John “Drumbo” French of Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band is selling a one-of-a-kind portrait of himself on eBay to fund a new project.

This painting was painted using a post-card sized photograph.  It is very well-detailed and quite clear.  The light does not reflect as much as the photo shows. It was given to me as a birthday present and portrays me (John “Drumbo” French) playing a specially-designed kit by Gon-Bops (Mariano Bobadillo specially created the kick and floor toms for me) in 1970. The photo was taken at Ludlow’s Garage, which I believe was in Cincinnati Ohio, in 1971, in the month of January.

Opening bid is $500.

Thank you Jeff Economy!

 
Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band filmed performing a manic “Click Clack” at the Bataclan club in Paris, on April 15, 1972 for the Culture Rock TV series.

With a very nice blues harp solo. Very similar to the better known 1972 German Beat Club clip. The Captain is even wearing the same rad cape.
 

 
This is from a now closed auction at Record Mecca, by way of the Zappateers site:

“A very large poem handwritten by Captain Beefheart on the back of a concert poster, signed “Don Van Vliet ‘75,” with a drawing of a foot surrounded by musical notes. This is the most extraordinary Beefheart item we’ve seen, and the letter of authenticity from music writer and label executive Bill Bentley explains it all: “In 1975 I interviewed Captain Beefheart at the Armadillo World Headquarters for the Austin (TX) Sun. Beefheart was appearing there with Frank Zappa’s band, recording a live album (Bongo Fury.) After the interview I asked Captain Beefheart to draw me a picture, since he was doodling as we spoke. He got a poster from another Armadillo show and on the back quickly wrote out this poem. The words flowed out of him spontaneously. He signed it and handed it to me, and then took it back. He added at the end, “Progress is Channel No. 5 on the rocks,” and then drew a foot around those words with notes circling it. He called it his “footnote.” As I got ready to leave, I started to fold the poster. He said very loudly, “No!” He took it from me and rolled it up before handing it back, and said “Some day you’ll thank me.” He didn’t want me to crease the poster, knowing it would adversely affect the value. We ran the poem along with the interview shortly after in the Austin Sun.” Written on the back of an Armadillo poster for the band Greezy Wheels, 11 1/2” x 17 1/2”, in very good plus condition with some tape pulling around the edges and a missing bit of paper on the top right edge. Unique. With our written lifetime guarantee of authenticity.”

Larger view here.

The Magic Band will be performing live at the three-day Greg Dulli/All Tomorrow’s Parties-curated “I’ll Be Your Mirror” music festival in NYC on Sunday, September 23rd.

 
This treasure currently has fewer than 60 views!

According to YouTube poster, bookheaven1thousand, the Captain and his band came onstage at 3:00 a.m. on the morning of December 10, 1980.

1. Hair Pie Bake 3
2. Best Batch Yet
3. Dirty Blue Gene (cut)
4. Sugar ‘n Spikes
5. Ashtray Heart
6. Doctor Dark
7. Sheriff Of Hong Kong (cut)
8. Making Love To A Vampire With A Monkey On My Knee
9. Suction Prints (cuts 20 seconds before end)
10. Big Eyed Beans From Venus

This set killed me. It’s one of the best and funkiest live performances I’ve ever heard from this band.

Some additional background from the YouTube post:

Peter Warner: Anyone ever come across a video of Captain Beefheart’s Mudd Club performance (the day [He means 2 days] after John Lennon’s death)? I was one of the handful of fans there and know it exists (Gary Lucas told me he confiscated the master: it was standard practice by the club for all performance to be taped). It was a wild night. Some girl in a big red sweater (good looking and drunk as all hell) was hangin’ all over me. She kept throwing change at the Captain telling him to shut up. I told the Cap I didn’t know who this chick was. (in hindsight, I shoulda gone for the chick.)

The Cap and I got into a stareing match—he singing away inches from my face as I growled back. What the hell, I was an obnoxious, drunk 17 year old. I actually made it to class the next morning.

