A Squid Eating Dough In A Polyethylene Bag

 
The world is a smaller, sadder, less luminous place with the news that Don Van Vliet has left us land-lubbin' women alone.  While it is perhaps redundant for me to toss my humble scribblings into the deluge of Beefheart memorials, it is a testament to the Captain's powers that NO AMOUNT of hyperbole can really do justice to the man's art.  It is impossible for Beefheart to be overrated.  Despite being thirty-nine years old, the clip above is as assaultive, as mind-warping, as ALIEN as it was at its inception.  Even moving in Beefheart-saturated circles (as I do), there is no way to get used to this stuff.  No matter how many Arab On Radars, no matter how many Flying Luttenbachers or U.S. Maples I obsess over, Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band got there first, strangest, and best.  I could listen to these albums for the rest of my life and never exhaust their store of innovation, wonder, and energy.


Thank you, Don Van Vliet.  Thank you and goodnight.