ART/POETRY/MUSIC: Painting of The Day - The Drazy Hoops No 1 - Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart - 'The Blimp' Trout Mask Replica)

'The Drazy Hoops, No.1'* - Don Van Vliet 1997, oil on canvas.

 

BLEEDING GOLDEN LADDER - Don Van Vliet

Bleeding golden ladder clacked night black lobsters

With one white sun charged shell someone sparkled

With tiny salt clusters popping with the deep pressures of space

Many reached the emery ocean n' glowed on it's bottom

Gripped with sand worn pincers for their life's place

Spent lose against tide ripples

Returned up the ladder to top light's return next night

*

'When I see you floatin’ down the gutter

I’ll give you uh bottle uh wine

Put me on the white hook

Back in the fat rack

Shad rack ee shack

The sumptin’ hoop the sumptin’ hoop

The blimp the blimp

The drazy hoops the drazy hoops'

The Blimp (mousetrap replica) - Trout Mask Replica

Master master
This is recorded thru uh flies ear
‘n you have t’ have uh flies eye t’ see it
It’s the thing that’s gonna make Captain Beefheart
And his magic band fat
Frank it’s the big hit
It’s the blimp
It’s the blimp Frank
It’s the blimp

When I see you floatin’ down the gutter
I’ll give you uh bottle uh wine
Put me on the white hook
Back in the fat rack
Shad rack ee shack
The sumptin’ hoop the sumptin’ hoop
The blimp the blimp
The drazy hoops the drazy hoops
They’re camp they’re camp
Tits tits the blimp the blimp
The mother ship the mother ship
The brothers hid under their hood
From the blimp the blimp
Children stop yer nursin’ unless yer renderin’ fun
The mother ship the mother ship
The mother ship’s the one
The blimp the blimp
The tapes uh trip it’s uh trailin’ tail
It’s traipse’n along behind the blimp the blimp
The nose has uh crimp
The nose is the blimp the blimp
It blows the air the snoot isn’t fair
Look up in the sky there’s uh dirigible there
The drazy hoops whir
You can see them just as they were
All the people stir
‘n the girls knees trembles
‘n run ‘n wave their hands
‘n run their hands over the blimp the blimp
Daughter don’t yuh dare
Oh momma who cares
It’s the blimp it’s the blimp.

The words were based on a newsreel of the Hindenburg airship crash.

The vocals were performed by Jeff Cotton, recorded by Frank Zappa over the telephone. This vocal track was then dubbed onto the backing track for the Mothers’ “Charles Ives” which Frank happened to be working on at the time.