DAY 76.
Astrud Gilberto............Beach Samba    (1967)




Who can resist an album that opens with "Stay....and we'll make sex with music, " Astrud Giberto's invitation on the opening track of her 1967 album?

Despite range limitation, she developed her accented articulations into a sensual delivery, and maturing into a stylist with an original vocal identity.

No rough edges here, just smooth easy listening music.

 

PatReilly wrote:

To be brutal, I won't even bother checking out the last two albums. Your non-recommendations are good enough for me, arabchanter. Have never heard of Astrud Gilberto, but the 'smooth easy listening' type of music never appeals.

I liked My Baby Just Cares For Me, right enough, but only really when pished or acting daft with a woman. 

Which is most of the time.

Tut, tut Pat,

She was married to the boy Gilberto who done an album with the boy Getz.

She was also the one that had the worldwide hit, "The Girl from Ipanema," from the album.

To be fair though, that was in the middle of the jazz period in the book, so easily forgotten.
 

DAY 77.
Nico............Chelsea Girl   (1967)


  

 
Famous for her work with the Velvet Underground and infamous for her list of lovers ( including Jim Morrison,Iggy Pop and Brian Jones) Nico finally went solo with 1967's Chelsea Girl.

The material came from some of the finest songwriters of the era, including Bob Dylan, Tim Hardin, an unknown Jackson Browne (then a teenager and Nico's boyfriend) Lou Reed, Sterling Morrison and John Cale.

The public were unprepared for Nico's experimental art-rock masterpieces and there melancholic ambience, and the album made little impression upon release.

But it's desolate beauty has fascinated subsequent generations,Patti Smith lauded her, Siouxsie Sioux wanted her for a support act, and two Chelsea Girl tracks were included on the soundtrack of Wes Anderson's 2001 comedy The Royal Tenenbaums.

Legend has it when she heard the final cut, she hated it and burst into tears, she thought there was was too much strings added to it, and no drums.

Nico has quite a strange voice, but I like it probably because of her work on The Velvet Underground album, so will give this a listen and see what she's like solo.

Just catching up on this thread.

​Really like Nina Simon.

​Never heard Nico's solo stuff and never heard of Astrud Gilberto tbqh.

DAY 77.
Nico............Chelsea Girl   (1967)


  


I know I'm probably in the minority here, but I liked this album, not enough to buy it right enough but still enjoyable.

I do think Nico was right about the strings and flute, if this album could be stripped back to basics and none of the overlays, it would be a hell of a lot better imho.

Maybe I like it because I'm kinda used to her voice, I've listened to The Velvet Underground & Nico constantly over the years, so maybe I'm attuned to her singing or just got to the stage were I don't hear her failings?

Anyways enjoyed it especially the first two tracks, but it wont be getting added to my collection as I dont think I'd play this particular album that often.


Born Christa Päffgen in Cologne, Germany on the precipice of World War II, her father, a German soldier, died in a Nazi concentration camp during the war as a result of medical experiments that were performed on him in order to study the severe brain damage he had suffered on the battlefield. After the war, Päffgen worked as a seamstress and soon began landing modeling jobs in Berlin. It was a photographer on one of these jobs who gave her the now-iconic sobriquet, "Nico," which quickly became her preferred identity. After working in Paris modeling for Vogue, Tempo, Elle, and other top fashion magazines, Nico temporarily moved to New York City to study acting at Lee Strasberg's Method School; it was around this time that she was "discovered" by Fellini during the filming of La Dolce Vita, which led to her famous cameo in the film.

When she returned to New York City at the beginning of 1966 to ostensibly resume her modeling career, Nico was more intent on pursuing film-work and music; this is what led her into Warhol's considerably influential orbit. Nico: "I only wanted to be with the underground people. I wasn't interested in fashion anymore, and I had also studied acting with Lee Strasberg, which helped me a lot to sort of discover myself like all young people always have to discover themselves." As it turned out, it was not only Paul Morrissey who was captivated by Nico at her first meeting with Warhol; the artist himself was also quite smitten and immediately began casting her in his experimental films such as Chelsea Girls and Imitation of Christ. It was during this same period that Warhol took on the role of patron of a struggling young rock band with a seamy reputation: The Velvet Underground. While it may be the case that the idea from the start was for the Velvets to serve as Nico's backing band, it's hard to deny the key role Warhol's patronage played in the band's development. Nico: "He [Warhol] was the one who had the guts to save The Velvet Underground from poverty and misery because they had been thrown out of a place in the village on 3rd Street, Cafe Bizarre, because people couldn't dance to their music. So they had no job so that's when Andy came and saved the situation, and that's when I joined them." 

