Talk:Captain Beefheart

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[edit] older comments

Re: Bob Krasnow adding phasing and effects to Strictly Personal behind Beefheart's back - we discussed this on the Fireparty list and Gary Marker, a Magic Band member in 1968/9, said this:

"Another myth; Krasnow would never do anything without Don's approval. I recall Don telling me that Krasnow was doing some "really fantastic shit with this album, wait 'til you hear it, it'll blow everybody's mind." Later, when the rest of the band and some fans heard the final product, and were critical, Don pulled a "Mission Impossible" and disavowed all knowledge of what Krasnow had done with the recordings. Well, I saw Don sitting in the mixdown room with Krasnow at Sunset Sound several times and he was absolutely enthralled with the special audio effects--beaming, in fact, while this effect and that effect was being added to various songs. Okay, so maybe both Don and Krasnow were sailing window pane or something, but I didn't hear any squawking from Van Vliet at that point. He loved what Krasnow was doing."

p bryant


Quite so. I've long believed that the problem was that Strictly Personal is an aggressively psychedelic LP and by the time it was eventually released psychedelic music was becoming unfashionable - hence DVV's denunciation. BTLizard 14:46, 10 May 2006 (UTC)


I see the statement about the Captain's amazing 4 and a half octave voice has returned. This is pure Beefheart self-promoting myth. He sings low (I'm Gonna Booglarise You baby) and he has a falsetto (White Jam) but this does not mean he has a 4 and a half octave range. If it does, most singers could describe themselves similarly. The statement should therefore be removed.

pbryant

Im sorry but it is about time someone defends the Captain's mythical octave range. It is very hard to come by a vocalist in this sort of genre with much of a range at all, but Beefheart's range is real and could only be disputed by someone that either hasnt heard it, or cant hear. The song "Woe-is-uh-me-bop" from the album "Lick my decals of baby" is one of the clearest examples of a 4 octave drop. The effect is chilling. It sounds as though the vocal record is slowing to a stop as the music shifts but another tempo. This is not to mention the falsetto he often uses, but it is usually detached from the rest of his much deeper range. Thankfully so. Can you imagine Captain Beefheart singing a cresendo like Mariah Carrey. I'd say the Captain has at least a 4 1/2 octave range and the statement should be reinstated.

cloudwats


Although the Captain can hit some low notes (Dachau Blues??) and can also howl up a storm it is absolutely ridiculous to claim that he has a four and a half octave range. He was, of course, fond of tall tales and in one interview with Rick McGrath in 1973 even stated that his vocal range was "Seven and a half octaves" (http://www.rickmcgrath.com/beef2.html). You can't take this literally it is humanly impossible. An interval of four and a half octaves stretches from the note of the lowest open (E) string of a six stringed guitar up to the 17th fret on the highest string (high A on the top E string). Claiming that the Captain's voice can span this range is simply absurd, and he does not go anywhere near it on any of his recordings. The truth of this does not in anyway detract from his being one of the most creative, innovative and talented modern artists :)

Apples.

Can somebody verify this statement which was added by an anonymous user whose repeatedly added incorrect statements to John Peel:

His second album release was called Strictly Personal on the Blue Thumb label. It was originally titled "It Comes To You In A Plain Brown Wrapper Marked Personal" and a seven minute excerpt was played by John Peel on his BBC Radio 1 show during one of Captain Beefhearts many visits. Unknown to Beefheart the producer of the album decided to add phasing to almost all the tracks on the album and although fans loved it Beefheart himself felt he had been betrayed.

