Customer Reviews

Captain Beefheart: The Biography

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Don Van Vliet (alias "Captain Beefheart") has become one of the most elusive and enigmatic figures in rock history. Strangely, a veritable paucity of information exists on his life and work. Internet webpages and blurbs in CD booklets provide one of the largest current trove of insights. This leaves a large knowledge gap for the curious, and there's plenty to be curious about. His self-abdication as the king of avant-garde rock (or so subsumed by many) to the painterly recluse represents a massive - and intriguing - change for an artist to undertake. Also, he's disappeared. Sightings of and interviews with Van Vliet have gone the way of the dodo bird. Add to that rumors of failing health, and the gossip fountains spurt prodigiously.
Given such a situation, those interested in the life of Van Vliet must embrace the appearance of a new biography (or at least a reissue; this book was originally published in 2000, and, according to the title page, was republished in 2002 with "textual emendations"). Surprisingly, not many biographies of "Captain Beefheart" have made their way into print. Or maybe this shouldn't surprise fans. The lack of material, especially valuable primary source material (in the form of interviews with Van Vliet himself) would daunt the most driven biographer wannabe.
In light of the startling limitations, one has to give Mike Barnes some credit for this undertaking. Unfortunately, the lack of really juicy material shows in this 365 page linear telling of Van Vliet's life. Plenty of dates and amusing and insightful anecdotes appear. And if one wants to know just the basic story behind Captain Beefheart and His/The Magic Band and his subsequent (or continuous) morphing into Don Van Vliet the painter, then dig in. Unfortunately, what one won't find is depth. Don Van Vliet the man and his methodologies remain in relative obscurity by the book's end. True, what happened to him gets a fair outline, but not much else. The book generally feels like a compilation of magazine, audio, and television interviews with sequeways filled in by the author. Consequently, anyone who has undertaken a study of Van Vliet will find much of the material familiar. Don't expect any earth shattering surprises.
Other flaws not related directly to lack of information also exist. The author's abrupt transitions to the first person are jarring. This happens only a few times, but when it does, the flow suffers. Placing these personal reflections into footnotes or endnotes would preserve the narrative flow (particularily the author's recollections of trying to get an interview with Van Vliet; they're very interesting but would have fit better in an epilogue or an appendix; they also come off like an apology for the lack of material). In addition, typos dot the text frequently enough to further strain the flow.
The photograph section presents another puzzle. The book covers all of Van Vliet's life (up to around 2001), but the photos only cover the years 1980 - 1982. Maybe permissions for photos were difficult to obtain? The included photos are great, but they beg the question as to why only an extremely small part of Van Vliet's life made it into this section.
Not only that, the book does not include an index, so returning to specific passages becomes tedious. Of course indexers cost money, so dropping the index probably helped the book get into print. Still, it makes the book less useful as a reference.
On a lighter note, one of the most amusing anecdotes related by Barnes is Van Vliet's run-in with Bono of U2. Following an offer made by Bono to tour with U2 and collaborate, Van Vliet supposedly kept asking his friends "Who's this Bongo?"
Lastly, the multifarious members of various Magic Bands get airtime here. Some of them feel cheated. Others feel fortunate. Some even feel cheated and fortunate. Many of their stories clash with Van Vliet's own version. In the end, what exactly happened is difficult to reconstruct.
Overall the book reads quickly and tells the story of Van Vliet. Those who have no prior knowledge of Captain Beefheart apart from the music will learn a great deal. Longtime fans will probably not learn too much. Barnes is obviously a big fan, and his enthusiasm shows. Nonetheless, the book contains flaws, but not insurmountable ones. Perhaps this book will lay the groundwork for a more detailed study in the future. Or at the very least get Van Vliet's music some more well-deserved press.

Beefheart's music remains one of the few experiences that has successfully remained as exciting today as when I first encountered it in 1969. There is nothing like his music, nothing like his voice, nothing like the Magic Band.

Mike Barnes' book is an excellent introduction to the man, his music, and his times. For those who don't know his music, it will intrigue you enough to get an album or two, if not all of them (start with Trout Mask Replica, his greatest, and don't listen to anyone who says it's the least accessible: great music will always find a way into a receptive ear). And for those of us who love his music, Barnes' book will get us to drag out those lp's/cd's once again and listen to that glorious, joyous, extraordinary music.

Highly reccommended reading.

Thorough and informative, but unfortunately Mike Barnes is only a mediocre writer. This is a must have for fans and, for that matter, anyone interested in the milestones of American music. But prepare yourself for a less-than-satisfying literary experience.

