“It sounds like a piece of the Somme, lifted up and put in an art gallery.”
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Captain Beefheart
Don Van Vliet, known by his stage name Captain Beefheart, was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and visual artist. Conducting a rotating ensemble known as the Magic Band, he recorded 13 studio albums between 1967 and 1982. His music blended elements of blues, free jazz, rock, and avant-garde composition with idiosyncratic rhythms, absurdist wordplay, and Vliet's gravelly singi…
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culture · American musician (1941–2010) · singer · poet · composer · sculptor · painter · saxophonist · songwriter · film producer · guitarist · environmentalist · also Captain Beefheart, Don Van Vliet, Don Glen Vliet, Don Glen Van Vliet, Donald Vliet, Don van Vliet
Born 15 January 1941 · Died 17 December 2010 · Q312264
67 published statements · 0 followers
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2026· 4 entries
“doing a non-hypnotic music to break up the catatonic state ... and I think there is one right now.”
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Released album “Grow Fins: Rarities 1965-1982”.
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Jazz: Captain Beefheart
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2025· 1 entry
Yahoo: Aggressively bizarre, Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica remains one of the craziest guitar-driven albums ever made
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2024· 1 entry
Yahoo: In 1974 Captain Beefheart appeared on Dutch TV: Even by his standards, it was weird
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2023· 1 entry
The Guardian: ‘He was treated like a holy figure’: why Captain Beefheart quit music for the easel
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2020· 2 entries
Released album “The Sun Is Shining”.
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Released album “The Spotlight Kid Outtakes”.
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2018· 1 entry
Ultimate Classic Rock: Captain Beefheart’s ‘Trout Mask Replica’ to Be Reissued
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2017· 2 entries
The Guardian: The night Captain Beefheart drove me into the hills in a red Corvette
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The Guardian: Family life: My easygoing and mischievous dad; Electricity by Captain Beefheart; and Dad’s courgettes
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2015· 5 entries
Released album “Plastic Factory”.
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Released album “Full Moon - Hot Sun”.
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Released album “Transmission Impossible”.
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Released album “The Muffin Man Goes to College”.
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Ultimate Classic Rock: Revisiting Captain Beefheart’s Masterpiece, ‘Trout Mask Replica’
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2014· 4 entries
Released album “Sun Zoom Spark: 1970 to 1972”.
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Wall Street Journal: Experimental Rocker Captain Beefheart Lives On
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Released album “Providence College, Rhode Island, April 26th 1975”.
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Released album “Full Moon in Cowtown”.
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2012· 2 entries
The Guardian: Old music: Captain Beefheart – My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains
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Released album “Bat Chain Puller”.
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2011· 3 entries
The Guardian: Lost Captain Beefheart album Bat Chain Puller finally due out
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Released album “An Ashtray Heart”.
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The Guardian: Captain Beefheart writes a manifesto for outsiders
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2010· 2 entries
Westword: RIP Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart
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Died 2010-12-17.
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2009· 2 entries
Released album “Live in Vancouver 1981”.
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Released album “The Spotlight Kid, Outtakes 1971-1972”.
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2008· 1 entry
The Black Keys released a free cover of Beefheart's "I'm Glad" from Safe as Milk
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2007· 1 entry
Released album “Poet Rock Musicians of the Desert”.
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2005· 1 entry
Genus Records produced Mama Kangaroos – Philly Women Sing Captain Beefheart
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2004· 2 entries
Released album “The Classic Interviews”.
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Rhino Handmade released in a limited edition of 1,500 copies of Riding Some Kind of Unusual Skull Sleigh
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2003· 2 entries
Was heard on the compilation album Where We Live: Stand for What You Stand On: A Benefit CD for EarthJustice, singing a version of "Happy Birthday to You" retitled "Happy Earthday"
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The album was ranked sixtieth by Rolling Stone on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: "On first listen, Trout Mask Replica sounds like raw Delta blues", with Beefheart "singing and ranting and reciting poetr
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2000· 4 entries
The White Stripes released "Party of Special Things to Do", containing covers of that Beefheart song plus "China Pig" and "Ashtray Heart"
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Appeared on Gary Lucas's album Improve the Shining Hour and Moris Tepper's Moth to Mouth, and spoke on Tepper's 2004 song "Ricochet Man" from the album Head Off
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Released album “Hoboism”.
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Released album “Merseytrout - Live in Liverpool 1980”.
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1997· 1 entry
“I've written every drum bit I ever done, every note. I played the drums. I played the guitar. I played the piano. I wanted it exactly the way I wanted. Exactly. Any composer I would think would want it that way, and I don't deviate at all. Don't you think that somebody like Stravinsky, for instance, don't you think that it would have annoyed him if someone bent a note the wrong way?”
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1996· 3 entries
Released ep “Don Van Vliet Poetry Reading”.
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Released ep “Pearls Before Swine Ice Cream for Crows”.
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Released album “Zig Zag Wanderer: The Best of the Buddah Years”.
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1993· 4 entries
Released album “Captain Hook”.
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Released album “A Carrot Is As Close As a Rabbit Gets To a Diamond”.
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A now rare collection of essays on Van Vliet's work
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Released album “Crazy Little Things”.
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1992· 1 entry
Released album “I May Be Hungry but I Sure Ain't Weird: The Alternate Captain Beefheart”.
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1990· 1 entry
Released album “The Best Beefheart”.
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1988· 1 entry
Released album “Abba Zaba”.
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1987· 1 entry
Van Vliet published Skeleton Breath, Scorpion Blush, a collection of his poetry, paintings and drawings
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1985· 1 entry
And was initially regarded as that of "another rock musician dabbling in art for ego's sake", though his primitive, non-conformist work has since received more serious attention, with some sales approaching $25,000
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1982· 1 entry
Retired from music and pursued a career in art
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1978· 2 entries
And 1988's Fast 'n' Bulbous – A Tribute to Captain Beefheart, featuring the Dog Faced Hermans, the Scientists, the Membranes, Simon Fisher Turner, That Petrol Emotion, the Primevals, The Mock Turtles, XTC, and Sonic Yout
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Appeared on Jack Nitzsche's soundtrack to the film Blue Collar
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1977· 1 entry
Beefheart appeared on the Tubes' album Now, playing saxophone on the song "Cathy's Clone"
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1975· 1 entry
Released album “Bongo Fury”.
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1974· 1 entry
Immediately after the recording of Unconditionally Guaranteed, which continued the trend towards a more commercial sound, the Magic Band's original members departed
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1972· 1 entry
Released album “The Spotlight Kid”.
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1971· 1 entry
Some of the recordings done for Buddah were released as Mirror Man, bearing a liner note stating that the material had been recorded in "one night in Los Angeles in 1965"
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1968· 1 entry
Performed in the MIDEM Music Festival on the beach at Cannes
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1966· 1 entry
Released two singles: a version of Bo Diddley's "Diddy Wah Diddy" that became a regional hit in Los Angeles, and "Moonchild" (written by David Gates, later of the band Bread)
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1964· 1 entry
When he joined the original Magic Band line-up
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1941· 2 entries
To Glen Alonzo Vliet, a service station owner from Kansas, and Willie Sue Vliet (née Warfield), who was from Arkansas
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Born 1941-01-15.
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