Happy Birthday Don.

It's the Captain's birthday, the 67th.
You can start by rereading his story.
Then you can listen to Black Snake Moan(Right-click to save).
And then you can go out and do your own thing, and make up the rules as you go along, because that's what the Captain taught me to do. And if you don't have a plan you can always pretend to have had one all along, because that's a little something i learnt from acting this way and let me tell you, it works.
But most of all, Happy Birthday Don, we miss you, thanks for giving us so much. Happy birthday planet earth, thanks for still giving us the music Don would be proud of.


Black Accountant (1989)
Oil on canvas
94 x 82.5 cm

Some YoYo Stuff

Yes, I'm telling everyone i know. Slowly.

Happy 66th, Captain Beefheart!

It's The Captain's Birthday! Don Van Vliet is 66 today and that already makes it one of the best days in the year. It is usually a matter of celebration on this website. This year, however, we don't really have anything ready. This is not a problem though, because we here at WGD are rather good at improvising.
Therefore, this whole week will be dedicated to The Good Captain in one way or another. For starters, i think we should remind you of what makes the man so important. So here's a link to a 1991 interview which has recently been made into a short film.
And here is an Mp3 of The Captain performing Orange Claw Hammer, guitar backing courtesy of mr. F.Zappa.

Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa - Orange Claw Hammer - 160kps 5.3Mb Mp3

Lyrics:

Orange Claw Hammer

Uh thick cloud caught uh piper clubs tail
The match struck blue on uh railroad rail
The old puff horse was just pullin' thru
'n uh man wore uh peg leg forever
I'm on the bum where the hoboes run
The air breaks with filthy chatter
Oh I don't care there's no place there
I don't think it matters
My skin's blazin' thru
'n my clothes in tatters
'n the railroad looked
Like uh "Y" up the hill of ladders
Ohe shoe fell on the gravel
One stick poked down
Gray of age fell down on uh pair of ears
An eagle shined thru my hole watch pocket
Uh gingham girl baby girl
Passed me by in tears
Uh jack rabbit raised his folded ears
Uh beautiful sagebrush jack rabbit
'n an oriole sang like an orange
His breast full uh worms
'n his tail clawed the evenin' like uh hammer
His wings took t' air like uh bomber
'n my rain can caught me uh cup uh water
When I got into town
Odd jobs mam ah yer horse I'll fodder
I'm the round house man
I once was yer father
Uh little up the road uh wooden
Candy stripe barber pole
'n above it read uh sign "Painless Parker"
Lic-licorice twisted around under uh fly
'n uh youngster cocked 'er eye
God before me if I'm not crazy
Is my daughter
Come little one with yer little dimpled fingers
Gimme one 'n I'll buy you uh cherry phosphate
Take you down t' the foamin' brine 'n water
'n show you the wooden tits
On the Goddess with the pole out s'full sail
That tempted away yer peg legged father
I was shanghaied by uh high hat beaver moustache man
'n his pirate friend
I woke up in vomit 'n beer in uh banana bin
'n uh soft lass with brown skin
Bore me seven babies with snappin' black eyes
'n beautiful ebony skin
'n here it is I'm with you my daughter
Thirty years away can make uh seaman's eyes
Uh round house man's eyes flow out water
Salt water

-Don Van Vliet, 1969

Sure Nuff 'N Yes I Do

It's never a bad moment to post a Beefheart video.



Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, Cannes Beach, January 27th 1968.

Completely random update post

As you may have noticed, i've been rather busy lately. Which accounts for the lack of updates around here.

The type content on this website has been rather erratic over the past years. It started out as a sort of diary-like thing as i suppose most blogs begin. Then when i realized that reading about other people's lives on the internet is about as boring as an unsuccessful comparison, the blog started to center more on stuff that i found interesting, links and the like. I don't link much to interesting articles, websites, etc. anymore mainly because i've started to use de.licio.us quite conspiciously over the last few months. Here's a link to my account. I'll eventually add it to the sidebar. I wish i could have direct links to de.licio.us pages on the sidebar like pino, for one, has. But i assume that's not really possible on a lowly blogspot template.

Just to contradict what i just wrote, here are two links i found interesting today:

• John French aka Drumbo officially declares the natural ending of the Magic Band's reunion. Lovely recap of three years of reconstituted greatness.

• Momus reviews Cornelius' new single. I didn't think i'd ever say this nor probably will i ever again, but in this specific case i could not possibly agree more with Momus' opinion. (Although i obviously appreciated the Point album much more than he did)

(There's also another reason i'm not posting many links to cool stuff anymore - said reason will be revealed in a month or two, but i can assure you it's something cool)

While we're here, sorry about all the conversation snippets i've been posting lately. I realize they may be found uninteresting or incomprehensible, but that's just the way things go. There's no telling how things will evolve here but usually it's just stuff happening randomly and ending up on the internet. Although i do admit i may have been toying with the idea of giving a completely different twist to this blog, but as i said, there's no telling.

(If you've read until here, please notice that this has been a really long post centering basically on "sorry for not posting")

Also, i've had a cold lately. Was brought a lemsip few minutes ago. Plus a glass of lemonade "while the lemsip cools down". As i gulped on the lemonade, the cat on my lap watched me with compassion, still puzzling over why us humans insist on wasting time by eating with utensils and opposable thumbs instead of just using the mouth like he does, which is so much more practical. Can't blame him. Of course, this is the same feline quadruped who leaves in a huff if fed from anything other than his own personal bowl. So it's all relative.