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Friday, December 17, 2010
Death RIP Captain Beefheart, Don Van Vliet
Posted by Mike Nipper on Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 4:07 PM
This is far too young for any man to die, much less a man like him. Godamn. He was only 69.
Don Van Vliet...died today from complications from multiple sclerosis in California.
I always considered his reinvention of the blues to be the only reinvention of the blues.
1
Oh, no.
I would amend that to "the only iteration of the blues" of any interest since about 1935.
I still remember the sense of wonder I felt when I first listened to the battered copy of "Trout Mask Replica" someone gave me sometime in the late seventies. A dense forest of wrong chords and harmful sounds that clanked and banged their way towards a resolution more transcendent than a thousand Mahavishnu Orchestras. The word "genius" doesn't mean anything, so I'll use "inventiveness"; he had more previously-unthought musical ideas than anyone who ever lived.
I was lucky enough to see the Magic Band a couple of times in its "Doc At The Radar Station" incarnation. Truly mind-blowing. The show in Bellingham, in some classic theater, was especially resounding. I may have been on drugs that night, but even if I hadn't been, I would have been babbling incoherently about guitarist Morris Tepper being in direct communication with God. The band seemed to be playing every note in the universe all at the same time, and Beefheart was laughing. Magic.
The dust blows for'ard and the dust blows back. Rest in peace, my good man.
I would amend that to "the only iteration of the blues" of any interest since about 1935.
I still remember the sense of wonder I felt when I first listened to the battered copy of "Trout Mask Replica" someone gave me sometime in the late seventies. A dense forest of wrong chords and harmful sounds that clanked and banged their way towards a resolution more transcendent than a thousand Mahavishnu Orchestras. The word "genius" doesn't mean anything, so I'll use "inventiveness"; he had more previously-unthought musical ideas than anyone who ever lived.
I was lucky enough to see the Magic Band a couple of times in its "Doc At The Radar Station" incarnation. Truly mind-blowing. The show in Bellingham, in some classic theater, was especially resounding. I may have been on drugs that night, but even if I hadn't been, I would have been babbling incoherently about guitarist Morris Tepper being in direct communication with God. The band seemed to be playing every note in the universe all at the same time, and Beefheart was laughing. Magic.
The dust blows for'ard and the dust blows back. Rest in peace, my good man.
2
The thing that comes to my mind immediately when I think of Beefheart is 'fun'. I know a lot of talk and print has been devoted to how original and seminal and brilliant and weird and unique Don was - and he was, he truly was! - but to my mind I think of discovering 'Ice Cream For Crow' in 1998 on MTV2 and kind of exploding inside. I'd go many years touting the dubious joys of execrable indie-crud of the early part of the last decade, but that atomising blast stays with me to this day. It just takes one of his wrongfooting chord sequences or lyrical turns to bring this goofy-ass smile to my face. It's all this joy and vitality that also makes 'Love Lies' one of the saddest things I've ever heard too.
Even if he'd just painted, a real talent would have died.
Even if he'd just painted, a real talent would have died.
3
Fnarf & sevendaughters:
Strong work. I wish I was as eloquent as ya'll, but I share you sentiment.
Peace out Don. You are missed.
Strong work. I wish I was as eloquent as ya'll, but I share you sentiment.
Peace out Don. You are missed.
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