Raymond Ricker: The band played there at 4 in the morning just a few hours after their Irving Plaza show concluded. I was about 1 of 30 people in attendance for that show (Don spent a good portion of the show putting up with an obnoxious girl who was drunk out her mind). If it wasn’t for Moris inviting me I would never have known there was going to be a performance there. As far as I know, this was the only time that band performed Making Love To A Vampire With A Monkey On My Back [He means “Knee”]

The Magic Band will be performing live at the three-day Greg Dulli/All Tomorrow’s Parties-curated “I’ll Be Your Mirror” music festival in NYC on Sunday, September 23rd.
 

 
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band (Zoot Horn Rollo, Ed Marimba, Roy Estrada, Rockette Morton and Winged Eel Fingerling) performing at Radio Bremen’s Funkhaus for German TV Beat Club, on April 12, 1972.

Zoot Horn Rollo (Magic Band guitarist Bill Harkleroad) recalls taping the show:

“I’m Gonna Booglarize You” got played an awful lot and was definitely part of our live show. Like “Click Clack” and “Alice In Blunderland,” “Booglarize You” was a staple part of the set on three basic tours - 1971, 1972 and 1973. I can specifically remember the band performing it on a German TV show called Beat Club. Like all TV shows at that time, they weren’t ready for loudly performed music. Our type of music was designed to be played loud, it didn’t have to be earsplitting, but it had to be played with a certain amount of volume just to push enough air to feel the excitement level of it - because we did have energy, no question about it!

I remember how difficult it was, beating the crap out of the instrument and jumping around, when you could hear people whispering over the low volume. ... Back then live TV shows were only one step better than lip-synching. It always felt funny playing to 30-odd people who were clapping politely while the TV producer was trying to make it look like a crowd 500. It was a very sterile environment and of course the Magic Band came over as being totally ‘over-the-top’ with our look - I remember stumbling around on my high heeled green shoes.

You’ll notice that the good Captain has two microphones bound together with tape, in order to amplify his deepest notes.

1. Hair Pie Bass Solo (The Mascara Snake) (0:00)
2. Click Clack Take 1 (3:08)
3. Click Clack Take 2 (6:51)
4. Golden Birdies and Band Intro (8:18)
5. I’m Gonna Booglaraize You Baby Take 1 (11:12)
6. I’m Gonna Booglaraize You Baby Take 2 (15:41)
7. Steal Softly Through Snow (Band Instrumental) (20:49)
8. I’m Gonna Booglaraize You Baby Take 3 (24:18)

The Magic Band will be performing live at the three-day Greg Dulli/All Tomorrow’s Parties-curated “I’ll Be Your Mirror” music festival in NYC on Sunday, September 23rd.

From the DVD of Lost Broadcasts.
 

 

 
Thank you, Brad Laner, WFMU and to bookheaven1thousand who uploaded this treasure to YouTube.

 
Yesterday’s Interstella Zappadrive: When Frank Zappa jammed with Pink Floyd post led me to some more footage from the Actuel Rock Festival, held in late October of 1969 in Amougies, Belgium, of Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band.

Zappa was supposed to be the MC of the festival, but when the language barrier made that impossible, opted to jam with a few of the groups on guitar, including, of course, The Magic Band.

Bill Harkleroad (“Zoot Horn Rollo”) told Hal’s Progressive Rock Blog:

“All I can remember is playing in front of thousands of people huddled together in sleeping bags at three in the morning in this huge circus tent. It’s 27 degrees out, and there’s frost on my strings! It was Don, Victor, Mark, me and Jeff Burchell on drums. Frank was sitting in with us, because he was supposed to be the festival MC - a difficult job when he spoke no French and most of the audience spoke no English. Having Frank play with us made me a little more nervous than normal. I think we played five tunes - the five tunes Jeff knew and that was it. Pretty weird flying us all the way over there and playing one gig!

Don Van Vliet’s recollection of the festival:

“We had a good time. I don’t know, what they were doing; they were throwing what looked like birds nests at us, and then one fellow out of the audience - between one of the compositions - said my name was Captain Bullshit, and I said: “well, that’s all right baby, you’re sitting in it.” You know what I mean? I don’t know if he was an American; I’m not sure, because he was using early Gary Cooper movie talk. Like “yep,” things like that. I think they did well in five days and moving it from France to Belgium. But it was awfully cold… the people in the audience, I don’t know how they did it. I think it was probably pretty nice for them to leave their bodies… but the amplifiers were blown out by the time we got to them, and we need clarity for that, and there wasn’t any. I don’t know. I hope they enjoyed it. I enjoyed it.”

