Riding Some Kind of Unusual Skull Sleigh (or S/D: Beefheart books)

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I just picked this up at lunch, a little warily. Anyone read it? Are there any better books on Beefheart out there? While this one was made w/out Beefy's participation/cooperation (quel surprise) it does seem like it's at least well-written and thoughtfully assembled from other sources... any thoughts?

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 10 June 2005 19:05 (twenty years ago)

The only one I've read is Zoot Horn Rollo's book, which was kind of interesting, though perhaps a bit one-sided.

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 10 June 2005 19:12 (twenty years ago)

"Riding Some Kind of Unusual Skull Sleigh" (by Bill Bamberger) is quite good but concentrates a lot on his painting as well as his music and can be quite heavy going.

"Lunar Notes - Zoot Horn Rollos' Captain Beefheart Experience" by Bill Harkleroad (aka Zoot Horn Rollo) and Billy James is an interesting read.

"Captain Beefheart - The Man And His Music" by Colin David Webb was for a long time the definitive work but has been out of print for years, sells for silly money on E-Bay and iirc only goes up to about 1972.

"The Lives And Times Of Captain Beefheart" by John Muir is a booklet with a similar story but which I understand has been / is being unofficially / illegally re-printed under the title "The Abba to Zappa of Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band in the Early to Mid 1970's" with a couple of extra pages added and credited as having been compiled by someone called Jeff Watts.

"Skeleton Breath, Scorpion Blush" is a rare and fascinating book full of lyrics, poems and a few paintings.

"Stand Up To Be Discontinued - The Art Of Don Van Vliet" is a very rare, beautiful and expensive book of Don's paintings etc.

"Pearls Before Swine - Ice Cream For Crows - A tribute to the art of Captain Beefheart" by Luc Ferrari is a little CD-sized book containing a strange mix of biography and lyrics / poems, but worth getting for the 3" CD containing 4 rare poem readings by Don.

"Stunned Mirages. Poems and Infra-grams" is a recent booklet full of poems and lyrics that I'm still trying to get hold of (if anyone in the US would be prepared to help, please drop me a line!).

"Captain Beefheart - A Tin Teardrop" by Ken Brooks and "Fast And Bulbous - The Captain Beefheart Story by Ben Cruikshank are both absolutely execrable, both suffering from lousy research and even lousier writing and are best avoided.

John "Drumbo" French has also apparently been working on a book apparently to be called "Beefheart - Therough The Eyes Of Magic" for some time, but still no publishing date (deal?) as far as I'm aware.

"Captain Beefheart" by Mike Barnes is absolutely excellent biog., definitely the one to get if you're only in the market for one Beefheart book.

Have I ever mentioned that I'm quite keen on Captain Beefheart?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 10 June 2005 21:53 (twenty years ago)

well shit, I've never heard of the Barnes bio. The Bamberger one was the closest I could find to a career-spanning overview - the Harkleroad thing I'm a little less interested, as he seems to close to the source material for my liking. A lot of times books by sidemen (or the performers themselves) fail because they just aren't good writers/storytellers. (some are, of course - David Lee Roth springs to mind...)

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 10 June 2005 21:57 (twenty years ago)

I have great hopes for Drumbo's book - he's a very intelligent and erudite man and was closer to Don for longer than almost anyone else.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 10 June 2005 22:00 (twenty years ago)

Zoot's book is good too but certainly an unashamedly personal account and a bit lightweight (you can easily read it in a day).

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 10 June 2005 22:02 (twenty years ago)

Zoot Horn's book is OK--very unprofessionally written and edited, not that it makes a lot of difference, I suppose. That little German book of his paintings is pretty cool--"Skeleton Breath." Some of the paintings are pretty amazing--"Candle Powered Rodeo Ghosts." I actually felt like the Barnes book was so-so; not enough biography, certainly weak on his early life, marriage to Jan, lots of things, and his musical judgements seemed pretty second-hand to me. But of course I read it. I've got the "Man and His Music," it's OK, good discography, and the little Ferrari booklet/CD thing. John French is probably the guy to write the what-it-was-like book; I'd like to see someone way more ambitious than Mike Barnes (not really knocking him, he did a servicable job with the information he could get) do something on him, but that'll unfortunately most likely have to wait until Van Vliet is dead.

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Saturday, 11 June 2005 19:48 (twenty years ago)

".... his musical judgements seemed pretty second-hand to me."

Mike did a very thorough job of researching that book.... maybe too thorough in some respects.... he spoke to a lot of people and tried to speak to a lot more - although several refused to talk to him and several more spoke to him but refused to be quoted.

Unfortunately of course Don and Jan Van Vliet were amongst the ones who refused; and, although Drumbo helped, I don't think the fact that he was simultaneously researchng his own book, knew most of the people better, and may have got to many of the ones Mike wanted to speak to before him, can have helped.

Mike joined the Fire Party (Beefheart list) at the time (and afaik is still an active member) and, having been involved in some of the discussions on that list at the time, I recognised that some of the contents of the book had (whether consciously or subconsciously) been influenced by some of those discussions.

That's not intended as a criticism btw - I've never attempted anything on that sort of scale myself but I'd imagine it's pretty much inevitable that you'd just absorb certain things in the process and end up repeating them.

For now 'though, certainly until Drumbo's book comes out, and possibly 'til Don's dead and maybe some of the people who didn't want to be seen to betray his confidence or fail to respect his clear desire for privacy are prepared to discuss some of these things more fully, it's probably the best thing we're going to get.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Saturday, 11 June 2005 21:46 (twenty years ago)

"Stand Up To Be Discontinued - The Art Of Don Van Vliet" is a very rare, beautiful and expensive book of Don's paintings etc.

I have this ... one of the great pieces in my collection. It also includes a CD (5") of Don reading poetry (although his voice is quite worse for the wear.)

Special mention should also be made of back issues of the awesome Steal Softly Through Snow fanzine!! A treasure trove of Beefheart info.

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Saturday, 11 June 2005 21:54 (twenty years ago)

Fwiw those are the same poetry readings that can be obtained for a fraction of the price with "Pearls Before Swine - Ice Cream For Crows - A tribute to the art of Captain Beefheart" by Luc Ferrari.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Sunday, 12 June 2005 08:29 (twenty years ago)

wow, luc ferrari is a beefheart fan?!!?

― hstencil (hstencil), Sunday, 12 June 2005 08:33 (twenty years ago)

Maybe there's more than one Luc Ferrari?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Sunday, 12 June 2005 08:46 (twenty years ago)

perhaps, but you never know!

― hstencil (hstencil), Sunday, 12 June 2005 08:50 (twenty years ago)

four years pass...

Has anyone read Drumbo's book yet? 880 pages!

― fit and working again, Wednesday, 7 April 2010 18:23 (sixteen years ago)

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