review by Miles, International Times, November 1968
THE ALBUM of huge underground word-of-mouth reputation in the States these days, an album far removed from the fashion changing ladder of the high chart ...
Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band: Strictly Personal (Liberty)
Review by David Griffiths, Record Mirror, January 1969
APTLY TITLED. The unique Beefheart outfit have thoroughly fulfilled the promise of their first album. ...
Captain Beefheart is Alive in Hollywood
Interview by Miles, ZigZag, October 1969
IT’S THE BLIMP, IT’S THE BLIMP ...
Frank Zappa: Listen With Mothers
Profile and Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, July 1970
FRANK ZAPPA has emerged as one of the most interesting, lucid, energetic, entertaining and creative figures in contemporary music. He has frequently complained of being ...
Profile and Interview by Ben Edmonds, ZigZag, August 1970
Beefheart is and always was a Zigzag hero; we get more letter about him than any other artists, I should think – asking for news ...
Captain Beefheart: Lick My Decals Off, Baby
Review by Ed Ward, Rolling Stone, December 1970
WHEN I FIRST heard Trout Mask Replica, I about puked. What is this shit, I thought. People I met talked about it in glowing terms ...
A Candid Conversation With Beef The Chief: The Don Van Vliet Interview
Interview by Rick McGrath, Georgia Straight, The, 1971
This interview was found in the vaults by Harold Colson, an ace Librarian at the University of California at San Diego.Harold is researching the Stones ...
Captain Beefheart: Lick My Decals Off Baby
Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, January 1971
ALREADY, I'M THINKING that this is the Captain's most satisfying album to date. ...
Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band: Ungano's, New York NY
Live Review by Mike Jahn, New York Times, January 1971
CAPTAIN BEEFHEART & the Magic Band, a Los Angeles group, is playing through tonight at Ungano's, 210 West 70th Street. ...
Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band: Lick My Decals Off, Baby
Review by Lester Bangs, Creem, March 1971
GAZING ACROSS pop music's stale horizons, past all the cynical ineptitude, pseudo-intellectual solemnity, neurotic regression and dismal dead-ends for great bands, there is one figure ...
Discography by Nick Tosches, Fusion, March 1971
"The Chatanooga Choo-Choo careens headlong into the hub of an exploding galaxy. The cadavers of 19 raped and strangled astronauts float de-pants'd, froggish in the ...
Captain Beefheart: Lick My Decals Off, Baby (Bizarre)
Review by Charlie Gillett, Cream, May 1971
INSIDE CAPTAIN Beefheart is a corny old ballad-singing crooner, aching to sing those same old songs of sorrow and devotion. But the knows that kind ...
Captain Beefheart: The Spotlight Kid (Reprise)
Review by Danny Holloway, NME, February 1972
THE CAPTAIN is back with this latest album of Space Blues and poetry in motion. ...
Captain Beefheart: The Spotlight Kid (Reprise)
Review by Ben Edmonds, Dave Marsh, Creem, April 1972
The Kid is gonna Booglarize ya ...
Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Danny Holloway, NME, April 1972
AS A PRELUDE to the good captain, a ballerina dressed in white, with a crown to match, did her stuff, followed by a belly dancer ...
Captain Beefheart: A Trip Into The Mind Of The Spotlight Kid
Interview by Danny Holloway, NME, April 1972
RECENTLY MOVED FROM his desert domain in Lancaster to the remote forests of oceanside Eureka in Northern California, The Captain, at a comfortable 31, is ...
Love Over Gold: Captain Beefheart Talks To RM Readers
Report and Interview by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, April 1972
FIVE YEARS ago, the magic name of Captain Beefheart was no more than an imported LP in the window-display of clique-ey One-Stop Records. There ...
Beefheart: Rough Trade From Venus Hits It Big
Interview by Nick Kent, Frendz, April 1972
PROLOGUE – a true story: Mark, like most other 17 year-old boys, was going through the usual hassles which come with being young in the ...
Interview by Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle, December 1972
NOTE: Nobody was ever more fun to hang out with than Don Van Vliet. We took a number of dinners over the years, including one ...
Getting Closer To The Captain: Clear Spot
Review by Lester Bangs, Creem, January 1973
"AND THAT PANTALOONED DUCK / white goose neck / quacked, 'Webcor, Webcor.'" Those are the last lines on Clear Spot, from a song called 'Golden ...
Captain Beefheart Sings For Women
Interview by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, January 1973
NORTH HOLLYWOOD – Striding into the small but copiously equipped Warner Brothers recording studio like a bull dressed for a Chinatown parade, Captain Beefheart extends ...
Know What I Mean? The Don Van Vliet Interview...
Interview by Rick McGrath, Georgia Straight, The, March 1973
Beefheart at The Commodore. Do you know what I mean? ...
Captain Beefheart: The Beef Of The Matter
Interview by Ian MacDonald, NME, April 1973
DON VAN VLIET and his orchestra are here for their third British tour. The current line-up of The Magic Band features Zoot Horn Rollo (first ...