Paul Morrissey: "The singing was done by Lou Reed and he just seemed, um, not a very good singer and not a good personality- uh, something too seedy about him, and he was not a natural performer; he was sort of a shy type on stage." Nico's official role in the band was "chanteuse," but a more accurate term, especially at the beginning, was "pariah," as she was not deemed by the Velvets as a good fit for their sound. After much cajoling from Warhol, Reed finally agreed to write some songs for her, though the situation was far from stable, as, according to Sterling Morrison, Nico sought sexual alliances in the band (namely Reed and then John Cale) in order gain a stronger foothold in the group. Ultimately, she was never considered as anything more than an interloper..

Chelsea Girl, at first blush, sounds like an apt example of the kind of overly fussed-over baroque chamber-folk that was so prevalent during the mid-to-late sixties; however, what sets it apart and makes it approach timelessness is Nico herself. More than once, Nico has been described as proto-Goth, and the sound of her unmistakeable baritone with its ability to convey an icy sense of achingly dark world-weariness was undoubtedly a huge influence on the post-punks more than a decade later. Simply put, Nico's artistic approach and mercurial personality were completely at odds with the pop-temptress stereotype that most female artists were saddled with during the late sixties. Paul Morrissey: "She started at some point, um, having a real resentment over her good looks. She hated the fact that people thought she was beautiful. She thought that this was some sort of disgrace to be beautiful. But in those days modeling was not artistic, you know, artistic was to be like Janis Joplin screaming your lungs out before you die of drug addiction. She was so happy to be called ugly." Chelsea Girl is easily Nico's most eclectic solo album, something which is largely due to it being comprised of "donated" songs from the various singer-songwriters Nico had spent time with during her fledgling music career. However, there are two prevailing directions on the album that stand in stark contrast with each other. A then-unknown Jackson Browne (Nico's lover at the time) provides three songs, the best of which, "These Days," finds Nico in top form. Backed by Browne's lovely guitar playing, Nico dresses his reflective lyrics in somber tones that manage to capture the dark, introspective nature of the song in ways another singer wouldn't have. In contrast to Browne's contributions, which verge on wistfulness on occasion, there are five significantly darker songs penned by various members of her former band, The Velvet Underground. Chief among these is the title track written by Lou Reed and Sterling Morrison, a hypnotically depressed epic that recalls "Femme Fatale" from the Velvets debut album. Perhaps the true gem on Chelsea Girls is its darkest moment: Lou Reed's "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams," a song he had written previous to forming the Velvets. In a way, it provides an emotional counterpoint to "These Days" and points the way toward Nico's more unconventional solo works such as The Marble Index. Despite her debut album's obvious strengths, Nico was notoriously dismissive of the finished product, claiming (quite accurately) that some of the production decisions blunted the power of the music. Nico: "I still cannot listen to it, because everything I wanted for that record, they took it away. I asked for drums, they said no. And I asked for simplicity and they covered it in flutes [...] They added strings and- I didn't like them, but I could live with them. But the flute! The first time I heard the album, I cried and it was all because of the flute."

Dylan wrote her a tribute on his album Blonde on Blonde called Visions of Johanna


 

 

Last edited by arabchanter (25/10/2017 11:28 pm)

I mind my mum bought the tape of Sgt Pepper, as we only had a Grundig tape recorder, and no record player (until 1970). It sat alongside things like Carousel and West Side Story on the shelf, and was dismissed as rubbish by her. I sort of liked it, but not in the same way as many on here might, and always have preferred Magical Mystery Tour, probably because I saw the film when it came out.

But one thing I mind about it: a lot of Beatles fans initially hated Sgt Pepper, probably not due to the music, but because of the change in look of the Fab Four.

