Ithaca Blog

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Captain Beefheart, Christmas Music, 2010

Captain Beefheart, the singer and composer, died this past week, and due to social media, his music is all around, at least among my facefriends.

It is a pointed counter to the seasonal music one hears all around at Christmas, which even if well-meaning, is mostly insipid and pretty bad. Beefheart's music can be pretty bad, too, but in a different way: interesting, if not actually crazy.

He always seemed to me a few steps from living in a lot. But he was lucky, as well as talented (he probably earned more life-time from his paintings than his records), and he had a productive career, and seemed to live as he wanted.

We presume his music is available all over Youtube; but haven't checked. See if you can find "The Dust Blows Forward" from the "Trout Mask Replica" LP of 1970 or so. It is a poem, or a lyric unaccompanied by music; and it is funny.

Steve Burke
for Ithaca NY Blog

No comments: