University of Virginia Library

MUSIC

Captain Beefheart Ante - performs

By Jeffrey Ruggles
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Although the majority of
calendar watchers might not believe
it, the decade of the
nineteen-seventies began for the
commonwealth of Virginia last
Saturday night in Alexandria. The
occasion was a concert featuring
Captain Beefheart and The Magic
Band.

As related in a Washington Post
article, "The Beefheart Cometh",
the concert was originally
scheduled for the campus of
Northern Virginia Community
College in Annandale. Finally
arriving there after much
meticulous navigation, it was
slightly unsettling to learn that the
concert had been moved to another
island in suburbia, the Virginia
Theater in Alexandria. But what
was worse was arriving at that place
and seeing "Sold Out" signs in
every window.

Everybody Gets In

Fortunately, one of the nice
things about rock concerts is that
everybody who comes to see one
usually gets in; after a good bit of
hassle (and a gracious act on the
part of friend 'High Hat'), such was
the case here.

Ry Cooder, blues guitarist,
appeared first, and while his
performance was passable and
showed good potential, there were
several things basically wrong with
his approach to the blues. He
attempted to translate songs by
Leadbelly and Sleepy Joe Estes,
among others, into a full band of
bass, drums, piano, and guitar, and
at the same time his vocals tried to
imitate their style, He should have
either played blues in his own style,
with the band, a la Johnny Winter;
or played alone and used the
original styles. What did come out
was more browns than blues.

Cooder Solos

It was only when Cooder soloed
several times, including a fine
number on bottleneck guitar, that
the music was really listenable. (An
additional comment: it is a sad
state (no particular fault of Cooder)
that audiences today get their blues
mostly secondhand from young
whiles, rather than from the
original black artists, many of
whom rarely get a chance to
perform.)

Following Cooder, the Magic
Band came on. The group consisted
of Ed Marimba (formerly Art Tripp
with the Mothers) on marimbas and
drums, who for this show was
wearing a bathrobe, monocle, and
wide-brimmed golf hat; The
Mascara Snake on drums; Zoot
Horn Rollo on guitar, wearing

orange-red plaid pants and hair
down to the middle button of his
dress coat; Rockette Morton on a
double-necked bassius-o-phellius;
and Winged-EelFingerling on guitar.
The band opened the set with a
long and overwhelming
instrumental, which, lacking any
such elements as melody, chords, or
counterpoint, seemed to take the
form of a widening gyro.

Unbent Sax

At the first number's conclusion
Captain Beefheart took the stage,
carrying his unbent soprano
saxophone and wearing a red
leather blazer, dark shirt, and tie.
With Beefheart on vocals and sax,
the band performed extended
versions of "When Big Joan Sets
Up" and "My Human Gets Me
Blues" from the album Trout Mask
Replica; "Abba Zaba", Beefheart's
first composition; and from his
latest album, "I Want a Woman
Who'll Hold My Big Toe".

All of the group's songs are
quite beyond literal description,
but nonetheless some attempt can
be made. Beefheart is the key to
the group. He plays his sax by
putting the end of it over the
microphone, and blowing and
fingering in a manner which would
appear to be random. It is
unrandom enough, however, that
Zoot Horn Rollo can derive a sort
of anti-melody from it on his
guitar, from which the marimba
and other guitar can create some
sort of chording. The Mascara
Snake on drums seems to take his
rhythm directly from Beefheart,
and Rockette Morton's bass,
anti-tonal, anti-structured, floats
about in the rest of the groups'
sound.

Within the menage of songs were
solos by Rockette Morton, playing
chords, single notes, and
combinations of the two on bass;
The Mascara Snake on drums; Ed
Marimba, who used his marimba
much as other bands use a organ or
piano; and some excellent bluish
harmonica by Beefheart. Eel, a
newcomer to the group, played his
guitar in a style which compared
favorably both technically and
imaginatively to that of Eric
Clapton. Throughout the set,
despite the wildness of the music,
the group appeared to be
completely together.

The atmosphere created by the
performance is difficult to describe.
The audience response was limited
for the most part to many peering
eyes and confused minds; a good
portion of the crowd was incapable
of applause during the band's
pauses. Many people, judging from
some of the band's movements,
especially Rockette Morton's
supposed them all to be on cocaine;
however, Beefheart is reportedly a
no-drug man, and the band was
probably straight — well, unstoned.
It is doubtful drugged musicians
would have the capacity to play as
the Magic Band did.

Big Beefheart

In the end, the most remarkable
aspect of the concert was Captain
Beefheart himself. Big-his wife was
off-stage, and it was obvious she has
been fattening him up, deep-voiced,
pulling rubber covers on
microphones, winking at band
members, talking to the crowd,
blowing wildly on his horn; he was
unquestionably on top of the
occasion. He forgot words in a
couple of songs, but just shrugged
his eyes and went on. The last
number consisted of Zoot Horn
Rollo playing a few notes, then
Beefheart singing a few lyrics made
up on the spot, the Rollo again and
back and forth. His last words were,
"We'll be back in five months."

So will the astronauts.