My older sister, who had Beatles wallpaper, was horrified by the mowsers they'd grown, and the mop-tops becoming more hippieish. Also, the change of music appeared to turn off music fans like my mum, who could play anything on the piano, but clearly preferred the simpler pop stuff The Beatles had produced earlier in their career.

So maybe they influenced my views, for now I view She's Leaving Home and others as classics. But She's Leaving Home leaves a shiver in me still, which is strange, it being a McCartney song.

scarpia wrote:

PatReilly wrote:

I mind my mum bought the tape of Sgt Pepper, as we only had a Grundig tape recorder, and no record player (until 1970). It sat alongside things like Carousel and West Side Story on the shelf, and was dismissed as rubbish by her. I sort of liked it, but not in the same way as many on here might, and always have preferred Magical Mystery Tour, probably because I saw the film when it came out.

But one thing I mind about it: a lot of Beatles fans initially hated Sgt Pepper, probably not due to the music, but because of the change in look of the Fab Four.

My older sister, who had Beatles wallpaper, was horrified by the mowsers they'd grown, and the mop-tops becoming more hippieish. Also, the change of music appeared to turn off music fans like my mum, who could play anything on the piano, but clearly preferred the simpler pop stuff The Beatles had produced earlier in their career.

So maybe they influenced my views, for now I view She's Leaving Home and others as classics. But She's Leaving Home leaves a shiver in me still, which is strange, it being a McCartney song.

 
Need to do some catch up but meantime can I just say your bang on wrt She's Leaving Home, Pat.

I sometimes think McCartney's later stuff kind of pre-disposes against his Beatles stuff - more to his songwriting than he sometimes gets credit for.

You're both spot on about that track, makes it more poignant now (as I have girls) than when I last heard it many moons ago.

Here's a bit I found about the song earlier today,

McCartney was inspired to write this track by a story in the Daily Mirror on February 27, 1967, about a girl called Melanie Coe, who ran away from home. ‘In the story, the girl left home and her father said: “We gave her everything, I don’t know why she left home,” ’ McCartney explained. Coe said the lyrics truly reflected her relationship with her family, especially the line ‘something inside that was always denied’. McCartney’s guess that she had gone off with a boyfriend was true, but he was a croupier and not in ‘the motor trade’.
 

Starting to buy the albums that I really liked from the book.

The three on the left are from the 50s, and I still have to get another three from that decade.

The two on the right are from the 60s, but I really, really liked them so had to get them.

Unfortunately vinyl aint too cheap especially the originals, so this could be a long process.

Day 79.
Country Joe And The Fish.............Electric Music For The Mind And Body    (1967)





Electric Music to me was a bit of a mixed bag, there wasn't any track that I particularly disliked but the hippy trippy "Bass Strings" came very close.

Of the rest of the tracks the opening two " Flying High" and "Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine" were excellent and strangely for me the final track "Grace" at 7:03 (normally way to long for my boredom threshold) I found quite haunting and hypnotic in equal measures and it didn't seem as long as 7 minutes, which normally means for me I really enjoyed it.

I would say the lyrics alone are well worth the listen, reading reviews it was funny the ammount of reviewers who said it was like beat poetry set to music, that statement is way above my pay grade to endorse, but I did enjoy the lyrics.

I've just listened to it for the second time today and I'm swithering whether to buy it or not, it's certainly growing on me.

I think it will have to go on the subbies bench just now, and wait until I've heard it a couple of more times before I decide, but have to say lt's looking pretty likely it will go in.

Some bits and bobs in no particular order;

