Don Van Vliet (born Don Glen Vliet on January 15, 1941) is an American musician and painter, best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. His musical work was mainly conducted with a rotating assembly of musicians called The Magic Band, which was active between the mid-1960s and the early 1980s. Van Vliet was chiefly a singer and harmonica player, occasionally playing saxophone, bass clarinet and keyboards. His compositions are characterized by their odd mixtures of shifting time signatures and by their surreal lyrics, while Van Vliet himself is noted for his dictatorial approach to his musicians and for his enigmatic relationship with the public.
Discography
- Safe as Milk (1967)
- Strictly Personal (1968)
- Trout Mask Replica (1969)
- Lick My Decals Off, Baby (1970)
- Mirror Man (1971)
- The Spotlight Kid (1972)
- Clear Spot (1972)
- Unconditionally Guaranteed (1974)
- Bluejeans & Moonbeams (1974)
- Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) (1978)
- Doc at the Radar Station (1980)
- Ice Cream for Crow (1982)
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Safe as Milk (1967)
Safe as Milk is the debut album by Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band, originally released in 1967. It is a heavily blues-influenced work, but also hints at many of the features such as surreal lyrics and odd time signatures that would later become trademarks of Beefheart's music. The album is also notable for the involvement of a 20-year-old Ry Cooder, who plays guitar and wrote some of the arrangements.
Playlist file :
01.Sure 'Nuff 'n Yes I Do (2:15)
02.Zig Zag Wanderer (2:40)
03.Call On Me (2:37)
04.Dropout Boogie (2:32)
05.I'm Glad (3:31)
06.Electricity (3:07)
07.Yellow Brick Road (2:28)
08.Abba Zaba (2:44)
09.Plastic Factory (3:08)
10.Where There's Woman (2:09)
11.Grown So Ugly (2:27)
12.Autumn's Child (4:02)
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Strictly Personal (1968)
Playlist files :
01.Ah Feel Like Ahcid (3:05)
02.Safe As Milk (5:27)
03.Trust Us (8:09)
04.Son of Mirror Man - Mere Man (5:20)
05.On Tomorrow (3:27)
06.Beatle Bones 'n' Smokin' Stones( 3:18)
07.Gimme Dat Harp Boy (5:05)
08.Kandy Korn (5:06)
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica (1969)
Trout Mask Replica is the third studio album by Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band, released in June, 1969. The album was produced by Frank Zappa, a friend and former schoolmate of Beefheart, and was originally released on Zappa's Straight Records imprint. Combining blues, avant-garde, free jazz and other disparate genres of American music, Trout Mask Replica is regarded as an important work of experimental music and a major influence in alternative rock. A widely recognized and acclaimed composition, Trout Mask Replica appears at number fifty-eight on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
Playlist files :
01.Frownland (1:41)
02.The Dust Blows Forward 'n the Dust Blows Back (1:53)
03.Dachau Blues (2:21)
04.Ella Guru (2:26)
05.Hair Pie: Bake 1 (4:58)
06.Moonlight on Vermont (3:59)
07.Pachuco Cadaver (4:40)
08.Bills Corpse (1:48)
09.Sweet Sweet Bulbs (2:21)
10.Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish (2:25)
11.China Pig (4:02)
12.My Human Gets Me Blues (2:46)
13.Dali's Car (1:26)
14.Hair Pie: Bake 2 (2:23)
15.Pena (2:33)
16.Well (2:07)
17.When Big Joan Sets Up (5:18)
18.Fallin' Ditch (2:08)
19.Sugar 'n Spikes (2:30)
20.Ant Man Bee (3:57)
21.Orange Claw Hammer (3:34)
22.Wild Life (3:09)
23.She's Too Much for My Mirror (1:40)
24.Hobo Chang Ba (2:02)
25.The Blimp (mousetrapreplica) (2:04)
26.Steal Softly thru Snow (2:18)
27.Old Fart at Play (1:51)
28.Veteran's Day Poppy (4:31)
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Lick My Decals Off, Baby (1970)
Lick My Decals Off, Baby is a record by Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band released in 1970 on Frank Zappa's Straight Records label. The followup to his Trout Mask Replica, it is regarded by some critics and listeners as superior to the famous 1969 recording. Due to John Peel's championing of the work on BBC radio, Lick My Decals Off, Baby spent eleven weeks on the UK Albums Chart, peaking at number twenty; this remains Beefheart's highest-charting album in the UK. Don Van Vliet has said that the title is an encouragement to "get rid of the labels," and to evaluate things according to their merits rather than according to superficial labels (or "decals"). The record contains some of Captain Beefheart's most experimental music and remains memorable for both the marimba playing of Art Tripp and for its concise instrumental work. An early promotional music video was made of its title song, and a bizarre television commercial was also filmed that included excerpts from "Woe-Is-uh-Me-Bop," silent footage of masked Magic Band members using kitchen utensils as musical instruments, and Beefheart kicking over a bowl of what appears to be porridge onto a dividing stripe in the middle of a road. The video was rarely played but was accepted into the Museum of Modern Art, where it has been used in several programs.
