the Martian Entropy Band

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO CAPTAIN BEEFHEART'S "IT'S THE BLIMP FRANK" FROM TROUT MASK REPLICA!!!

I tried, but got no content ... not a blip, unfortunately, and even the initial picture vanished.   Good luck wid it ...

I created an embedded html page with the code directly from YouTube... it should work on all platforms. So, if you want to hear The Blimp by Captain Beefheart click here! 

you should TURN OFF the Martian Entropy Band concert (if it is playing) by locating the MP3 player at the bottom of the page and pressing the stop button before listening to Captain Beefheart!

Holy Cow!  I never knew so much about Captain Beefheart.  What a wacko he was, and how crazy were the recording companies that tried to turn him into another Mick Jagger-type pop star???   When you look at where he went after that, it just seems totally blind and insane ...

Did you catch the idea ascribed to him that if you stay in one groove or repeat something too much it's bad.  (I'd have to listen to the whole documentary fragment again to get it exactly right).  And the types of music he was trying to combine ... really wild.  Now I sort of understand where he was coming from, but he sure had gotten far out by the time he got to Trout Mask Replica.  That must have been the first work of his I really listened to, and it sure was in outer space.  Wild and crazy!  It was so crazy far out it made me laugh out loud, and at the same time it was so creative and wacky I just loved it. 

 What a maniac in the universe.  Last I  heard he was staying home, doing some oil painting, and not in the best of health ... too bad, but at least it sounded like he's still creative.  He just never seemed to fit with the rest of the species that well, but I guess that's to expected from those that are hard to typify: genius, insane, or a mixture thereof.  I wish him the best ...

Hey Tim, did you find a documentary on YouTube or something? I saw a few things in there but I didn't have time to scope everything out. I guess you did!

 What I remember learning about Captain Beefheart back in the day was, all the musicians in his band were completely untrained when they got in the band -- he wanted it that way, because he wanted no musical influence besides his own. They had some great names too, like Zoot Horn Rollo and Drumbo LOL. I think he didn't want anyone with real names as well as real chops LOL

During the time we were in the Martian Entropy Band, Captain Beefheart came out with what I think was his most commercial venture, ever -- the CLEAR SPOT album. I actually LOVE that album. The title song is the bomb -- " I HAD TO RUN, RUN, RUN, RUN, RUN TO FIND A CLEAR SPOT". Other notable titles on that album include a BEAUTIFUL ballad (and one of my all time favorite songs) called "My Head is my Only House Unless it Rains".

and let's not forget that Entropic masterpiece on the same album -- "Big-Eyed Beans From Venus" -- DON'T LET ANYTHING COME BETWEEN US! LOL

Of course Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart) also did the vocals on Zappa's "Wille the Pimp" from the Hot Rats album. I recently read somewhere that Van Vliet has claimed that he actually wrote those words, whereas Frank Zappa took the credit for composing them.

I just listened to "The Blimp" again at home, and it sounded fine.  There are about 15 different youtube vids that appear after the Blimp is over, and I watched and listened to all of them.  Some of them are just slide shows with Beefheart tunes playing, but several are documentaries that reveal some amazing things about him.  I never knew he was taken to England by a record company hoping to make him another Mick Jagger type doing restyled blues standards.  Of course, they just didn't know who they were dealing with, and the record company guys trying to handle him got very frustrated, until eventually the whole thing had to be given up.  I think he went through several rounds with different record companies, frustrating each of them considerably.  Who woulda thunk?  Pretty funny and crazy stuff all the way around.  I didn't know he had Ry Cooder in his band at one time, either.

Check them out when you've got the time, and thanks, Hugh, for hooking that up here.

Keep on jammin'!