I've removed it for now because I suspect the user is just adding nonsense. Joe D (t)

I can't comment on the Peel bit, but Beefheart always claimed phasing was added (by Bob Krasnow) to "Strictly Personal" without his knowledge. Some Magic Band members have disputed this, but it's a commonly held belief, often repeated as fact. Don't know if its true, though. -- GWO


I noticed this at http://www.beefheart.com/fireparty/archive/2003/08/msg00205.html

On Wed, 6 Aug 2003, Kynoceph wrote: > I have to agree with John here. "Strictly Personal" gets a lot of > unnecessary bashing. I also think that it's interesting that "SP" is > the album that really had a strong impact for CB & MB in England, > whereas it was the first of many albums that went completely under the > radar here. From my observation, American fans tend to talk about "Safe > as Milk" or "TMR" as the first albums where they noticed Beefheart, but > for fans across the pond I've noticed that "Strictly Personal" comes up > just as much.

I think it's due to the timing of the Magic Band's first two visits to the UK. When they played here in January and April 1968, and appeared on the John Peel show, they were featuring "Trust Us", "Kandy Korn" "Mirror Man" and "Safe As Milk" (the song) as songs from their forthcoming album, which was supposedly entitled "It comes to you in a plain brown wrapper marked 'Personal' ". (Possibly the reported just misunderstood a description of the 'Strictly Personal' cover and interpreted it as the title).

So the anonymous user sounds ok. -- Huntspill

I just wanted to add one of the Magic Band members to the page. Richard Hepner was with Beefheart around 65 and was the lead guitar player for "Diddy Wah Diddy." Rich came from "The Jags" and is one of the finest (Freddy King-style) blues guitarist you'll ever hear. Tomhep (talk) 04:58, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Daughter, daughter, don't you dare.

Oh momma who cares? It's the blimp!

— Pekinensis 21:23, 26 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] How he got his name

No mention of this? I'm actually kind of glad because it always makes my eyes water. Having said that I don't remember the details...it's one of uncle's (?) party tricks. Involving his penis.

There should be a reference. Wikipedia is not "G-rated". It is fearless, in the spirit of the Enlightenment.

I can't put it in an encyclopedic way, but it was something along the lines of: "I have a BEEF in my HEART against people." Wanka 01:51, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Featured Music Project

Captain Beefheart has been evaluated according to the Featured Music Project criteria, most recently affirmed as of this revision. The article's most important issues are listed below. Since this evaluation, the article may have been improved.

The following areas need work to meet the criteria: Sales - Pictures - Audio - References - Format/Style - Discography
The space below is for limited discussion on this article's prospects as a featured article candidate. Please take conversations to the article talk page.
  • Sales: Appears to not mention sales anywhere
  • Pictures: Pics need fair use rationales, free pics would be nice
  • Audio: No audio samples
  • References: A number of inline cites, many facts still unreferenced, refs should include books that take a broader focus
  • Format/Style: Needs some copyediting, specifically cite opinions and remove weasel words
  • Discography - If he never released singles and the discography section is comprehensive, then the discography is good
  • Free pic in lead would be ideal
I just did a major overhaul. We should probably re-evaluate. WP:LEAD still needs a little expansion for personal life. Jkelly 04:21, 28 February 2006 (UTC) FMP subpage updated. Jkelly 18:29, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Art work

This is quite a good article but it contains nothing about Beefheart's art work, and nothing about what he is doing now. 86.3.29.137 23:42, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

Do you know of any reliable sources about his painting? Jkelly 04:14, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

They talk about his painting briefly on his profile on AMG, i'll put it up later. The Guilty Undertaker 15:08, April 30, 2006.

[edit] Should this page have a link to long song titles like this?

==See also==

  • List of songs with particularly long titles

-- Gbeeker 01:51, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] That picture of him sucks, dude.

kinda dumb, but you must admit, we need a better picture of The Captain. The Guilty Undertaker 21:23, 26 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Bat Chain Puller

Didn't the original version of this get released a few years ago under the title "Dust Sucker" or something like that? BTLizard 14:59, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

Yes, but it was a bootleg.-FeralCats

[edit] Paintings?

Anyone got any links to samples of JUST his paintings to share?