Captain Beefheart: Low Yo Yo-Ing It In Blunderland
Review and Interview by Gary Lucas, Zoo World, May 1973
I don't want to kill my china pig/No I don't/A man's gotta live/A man's gotta eat/A man's gotta have shoes/To walk out on the street..." ...
Interview by Chris Salewicz, NME, July 1975
CAPTAIN BEEFHEART (AKA Don Van Vliet) moves in sufficiently mysterious ways for me to believe that Zoot Horn Rollo (aka Bill Harkleroad) may just possibly ...
Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart: Bongo Fury
Review by Mick Farren, NME, November 1975
THE STORY SO far. ...
Don't Argue with the Captain: A Rap Wit’ de Cap
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, November 1975
Captain Beefheart is back in Britain, and despite those hassles over Bongo Fury he has lots of laughs... ...
Captain Beefheart: New Victoria, London
Live Review by Chas de Whalley, NME, November 1975
DON'T BELIEVE WHAT your mother tells you kids, there really is a Legion of Super Heroes. ...
Zappa and Beefheart: Penguins In Bondage
Interview by Robot A. Hull, Creem, January 1976
Master MasterThis is recorded thru uh flies ear 'n you have t' have uh flies eye t' see it it's the thing that's gonna make ...
Frank Zappa & Captain Beefheart: BLLLAAAaaaaahhhhh
Memoir by Miles, NME, January 1976
Actually, it didn't work. However, something that did work was the re-uniting of THE CAPTAIN and FRANK ZAPPA a few months ago for a tour ...
Beefheart Discovers “World's Greatest Band” Sensation
Interview by Miles, NME, November 1976
I CALLED Captain Beefheart the other day. His huge voice came booming down the phone even though I'd probably woken him up. ...
Captain Beefheart: The Number One Weirdo Comes Back To Earth
Interview by John Morthland, Gig, February 1978
ON PAPER, IT probably sounds like just another Captain Beefheart comeback. Lord knows he's had his share. Yet for his fans, it's a most welcome ...
Captain Beefheart: Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)
Review by Paul Morley, NME, November 1978
OUR FRIEND makes its long overdue appearance, a record of fragments that has a bewildered Beefheart crawling out of the messes of '74/'75 and trying ...
Captain Beefheart And The Magic Band: Doc At The Radar Station
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, September 1980
IN THE Beefheart Universe, you see everything that you see in other places, but it always seems different. ...
Profile and Interview by Lester Bangs, Village Voice, October 1980
He's Alive, But So Is Paint. Are You? ...
Captain Beefheart: Tales Of Transmutation From The Mojave Magic Man
Interview by Paul Rambali, NME, November 1980
"GOD-DAMN THAT BEAT!" Don Van Vliet slams out a foursquare tattoo on the dashboard of his blue Volvo estate. "That mama heartbeat. That bom...bom...bom! Why ...
Captain Beefheart: If It Weren't For Bad Luck
Report by Andy Schwartz, New York Rocker, January 1981
NEW YORK – Did ever a man suffer such unrelenting abuse, incomprehension, and just plain bad luck at the hands of the American record industry ...
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, March 1981
MAY 1970. High School kids in my living room. Singing "Hot and slimy weenie, knocking at my door/Hot and slimy weenie, crawling 'cross the floor/Hot ...
Interview by John Morthland, Music & Sound Output, May 1981
IN 12 ALBUMS SPREAD out over 13 years, Captain Beefheart has created a body of work that breaks most every rule in American music and ...
Ted Templeman on Captain Beefheart
Interview by David Gans, BAM, September 1981
What did you expect when you did Captain Beefheart's Clear Spot? ...
Interview by David Gans, BAM, 1982
The super producer talks about Little Feat, Van Halen, the Doobies, and staying sane in a world of crazies. ...
Book Excerpt by John Tobler, Stuart Grundy, 'The Record Producers', BBC Books, 1982
IF ANY PRODUCER could be said to have an instantly identifiable sound, aside from the obvious case of Phil Spector, it would be Richard Perry. ...
Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band: Ice Cream For Crow (Virgin V2237)*****
Review by Edwin Pouncey, Sounds, September 1982
TO THE casual observer, Captain Beefheart's vibe must appear to be similar to the window blind painting he has created to adorn his latest batch ...
Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band: Ice Cream For Crow (Virgin)
Review by Richard Cook, NME, September 1982
THE TIME has come and gone for Captain Beefheart to evade the confines of 'criticism'. If we posit Trout Mask Replica and Lick My Decals ...
In Search Of Captain Beefheart
Profile and Interview by Jim Green, Trouser Press, January 1983
The elusive Don van Vliet tracked to his lair ...
Captain Beefheart: A Wacky Way Of Knowledge
Profile and Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, May 1983
"If you've got ears, you gotta listen," – Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart ...
Captain Beefheart: The Legendary A&M Sessions
Review by Don Snowden, Boston Phoenix, October 1984
SINCE HIS ear-bending 1969 breakthrough, Trout Mask Replica, Captain Beefheart's reputation as rock's most unvarnishedly unconventional artiste has overshadowed the earthy R&B roots of his ...