Naturally, as with the Pink Floyd footage that has slipped out of the vault to collectors (and YouTube) there’s no Festival Actuel footage of Zappa actually jamming with Captain Beefheart! Fwustrating! Was Zappa strapping on a guitar the signal to turn the camera off? Of course not, so where is this priceless footage?!?!?

In any case, there’s 5:32 seconds of sync-sound footage of Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band in 1969 on my computer screen, so what am I complaining about? They do “She’s Too Much For My Mirror” and “My Human Gets Me Blues.”

The lineup for this concert was Don Van Vliet, vocals, tenor & soprano sax, bass clarinet; Victor Hayden (“The Mascara Snake”) bass clarinet; Bill Harkleroad (“Zoot Horn Rollo”) guitars; Mark Boston (“Rockette Morton”) bass; and Jeff Burchell (“Imposter Drumbo”) drums & percussion. Frank Zappa sat in on guitar on “When Big Joan Sets Up’” at the end of their set.
 

 
Frank Zappa lecturing at the Gifford Auditorium of Syracuse University on 23rd April 1975, along with George Duke and Captain Beefheart. The talk is about how he first discovered music, the economics of the music business, shooting 200 Motels (and getting paid from the movie industry) and his creative process. It opens up to questions after about 15 minutes.
 

“This train with grey tubes that houses people’s thoughts. Their very remains and belongings!”

After being promised a while back, and then delayed a few times, the Zappa Family Trust have given the world the original Bat Chain Puller album by Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band. It’s only for sale at Zappa.com.

Stuck in the vaults due to legal limbo for some 35 years, this is the 1976 vintage Bat Chain Puller of legend (and furiously traded bootlegs of varying quality). Van Vliet re-recorded the Bat Chain Puller tracks for Warner Bros. Records in 1978 and that album was titled Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller).

This official release sounds pristine and has far less tape hiss compared to all previous versions. Apparently Beefheart himself didn’t want these recordings released. There are three bonus tracks.

Don Van Vliet died on December 17th, 2010 of complications from MS.

The title number, “Bat Chain Puller,” was based upon the rhythm of Van Vliet’s car windshield wipers.
 

 
An awe-inspiring live “Bat Chain Puller” from French TV, 1980.
 

The good Captain with John Peel, 1968

It’s not often when “new” footage of Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band turns up, but something previously unseen for decades has been recently posted to YouTube: Behold Van Vliet and crew onstage at the Rome Pop Festival performing “Sure ‘Nuff ‘N Yes I Do” at the Palazzo Della Sport on May 4, 1968

Paul Brown, the documentary researcher responsible for unearthing this gem writes on YouTube:

One obscure Beefheart performance, which has been preserved on film, is the Rome Pop Festival from May 1968 - this was broadcast by the BBC on Saturday 18th May 1968. The BBC were covering it, possibly due to the influx of UK bands, ie Julie Driscoll and The Brian Auger Trinity who were headlining it and The Move who, on the third day, were the ones to incite the police and authorities to close the Festival two days early. Captain Beefheart was the only one to represent the West Coast although there were big plans to try and get a few of the larger, and possibly at the time more well known groups to attend. (But it seems Beefheart was the only one willing to attend on the money offered. Probably because they were already in Europe). The clip with Beefheart and the band shows an unknown person, it is Krasnow?, nodding his head to what sounds suspiciously like Dropout Boogie - then the camera is on-stage and the band are performing Sure Nuff ‘n’ Yes I Do. There are closeups of Don Vliet in Top Hat and Jeff Cotton in his Yellow Leather Coat and also Alex Snouffer and Jerry Handley.

 
This 1971 video of Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band captures the group at their zenith, powering through a set comprised of several numbers from the then new Lick My Decals Off Baby album and Trout Mask Replica:

Taped on January 15, 1971 at WABX TV Studio in Detroit for the Detroit Tube Works program.