Born on January 1, 1942, to a very leftist-oriented family, Joe McDonald was named in honor of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. (In the context of World War II, Stalin was regarded by many on the left -- and even some apolitical observers -- in the United States and elsewhere as heroic, for being Hitler and Nazi Germany's greatest nemesis, at a time when the governments of England, France, and the United States were given to waffling and dithering over what to do about German militarism; the millions of deaths within the Soviet Union for which Stalin is now blamed were not yet known.)Joe McDonald and E.D. [Eugene Denson, the band’s friend/manager] were sitting around E.D.’s cottage in Berkeley trying to think up a name for the group. As they both had revolutionary tendencies, they wanted a name reflecting their political position. Leafing through Chairman Mao Tse Tung’s ‘Little Red Book’ when E.D. found the phrase, ‘The revolutionary is a fish that swims in the sea of the people.’ From that came ‘Country Mao and the Fish.’ But Joe said it might cause confusion as America didn’t recognize Red China. So, E.D. suggested ‘Country Joe and the Fish, with ‘Joe’ being Josef Stalin.”“Joe’s approach was…profoundly cerebral. His concept was basically to get a few people around and make something happen,” lead guitarist Barry “The Fish” Melton explains.


The 1970 film Woodstock introduced perhaps the era’s greatest protest song: Country Joe and the Fish’s I-Feel-Like-I’m Fixin’-To-Die Rag.






The song is written in the voice of a military recruiter/carnival barker (with an outrageous hurdy-gurdy organ accompaniment) who encourages young men to join the fight, then invites parents to be the first to “have your boy come home in a box.” Its chorus: “Whoopee! We’re all gonna die.”


This is what Joe McDonald had to say about it;


I had written songs about the military before that. At least one I remember was serious in that vein.  The big difference with Fixin’-To-Die Rag is that it’s not anti-soldier, it’s from a soldier’s point of view.  I had been in the military.  The humor is what we call “GI Humor;” black humor.


It’s always paired with the Fish Cheer.  How did the Fish Cheer come about?

CJM:  I was in the high school band and we used to play at sporting events and the cheerleaders would always spell out the name of the team.  And I remembered that.  When were in the studio in 1967 recording I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to Die Rag for Vanguard Records, I got the idea that we should give a cheer for ourselves and spell out “Fish.”There were five people in the group so we each yelled out a letter and then the last person yelled “What’s that spell?” and we overdubbed a crowd cheering “Fish!” and that became known as the Fish Cheer.And then in 1968, playing the Schaefer Beer Festival in New York’s Central Park, the drummer [Gary “Chicken” Hirsh] got the idea that we should change the Fish Cheer to the “Fuck Cheer.” And from then on we continued to do the Fuck Cheer.  And there were repercussions over that.

We were forbidden to be on the Schaefer Beer Festival again in our lives.  And we had been hired by the Ed Sullivan Show and paid in advance.  We were not allowed to be on the show and we were told we could keep the money.  So we were the only group that was ever paid to stay off the Ed Sullivan Show.We performed the Fuck Cheer in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1970 and there was a warrant for my arrest issued.  I had a trial over me leading the crowd in a lewd and lascivious and wanton cheer.  It was later thrown out of court

.RCM: Tell us about Woodstock.

CJM:  I was asked one day to just fill in some time on stage because Santana couldn’t get their equipment there on time to go on.  They gave me a guitar and I just went up there and after a while I decided that I would do the Fuck Cheer and Fixin’-To-Die Rag and fill in some time for the program.  And it was filmed and it was put onto the record and into the movie. Country Joe and the Fish had been hired to perform, I wasn’t scheduled to do anything solo.  
And that was the event that launched Fixin’-To-Die into the mainstream along with the Fuck Cheer.

For FCC reasons, of course, it can never be referred to on sound media as the Fuck Cheer so it’s always referred to as the Fish Cheer, which has also caused some amusing problems at times over the years.A couple of people were fired over playing the track on the Woodstock album because it just said Fish Cheer. They just dropped the needle on it and then “fuck” played out over the airwaves.  That happened quite a bit.  It’s ironic that my most well-known song and performance is unplayable on the radio.


What was the reaction to the song?  You must have gotten some flak.

CJM:  We performed the song on the David Frost TV show and they got a lot of letters from people saying that we should be sent to Russia, that we’re disgusting, that “bring your boy home in a box” was unspeakable, and they’d never watch his show again.  We live in an era now of post-punk and thrash and rap and of sarcasm and cutting-edge humor on television.  But at that particular time it was really shocking.  It was blasphemous to have that kind of an attitude towards our noble dead who have sacrificed so much for us.


