Captain Beefheart obituary

Discordant and mesmeric, the 1960s Magic Band singer Don Van Vliet was rhythm and blues based but completely unorthodox; latterly he won fame as an artistCaptain Beefheart, Don Van Vliet, who has died at the age of 69, was one of the most influential American musicians of the 1960s and early 1970s. His status was always cult rather than commercial, and for most of his career he was broke.Yet he remained a hero to most of the musical avant garde – the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and the M...

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