O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done

 I have been intending to do a post on the late great Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart, ever since I started this blog (last week) but I was unsure where to start.  I have decided to start at the end and the beginning of his musical career because why not.  Also, because I think "Trout Mask Replica" and his art (he was an accomplished painter in his later years) both deserve a post of their own. 
 
"Ice Cream for Crow"  is a great song and a better video despite its complete commercial failure.  I know, so what else is new?  I end this post with the "Magic Band's" cover of Bo Diddley's "Diddy Wah Diddy".   IMHO, it's the best version of that song ever recorded. Of course, also a commercial failure.  


Capt. Beefheart:  Love him; hate him; or more likely, never heard of him.  His influence on music far outweighs his meager musical fame.  To give just one example, if Tom Waits' sandpaper voice effects you like fingernails on a chalkboard, you know who to thank. "Once you've heard Beefheart," said Waits, "it's hard to wash him out of your clothes. It stains, like coffee or blood."  
             
Update:  A couple of his paintings are on the sidebar to your right.     
 
Ice Cream For Crow
          
It's so hot

looks like you have three beaks crow
the moon's so full
white hat on a pumpkin
you know there's something
the moon was a stone's throw
stop the show
I need to say hello
to the crow
light the fire piano
the moon showed up
and it started to show
tonight there'd be ice cream
ice cream for crow
ice cream for crow
sun cream by day
ice cream for crow
ice cream by night
ice cream by day
the sun ain't stable
ice cream for crow
crow pants the scarecrow
crow dance ah ho ho
crow dance ah panther
scare crow you answer
you can hee and haw
laugh and scratch
ha ha ha
ha ha ha
boss and toss
don't shake my hand
give me your claw
two tears in a haystack
scarecrow get back
tonight there's gonna be
a feather treatment
beneath the symbol
we'll all assemble
oh how we'll fly
oh how we'll tremble
cut the cake
we'll all get well
turn up the speakers
hop flop squawk
it's a keeper
ice cream for show
ice cream for crow
now now that's it
now you can go

Transcribed by Lloyd Veerman.

http://www.beefheart.com/

Ice Cream for Crow is the twelfth and final studio album by Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band, released in September 1982. It is the last Don Van Vliet recorded before abruptly retiring from music as Captain Beefheart to devote himself to a career as a painter. It spent two weeks in the UK album charts, reaching number 90, but failed to make the Billboard Top 200. 

Here is the Magic Band's version of Bo Diddley's "Diddy Wah Diddy" released in 1966.