Colin David Webb: Captain Beefheart - The Man And His Music
Book Review by Andy Gill, Q, February 1990
PUBLISHERS MAY BE willing to publish books on fairly marginal artists such as (to choose two recent examples) R.E.M. and Tom Waits, but a cult ...
Profile and Interview by Mark Dery, Guitar Player, September 1990
"THE MUSICAL landscape is completely moribund," says Gary Lucas. "It's one of the worst periods in memory, worse than the mid '70s. My music is ...
Captain Beefheart: 'Yeah, I'm Happy!'
Retrospective by Dave DiMartino, MOJO, December 1993
He is alive. A recluse. Painting in seclusion up near the Oregon border. There have been weird signals through the ether since he stopped making ...
Captain Beefheart: Dropout Boogie
Retrospective by Miles, MOJO, December 1993
IT WAS 2am, September 1969, and I was having a cup of styrofoam coffee with Don Van Vliet in the 24-hour automated snack-bar of TT&G ...
Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, Independent, The, August 1994
DON VAN VLIET lives in the small and beautifully named town of Trinidad in Northern California, up by the Oregon border, 135 ft from the ...
55 Years Of Goin’ To The Toilet: Captain Beefheart
Interview by Fred Mills, Zia Zine, April 1996
NOTE TO THE PURIST OF HEART: Please take the date of publication into account as you peruse this piece. And no, Don Van Vliet did ...
Review by Robert Sandall, Sunday Times, February 1997
WHILE NOBODY questions his status as one of rock's great originals, Captain Beefheart's madcap variations on the blues are an acquired taste. Armed with a ...
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band: Trout Mask Replica
Book Excerpt by Mike Barnes, 'Captain Beefheart: The Biography' (Quartet), 1999
"If there has been anything in the history of popular music which could be described as a work of art in a way that people ...
Captain Beefheart: Grow Fins: Rarities (1965-1982)
Review by Byron Coley, Wire, The, May 1999
ALTHOUGH IT WAS their third released album, Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band arrived with 1969's sprawling Trout Mask Replica. The ability to appreciate its ...
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band: Grow Fins
Review and Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, June 1999
"That’s right, the Mascara Snake." And even if it isn’t, someone will put it in a box set one day. A feast of leftover Beefheart ...
Review by Richard Gehr, Village Voice, July 1999
SINCE THE 1969 release of Trout Mask Replica, the artist dubbed Captain Beefheart has incarnated the gold standard by which "weirdness" in rock music has ...
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band: Grow Fins (Revenant); The Dust Blows Forward (Rhino)
Review by Ben Edmonds, Detroit Metro Times, July 1999
NOW THAT Don Van Vliet’s abandonment of music in favour of his career as a painter appears to be permanent, what are we finally to ...
Three Decades Inside The Mask: Captain Beefheart
Retrospective and Interview by Byron Coley, unpublished, December 1999
NOTE: This article appeared in a much-shortened version in the December 1999 edition of Spin entitled "The Strangest Album Ever Sold: The Making Of Trout ...
Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band: Dust Sucker (Milksafe)
Review by Edwin Pouncey, Wire, The, May 2002
THE FULL STORY of Captain Beefheart's ill-fated Bat Chain Puller – potentially his greatest musical statement after Trout Mask Replica – has already been admirably ...
Another Music In A Different Kitchen, Pt. 2: Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica
Comment by Michael Goldberg, Neumu, June 2002
WHEN THE noble savage theory of punk rock was first laid out in the early-to-mid-'70s, I bought in. According to one version of the mantra, ...
Another Music In A Different Kitchen, Pt. 1: Captain Beefheart and Pere Ubu
Comment by Michael Goldberg, Neumu, June 2002
From Trout Mask to Dub Housing: how did music that once seemed so harsh and incomprehensible come to sound so good? ...
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band: Trout Mask Replica (Straight, 1969)
Retrospective and Interview by Mark Paytress, MOJO, March 2005
A disciplinarian visionary and his inspired acolytes create genuine Outsider Art. ...
Captain Beefheart: Low Yo-Yo Stuff
Retrospective by Kris Needs, Record Collector, February 2009
"It's always irritated me that people labelled him weird. It was a kind of super-reality."– John Peel ...
Captain Beefheart: Trout Mask Nightmare
Retrospective and Interview by Kris Needs, Record Collector, February 2009
The shocking story behind the making of Beefheart's greatest album ...
The Dust Blows Forward, 'N The Dust Blows Back: Remembering Beefheart
Memoir by Gene Sculatti, recordmecca.com, December 2010
IT'S IMPOSSIBLE for me to think what the world would be without Captain Beefheart's music in it. Amidst the bad news, the good is that ...
back to LIBRARY
Best Databases: RBP is Runner-up in Best Niche category
Video: Johnny Marr talks about Rock's Backpages
download eBooks and audio interviews
RBP on Spotify: The Very Best of 40-year-old Virgin
RBP Album Club, June 13th: Miki Berenyi and Lucy O'Brien celebrate a Blondie classic
Essential Listening: Green Day grilled by Roy Trakin
RBP Album Club, July 11th: Nick Hornby and Nick Coleman celebrate Southside Johnny's debut
Essential Reading: Bud Scoppa's 1971 Byrds classic