French writes of being punched by band members, thrown into walls, kicked, punched in the face by Beefheart hard enough to draw blood, being attacked with a sharp broomstick, and eventually of Beefheart threatening to throw him out of an upper floor window.

In 1999 the defunct Buddah label emerged with a new look, a correct title spelling and relevant ' deity ' image-replacing the silhouetted ' Shiva ' image and Buddah name for Beefheart material.

Beefheart had also been conceptualizing new band names, including " 25th Century Quaker " and " Blue Thumb ", while making suggestions to other musicians that they might get involved.

Clear Spots production credit of Ted Templeman made Allmusic consider " why in the world wasn't more of a commercial success than it was ," and that while fans " of the fully all-out side of Beefheart might find the end result not fully up to snuff as a result, but those less concerned with pushing back all borders all the time will enjoy his unexpected blend of everything tempered with a new accessibility.

Having extricated himself from a mire of contractual difficulties Beefheart emerged with this new album, in 1978, on the Warner Bros label.

" Thus, Ice Cream for Crow, while rooted in past musical ideas, points toward a new musical direction for Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band.

Besides The Byrds, these included Iron Butterfly, Love, Spirit, Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, The United States of America, The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, and the Electric Prunes ; perhaps the most commercially successful were The Doors.

Art Tripp played the marimba on several of Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band's albums, most notably on Lick My Decals Off, Baby and The Spotlight Kid.

He began performing with his Captain Beefheart persona in 1964 and joined the original Magic Band line-up, initiated by Alexis Snouffer, in 1965.

Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band signed to A & M and released two singles in 1966.

John French's 2010 book Through the Eyes of Magic describes some of the " talks " which were initiated by his actions such as being heard playing a Frank Zappa drum part (" The Blimp ( mousetrapreplica )") in his drumming shed, and not having finished drum parts as quickly as Beefheart wanted.

An early promotional music video was made of its title song, and a bizarre television commercial was also filmed that included excerpts from " Woe-Is-uh-Me-Bop ", silent footage of masked Magic Band members using kitchen utensils as musical instruments, and Beefheart kicking over a bowl of what appears to be porridge onto a dividing stripe in the middle of a road.

The next two records, The Spotlight Kid ( simply credited to " Captain Beefheart ") and Clear Spot ( credited to " Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band "), were both released in 1972.

Having no knowledge of the previous Magic Band style, they simply improvised what they thought would go with each song, playing much slicker versions that have been described as " bar band " versions of Beefheart songs.

Raggett of Allmusic called the album a " last entertaining blast of wigginess from one of the few truly independent artists in late 20th century pop music, with humor, skill, and style all still intact "; with the Magic Band " turning out more choppy rhythms, unexpected guitar lines, and outré arrangements, Captain Beefheart lets everything run wild as always, with successful results ".

Thus, it seemed quite logical to promote the group as " Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band ", around the concept that Captain Beefheart had ' magic powers ' and, upon drinking a ' Pepsi ', could summon up " His Magic Band " to appear and perform behind him.

Gary ' Magic ' Marker ( the " Magic " added by Beefheart ) was involved in early session work for this release, and his involvement with Rising Sons was also instrumental in acquiring the skills of Cooder, upon an unfulfilled suggestion that Marker might produce the album.

Bill Harkleroad joined the Magic Band as guitarist for Trout Mask Replica and stayed with Beefheart through May 1974.

In his 2010 memoir Beefheart: Through The Eyes of Magic French recounted being " screamed at, beaten up, drugged, ridiculed, humiliated, arrested, starved, stolen from, and thrown down a half-flight of stairs by his employer ".

" Groening first saw Beefheart and the Magic Band perform in the front row at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in the early 1970s.

Groening served as the curator of the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that reunited the post – Beefheart Magic Band.

Cooder first attracted attention in the 1960s, playing with Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, after previously having worked with Taj Mahal and Ed Cassidy in the Rising Sons.

In early 1974, after the recording of the uncharacteristically mainstream Unconditionally Guaranteed album, the tensions between Captain Beefheart and bandmembers Bill Harkleroad ( Zoot Horn Rollo ), Mark Boston ( Rockette Morton ) and Art Tripp III ( Ed Marimba ) had finally reached a breaking point, and the three members left Beefheart's Magic Band.

Another rumor speculates that N. Senada may have been Captain Beefheart because in the late 60s Beefheart and his " Magic Band " lived in a residence on Ensenada Drive in Woodland Hills, CA while recording Trout Mask Replica and Safe as Milk ; Beefheart influence can also be heard in early Residents works.

* Cucamonga-" Part 2 of a trilogy of photo books about Southern California inspired by the music of Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band.

Also, the Zappa-produced album Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band contains a reference to the city at the end of the track " Hair Pie: Bake 1 ".

Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band was also invited to appear but, according to the liner notes for the CD reissue of their album Safe As Milk, the band turned the offer down at the insistence of guitarist Ry Cooder, who felt the group was not ready.

When he first started writing songs for the Pixies, Francis says he was listening to nothing but Hüsker Dü, Captain Beefheart, and Iggy Pop ; Other influences associated with Francis include The Gun Club and The Cars.

Despite having shared a manager with Beefheart in the 1970s, Waits says, " I became more acquainted with him when I got married.

In 1971 the group sent a reel-to-reel tape to Hal Halverstadt at Warner Brothers, since he had worked with Captain Beefheart ( one of the group's musical heroes ).

Known for his enigmatic personality and relationship with the public, Van Vliet made few public appearances after his retirement from music ( and from his Beefheart persona ) in 1982.

" In the " Grunt People " draft script Beefheart and his mother play themselves, with his father played by Howlin ' Wolf.

Essentially a " jam " album, described as pushing " the boundaries of conventional blues – rock, with a Beefheart vocal tossed in here and there.

The label that was unsurprisingly named Blue Thumb launched with its first release Strictly Personal, a truncated version of the original Beefheart vision of a double album.

A school-age portrait of Van Vliet appears on the front of this sheet, while the cover of the gatefold enigmatically shows Beefheart in a ' Quaker ' hat, obscuring his face with the head of a fish.

Beefheart spoke of studying texts on brainwashing at a public library at about this time, and appeared to be applying brainwashing techniques to his bandmembers: sleep deprivation, food deprivation, constant negative reinforcement, and rewarding bandmembers when they attacked each other or competed with each other.

In the end, after the album's recording, French was ejected from the band by Beefheart throwing him down a set of stairs with violence, telling him to " Take a walk, man " after not responding in a desired manner to a request to " play a strawberry " on the drums.

Beefheart replaced French with drummer Jeff Bruschel, an acquaintance of Hayden.

" In 2003, the album was ranked fifty-eighth by Rolling Stone in their list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: " On first listen, Trout Mask Replica sounds like raw Delta blues ", with Beefheart " singing and ranting and reciting poetry over fractured guitar licks.

The final Beefheart record, Ice Cream for Crow ( 1982 ), was recorded with Gary Lucas ( who was also Van Vliet's manager ), Jeff Moris Tepper, Richard Snyder and Cliff Martinez.

Soon afterward Buddah began specializing in " bubblegum pop ", a style in which Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band clearly had no place, and the group again found themselves without a record label.

Shortly after the completion of Trout Mask Replica, French was booted out of the group rather violently ( thrown down some stairs ), and Beefheart replaced him with the inexperienced Jeff Bruschell.

However, following their European tour supporting Captain Beefheart, the group reorganized themselves and asked Cooper to leave, performing as a quartet on their Scandinavian tour of September 1974.