While traveling to Australia, I heard the news that the world had lost another genius (I understand, this will keep happening the longer that I live). Though he hadn't made music for nearly thirty years, Don Van Vliet - Captain Beefheart - had made enough music to fill most of our heads with wonder until we disappear into the void ourselves. His was a strange, difficult, complicated gift, adding to the rock & roll idiom ideas beyond its immediacy & passion - though Beefheart had those too - ideas perhaps more suited to jazz or classical music. I confess, it was hard to get into him, but when his work clicked, it clicked into place as if it had belonged there all along.
I did my sorry best to celebrate his life with his songs & others' interpretations of his songs, on a sub show on WRFL Thursday. You can listen to it here. Even if I didn't manage to show off a fraction of his brilliance, I hope it caused someone listening - or someone still to listen - to want to seek his work out more. It's what a deejay usually wants.
How grateful I am I live in a time where his music has been preserved for me to listen to as long as I can!
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