The Explanation
(for those who require one)

And, of course, that is what all of this is -- all of this: the one song, ever changing, ever reincarnated, that speaks somehow from and to and for that which is ineffable within us and without us, that is both prayer and deliverance, folly and wisdom, that inspires us to dance or smile or simply to go on, senselessly, incomprehensibly, beatifically, in the face of mortality and the truth that our lives are more ill-writ, ill-rhymed and fleeting than any song, except perhaps those songs -- that song, endlesly reincarnated -- born of that truth, be it the moon and June of that truth, or the wordless blue moan, or the rotgut or the elegant poetry of it. That nameless black-hulled ship of Ulysses, that long black train, that Terraplane, that mystery train, that Rocket '88', that Buick 6 -- same journey, same miracle, same end and endlessness."
-- Nick Tosches, Where Dead Voices Gather

Don Van Vliet dies at 69


The Gunslinger is deeply saddened by the news that musician, artist, poet and visionary Don Van Vliet has gone to that big radar station in the sky. If Salvador Dali was a bluesman, he would have made records that sounded like Captain Beefheart's. As someone who once named his college radio show Safe As Milk, words fail me at the moment, so let's just hear the good Captain do his thing as we don our veteran's day poppies and fly the flag at half mast.

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3 comments:

blankemon said...

Nicely done as always. This one hurt more than I would have guessed.

I wrote a little something about the Captain here:
http://tinyurl.com/2fdrat7

It was quick and dirty, but I'm happy with it.

December 18, 2010 1:02 PM
Timmy said...

Captain, my Captain! Bee Bop A Ree Bob...

December 18, 2010 6:57 PM
Kyle said...

Figures - "Sure 'nuff 'n' Yes I Do" is what I've been playing for people unexposed to Beefheart.

Also, a tin teardrop.

December 18, 2010 8:29 PM

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