Van Vliet demonstrated prodigious painting and sculpting talents at a young age — earning the praise of Augustinio Rodriguez — but claims his parents turned away several scholarship offers. His paintings, often reminiscent of Franz Kline's, were later featured on several of his own albums.While studying at Antelope Valley High School in Lancaster, California he met the teenage Frank Zappa. They began collaborating on pop song parodies and a movie script called ''Captain Beefheart vs. the Grunt People'', the first appearance of the Beefheart namehttp://www.beefheart.com/zigzag/gruntpeople/index.html. Their friendship over the years was sometimes indistinguishable from rivalry, as musicians drifted back and forth between Van Vliet and Zappa's groups. Their collaborative work can be found on the 1975 album ''Bongo Fury'', along with Zappa rarity collections ''The Lost Episodes'' (1996) and ''Mystery Disc'' (1996). Also notable is Beefheart's vocal on "Willie the Pimp" from Zappa's otherwise instrumental album ''Hot Rats'' (1969).Van Vliet was reportedly quite shy, but able to imitate the deep voice of blues singer Howlin' Wolf. Eventually growing comfortable performing, he learned harmonica, and played around southern California, at dances and small clubs.Van Vliet had previously worked with local groups such as The Omens and The Blackouts. In early 1965 he was contacted by Alex Snouffer, a local Lancaster rhythm and blues guitarist. Together they assembled the first Magic Band, and at this point Don Vliet became Don Van Vliet, whilst Alex Snouffer became Alex St Claire. Nearly all the musicians Van Vliet worked with were given stage names, which became more bizarre over the years. The first Magic Band was completed with Doug Moon (guitar), Jerry Handley (bass) and Vic Mortenson (drums — soon replaced by Paul Blakely).Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band signed to A&M Records and released a two 1966 singles, a version of Bo Diddley's "Diddy Wah Diddy" followed by "Moonchild" written by David Gates. Both were local Los Angeles hits. The band was by now beginning to play "underground" venues such as the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco.Some time in 1966 demos of what became the ''Safe as Milk'' material were submitted to A&M. Jerry Moss (the M in A&M) reportedly didn't like the new direction and they were dropped from the label. But by the end of 1966 they were signed to Buddah Records and John French had joined as drummer. French would be the mainstay of the band for most of its incarnations for the next eight years, having the patience required to be able to translate Van Vliet's musical ideas (often expressed by whistling or banging on the piano) for the other players.The ''Safe as Milk'' material needed much more work, and the 20-year-old Ry Cooder was asked to help. They began recording in Spring 1967, with Richard Perry producing (his first job as producer). Cooder did not hang around long after the album was recorded. The album was finally released in September 1967. In August guitarist Jeff Cotton was recruited (he became Antennae Jimmy Semens). The Snouffer/Cotton/Handley/French line-up began recording for the second album around November. It was intended to be a double album called ''It Comes to You in a Plain Brown Wrapper'' with one disc recorded live (or live in the studio). What finally emerged in October 1968 was ''Strictly Personal''. After the album was released Van Vliet, in interviews, constructed a myth which alleged that the tapes of the album had been remixed by Bob Krasnow without the band's knowledge, and further, that he had ruined it by adding modish psychedelic effects (phasing, backwards tapes, etc). In fact this was likely Beefheart's hasty rebuttal to some negative reaction to the album from some quarters, but the myth has persisted. This was also the time when Van Vliet started creating his own myth, for example, by saying in an interview that having not slept for a year, he'd dreamed the whole ''Strictly Personal'' album in one 24 hour sleep. (The second, "live" part of the planned double was released in 1971 under the title ''Mirror Man'').In 1969 Frank Zappa, formed Straight Records and signed Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band, which by then had added Zoot Horn Rollo (guitarist, real name Bill Harkleroad) and Rockette Morton (bassist, real name Mark Boston). The third album, released in November 1969, was the landmark ''Trout Mask Replica''.
