Don Van Vliet (, born Don Glen Vliet ;

Noted for his powerful singing voice with its wide range, Van Vliet also played the harmonica, saxophone and numerous other wind instruments.

During his teen years in Lancaster, California, Van Vliet developed an eclectic musical taste and formed " a mutually useful but volatile " friendship with Frank Zappa, with whom he sporadically competed and collaborated.

Van Vliet has been described as " one of modern music's true innovators " with " a singular body of work virtually unrivalled in its daring and fluid creativity ".

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.

Van Vliet died in 2010, having suffered from multiple sclerosis for many years.

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.

He claimed to have as an ancestor Peter Van Vliet, a Dutch painter who knew Rembrandt.

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.

Van Vliet began painting and sculpting at age three.

For some time during the 1950s Van Vliet worked as an apprentice with Rodrigues, who considered him a child prodigy.

Van Vliet remained interested in art ; his paintings, often reminiscent of Franz Kline's, were later featured on several of his own albums.

Van Vliet claimed that he never attended public school, alleging " half a day of kindergarten " to be the extent of his formal education and saying that " if you want to be a different fish, you've got to jump out of the school.

While attending Antelope Valley High School in Lancaster, Van Vliet became close friends with fellow teenager Frank Zappa, the pair bonding through their interest in Chicago blues and R & B.

Van Vliet is portrayed in both The Real Frank Zappa Book and Barry Miles ' biography Zappa as fairly spoiled at this stage of his life, the center of attention as an only child.

After Zappa began regular occupation at Paul Buff's PAL Studio in Cucamonga he and Van Vliet began collaborating, tentatively as " The Soots ".

" In a 1970 interview with Rolling Stone, Van Vliet requests " don't ask me why or how " he and Zappa came up with the name.

Van Vliet enrolled at Antelope Valley Junior College as an art major, but decided to leave the following year.

" After managing a Kinney's shoe store, Van Vliet relocated to Rancho Cucamonga, California, to reconnect with Zappa, who inspired his entry into musical performance.

Van Vliet was quite shy but was eventually able to imitate the deep voice of Howlin ' Wolf with his wide vocal range.

Van Vogt's father, a lawyer, moved his family several times and his son found these moves difficult, remarking in later life:

Although the press reported that he was engaged to vaudeville dancer and choreographer Rose Rolanda in 1924, Hopwood's close friend Carl Van Vechten confirmed in later years that it was all a publicity stunt.

A year later, while promoting Van Helsing, he mentioned on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that he wanted to make the movie soon.

Van Loo, passing by in 1720, bought it and later assisted the young painter.

Although Van Gogh never boarded with him, Pissarro did explain to him the various ways of finding and expressing light and color, ideas which he later used in his paintings, notes Lucien.

Among the later shows produced at Desilu were: The Andy Griffith Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Lucy Show, and Star Trek.

" Van Tassel later described the historic play to the United Press :" I was the right halfback, and on this formation played one yard back of our right tackle.

Furthermore, as noted by Bohr, Moseley's law provided a reasonably complete experimental set of data that supported the ( new from 1911 ) conception by Ernest Rutherford and Antonius Van den Broek of the atom, with a positively-charged nucleus surrounded by negatively-charged electrons in which the atomic number is understood to be the exact physical number of positive charges ( later discovered and called protons ) in the central atomic nuclei of the elements.

Though not a direct participant in Berlin Dada's activities, he employed Dadaist ideas in his work, used the word itself on the cover of Anna Blume, and would later give Dada recitals throughout Europe on the subject with Theo Van Doesburg, Tristan Tzara, Hans Arp and Raoul Hausmann.

They later built some rudimentary stone-houses around the area now called Nam Van.

As a young man, Reagan raced boats and later also sold them at a Sea Ray boat dealership in Van Nuys, California.

Abraham Van Buren supported the American Revolution and later the Jeffersonian Republicans.

Van Buren received a basic education at a poorly lit schoolhouse in his native village and later studied Latin briefly at the Kinderhook Academy and at Washington Seminary in Claverack.

Three days later on March 10, the Vikings hired new head coach Bud Grant to replace Van Brocklin, who had resigned on February 11, 1967.

Roel Van Duijn reported in the Dutch national newspaper Trouw on September 5, 1998, and later in the quarterly Skepter of the Dutch organisation Skepsis that following advice of a macrobiotic counselor over conventional medical treatments resulted in the death of his wife.

Van Geel later said that he respected the coalition agreement and would not press for a ban during the current government's tenure.

* 1642 – Abel Tasman becomes the first European to discover the island Van Diemen's Land ( later renamed Tasmania ).

* November 24 – Abel Tasman becomes the first European to discover the island Van Diemen's Land ( later renamed Tasmania ).

Decades later, percussionist Howard Van Hyning of the New York City Opera had been searching for a proper set of gongs and obtained the original set from the Stivanello Costume Company, which had acquired the gongs as the result of winning a bet.

This was the first national election for Martin Van Buren of New York, who was put on the ticket to succeed John C. Calhoun as vice-president and four years later would succeed Jackson as president.

At the time of Calhoun's vote to end Van Buren's political career, it was not clear who the candidates of the Democrats would be in the election later that year.

Dillinger and Van Meter reunited with Nelson a week later and went into hiding.

Dodge also offered a cargo version of its best-selling Caravan for many years, at first calling it the Mini Ram Van ( a name originally applied to short-wheelbase B-Series Ram Vans ) and later dubbing it the Caravan C / V ( for " Cargo Van ").

Norm Hiscock, Gary Campbell, and Frank Van Keeken were co-members and later became writers on the show.