The sprawling park, with its zoo and observatory, had a strong influence on young Vliet, as it was a short distance from his home on Waverly Drive. Local newspaper cuttings of his junior sculpting achievements can be found reproduced in the Splinters book, included in the Riding Some Kind of Unusual Skull Sleigh boxed CD work, released in 2004. At the age of nine, he won a children's sculpting competition organised for the Los Angeles Zoo in Griffith Park by a local tutor, Agostinho Rodrigues. His subjects reflected his "obsession" with animals, particularly dinosaurs, fish, African mammals and lemurs. Van Vliet began painting and sculpting at age three. Van Vliet also claimed that he was related to adventurer and author Richard Halliburton and the cowboy actor Slim Pickens, and said that he remembered being born.
He claimed to have as an ancestor Peter van Vliet, a Dutch painter who knew Rembrandt. Van Vliet was born Don Glen Vliet in Glendale, California, on January 15, 1941, to Glen Alonzo Vliet, a service station owner of Dutch ancestry from Kansas, and Willie Sue Vliet (née Warfield), who was from Arkansas. 1.4.8 Riding Some Kind of Unusual Skull Sleighīiography Early life and musical influences, 1941–62.1.4.3 Unconditionally Guaranteed and Bluejeans & Moonbeams.1.1 Early life and musical influences, 1941–62.Van Vliet died in 2010, having suffered from multiple sclerosis for many years. His expressionist paintings and drawings command high prices, and have been exhibited in art galleries and museums across the world. He pursued a career in art, an interest that originated in his childhood talent for sculpture, and a venture which proved to be his most financially secure. Van Vliet made few public appearances after his retirement from music in 1982. In 1974, frustrated by lack of commercial success, he pursued a more conventional rock sound, but the ensuing albums were critically panned this move, combined with not having been paid for a European tour, and years of enduring Beefheart's abusive behavior, led the entire band to quit.īeefheart eventually formed a new Magic Band with a group of younger musicians and regained critical approval through three final albums: Shiny Beast (1978), Doc at the Radar Station (1980) and Ice Cream for Crow (1982). After being dropped by two consecutive record labels they signed to Zappa's Straight Records, where they released 1969's Trout Mask Replica the album would later rank 58th in Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The group released their debut album Safe as Milk in 1967 on Buddah Records. He began performing with his Captain Beefheart persona in 1964 and joined the original Magic Band line-up, initiated by Alexis Snouffer, the same year. Īn artistic prodigy in his childhood, Van Vliet developed an eclectic musical taste during his teen years in Lancaster, California, and formed "a mutually useful but volatile" friendship with musician Frank Zappa, with whom he sporadically competed and collaborated. Although he achieved little commercial success, he sustained a cult following as a "highly significant" and "incalculable" influence on an array of new wave, punk, and experimental rock artists. Known for his enigmatic persona, Beefheart frequently constructed myths about his life and was known to exercise an almost dictatorial control over his supporting musicians.
His music blended elements of blues, free jazz, rock, and avant-garde composition with idiosyncratic rhythms, absurdist wordplay, and his wide vocal range. Conducting a rotating ensemble called Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band, known separately as " The Magic Band", he recorded 13 studio albums between 19. Don Van Vliet ( / v æ n ˈ v l iː t/ born Don Glen Vliet Janu– December 17, 2010) was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and visual artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart.