The Captain was a wild experimentalist using his voice, with its unusually wide range, free-associative, often seeming random lyrics, and warped sense of humor to create some of the oddest, yet strangely accessible songs, ever recorded. His music blended rock, blues, and psychedelia with free jazz, avant-garde and contemporary experimental composition.
He was a notorious control freak, driving his band through endless rehearsals until they were insanely tight. He recorded a fair amount of albums in the late 60s and early 70s, never achieving commercial success, but building a loyal cult following. He went dark in the late 70s, but came back strong with two of his best albums Doc at the Radar Station in 1980 and Ice Cream for Crow in 1982.
Unfortunately, that was the end of his recording career. He spent the remaining years of his life as a semi-recluse in Humboldt County, California, painting. He died in December, 2010.
My favorite, Doc at the Radar Station (1980). The cover artwork is his.
One of his paintings, Cross-Poked Shadow of a Crow, No. 1.
One of his paintings, Cross-Poked Shadow of a Crow, No. 1.
His classic piece of eclectic weirdness, the late-sixties double album Trout Mask Replica, has one of my favorite lines of his thrown in at random at the front of an unrelated track: "The squid, eating dough in a polyethelene bag, is fast and bulbous. Get me?"
I did. And so did lots of others.
P.
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