An awareness that John Lennon allegedly owned two copies of Safe As Milk and the knowledge that Beefheart was being actively touted by the iconic underground DJ John Peel added to the cachet, but from the opening notes of Sure 'Nuff 'n Yes I Do Hughesy was hooked.
There's the odd less than stellar track lurking there, but through Zig Zag Wanderer, Dropout Boogie, Electricity, Yellow Brick Road, Abba Zabba, Plastic Factory, Where There's Woman and Grown So Ugly there's a wealth of swirling, churning, rolling and tumbling guitars, wailing mouth harp and vocals that soar and plummet between the basement and the penthouse. It's really a quite remarkable album, and one that I'll be exploring more thoroughly in an in progress Rear View here.
That's still a work in progress, and in the meantime the obituaries, of course, will deliver far more detail, so here are links to:
The Guardian and again and yet again
Rolling Stone and from further back
a tribute from guitarist Gary Lucas and drummer John “Drumbo” French.
Lester Bangs on Beefheart (Who’s Lester Bangs?)
a tribute from NPR in the USA
and some YouTube footage, including Part 1 of a six part documentary (links to the other episodes in the side bar)
Beefheart recites poetry
and his art work.