{"id":4893,"date":"2010-12-18T02:24:36","date_gmt":"2010-12-18T06:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=4893"},"modified":"2010-12-18T02:24:36","modified_gmt":"2010-12-18T06:24:36","slug":"lets-cut-the-crap-with-neil-diamond-tom-waits-et-al-put-captain-beefheart-in-the-rock-n-roll-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/lets-cut-the-crap-with-neil-diamond-tom-waits-et-al-put-captain-beefheart-in-the-rock-n-roll-hall-of-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"Let&#8217;s Cut the Crap With Neil Diamond, Tom Waits, et al: Put Captain Beefheart in the Rock &#8216;n Roll Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"<iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PQpeBl_NBK8?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>On the ride back from my company party tonight I listened to a rough demo of a new song I wrote a couple of weeks ago that attempts to touch on a fraction of the feeling I get from two of my favorite <strong>Captain Beefheart<\/strong> songs, the shattered glass blues of &#8220;Hothead&#8221; and the blow your speakers\/blow your mind F-U of &#8220;Frownland.&#8221; In my humble songwriting efforts there are probably two dozen songs I try to draw power from, and while taking some pride in my latest efforts at internalizing these two songs I thought of the audio equivalent of time-lapsed nature photography of &#8220;Dirty Blue Gene,&#8221;\u00a0my favorite Beefheart song ever. It was clear how much space Beefheart had cleared for my mind to run. Catching up with almost an entire day that I missed here in the Halls of Rock I have learned that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/news\/captain-beefheart-dead-at-age-69-20101217\" target=\"_blank\">Beefheart his died<\/a> at 69 from complications from multiple sclerosis. Too bad. He was a great&#8230;artist.<\/p>\n<p>Put this guy in the stupid Rock &#8216;n Roll Hall of Fame already. The world doesn&#8217;t need to pay any more attention to <strong>Neil Diamond<\/strong>. What can be learned from a closer look at his life, that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/penny-rush-valladares-rock-n-roll-caterer\/\" target=\"_blank\">he liked hash brownies<\/a>? I&#8217;ve got no major beef with <strong>Tom Waits<\/strong>, but he&#8217;s no Beefheart. In fact, he wouldn&#8217;t be much of a Tom Waits if he hadn&#8217;t begun internalizing Beefheart beginning with <em>Swordfishtrombones<\/em>. This is not to dismiss his earlier albums, but it&#8217;s the Beefheart-influenced ones that cemented his reputation as an Artist and something more than the oddball of the LA singer-songwriter scene.<\/p>\n<p>Hey, I really shouldn&#8217;t use Beefheart&#8217;s death to take shots and Diamond, Waits, et al. What I&#8217;d really like to do is celebrate the weird, driven musical world Beefheart created. Thanks for blowing open a clear spot in my mind.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/rock-town-hall-s-fair-shake-era-launches\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Click here<\/em><\/a><em> for an old post in which I tried to convince a friend who usually knows better that he should know better when it comes to the music of Captain Beefheart.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>NEXT: Rock Town Hall&#8217;s Official Eulogy&#8230;<!--more--><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_block\" style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<div><object classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" width=\"400\" height=\"602\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"data\" value=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/rip400x602.swf\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/rip400x602.swf\" \/><embed type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"400\" height=\"602\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/rip400x602.swf\" data=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/rip400x602.swf\"><\/embed><\/object><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On the ride back from my company party tonight I listened to a rough demo of a new song I wrote a couple of weeks ago that attempts to touch on a fraction of the feeling I get from two of my favorite Captain Beefheart songs, the shattered glass blues of &#8220;Hothead&#8221; and the blow <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/lets-cut-the-crap-with-neil-diamond-tom-waits-et-al-put-captain-beefheart-in-the-rock-n-roll-hall-of-fame\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[86,170],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4893"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4893\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}