[edit] Illness

On the queston of Don Van Vliet's illness, the Captain beefheart Radar Station website (www.beefheart.com) addresses this issue as an item in its FAQ, indicating that while he has been reported to be ill by various sources, his gallery (michael Werner Gallery, New York, NY) reports that this is not true and that he is in good health. Bloggy's man 00:29, 7 January 2007 (UTC)Bloggy's man

  • The Ankeny article (citation 2) contained nothing about being bed-ridden so I removed it. 71.236.141.27 (talk) 08:51, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] GA

Sorry but i am going to be failing this article.

  • Seven citation needed tags - find those references
  • There is no point for "Full article: Trout Mask Replica" when the first sentence has a link to the album article.
  • From 1975 to 1977 - During 1975 to... This paragraph also seems quite pointless
  • Van Vliet's music has been vastly influential. big WP:POV statement
  • and notes that Beefheart was the group's "idol" (Azerras, p. 71), I assume Azerras is the reference? if so it needs the ref tags around it
  • Not req'd for GA but alphabetize categories to make it neater
  • References come after punctuation - [8]. should be .[8] I will fix this up in a minute
  • Van Vliet joined the newly forming Magic Band in 1965, newly formed?
  • You refer to him as Beefheart and Vliet a lot - you need to pick one and stay with it
  • Add WP:PDATA
  • References needs to be formatted
  • Influence section is a bit of a mess. Several citation needed tags, unsourced claims and multiple one sentence paragraphs. One sentence paragraphs need to be merged, expanded or removed as this doesnt help the article pass the "well-written" criteria.
  • "Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007" is interesting..References required here
    • (Zappa had called Beefheart, a year before their collaboration on Bongo Fury, "an asshole")
    • This line-up made a video to promote the title track which was rejected by MTV for being "too weird."
    • Some of his recent sounds and noises were captured on his guitarist
    • Punk rockers The Minutemen (1980-1985) were great fans of Beefheart's music, no need for the "great" before fans
    • Sources for the influence section and the citation needed tags. M3tal H3ad 12:22, 16 March 2007 (UTC)
Not that I nominated this article or worked on it, but I'm currently working on a few points raised by M3tal H3ad. CloudNine 11:27, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] POV

The article has some bits that come off as being biased against Don/Captain Beefheart, referring to his accounts of certain events (the mixing of the album Strictly Personal, for example) as if these were untrue and he had in fact approved of all the artistic choices made on that album, but later started criticizing these choices after responses to the albums were negative. Since when do Wikipedia articles get to take sides on issues like this? It should be rewritten to, for one thing, add citations, and, for another, have both sides to the story addressed from a neutral point of view. What does Bob Krasnow have to say about the production of the album? Does anyone have access to any interviews/books/newspaper articles/etc. in which Kransnow gives his side? How about having a quote from Krasnow, followed by a quote from Don? I.E., "According to Krasnow, "[yadda yadda yadda]." Don Van Vliet's account differs. According to Vliet, [yadda yadda yadda]." There should also be citations in the paragraph that talks about Vliet and Frank Zappa's friendship. The article claims that Zappa once referred to Vliet as an asshole, but there's no reference to back this up. (Ibaranoff24 16:50, 17 June 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Influence section citations

The second paragraph of this article http://www.freewebs.com/teejo/argue/billglass.html would seem to qualify as an indicator of both John Frusciante and Kurt Cobain's Beefheart influence. If anyone wants to verify and insert the citation into the article we'd be two steps closer to making this a featured article...--Hoboism (talk) 21:02, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Is he dead?

I did some research over at Ancestry.com and I found Captain Beefheart's marriage license and birth certificate. However, in a another part, I saw a "Donald Van Vliet" (what could be a long Don Van Vliet) that died in 2003.

If somebody that can search up Donald Vliet and has an Ancestry.com account, please verify that is or is not the good Captain!

A&MFan (talk) 15:03, 25 March 2008 (UTC)