Playlist files :
01.Lick My Decals Off, Baby (2:38)
02.Doctor Dark (2:46)
03.I Love You, You Big Dummy (2:54)
04.Peon (2:24)
05.Bellerin' Plain (3:35)
06.Woe-Is-uh-Me-Bop (2:06)
07.Japan in a Dishpan (3:00)
08.I Wanna Find a Woman That'll Hold My Big Toe Till I Have to Go (1:53)
09.Petrified Forest (1:40)
10.One Red Rose That I Mean (1:52)
11.The Buggy Boogie Woogie (2:19)
12.The Smithsonian Institute Blues (Or the Big Dig) (2:11)
13.Space-Age Couple (2:32)
14.The Clouds Are Full of Wine (Not Whiskey or Rye) (2:50)
15.Flash Gordon's Ape (4:15)
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Miror Man (1971)
Mirror Man is the fifth studio album by Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band. It contains material which was recorded in 1967 for Buddah Records, and which was originally intended for release as part of an abandoned project entitled It Comes to You in a Plain Brown Wrapper. Much of the material from this project was subsequently re-recorded and released through a different label as Strictly Personal (1968). The tapes from the original sessions, however, remained under the care of Buddah, who took four of the unissued tunes and released them as Mirror Man in 1971. The album is dominated by three long, blues-rooted jams featuring uncharacteristically sparse lyrical accompaniment from Beefheart. A fourth tune, the eight-minute "Kandy Korn", is an earlier version of a track that appears on Strictly Personal. In 1999, Buddha Records issued an expanded version of the album entitled The Mirror Man Sessions, which features five additional tracks taken from the abandoned tapes.
Playlist files :
01.Tarotplane (19:08)
02.25th Century Quaker (9:50)
03.Mirror Man (15:46)
04.Kandy Korn (8:06)
05.Trust Us (7:14)
06.Safe as Milk (5:00)
07.Beatle Bones n' Smokin' Stones (3:11)
08.Moody Liz (4:32)
09.Gimme Dat Harp Boy (3:32)
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - The Spotlight Kid (1972)
The Spotlight Kid is the sixth album by Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet) and the Magic Band, originally released in 1972. It is the only album credited solely to Captain Beefheart. Often cited as one of the most accessible of Beefheart's albums, it is solidly founded in the blues but also introduces instruments as marimba and jingle bells not typical of that genre. The music on The Spotlight Kid is simpler and slower than on the group's two previous releases, the uncompromisingly original Trout Mask Replica and the frenetic Lick My Decals Off, Baby. This was in part an attempt by Van Vliet to become a more appealing commercial proposition as the band had made virtually no money during the past two years at the time of recording, the band members were subsisting on welfare food handouts and remittances from their parents. Magic Band members have also said that the slower performances were due in part to Van Vliet's inability to fit his lyrics with the instrumental backing of the faster material on the earlier albums, a problem that was exacerbated in that he almost never rehearsed with the group.
Playlist files :
01.I'm Gonna Booglarize You Baby (4:33)
02.White Jam (2:55)
03.Blabber 'n Smoke (2:46)
04.When It Blows Its Stacks (3:40)
05.Alice in Blunderland (3:54)
06.The Spotlight Kid (3:21)
07.Click Clack (3:30)
08.Grow Fins (3:30)
09.There Ain't No Santa Claus on the Evenin' Stage (3:11)
10.Glider (4:34)
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Clear Spot (1972)
After Trout Mask Replica, which was critically acclaimed but sold poorly, each of the group's following albums was slightly more conventional than the one before. Though Beefheart wanted more commercial success - hence his decision to work with producer Ted Templeman who had produced such artists as Carly Simon and Van Morrison - Clear Spot did not chart at all in the UK and only reached #191 on the Billboard Top 200. On CD, the album is now available only as a "two for one" with its predecessor The Spotlight Kid. Separately, the two albums are only available as vinyl LP reissues.
Playlist files :
01.Low Yo Yo Stuff (3:41)
02.Nowadays a Woman's Gotta Hit a Man (3:46)
03.Too Much Time (2:50)
04.Circumstances (3:14)
05.My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains (2:55)
06.Sun Zoom Spark (2:13)
07.Clear Spot (3:40)
08.Crazy Little Thing (2:38)
09.Long Neck Bottles (3:18)
10.Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles (2:57)
11.Big Eyed Beans from Venus (4:23)
12.Golden Birdies (1:36)
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Unconditionally Guaranteed(1974)
Unconditionally Guaranteed is the eighth LP by Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band, originally released in 1974. Upon release it was criticised for being too commercial; however it failed to give Beefheart any real chart success and peaked at #192 on the Billboard Top 200. Immediately after recording of the album the entire Magic Band quit – as biographer Mike Barnes has stated, "[Beefheart] was in effect sacked by his own group. They had become increasingly disenchanted with the lack of financial success – having subsisted on food stamps and donations from their parents – and with Beefheart's tyrannical control over the group. The album's lackluster and unchallenging music was the last straw. Drummer Art Tripp recalled, "When the band finally got our album copies, we were horrified. As we listened, it was as though each song was worse than the one which preceded it.
