Captain Beefheart — The Making of a Cult Figure
Musician, poet, painter…
The saying “a picture speaks louder than words” is certainly one of the most overused sayings out there, but in the case of Captain Beefheart, to his parents known as Don Van Vliet, it can ring very true. The case in point is the cover of Ice Cream For Crow, his last official studio album recorded while he was still among us. Set on the background, which Beefheart painted himself, is a photograph of Beefheart somewhere in a secluded part of a desert taken by Anton Corbijn, the renowned photographer, and filmmaker, as well as his close friend — one of the rare people that had access to the man throughout his life.
That photograph can truly serve as a portrait of what a cult figure and a tortured genius look like. Revered for his wildly experimental music by an ever-increasing cult following, he never achieved massive success either as a musician or as a poet. But later in his life, when he quit music, he did achieve material success for his wildly imaginative and experimental drawings and paintings.
All of that includes a four-octave voice range, avant-garde saxophone and harmonica outbursts; imaginative and often daring lyrics, strange personal outbursts, autocratic handling of his band’s members, his love/hate relationship with Frank Zappa, great stage presence but almost non-existent…