1. When Big Joan Sets Up (0:00)
2. Hair Pie Bass Solo (6:23)
3. Woe-Is-Uh-Me-Bop (6:42)
4. Flash Gordon’s Ape/Marimba Solo (8:48)
5. Bellerin Plain (9:11)
6. Instrumental for Foot and Fingers (13:00)

Crappy versions of this have been bootlegged for decades, and parts of it appear on the Grow Fins box set, but this is the best version I’ve seen of this puppy, by far.
 

 

 
Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band filmed onstage at the 1968 Rome Pop Festival at the Palazzo Della Sport. Image how freaky these guys must’ve seemed at that time. Hell, even by today’s standards, they’re still arch freaks!

From the description on YouTube:

Paul Brown: One obscure Beefheart performance, which has been preserved on film, is the Rome Pop Festival from May 1968 - this was broadcast by the BBC on Saturday 18th May 1968. The BBC were covering it, possibly due to the influx of UK bands, ie Julie Driscoll and The Brian Auger Trinity who were headlining it and The Move who, on the third day, were the ones to incite the police and authorities to close the Festival two days early. Captain Beefheart was the only one to represent the West Coast although there were big plans to try and get a few of the larger, and possibly at the time more well known groups to attend. (But it seems Beefheart was the only one willing to attend on the money offered. Probably because they were already in Europe). The clip with Beefheart and the band shows an unknown person, it is Krasnow?, nodding his head to what sounds suspiciously like Dropout Boogie - then the camera is on-stage and the band are performing Sure Nuff ‘n’ Yes I Do. There are closeups of Don Vliet in Top Hat and Jeff Cotton in his Yellow Leather Coat and also Alex Snouffer and Jerry Handley. 

The clip I managed to see was luckily, somehow, saved on Reel to Reel and, despite its length and rather poor sound, was a sight for these sore eyes. The camera pans to someone, who on first viewing I thought was Grant Gibbs, Beefheart’s manager in the early days, although it may possibly have been someone complete different. This someone looks completely oblivious to the interview and is just nodding his head to what sounded suspiciously like Dropout Boogie (old non-circulating dubbed version). Then the camera is on-stage and the band are performing “Sure Nuff ‘n’ Yes I Do.”

It ain’t long, or in sync, but take what you can get.
 

 
This is an excerpt from a longer piece. You can watch the entire BBC report from May 19th,1968 here.

 
I’m pretty sure that this wasn’t an “official” music video for “Pachuco Cadaver,” but having said that, this song was the sole single to be pulled from Trout Mask Replica, albeit only in France, so it very well could be.

I’m not really sure what this is. Maybe it’s just a fan-produced video, I don’t know. Here’s all it says on YouTube:

Edited by Nuno Monteiro. Filmed February 1969. Featuring Captain Beefheart, Zoot Horn Rollo, Rockette Morton, Antennae Jimmy Semens.

 
Thank you, Elixer Sue!

 
Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band perform “Hot Head” and “Ashtray Heart” on the November 22, 1980 episode of Saturday Night Live.

Alex de Large introduces the bolshy banda.
 

Captain Beefheart t-shirt by Black And White T-shirts

This excellent documentary from 1997, narrated by John Peel and shown as part of a commemorative BBC Peel Night, has been online for a while but finally arrives in one 50 minute long piece thanks to uploader abrahamisagreatman. You may have seen this before, but it’s definitely worth another watch:

 
Keith Richards and Marc Ribot provide suitably down and dirty guitar riffs for this tune by Tom Waits that sounds eerily like Captain Beefheart. It’s been obvious from the get-go that Waits owes a big debt to Beefheart but this enters the realm of mystical channeling. And I like it.

Here’s Waits writing about Trout Mask Replica:

The roughest diamond in the mine, his musical inventions are made of bone and mud. Enter the strange matrix of his mind and lose yours. This is indispensable for the serious listener. An expedition into the centre of the earth, this is the high jump record that’ll never be beat, it’s a merlot reduction sauce. He takes da bait. Dante doing the buck and wing at a Skip James suku jump. Drink once and thirst no more.

“Satisfied” by Tom Waits from the new album Bad As Me Directed by Jesse Dylan.