I really don’t think that civilians in general understand the military mindset.  I haven’t met any military people who had any problem with “be the first on your block to have your boy come home in a box.” For combat veterans, that’s just shop-talk.  But for civilians, who like to think that war is a noble cause and most people in combat are there because they wanna be and they’re patriotic, it flies in the face of that mythology, which is still active and alive today.


 RCM: Did people think you were anti-soldier with the song?CJM:  I think that most people who’ve been in the military recognize the attitude of the song.  I don’t think military interpreted it as being anti-military because the song was actually taught as a boot camp song in the Marine Corps for some time.And lots of people sung it in-country in Vietnam.  I heard dozens and dozens of stories of people singin’ the song and it was embraced.


Joan Baez’s performance is a pretty typical protest performance of the era.  And mine has more in common with NWA and Nirvana than it does with Pete Seeger in that it’s in your face.  You can’t escape it.  The delivery of the song, the attitude of the song, the lyric of the song, the performance of the song, it’s in your face.

RCM:  What do you think of the state of today’s protest songs?


CJM: The protest songs were called that because they were so different from what was acceptable in the ’60s.  But now, lyric content has expanded so much that many songs contain what would have one time been called protest content.A real protest song is never gonna get mainstream acceptance because it’s an offense to the majority.  Pussy Riot, the group that has been jailed in Russia, that’s real protest — where you sing a song and they arrest you.  But nowadays, Green Day’s American Idiot becomes a mainstream hit and a Broadway show..

 

DAY 80.
Buffalo Springfield.............Buffalo Springfield Again   (1967)





This album was good but that just about sums it up, It seemed to me like there was no cohesion or flow in the album, just here's a few tracks that don't really work together, which may be close to the point as they seemed to be drifting to their own styles with no thought for the band,


Young booked a studio to record "Expecting To Fly" and didn't tell any of the band, none of the band appeared on this track!


So although ok this album is a bit too bitty for me, so will not be going into my collection,
.

As a post script " For What It's Worth" has got to be one of my favourite songs from this time.


Buffalo Springfield, formed in Los Angeles in 1966, was one of the pioneers in the folk rock scene.  Despite releasing only three albums of original material, the band was highly influential in rock music, largely as a result of the careers of several members after leaving Buffalo Springfield.  The lineup consisted of Stephen Stills (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Neil Young (vocals, guitar, piano, harmonica), Richie Furay (vocals, guitar), Bruce Palmer (bass), and Dewey Martin (drums).  Many casual rock fans know the group only from their protest hit “For What It’s Worth,” but there is much more to Buffalo Springfield.  Here is the Buffalo Springfield biography. OriginThe story of how Buffalo Springfield formed is somewhat confusing.


 In large this comes because all five members were playing in various groups, with no definite moment when the five got together to form the group.  Instead, it is a tale of chance encounters and of a group in flux that eventually came to be known as Buffalo Springfield.Young, a native Canadian, was playing with a Winnipeg group called The Squires when he met Stills in 1965.  Stills was touring with The Company at the time.  When The Company broke up, Stills moved to Los Angeles, eventually auditioning for a place in the Monkees with his friend Peter Tork.  When that failed, Stills put together a band along with Richie Furay, whom he had played with in the the Au Go Go Singers.


Meanwhile, Bruce Palmer invited Young to join The Mynah Birds in Toronto, in early 1966.  The Mynah Birds were fronted by a singer named Ricky James Matthews, who was arrested by the U.S. Navy for being AWOL.  Ultimately, Matthews would have a successful music career under the name Rick James.  With his arrest, the band broke up and Young and Palmer headed to Los Angeles to try their luck there.  Once in LA, a chance encounter brought Young and Stills together.  With them came Furay and Palmer.Martin was already in LA, bouncing from group to group. 


First, The Standells.  Then The Modern Folk Quartet, followed by a brief stint with The Dillards.  In the spring of 1966, Martin was told The Dillards no longer needed him on drums.  They suggested he look into a new group that did need a drummer.  With his addition, Buffalo Springfield was set.They debuted at The Troubadour in Hollywood on 11 April 1966.


Name

For a while, Stills and Furay stayed with record producer Barry Friedman.  Parked on the street outside was a steamroller made by the Buffalo Springfield Roller Company of Springfield, Ohio.  Somehow, that became the source of the group’s name

.



