Goodbye, Captain: Don Van Vliet, better known as Captain Beefheart, dies at 69

This is really sad news Phatties. Avant-garde rock giant Captain Beefheart, best known for his landmark 'Safe as Milk' and 'Trout Mask Replica' albums of the late 1960's passed away this afternoon from complications of multiple sclerosis at 69. While his music was always viewed as challenging and never sold particularly well, his avant-garde music, based in blues rock conventions, has influenced generations of musicians, and his records are consistently rated as among the greatest ever made by adoring rock critics. Legendary DJ John Peel called Beefheart perhaps the only true rock genius, and John Lennon called 'Safe as Milk' his favorite album of 1967, displaying two bumper stickers with the album art at his Weybridge home. Influencing everyone from R.E.M to Devo to Tom Waits, Beefheart was truly one of a kind. Captain, you will be missed.
A story about Beefheart was related to me by Terry Shaddick, singer/guitarist of great British band Tranquility and co-writer of Olivia Newton John's smash 'Physical', who toured alongside Beefheart's Magic Band. Apparently, Beefheart would record in a seperate building from his band, without headphones to hear what they were playing, accounting for some of the odd time signatures and off-kilter sounds of his classic out records.

Rest In Peace John Lennon

30 years ago today, in New York City, John Lennon was gunned down, but his dream and artistry still lives on today. The Beatles are the most influential and greatest musical group of all time, representing a promise of youth and changing the world through sound. Leaving behind a legacy of peace advocacy, art, love, and a constant striving for freedom and redefining of his role in life, John was a complex, not alway likeable, but alway real man. He was really the jealous guy, who sang I'm a loser and cried for Mother; He was the dreamer who imagined a world of peace; You could count him in (out) of a revolution, singing power to the people right on!; he was a househusband who was so devoted to his children, his beautiful boy Sean and his Jules; in the middle of a bath he called Oh Yoko!; he was the Walrus; he was Beatle John. All of these characteristics make John Lennon a complex and beloved figure who inspired, and continues to inspire us all. We miss you John, as much now as ever.


Check out this wonderful article in the New York Times by Kinks frontman Ray Davies on Lennon.

One of Lennon's most powerful songs, here in the superior World Wildlife Fund version:



Paul McCartney, in wonderfully '80's clothing, does a medley of Lennon songs in honor of his 50th



One from his Fab Days



An anthem for the ages

RIP Reg King of the Action

Man, this blog is getting to be a real downer with all the great dying, but it would just be wrong not to mention this inimitable talents. My friend Will Courtney of the band Brothers and Sisters just informed me of the passing of Reginald 'Reg' King Of all the recently decease artists that we have been honoring, Reg King is perhaps the most obscure, yet the most ripe for rediscovery. Possessing what Pitchfork calls a "powerful, debonair croon", King was the lead singer of critically acclaimed yet doomed-to-failure R&B influence psychedelic pop group the Action ('freakbeat' in music critic lingo). Check this baby out; a cover of the Marvelettes' 'Keep on Holding On', this gives the Who a run for their money.
Allmusic states: "After the Beatles, the Action were the most impressive band signed to EMI by George Martin during the mid-'60s. That they never managed to chart a single in the space of two years with the label, even as lesser bands sold tens of thousands of records with seemingly no effort, is one of those great ironies of mid-'60s English rock & roll.
Now why is he so important if they never scored a hit nor made a record? Well, they played a psychedelic brand of folky power-popish R&B that could have given the Zombies, the early Who, or the Small Faces a run for their money; Reg King was a powerhouse vocalist, a true R&B force of nature like Steve Winwood; and most importantly, in 2002, their archives turned out one of the best psych albums of all time. Yup; within the archives of EMI lay an unreleased album, Rolled Gold, on par with 'The Who Sell Out' or any of the best '60's British rock- allmusic calls it "a lost masterpiece...Tracks such as "Something to Say" and especially "Brain" with Reggie pleading for immortality over a hugely anthemic chord progression are as good, if not better, than anything that charted during the late '60s and sound less dated than many of the Action's contemporaries' efforts. It's as if Paul Weller time-traveled back to 1967 and wrote the best songs of his career. Every track is a fully realized melodic and lyrical statement. While there is a roughness to the demo-quality recording, it only magnifies the raw emotions the Action were able to translate into timeless music -- music that deserved much better than it got." Tell it like it is AMG. Oh. And Pitchfork gave it an 8.0. Check it out.

We at Phat Fellas salute you, Reg King, British master of soul.

Here are a few Rolled Gold tracks:


Here's a solo version of one of my favorite songs on 'Rolled Gold', Little Boy. Vocals DO NOT get better than that. ROCK AND ROLL, damn it.