Don Van Vliet
"The Gray Twist", 1988
Oil on canvas.
163 x 134 cm
Don van Vliet at Thee Experience sometime in late November or Early December of 1969.
11/28/69, Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band begin performing at Thee Experience in Hollywood, California. The venue had a large painting of Jimi Hendrix on it with the front door as his mouth! It was also the first performance with Art Tripp III (Ed Marimba) on the drums, who would become one of the core members of the Magic Band until 1974. I've got no audio of it, sadly, but these sepia-tone pictures tell a tale with Don in his one-of-a-kind Trout Mask Replica era garb.
"In short, I was fed up with Frank. I had met Don at Frank’s log cabin in Laurel Canyon. He invited me over to hear the band, but I shined it on. Later I met him and the Magic Band guys when they and the Mothers played a benefit together at the Aquarius Theater in Hollywood. (Don Ellis and Canned Heat were among the other acts). I went out front to hear their music, and it knocked me out. After the show he again invited me out to Ensenada Drive. Soon after, Frank disbanded the Mothers at the end of ’69 to form a “power quartet” consisting of him, me, Ian Underwood, and a singer/bass player named –I think– Jeff Simmons. I couldn’t stand the guy, and since Frank wasn’t making the rehearsals, I started backing away. We did play one gig together. Probably the only time –outside of the earlier benefit– a Zappa band ever played with a Beefheart band. It was at a club called “Thee Experience” (yeah, I know) on the east Sunset Strip owned by Marshall Brevitz, who’d had a similar club in Miami. I played drums for both bands at that show." -
Art Tripp III, 'Ed Marimba’
from the legendary and always fascinating Beefheart expert Lynn's Live Lounge
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