Buffalo Springfield Again was released in the autumn of 1967.  The album charted higher than their debut, reaching 44 on the Billboard album charts, but was the beginning of the end for the group.  By the time of the album release, Young had left the group, then returned.  Palmer had been allowed back in the country and rejoined the band, but in January 1968 was again arrested and deported to Canada.  Jim Messina was brought in as a permanent replacement for Palmer, but in April 1968, Young, Furay, Messina, and a visiting Eric Clapton were arrested on drug charges, and the group officially broke up.



Neil Young Drove a hearse from Canada to L,A, legend has it that's how he met Stills again, suppose there weren't many people driving around L.A. With musical equipment in the back of a hearse.
 

DAY 81.
Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band..............Safe As Milk    (1967)





Maybe the square look cap and his crew portray on the cover does not seem revolutionary today, but in '65 and'66, Safe As Milk was a hipsters must.

Marvel's abound from the childlike wonder of "Yellow Brick Road" to the sneering "Dropout Boogie."
"I'm Glad" is pure soul, "Autumn's Child" an ambitious acid symphony, and "Electricity" a Theremin-led, ratchety classic,

And throughout, Beefheart's worn, bluesy voice---a Howlin' Wolf recanting surrealistic poetry.

erm, don't know what to make of that, also I seem to remember he was a classmate and friend of Frank Zappa, "well in for a penny"

DAY 81.
Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band..............Safe As Milk    (1967)






The first thing to say about this album is, what a voice the man had, that's the foremost thing that stands out to me.

The tracks on "Safe As Milk" vary in degrees for me, I really liked "Abba Zaba," "Drop Out Boogie" and "I'm Glad" then there's "Yellow Brick Road" and "Call On Me" which i liked, but "Electricity" really wasn't my cup of tea.

"Safe As Milk" is seemingly one of his less weird and some say self indulgent albums, and for that I am very grateful as this was enjoyable for the most part but there was glimpses of his future ventures that I don't think would appeal to me.

This album won't be going into my collection, as It just doesn't do enough for me to buy it.

In saying all that I would never have listened to Beefheart or Zappa if it wasn't for this book, and to be honest I'm glad I did listen to them, as they were both a lot better than I expected them to be.


Bits and Bobs;


In 1964 Beefheart formed the Magic Band, the first of many lineups under the name. They sounded pretty discordant, but due to Beefheart's mesmeric presence, a four-and-a-half octave vocal range, his eccentric ability with lyrics and his inexplicable one-liners to interviewers, the band was unforgettable.
 Beefheart once described his thing to an uncomprehending radio interviewer as "music to dematerialise the catatonia". His style was rhythm and blues-based but completely unorthodox in its approach to structure, rhythm and key. Magic Band musicians had names such as Winged Eel Fingerling, Zoot Horn Rollo, the Mascara Snake and Rockette Morton. They wore a ragbag of cloaks and the Captain wore a hat, usually a topper, which became his trademark.


 Van Vliet was born in Glendale, California, an only child who showed artistic talent. He claimed he was producing respected sculpture at the age of five. When he was 13, his family moved to the Mojave desert, an atmosphere that was to have an enormous influence on him, and particularly his painting, and a place where he lived on and off all his life.


 In 1959 he was offered a place at Antelope Valley junior college as an art major, but instead he hung out at home with his schoolfriend Frank Zappa, listening to old r'n'b records and planning various projects. One was dreamed up sitting stoned in a car ("Not Zappa," recalled Beefheart, "Frank never turned on") in the desert in 1962, to shoot a film called Captain Beefheart Meets the Grunt People. The film was never made, but the name stuck.


 From their early teens, Beefheart and Zappa developed a love-hate relationship which became lifelong, mainly based on Beefheart's resentment of Zappa's success. Despite briefly moving to Cucamonga in California in the early 1960s to be with Zappa, intending to form a band called the Soots, Beefheart remained in the desert while Frank, an astute businessman, moved to Los Angeles and founded the Mothers of Invention.

