"An electric guitar attracts Beelzebub..."
Today's comment of the day comes to us from Friday afternoon's announcement that artist and avant-garde rocker Captain Beefheart, aka Don Van Vliet, had passed away in Southern California at age 69.
radiocitizen:
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Rocks Off isn't surprised the news of Beefheart's death provoked such a visceral and widespread (more than 500 Facebook shares so far) reaction in Houston, where the line between performance art, rock and roll and the blues is thinner than most. Our own Lonesome Onry and Mean was at Beefheart's 1971 show with Ry Cooder and Houston's Bruiser Barton & the Dry Heaves ("The worst band in Texas," according to Rolling Stone), which happened at West U hippie joint Of Our Own on the Trout Mask Replica Tour. Here's what he wrote back in August.
By the way, don't be scared of our new Diskus comment system. Rocks Off hasn't had much opportunity to mess around with it yet, but it works just fine. More Beefheart after the jump.
A friend of Rocks Off's sent us this link Monday morning via The Captain Beefheart Radar Station (and a couple of other places). A lot of good advice in here.
Kindly sent to me by 'Sikora1'. With corrections and additional information from Brian Hassett.
Budding guitarists take note.
1. Listen to the birds
"That's where all the music comes from. Birds know everything about how it should sound and where that sound should come from. And watch hummingbirds. They fly really fast, but a lot of times they aren't going anywhere."
2. Your guitar is not really a guitar
"Your guitar is a divining rod. Use it to find spirits in the other world and bring them over. A guitar is also a fishing rod. If you're good, you'll land a big one."
3. Practice in front of a bush
"Wait until the moon is out, then go outside, eat a multi-grained bread and play your guitar to a bush. If the bush doesn't shake, eat another piece of bread."
4. Walk with the devil
"Old Delta blues players referred to guitar amplifiers as the "devil box." And they were right. You have to be an equal opportunity employer in terms of who you're brining over from the other side. Electricity attracts devils and demons. Other instruments attract other spirits. An acoustic guitar attracts Casper. A mandolin attracts Wendy. But an electric guitar attracts Beelzebub."
