Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band • Hot Head • Live on SNL • 22 November 1980

Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band • Hot Head • Live on SNL • 22 November 1980 • This month it is forty years since the August 1980 release of the album Doc at the Radar Station by Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band. To commemorate, here’s my newly cleaned-up ve To commemorate, here’s my newly cleaned-up version of this Saturday Night Live performance of Hot Head, the opening track from Doc at the Radar Station. • Captain Beefheart was the stage name of Don Van Vliet, an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and visual artist. Vliet made music in conjunction with an ever-changing cast of musicians called The Magic Band, with whom he recorded 13 studio albums between 1964 and 1982. Beefheart’s music blended elements of blues, free jazz, rock, and avant-garde composition with idiosyncratic rhythms, surrealist wordplay, and his wide vocal range, commonly reported as five octaves. Known for his enigmatic persona, Beefheart frequently constructed myths about his life, and was known to exercise an almost dictatorial control over his supporting musicians. After a few years in creative and/or contractual hassles wilderness, Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band’s penultimate album, 1980’s Doc at the Radar Station, was a righteous return to form. It combined some of the best elements of the ground-breaking early 70’s records. At the same time, knowingly or not the album managed to be contemporary and complimentary to some of the adventurous new music artists of the time. The album was well received, and garnered rave reviews, “a new album that’s turned out to be his best record in years, and very possibly the best of his career”, wrote Robert Palmer in his September 1980 review in the New York Times. The Doc at the Radar Station tour started in late October 1980, with extensive UK and European dates. It seems that the SNL TV appearance, was the first show after returning to the US. SNL’s Hal Wilner has said that the performance was not hugely appreciated by the studio audience, “Captain Beefheart had tones that a lot of people can’t handle,” he recalled. “And when (the band) finished, not one person in the audience clapped, and one guy from the balcony yelled, ‘Shit!'”. Apparently the person yelling was Radames Pera, the once child actor who played “Grasshopper” in the TV show “Kung Fu". Magic Band drummer, Robert Williams has said, “After the show we went to an after show party at a bar in Manhatten with the cast including Malcom MacDowell. Charles Rocket introduced me to Radames and we became friends. I gave him the Beefheart sales pitch and managed to convert him into a fan.” Despite the less than ecstatic audience reaction, the band returned to play a second Doc at the Radar Station tune, Ashtray Heart. The tour continued through the US and Canada and after about 70 shows, it finished in January 1981. There was to be no shows for the final Beefheart album, 1982’s Ice Cream For Crow. And therefore, the two nights at The Golden Bear, Huntington Beach, California seem to have been the final concerts performed by Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band. After the release of the Ice Cream For Crow album, Don Van Vliet pursued a career in painting. He died in 2010, at the age of 69. • Love for the music of Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band first came to me via the Doc at the Radar Station album. Nick Cave and Tracy Pew, then of my favourite band, The Birthday Party, had featured a track from the album as part of a favourite music interview thing on (if I recall correctly) Scandinavian radio. I was surprised how similar the Beefheart track was to The Birthday Party’s music. And so were Nick and Tracey. They freely admitted the similarities, but they claimed it was merely a coincidence, having only recently heard Beefheart’s music when others had pointed out to them the similarities. Anyway, I’ve always wanted to find a decent version of the great 1980 SNL performances. Even the best versions out there are spoiled by the fact they run about 4% slow and are out of sync with the rather flat audio. Here those issues have been addressed, and the picture has been improved somewhat. Thanks for watching, hope you dig it! • Credits Video and Audio: Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band • Hot Head • Live on Saturday Night Live • Season 6 Episode 2 • 22nd November 1980 • NBC TV Musicians: Vocals • Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet) Drums • Robert Williams Guitar • Richard ‘Midnite Hatsize’ Snyder Guitar • Jeff Moris Tepper Keyboards & Bass • Eric Drew Feldman • Always more videos to follow, so please keep your electric eye on me babe! I don't own the rights, and I'm not making any money out of this etc. Just a fan making videos for other fans. Please Share, Like, Comment, Subscribe NachosVideos.com Facebook.com/TheNachoVideos YouTube.com/NachoVideo ok.ru/nachovideo DailyMotion.com/NachosVideos Instagram.com/NachoVideo Twitter.com/NachosVideos TheNachoVideos@gmail.com I edit, therefore I am