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This is, to the bigger older music dorks, OP's first reference to Captain Beefheart. Why was he doing it for me so much in the mid-00s? That is not for present-day me to answer. His howls and screeches and discordant notes seemed just right to me, after years of thinking I'd gotten the best of that out of indie rock. I still think Trout Mask Replica is a masterpiece, but a very narrow masterpiece that I'd never try to impose on loved ones.
Bongo Fury is a joint live album Beefheart did with his more commercially viable friend Frank Zappa. Here's a song they did about the United States being 200 years old and peddling a lot of consumer goods:
[spotifyplaybutton play="spotify:track:3sgJffGegExU21i65iu5oB"/]
9 thoughts on “#011 – bong-o-fury”
dukeofbacon
I get a laugh seeing “commercially viable” and “Frank Zappa” in the same sentence, knowing how often he admitted his stuff wasn’t made for radio.
Still cool to find someone who actually knows this kinda music!
jeybork
I think the key is that Frank put out SO MUCH music that some of it happened to be good for the radio
gnombo
eve also has a dilbert tie
David
As a fan of experimental music and surrealism, I always felt that I should *love* Captain Beefheart, but I never could get into it. I felt guilty that I didn't like it, as if I wasn't living up to my identity as an avant-garde music lover.
Now I've grown to accept that I still love weird music, just not all weird music, and that's okay.
Kyle H.
OP exposed me to Captain Bee Fart and The Shaggs, so I owe it a lot. <3
Scytale
Gotta appreciate The Big Lebowski refs too.
Jacob Breck
I love the sad Dilbert tie
Smilodon
In college I had friends that would use Doc at the Radar Station to clear out stragglers staying too long after a party was over. Nothing moves people out the door like Ashtray Heart. Unless it’s Sheriff of Hong Kong.
Amelie W.
Wow, the last time I read this I didn't know what The Big Lebowski was. We were such precious little babies.