“The Artist Formerly Known as Captain Beefheart” complete documentary is on Youtube. “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.
You may have seen this before, but it’s definitely worth another watch. Frank Zappa and Ry Cooder speak at length in the film. Everything Ry Cooder says is perfect. He’s one of music great missionaries – like Wynton Marsalis. The film focuses on Don Van Vliet’s (Captain Beefheart) sketches and paintings – which are quite impressive. Van Vliet died last year right here in Arcata, CA – not more than a mile from where I’m writing from now.
Found a great archive of Van Vliet quotes from various interviews over the years:
“I think people have had too much to think and ought to flex their magic muscles. It takes awhile to get oriented to what I do, but people seem to be able to hear it if they give it a chance. I’d never just want to do what everybody else did. I’d be contributing to the sameness of everything.”
“I don’t do lullabyes. I’m tired of lullabyes, like The Beatles. I heard *Lullabye of Broadway* when I was a baby, and I still hear it now, and I’m still a baby. We’re the only people doing anything significant in modern music. I haven’t heard anything else that gets away from mother’s heartbeat. All I’ve heard is a rebelling against parents, and I’m tired of hearing that.”
“There’s no competition with our music. It can’t be compared or impaired, or impaled with points or justifications…It means absolutely nothing, just like the sun.”
“It makes me itch to think of myself as Captain Beefheart. I don’t even have a boat.”
“The stars are matter, We’re matter, But it doesn’t matter.”
“When I see a dolphin, I know it’s just as smart as I am. Sometimes I’d rather be thought of as a dolphin than as a human being. I live up at Eureka, among the big trees, and I tell you, those things are really saying something. You gotta work to hear what they’re saying. They’re great. But the eucalyptus is so far my favorite. They brought them over from Australia for lumber, but when they grew here they curved, and there was no way they could be used for lumber. I think maybe they threw a curve on the lumber companies. And I think that’s heavy.”
“Everybody’s colored or else you wouldn’t be able to see them.”
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