This book filled in a lot of the gaps in my knowledge of the Captain Beefheart phenomenon. After I read Barnes' book, I read Zoot's, Lunar Notes, and I really feel like I have a handle on what went on behind the scenes, particularly during the era of the Zoot Horn Rollo--Rockette Morton--Jeff Cotton--John French--Art Tripp incarnations of The Magic Band. There is some essential information added in the 2009 edition, most notably that Herb Bermann claims to have written (and I believe him) the words to most of the songs on "Safe As Milk" and some of the songs on "Strictly Personal".

No sense in re-telling the story of this book -- read it yourself if you have been eager to know more about the Captain Beefheart Experience.
You have my recommendation.

ombowstring
[...]

How can you not love a guy who once was next door neighbor to Mr. Ed.
This book covers from Don growing up to becoming Captain Beefheart from musician to painter Don Van Vliet. If you are a big Beeheart fan I recommend it.

Author Mike Barnes speaks w/ The Magic Band, producers & other musicians that may have known or toured w/ the Captain. Even some quotes from Ian Anderson who Beefheart opened for during Tull's, Thick As A Brick tour. They go through every Beefheart album track by track. This made me pull out my lps & listen to them again. Of course Beefheart didn't want anything to do w/ the book so the writer did the next best thing and quoted Beefheart from past articles. It's pretty detailed.

It took me a while to purchase this book from some of the negative reviews
left here. I decided to be out of the norm & purchase it anyway no matter what people tell you what's good or bad. Like Captain Beefheart says "to be a different fish you have to jump out of school."

I'll try to keep this brief.

Certainly it contains some fascinating biographical insights, but I felt it was more consumed with page after page of review-type song-by-song analyses of each album, and the aforementioned biographical insights seemed to be overwhelmingly comprised of anecdotes about Beefheart's ego & paranoia.

This book is pretty good as it is a fast and interesting read. As it progresses, it analyzes the albums in order (which is good for those who don't know much about them).

However, the author is not a great writer. I'm not talking about grammar, I'm talking about creativity and the ability to bring the people to life. He doesn't do this. Good biographies make you feel like you KNOW the people (not just the main person) after you read it, but sadly, this book doesn't describe the people at all. Also, he quite often mentions a person as if we should KNOW who they are (he did this a few times, like with Grannie Annie. Maybe i'm not a big enough fan to already know who that person is).

Also, Beefheart himself doesn't even feel like the focus. Its more of a musical biography and when I mean music I mean the music from the other bandmembers. The author analyzes the music from a musicians view.. which I can understand since he's a musician. But still, to just call this "Captain Beefheart: The Biography" is sort of a stretch. We don't get too much into his personal life. The author jumps around and makes mention of one of Beefheart's girlfriends and then BOOM!, a little while later, Beefheart is married to a different woman. A good biography would go into that. Or, if the information is unavailable, the author should have made note of that.

Basically, this is a dry clinical approach yet is somehow interesting. Like I said, its a fast read and its good for people who want to know information about the songs.

Also, a small criticism.. In most biographies the author does not make an appearance.. they do not use the word "I" and talk about themselves. Some biographies DO, and there's nothing wrong with that. They make it a more personal thing (if they knew the person in question). However, this author does not mention himself at all until more than halfway in the book in just one sentence. Strange!! What do we care about him buying a Beefheart record? We KNOW he is a fan and has listened to the music, why else would he be writing this?
Anyway, I do recommend it to be read by Beefheart fans but I wouldn't call this a "biography".. more of a book ABOUT beefheart's music career and an average one at that. The author's gotta learn how to be more creative.

The two bios of Beefheart, "Captain Beefheart" by Mike Barnes, and "Through the Eyes of Magic" by John "Drumbo" French when combined, paint a pretty fascinating picture of a pretty wild dude. Good stuff...

This was a well-written, enjoyable bio of Captain Beefheart, with significant input by the people who were involved in the man's work over the years. Highly recommended for fans of this unique man's music and art.

This is a very well written, honest, balanced yet revering biography of the greatest musical hero of the modern times, as far as most readers of this book will be concerned.

One has to be familiar with the repertoire of this artist and already be immersed somewhat into the myth of the personae involved, in order to really appreciate the level of detail with which the repertoire is discussed and the debunking of some of those myths.

I'm pretty sure though that this book will be purchased mainly by converted "beefies" and for those this book will be a real treat. To me, being a somewhat atypical aficionado, it led to an increased appreciation of the more inaccessible records, most notably "Lick my decals off baby".