Beefheart's early albums remain the most original: Safe as Milk (produced by Bob Krasnow and Richard Perry, 1967); Strictly Personal (completed in a week, produced by Krasnow, 1968) and two albums for Zappa's Straight label: Trout Mask Replica (1969) and Lick My Decals Off, Baby (1970). For Trout Mask Replica, Beefheart locked the Magic Band in a house in Woodland Hills for eight months, continually rehearsing the songs. Virtually broke, they often had nothing but bread to eat, but when they finally got into the studio they recorded the double album in four and a half hours.


 Although they admired him, other musicians found Beefheart exasperating. The guitarist Ry Cooder played on the first album and was due to appear at the Monterey festival in 1967 with the band, but left in a temper after Beefheart had a panic attack during rehearsal and walked off the back of the stage, landing on top of his manager.
 It was Beefheart's stubborn refusal to conform that invariably lost him the big bucks. And he was not indifferent to money. He loved fast cars and owned variously a Hudson, Corvette and Jaguar, drank brandy alexanders, and always wore the best shoes he could afford.


 In 1974 Beefheart was signed to Virgin Records. Richard Branson also desperately wanted to sign Zappa, but it was during one of Beefheart's hate-Frank periods. Despite being warned never to mention the name, virtually the first words Branson uttered to Beefheart were about how great it would be when he had also got Zappa on to the label. It was a fateful and uneasy start. Yet when, as invariably happened with Beefheart, the relationship between artist and record company soured, it was Zappa who rescued Beefheart and took him on tour. Beefheart responded by filling a series of huge sketchbooks with angry drawings of Zappa.



 Despite having no formal training in art, Beefheart drew and painted throughout his music career. His first exhibition was in Liverpool at the Bluecoat Gallery in 1972, while he was touring in Britain. He executed 15 black and white paintings in situ. In 1982, on the advice of the New York art dealer Michael Werner that he would never be taken seriously as a painter unless he gave up music, Beefheart turned to art and gained a reasonable reputation.



Sorry but I just found this, and to me it just shows how times have changed, and the pomposity that was alive and kicking in the '60s and thought it worth a share;

 
immigration department documents found on a hounslow rubbish dump reveal that the work of those who keep our land free of dangerous foreigners is never done. one of the documents deals with the refusal of entry permission to one don glen vliet, better known in those days as the musician captain beefheart whose magic band was one of the major 'psychedelic' bands of the era. (by chance van vliet was back in london recently - no problems with immigration - for the showing of his expressionist paintings at the waddington gallery.)the 'refusal of leave to land' report, dated january 18 1968, details why beefheart and his band were not allowed to enter england for a week. [follows a summary and some cites from the report, which follows below in full length / glory.] the group was duly refused permission to land and were bunged on a plane back to hannover.we tried to contact captain b in america but have as yet had no response.


* REFUSAL OF LEAVE TO LAND REPORT (remarks)

*mr. vliet was detained in the approved detention quarters in the queen's building from 1230 hours until 1700 hours. he had previously remained in the arrivals hall.mr. vliet is the leader of an american 'pop group' known as captain beefheart's magic band, which specializes in so-called psychedelic music and is currently very popular with a certain section of the population of the west coast of the united states. the group arrived together and presented a very strange appearance, being attired in clothing ranging from 'jeans' to purple trousers, with shirts of various hues, and wearing headgear varying from conical witches' hats to a brilliant yellow safety helmet of the type worn by construction engineers.like some of his friends, mr. vliet sported a bushy beard. the other members of the group whose refusal of leave to land is reported separately, are:
french, john stephen - born 29.9.48 - american;
handley, gerald wayne - born 9.2.46 - american;
snouffer, alexis clair - born 14.9.41 - american;
cotton, jeffrey ralph - born 31.5.40 - american.

officers on the control were given ample opportunity to form an initial assessment of the group, as they took fully ten minutes to complete the relatively simple operation of filling in their landing cards. when they eventually approached the desks, it proved somewhat difficult to interview them, as they appeared to think on a completely different mental plane and found it difficult to grasp the rudiments of a passport control. however, it was eventually established that they had gone to hannover (in germany - t.t) from the united states to attend a musical convention and that they were now en route to a similar festival in nice (should be cannes, also located in france) .all five members of the group possessed tickets from london to nice and on to los angeles and they said that they merely wished to spend up to a week in this country on the way to france. none of them appeared very certain what the purpose of the visit to this country was, some saying that it was purely for a rest and others saying that they were to meet representatives of the press. however, all of them dented emphatically that they had any intention of taking any form of employment during their stay. examination of the funds carried by the group showed that they had very little money, mr. vliet having £2.10.0 and 20 german marks (£2).