''Trout Mask Replica''
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Regarded by many fans as Van Vliet's masterpiece, ''Trout Mask Replica'' was — and remains — one of the strangest, most difficult albums in rock music history. The group rehearsed Van Vliet's difficult compositions for eight months, living communally in conditions drummer John French described as cultlike. The 28 songs on ''Trout Mask Replica'' drew on blues music, Bo Diddley, free jazz, sea shanties and much more, but the relentless practice blended the music into an iconoclastic whole of conflicting tempi, harsh slide guitar, loping drumming, and honking saxophone and bass clarinet.Van Vliet's vocals ranged from growling blues singing to frenzied falsetto to laconic, casual ramblings. His lyrics often seem impenetrably strange and nonsensical, but closer examination reveals complex poetic use of wordplay, metaphor and all manner of references: music history, American and international politics, the Holocaust, Steve Reich, gospel music, conformity and much more. Perhaps due to Van Vliet's talent as a painter, many of the songs in this and subsequent works contain a vivid visual narrative.Although the album was effectively recorded live, Van Vliet apparently recorded much of the vocals whilst isolated from the rest of the band in a different room, only being in partial synch with the music by hearing the slight sound leakage from the other room.(Matt Groening has stated his first thought upon hearing ''Trout Mask Replica'' was that it was annoying, difficult and pretentious, but so unique that he could not stop listening to it. He now lists the album as one of his favorites.)Critic Steve Huey writes that the album's influence "was felt more in spirit than in direct copycatting, as a catalyst rather than a literal musical starting point. However, its inspiring reimagining of what was possible in a rock context laid the groundwork for countless future experiments in rock surrealism, especially during the punk/new wave era." http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:41q67u50h0ja~T1
Later music
''Lick My Decals Off, Baby'' (1970) continued in a similar experimental vein — by then Art Tripp III had joined (from the Mothers of Invention). He played drums and marimba. The next two records, ''The Spotlight Kid'' and Clear Spot, both released in 1972, were much more conventional. In 1974, immediately after the recording of ''Unconditionally Guaranteed'', The Magic Band, which had by then coalesced around the core of John French, Art Tripp III, Bill Karkleroad and Mark Boston, decided they could no longer work with Van Vliet, who was by all accounts a severe taskmaster. They left to form Mallard. Van Vliet quickly formed a new Magic Band, which had a much slicker, more mainstream sound, and who therefore were referred to (by unkind fans) as the Tragic Band. ''Unconditionally Guaranteed'' and its follow up ''Bluejeans & Moonbeams'' (1974) have a completely different, almost soft-rock sound to any other Beefheart recordand neither was critically well received.
From 1975 to 1977 there were no new records (the original version of ''Bat Chain Puller'' was recorded in 1976 but has never been released). In 1978 a completely new band was formed (consisting of Richard Redus, Jeff Moris Tepper, Bruce Fowler, Eric Drew Feldman and Robert Williams). These were from a younger generation of musicians eager to work with him and extremely capable of playing his music. In several cases they had been fans for years, and had learned his music from records before being given auditions.''Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)'' (1978) was largely regarded as a return to form, featuring once again the innovative and eccentric style of the earlier albums. ''Doc at the Radar Station'' (1980) helped establish Beefheart's late resurgence as possibly the most consistently creative period of his musical career. In this period, Van Vliet made several appearances on David Letterman's program, and performed on ''Saturday Night Live''.
The final Beefheart record, ''Ice Cream for Crow'' (1982), was recorded with Gary Lucas (who was also Van Vliet's manager), Jeff Morris Tepper, Richard Snyder and Cliff Martinez. This line-up made a video to promote the title track which was rejected by MTV. Soon after, Van Vliet retired from music and established a new career as a painter.In recent years, Van Vliet has become somewhat reclusive and abandoned music, stating he can make far more money painting. His artwork is as extreme and innovative as was his music, and commands high prices, as well as comparisons to Pablo Picasso and Franz Kline. Some of his recent sounds and noises were captured on his guitarist Moris Tepper's album ''Moth to Mouth''.Van Vliet currently lives in Northern California, and is reportedly suffering from multiple sclerosis or a similar condition. He has never made any statement about his health condition. The Magic Band, fronted by John French, with Denny Whalley, Mark Boston and Gary Lucas, reformed without Van Vliet in 2003.
Influence
Many bands (such as the Clash) have claimed a Beefheart influence, although few have truly been able to assimilate Van Vliet's idiosyncratic approach. Tom Waits's shift in artistic direction, starting with ''Swordfishtrombones'', is said to be due to his wife introducing him to Beefheart's music. Punk rockers The Minutemen were great fans of Beefheart's music, and were arguably among the few to effectively synthesize his music with their own, especially in their early output, which featured disjointed guitar and irregular, galloping rhythms. Many musicians who have worked with Captain Beefheart consider it to be the formative experience of their lives as musicians (despite the rigours of Beefheart's unorthodox methods). Some of these alumni have subsequently found collaborators who also seem to have been touched with Beefheart's creative spirit. After Beefheart left the music business, Eric Drew Feldman played with Snakefinger, Pere Ubu, P. J. Harvey and Frank Black. Gary Lucas played guitar and collaborated with Jeff Buckley.In 2000, The White Stripes released a limited (1300 copies) red-and-white 7" vinyl disc on Sub Pop records' Singles Club. The disc contained covers of 3 Captain Beefheart songs: The Party Of Special Things To Do, China Pig, and Ashtray Heart.