Chords for Captain Beefheart - Paul Moyer KABC-TV Eyewitness Interview (HQ)

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [E] A garage in Van Nuys.
A band is preparing for [A] a European tour, _ rehearsing some of
the most original music this [E] side of Venus.
This man's music.
He's been called
the father of the new wave.
One of the most important American composers of the
last 50 years.
A [Db] primitive genius.
Don't know who he is?
You're not alone.
In 15
years he's never really had a hit record.
He lives reclusively [E] in a trailer
somewhere in the [A] Mojave Desert.
His name is Don Van Fleet [Db] and he dedicates his
music to animals and children.
The world knows him as Captain Beefheart.
_ [A] _ _ Now there's a woman's gotta _ hit a man to make him know she's [Db] a_
[B] Back in 1956.
56.
Yeah, [G] oh that was a good year.
Do you remember?
I remember that very well.
I was in high school.
That was a good one.
Yeah, what ever [Bb] went to school?
Ever?
Ever, even kindergarten.
Are you serious?
That's no education at all.
None.
No.
Why not?
[A] Aren't kids supposed to go to school?
They're supposed to, but if you want to_
I'm still a kid.
You [N] say I didn't go to school, I'm still a kid.
If you want to be a
different fish, you gotta jump out of the school.
I think that Beefheart's way of
approaching [E]
words, of approaching [Bb] sounds, of approaching instruments is very much
that [B] of a child at play.
At a very young age he [D] decided in effect not to grow up.
[B] So he has this [A] kind of diffuse _ undifferentiated consciousness that
children have, that mystics have, that great artists have.
_ Contemporary American
listeners have gotten used to a steady beat, a regular [D] chord changes, a sweet
melody.
_ What Beefheart [Dm] tries to do is to shake us out of that. _ _ _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _
[B] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [C] Rock and roll is a fixation.
_ [F] Bum bum [E] bum [G] bum bum mama [A] heartbeat. _ _
_ [Bb] I don't like hypnotics.
You see, I mean I'm doing [B] a non _ -hypnotic music to break up the catatonic state.
[Bb] _ _ _
And I think there is one right now.
[A] _ _ _
_ _ The big deal. _ _
_ _ _ _ [D] Come on down to the big deal.
Come _ on down to the big deal.
Come on down to the big deal. _ _ _ _
Big deal.
_ _ The Minnesota Institute. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ The [G] way it's going [D] for real time is, you know you just can't lose.
_ I can see a dinosaur walking in the house.
Oh, what a show.
_ _ But I'm told that they brought me down here and as soon [Dm] as the car door opened I ran out, you know, to [G] go down and see an [D] actual dinosaur.
_ Maybe a [G] _
dire wolf or a saber-toothed tiger even, if I [Db] could get it on the way down.
[D] I want to actually see one and I try to go in there.
[F] This is the [D] big deal.
And because Los Angeles, [B] a lot of credence. _
[Bbm] How do you teach these musicians to play your music?
_ _ [C] _ _ _ [Bb] Quip.
_ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
I mean [Bb] _ a kind of quip.
[D] A kind of, well, how?
You know, tape, [B] you know, with the piano, a tape.
And it's very hard work and [G] they'll probably all leave after I say this, but they don't get enough [E] money.
I _
[Em] can't beat dinosaurs.
Now [G] it's up to you [Am] to choose.
[C] _ _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ [N] What if they ad-lib musically?
What if they want to put in a little bit of their [Bb] own?
_ Ouch.
See, it's you.
_ Me.
_ I'm an only child.
I'm a tyrant.
[D] You're a terracible.
What groups like the B-52s, Blondie, Public Image [Bb] Limited and others have taken from Captain Beefheart
is a very specific way of [F] playing the guitars, playing [Db] drums and structuring [Bb] melodies.
They're [Bm] taking your music, incorporating your music into their ideas and it's making them a lot of [Bb] money. _
_ _ [B] And they ought to give me some of that money. That's right.
And they should give me some of that money.
Now everybody that you mention, I want my [Bb] money.
Pay, pay, pay.
No, [E] pay, pay, pay, pay.
[D] In plain view, it's Captain Beefheart.
_ [Bb] _ _ _ _ _
Captain, don't you want to make money?
Sure.
Then why don't you go commercial?
_ [N] I think either I'm too smart or too [Bb] dumb.
I don't know which.
_ _ Well, maybe the [B] captain did go commercial.
Sort of.
In his 1971 TV [Bb] spot, he wrote and [Bm] directed.
But it was banned by a local station.
_ New on _ reprise, [E] it's Lick My Decals Off Baby.
[D] Lick My Decals Off Baby?
What I meant was get rid of the labels, coming [C] children.
_ [G] _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ [D] _
_ _ [F] _ _ [G] _ _ _ [C] _
_ [D] _ [G] _ _ _ [F] _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [C] _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [B] _ _ _
[G] I'm a [Bb] painter.
_ _ [Em] _ [F] Primarily.
[G] It's hard to [Em] talk about _ painting.
It's [F] hard to talk about music.
[G] _ _ [Em] It's hard to talk [D] about_
It's hard [B] to talk.
_ I did a _ _ _ [D] painting of my wife and I_
_ [F] Obviously that's me because you can tell by the figures.
What's the most important thing in your life?
You've mentioned [G] ecology, you've mentioned animals, you've mentioned [F] the music, you've mentioned_
What's really important to you right now?
What's the most important thing to you?
[Bb] My wife.
[F] _
Definitely.
_ _ Definitely. _
That is the most important thing [Bb] to me. _ _
_ Sorry, girls. _ _ _
Thank you.
[B] _ _ _ That's a good man.
Oh, yeah! _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
I don't like music.
I like the good sounds.
Because _ _ music is just black ants crawling across white paper.