Don Van Vliet

I've been working at home today, so it's an indoor blip...

I've had Captain Beefheart in my head for a couple of days, since G suggested that they might have a Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band week at Rae Macintosh.

When I was a teenager, back in the days when we would listen to LPs on things like this, Captain Beefheart was a name frequently mentioned by all the cool musicians and cool journalists. I didn't have cool parents or cool elder siblings or cool aunts or uncles or cool friends, so the only way for me to hear what all the fuss was about was to buy one of his records.

The first time I listened to Trout Mask Replica, I probably lasted about five minutes. But I was damned if I was going to be defeated by a weird American with a silly name, so I persevered. Eventually, after maybe five, or ten, or twenty listens, I "got" it. Trout Mask Replica is one of very few albums from my teenage years that I still listen to. No doubt I'll blip some of the others on future slow blip days.

This blip is dedicated to Don Van Vliet, for no other reason than that he deserves to have a blip dedicated to him.

The weekend is close...