ELECTRICITY!

                                            Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart)

I promised to post some Beefheartian drum transcriptions and promptly procrastinated. WTF-almost 50 years after Safe as Milk was released, the fist ever posting/publishing of a Beefheart drum transcription, albeit a rough transcription at best. First five measures are the introduction, the last measure is the main rhythm of the song which John French describes as a quasi conga line rhythm derived from the guitar lines. The transcription is from John's demonstration in the "corny/out of context" film  Captain Beefheart: Under Review.

                                              The year is 1967. The song is Electricity:

                                            The drummer is John "Drumbo" French:

                                                         .
                                                     The transcription is below:

(PDF)

Lick My Decals Off Baby

Random Tasty Treat

Question: Why is there not more interest in the amazing drumming of Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band?

• Combine free jazz, psychedelia, delta blues, expressionism etc. mix and push your drummer down the stairs and go Daryl Dixon on your scary guitarist. 
• I hope to get some posts going, attempting to transcribe some Beefheartian rhythmic ideas.

Here is one of the best live versions of Don Van Vlieit's (aka Captain Beefheart) music short of the Magic Band themselves. Features Swedish drummer extraordinaire- Morgan Ågren.