at this stage, a gentleman dressed in the american style, with long unkempt hair and with a cigarette dangling from his lower lip, approached the control and introduced himself as mr. peter alexander edwin meaden, born 11.11.41, british and described in his passport as an artistes manager. mr. meaden said that he represented new wave records ltd., 17-19 stratford place, london, which firm was sponsoring the group's visit to the united kingdom, in conjunction with the group's american recording company, kama sutra / buddha records ltd., new york.he offered to give any guarantees that might be required to facilitate the group's entry into the country but when asked to establish his authority to do so, he was unable to prove his connection with these companies beyond producing a press handout and some blank headed notepaper. mr meaden denied vehemently that the group would be taking any form of work during their stay here and said that he had only brought them over for press appearances.

at this stage, all five members of the group were escorted to the baggage hall, where their luggage was examined by his majesty's customs. however, despite the fact that one member of the group had a large number of patent medicines in his case nothing of interest was found. a search of the group's instruments and their cases was also negative.


 on return to the arrivals hall, i was informed by an officer of the special branch that mr. meaden was known to have convictions for illegal possession of a bren gun, taking and driving away a motor vehicle and selling intoxicating liquor without a licence. in view of this, it was felt that any assurances given by the gentleman would have to be treated with considerable reservations.it was strongly suspected that the group was going to take engagements in this country and reference to the 'new musical express' showed that they were billed to appear at two establishments the next weekend, namely the middle earth club and the speakeasy club, both in the west end of london. these clubs were telephoned and confirmed that the group would be playing on stage as a professional engagement.

reference to the ministry of labour showed that mr. meaden had applied for ministry of labour permits for the middle earth club engagement but that none had been issued, as he had claimed that the group was only to meet the press at the club and would not be playing - denied by the club which was expecting a full show. faced with this, mr. meaden at first protested his innocence but finally both he and the group admitted that the engagements had been arranged. mr. meaden then pleaded for clemency on the grounds of his own stupidity, a plea which was rejected.the case was referred to the chief immigration officer, mr. armstrong, who directed that the group was refused leave to land on the grounds that they had come to this country to take unauthorized employment and with insufficient funds

. they were informed that they were at liberty to contact whomsoever they wished and spent some time on the telephone before going to the detention suite, where they were given a meal.as it seemed that the group was to a considerable extent the innocence in what was by now a very tangled web woven largely by mr. meaden, it was decided to make some effort on their behalf beyond the call of duty. to this end, the chief immigration officer, mr. r.a. macdowall, spent some four hours on the telephone liaising with the home office, the ministry of labour, pye records and equity.pye came into the picture because the president of kama sutra records, mr artie ripp, an american, was with the company negotiating some form of takeover bid by pye for his company. mr. macdowall spoke with mr. ripp and with mr. wise of pye and advised them that they should contact the ministry of labour and equity and apply for permits. should they be issued, then the position would be reconsidered in a favourable light.

mr. noreiko, chief immigration officer, headquarters, was informed of the case, lest there should be any representations. these soon materialized, from mr. meaden's solicitor, who asked that the group was admitted for a visit. this proposal was rejected. later in the afternoon his majesty's assistant chief inspector mr. t.w.e. roche telephoned for details of the case, as the press officer had approached him for information.despite all their efforts, which were considerable, mr. ripp and mr. wise were unable to secure the issue of ministry of labour permits and the group was therefore returned to hannover as directed. mr. meaden, on whose shoulders the blame for the whole incident must rest, was told by mr. ripp that his association with kama sutra ceased forthwith and he was a dejected man as he departed, muttering under his breath.

landing card attached. an copy of this report is attached for the ministry of labour. 

Last edited by arabchanter (30/10/2017 11:24 am)