Captain Beefheart

USA, 1964–1982

Stage name of Don Van Vliet. Trout Mask Replica (1969) breaks Delta blues into deliberately non-aligned parts across separate instruments, an approach later cited by post-punk and alternative musicians.

MusicRoots documents 6 artists who influenced Captain Beefheart and 5 artists Captain Beefheart influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.

Who influenced Captain Beefheart?

• Howlin' Wolf — Van Vliet built his signature growl by imitating Howlin' Wolf — the Chicago-blues voice at the centre of Beefheart's sound.
• Muddy Waters — Muddy Waters's electric Chicago blues was a core source Van Vliet absorbed before fracturing it.
• Robert Johnson — The Delta blues of Robert Johnson was foundational to Beefheart's raw material — the purest blues element Ry Cooder said he built from.
• Son House — Son House's Delta blues was among the earliest music Van Vliet absorbed.
• Ornette Coleman — Ornette Coleman's free jazz was the other half of Beefheart's formula — Ry Cooder described it as raw blues plus 'the free jazz Ornette Coleman thing'.
• John Coltrane — John Coltrane's crazy time signatures fed Beefheart's polyrhythmic fracture — the Magic Band studied Coltrane's 'Africa Brass' and Village Vanguard recordings.

Which artists did Captain Beefheart influence?

• The Fall — Captain Beefheart's angular, atonal art-rock is a clear ancestor of The Fall's jagged sound.
• Auktyon — Auktyon's angular, free-form experimentalism sits in the lineage of Captain Beefheart, another Fyodorov touchstone.
• Pixies — When Black Francis began writing for the Pixies he was, by his own account, 'listening to nothing but Hüsker Dü, Captain Beefheart and Iggy Pop' — Beefheart's fractured blues-surrealism a core source.
• PJ Harvey — Harvey has said her staple listening since childhood was Howlin' Wolf, Captain Beefheart and Hendrix; Beefheart's broken blues shapes the guitar on Dry and Rid of Me.
• The Black Keys — Captain Beefheart's warped, primitive blues is part of the off-kilter garage-blues palette Auerbach brought to the Black Keys.