ehhh.

how unfortunate is the news about Captain Beefheart?

all i can think of is this story that a record shop owner told me a while back.

i was standing outside flipping through the dollar records and we started talking about how business was going, the usual sort of thing since i hadn’t been around in a handful of months. the shop owner begins telling me about how there’s not a lot of customers, but the people that come in usually leave with a decent haul. shaking his head, he points at the shop across the way and tells me that other store was the worst part of owning his record shop.

“day in and day out, they were playing this same album of celtic songs. don’t get me wrong, i can enjoy it for a little while, but after two weeks of hearing the same thing over and over, i couldn’t stand it anymore.

“so here’s what i do: i go home one night and dig through my own personal collection of records and come back the next day with one. i set up my speakers outside, turn ‘em way up, and drop the needle on Trout Mask Replica. the next day, no more of that celtic stuff.”

he lit up a cigarette and went on to tell me about how Don Van Vliet would threaten to shoot anyone that came onto his property to talk about his years as Captain Beefheart since he had supposedly entirely disassociated himself from it. he then clarified by saying that Van Vliet probably would have tried to shoot anyone that came onto his property regardless.

i’m not sure if there were any legitimacy to that last bit, but i can’t really help but kind of smirk thinking about the whole thing and really, i suppose that is better than feeling down.

(click-through for “Electricity”! on a beach!)