portrait of this blog's author - by Stephen Blackman 2008

Friday, March 01, 2024

Dylan of The Day : Bob on Beefheart (any excuse!)

Bob Dylan, speaking on his radio show 'Theme Time Radio Hour'


“Mel Blanc did a million voices, but our next artist just did one, but it’s heck of a voice. Don Van Vliet was born in Glendale, California. He stopped performing in the ’80s and focused on his painting. He was a really good painter, but I wish he made more records. This song is about a frozen treat and a corvid. Wanna know what a corvid is? It’s a type of bird. Crows, ravens, jays, and magpies are all corvids, and they are some of the most intelligent of all the birds. Here’s a song that goes as straight as the crow flies - Captain Beefheart and Ice Cream For Crow.” 


http://www.beefheart.com/beefheart-on-theme-town-radio-hour/


Bob had previously played ‘Click Clack’ in his show More Trains



Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band; directed by Don Van Vliet (with much uncredited assistance from producer Ken Schreiber), cinematography by Daniel Pearl (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre); Don Van Vliet (vocals, harp), Gary Lucas (guitar), Jeff Tepper (guitar), Rick Snyder (bass), Cliff Martinez (drums); filmed on location in the High Mojave Desert near Lancaster, California; clip rejected by MTV USA as "too weird" upon release, now in the Permanent Film and Video Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, NYC; track taken from the 1982 Virgin album "Ice Cream for Crow"

It’s so hot
looks like you have three beaks crow
the moon’s so full
white hat on a pumpkin
you know there’s something
the moon was a stone’s throw
stop the show
I need to say hello
to the crow
light the fire piano
the moon showed up
and it started to show
tonight there’d be ice cream
ice cream for crow
ice cream for crow
sun cream by day
ice cream for crow
ice cream by night
ice cream by day
the sun ain’t stable
ice cream for crow
crow pants the scarecrow
crow dance ah ho ho
crow dance ah panther
scare crow you answer
you can hee and haw
laugh and scratch
ha ha ha
ha ha ha
boss and toss
don’t shake my hand
give me your claw
two tears in a haystack
scarecrow get back
tonight there’s gonna be
a feather treatment
beneath the symbol
we’ll all assemble
oh how we’ll fly
oh how we’ll tremble
cut the cake
we’ll all get well
turn up the speakers
hop flop squawk
it’s a keeper
ice cream for show
ice cream for crow
now now that’s it
now you can go

(1982)

slightly clearer use of the cover painting for Ice Cream here from the EP single
 'Light Reflected Off The Oceands of The Moon'

 

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