Playlist files :
01.Upon the My-O-My (2:43)
02.Sugar Bowl (2:13)
03.New Electric Ride (3:02)
04.Magic Be (2:55)
05.Happy Love Song (3:54)
06.Full Moon, Hot Sun (2:19)
07.I Got Love on My Mind (3:08)
08.This Is the Day (4:51)
09.Lazy Music (2:49)
10.Peaches (3:20)
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Bluejeans & Moonbeams (1974)
Bluejeans & Moonbeams is the ninth LP by Captain Beefheart, originally released in 1974. Despite its uncharacteristically mainstream sound the album failed to chart. Most observers consider the album to be the Captain's weakest work, leading fans to christen the line-up of the period the 'Tragic Band'. The album does, however, have its influence: an early White Stripes EP entitled Party of Special Things to Do (2001) contains three Beefheart covers, including this album's opening track.
Playlist files :
01.Party of Special Things to Do (2:48)
02.Same Old Blues (4:00)
03.Observatory Crest (3:32)
04.Pompadour Swamp (3:32)
05.Captain's Holiday (5:43)
06.Rock 'n Roll's Evil Doll (3:20)
07.Further Than We've Gone (5:31)
08.Twist ah Luck (3:22)
09.Bluejeans and Moonbeams (5:02)
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) (1978)
Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) is the tenth studio album by Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band. Originally released in 1978, it is considered to be Beefheart's comeback album following 1974's poorly received efforts, Unconditionally Guaranteed and Bluejeans & Moonbeams, and is the first of his three critically acclaimed final albums.
Playlist files :
01.The Floppy Boot Stomp (3:51)
02.Tropical Hot Dog Night (4:48)
03.Ice Rose (3:37)
04.Harry Irene (3:42)
05.You Know You're a Man (3:14)
06.Bat Chain Puller (5:27)
07.When I See Mommy I Feel Like a Mummy (5:03)
08.Owed t'Alex" (Van Vliet, Herb Bermann) (4:06)
09.Candle Mambo (3:24)
10.Love Lies (5:03)
11.Suction Prints (4:25)
12.Apes-Ma (0:40)
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Doc at The Radar Station (1980)
Doc at the Radar Station is the eleventh studio album by Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band, released in 1980 to favorable reviews. The painting on the album cover is by Van Vliet himself. Although about half of the album's songs are based on old musical ideas, Mike Barnes states that "most of the revamping work built on skeletal ideas and fragments that would have mouldered away in the vaults had they not been exhumed and transformed into full-blown, totally convincing new material.
Playlist files :
01.Hot Head (3:23)
02.Ashtray Heart (3:25)
03.A Carrot Is as Close as a Rabbit Gets to a Diamond (1:38)
04.Run Paint Run Run (3:40)
05.Sue Egypt (2:57)
06.Brickbats (2:40)
07.Dirty Blue Gene (3:51)
08.Best Batch Yet (5:02)
09.Telephone (1:31)
10.Flavor Bud Living (1:00)
11.Sheriff of Hong Kong (6:34)
12.Making Love to a Vampire with a Monkey on My Knee (3:11)
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Ice Cream for Crow (1982)
Ice Cream for Crow is the twelfth LP by Captain Beefheart, originally released in 1982. It is the last record he released before retiring from music. It spent two weeks in the UK album charts, reaching #90, but failed to make the Billboard Top 200. Although many of the songs on Ice Cream for Crow stem from musical ideas from sessions for earlier albums, Beefheart composed a good deal of new material for the album. In fact, he wrote "Skeleton Makes Good" in one evening. According to Captain Beefheart's biographer Mike Barnes, "the most original and vital tracks [on the album] are the newer ones." Thus, Ice Cream for Crow, while rooted in past musical ideas, points toward a new musical direction for Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band. Indeed, Barnes writes that the album "feels like an hors-d'oeuvre for a main course that never came.
Playlist files :
01.Ice Cream for Crow (4:35)
02.The Host the Ghost the Most Holy-O (2:25)
03.Semi-Multicoloured Caucasian (4:20)
04.Hey Garland, I Dig Your Tweed Coat (3:13)
05.Evening Bell (2:00)
06.Cardboard Cutout Sundown (2:38)
07.The Past Sure Is Tense (3:21)
08.Ink Mathematics (1:40)
09.The Witch Doctor Life (2:38)
10.'81' Poop Hatch (2:39)
11.The Thousandth and Tenth Day of the Human Totem Pole (5:42)
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