Captain Beefheart: Under Review

As I started writing this review I wanted to get in the mood so I put on the legendary Nuggets box set which is packed with some incredibly timeless garage rock from the 1960s. One of the bands featured in this compilation is Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band. The song "Diddy Wah Diddy" is Track 27 on Disc 2 of the 4 disc set. 'Diddy' was actually the first song that brought their sound to the public. Its a rocking fuzzed out blues cover with a tremendous amount of soul, but it really doesn't foreshadow the experimentation and extremely bizarre sounds that would follow in the coming years. Lead singer Don Van Vliet hailed from a desert town outside of Los Angeles called Lancaster. Vliet also happened to be a friend of another legendary music genius named Frank Zappa. This will give some kind of idea about what we're talking about as far as musical exploration and genius. The first song I ever heard by Beefheart was one of the first songs I ever downloaded way back when Napster was free. It was "Lick My Decals Off Baby". The reason I had chosen this song was because I had just read an incredible book about California pop music called Waiting For The Sun (Barney Hoskyns). After reading about all the great music that was born in that state, I wanted to explore music I hadn't heard before. I began listening to bands like Love, Warren Zevon, and of course Captain Beefheart. I'll just say that "Lick My Decals off Baby" is really a perfect song to introduce anyone to the essence of what Beefheart's sound was about. It's been one of my favorite songs ever since. The music of Beefheart and The Magic Band essentially began as a kind of California desert blues and featured Van Vliet as a Howling Wolf meets Wolfman Jack. The band's sound soon morphed into something undescribable to both listeners and critics. In this new Under Review DVD from Music Video Distributors and Sexy Intellectual, we get to hear first hand from the ex-Magic band members like John French (who talks on a phone thats not actually connected in his interview keeping that offbeat Beefheart aura alive), Jerry Handley, Doug Moon, Eric Drew Feldman, Clinton Heylin, Mark Bosson, Elliot Ingber, Ira Ingber, Alan Clayson. Music critics Mike Barnes, Alan Barnes and Nigel Williamson also expound on their interpretations of Captain Beefheart's music and career. Even the guys in the band who crafted the songs with Don really never knew what they were doing.The band went through several members from its beginning in the 60s all the way through to the early 80s. Van Vliet was a musical director, a "method composer" as one of the band members describes in the DVD interview. One thing we also learn is that Don was method acting himself. Beefheart was actually a stage persona that Don took on to sell his music. In later years, after the 60s psychadelia had faded in pop music, Don actually began aiming his music to become accepted by audiences who weren't into his abstract, avant garde style. This is a really interesting piece of information because an artist like Don didn't come across to me as someone who wanted to reach the mainstream. He seemed more like a renegade that wouldn't bow to anyone. I guess this just feeds into the unpredictability Don had. Noone ever really knew what he'd do next, not even his band members. Needless to say, his attempt at being a pop star never really gelled with listeners or critics and in the end he went back to the kind of artist he started out as. A true artist that created some of the most unique sounds to ever be put on wax. This DVD is broken up into chapters which take us through the different periods of the band. From the beginning with the bands first pop single Diddy Wah Diddy through the albums Safe As Milk, Strictly Personal, Trout Mask Replica, Lick My Decals Off Baby, The Spotlight Kid, Clear Spot, Unconditionally Guaranteed, Blue Jeans and Moonbeams, Bat Chain Puller (Shiny Beast), Doc At the Radar Station, Ice Cream for Crow. If you've never heard Captain Beefheart's music you definitely should pick up some of his albums and make sure to get this Under Review disc for some wonderful insights to what the music was thought to be all about!