Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band

Early years

Don Van Vliet was born Don Glen Vliet in Glendale, California, in 1941. His family moved to Lancaster, in the Mojave Desert, when he was thirteen, and he socialized with members of local bands, among them the Blackouts, whose drummer was Frank Zappa. In early 1965 Alexis Snouffer, a guitarist with another local band, the Omens, invited Vliet to sing with a band he was putting together. Vliet joined the first Magic Band, took the name Don Van Vliet, and performed as Captain Beefheart. Snouffer became Alex St. Clair.

The band signed to A&M and in 1966 released two singles, a version of Bo Diddley's Diddy Wah Diddy that was a regional hit in Los Angeles, and Moonchild. A&M's Jerry Moss reportedly called the demos for a first album too negative and dropped them. By the end of 1966 they were on Buddah.

Blues, then the Brown Wrapper

Safe as Milk (1967) was a blues-based debut that featured a twenty-year-old Ry Cooder on guitar, with lyrics Van Vliet wrote with Herb Bermann. It held Electricity, Abba Zaba and Dropout Boogie, and it charted in neither the United States nor Britain, though John Peel was an admirer from the start. A slot at the Monterey Pop Festival fell through after Van Vliet froze and walked off a stage during Electricity at a warm-up show, and Cooder quit.

A planned double album for Buddah, recorded in late 1967, was rejected. The band re-recorded part of it as Strictly Personal (1968) on Blue Thumb, where producer Bob Krasnow added phasing effects that Beefheart later disavowed. In January 1968 they went to England, recorded for Peel's BBC show and played the Middle Earth club in London to an enthusiastic audience.

Trout Mask Replica

Zappa offered him a record on his Straight label with complete artistic freedom. The Magic Band rehearsed Van Vliet's compositions for months in a rented house in Woodland Hills, for many hours a day, on very little money. According to John French and Bill Harkleroad, the sessions often included physical violence. Van Vliet worked out ideas at a piano he could not play, and French transcribed the fragments and assembled them into parts for the other players.

Trout Mask Replica came out on 16 June 1969 as a 28-track double album produced by Zappa. The band recorded the instrumental tracks in a single session, and Van Vliet added his vocals over the next few days. It did not chart in the United States and spent one week at number 21 in Britain. Peel later ranked it the best pop album ever made, and Moonlight on Vermont is among its best-known songs. Lick My Decals Off, Baby followed in December 1970, reached number 20 in Britain, and was Van Vliet's own favorite of his albums.

Warner years and the last records

The Spotlight Kid and Clear Spot (both 1972) were slower and more direct. Clear Spot, produced by Ted Templeman, reached 191 on the Billboard 200 and held Big Eyed Beans from Venus and Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles. In 1974 the original members left, and Van Vliet made Unconditionally Guaranteed and Bluejeans & Moonbeams with a new Magic Band, then disowned both. He toured and recorded Bongo Fury with Zappa in 1975. Bat Chain Puller was shelved in 1976 amid legal disputes and not released officially until 2012.

Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) arrived in 1978, and Doc at the Radar Station (1980) on Virgin brought John French back. After Ice Cream for Crow in 1982 Van Vliet retired from music to paint, and had his first serious exhibition at the Mary Boone Gallery in New York in 1985. He died on 17 December 2010 of complications from multiple sclerosis.

Legacy

Pitchfork's Marc Masters wrote in 2010 that any experimental rock musician asked to list influences would surely cite Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, and named the Residents, Devo, Pere Ubu and Tom Waits as clear descendants. Waits said his change of direction from Swordfishtrombones in 1983 followed his wife introducing him to Van Vliet's music. The White Stripes covered Beefheart songs on a 2000 single. Matt Groening said it took him seven listens to go from hating Trout Mask Replica to deciding it was the greatest album ever, and the album has been added to the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress.