Captain Beefheart Symposium

Captain Beefheart guitarist Gary Lucas will conduct a Beefheart Symposium at The Magic Room, Brighton, MA, on Friday Sept. 10th:

Gary Lucas, who has been called “a modern guitar miracle” (Rolling Stone), “The Thinking Man’s Guitar Hero” (The New Yorker) and “One of the 100 Greatest Living Guitarists” will give a lecture and musical demonstration devoted to his mentor and childhood hero Don Van Vliet aka Captain Beefheart.

Gary will show rare video footage of the man and the band, delve into his complex artistic oeuvre as both a composer — by performing some of his fiendishly difficult solo guitar compositions live — and as a painter by showing slides of his formidable paintings and drawings.

Funny little note at the end: “No one under 18 years old will be admitted.”

Gary Lucas on Captain Beefheart

Filmed at the Swiss Cottage Hotel, London, September 2005, from the 2006 DVD documentary “Captain Beefheart: Under Review” (Prism Productions), Gary Lucas discusses working with Captain Beefheart in the early 80s, and the making of the track “Cardboard Cutout Sundown” from the 1982 Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band album “Ice Cream for Crow”, and explains Don Van Vliet‘s “Exploding Note Theory”.
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Beefheart Night at the Knitting Factory

Back on April 9th, 2008, Gary Lucas curated “Beefheart Night at the Knit“, a salute to the Music, Poetry and Art of Don Van Vliet, a/k/a Captain Beefheart.

Click here to view highlights of that night and backstage interviews with the evening’s many and various participants (thanks to Culture Clash).

Don Van Vliet might have been absent in body on this particular evening, yet his presence, and his affect on popular culture, art, and music is unquestionably undeniable.