Notes for Gary Lucas' Captain Beefheart Symposium, recorded live at The Independent, San Francisco, CA Feb. 11, 2011

Source: Tascam DR-1, internal mics, 48kHz/24b
Lineage: DR-1 files->Audacity 1.3.12 (various filters & strip to 16b)->CD Wave->TLH-> FLAC 6

Gary Lucas, former manager and guitarist of the last Magic Band, has been holding "Captain Beefheart Symposiums" around the country over the past few months. This was the second since Don's passing, the first having been held in LA in January.

Lots of interesting tidbits in this. He started off showing a few videos (if you got the retrospective I posted recently many of these are - at least in part - on that; complete versions are available elsewhere), then brings up a variety of speakers, many of whom read Don's poems, then plays some songs on guitar. It was a very enjoyable evening. V. Vale, the publisher of RE/Search Magazine, made the point that this should be considered a wake for Don - I thought that was a very cogent point.

Guests
Jerry Harrison, Talking Heads and Producer of Gary's new CD "Gods & Monsters"
Terry Van Vliet, Don's cousin
Terry looked like he was going to break down when he begans speaking about the talk he had with Jan the day Don died; in five minutes he gives us an amazing picture of Don, then read a very moving and beautiful poem he wrote for Don
Francis McCarthy, friend of Gary's
Phil Brown, engineer on Ice Cream For Crow
Mark Blake, friend of Gary's
Vic Vale, the publisher of Search and Destroy, RE/Search, and others
Ralph Carney, of Tin Huey

I would urge you to attend if this comes to your area (see http://garylucas.com/www/capt/ ) for more information. In addition, since Gary is such an awesome guitarist regardless you should support him anyway! He's about to head out to the Czech Republic for some gigs - I'm jealous: drink some pilsner from Plzen and see him in Prague (or elsewhere)!!

Sorry about residual noise; the DR-1 was in my shirt pocket...I've also included some photos I took.

Note that this recording is 48kHz, not 44.1kHz.

Tracks

01 Introduction by Gary Lucas 7:43
02 Diddy Wah Diddy video 2:04
03 Electricity video (Cannes, France) 3:58
04 When Big Joan Sets Up video -> 6:22
05 Hair Pie Bake III video -> 0:17
06 Woe-is-uh-Me-Bop video -> 2:30
07 Bellerin' Plain video 3:49
08 Lick My Decal's Off, Baby commercial 1:15
09 Flavor Bud Living video (France, 1980) 1:26
10 Bat Chain Puller video (France, 1980) 5:22
11 Ice Cream For Crow video (rejected by MTV) 4:43
12 Gary talks about the making of the ICFC video 8:26
13 Introduction of Jerry Harrison 1:41
14 Jerry Speaks and reads a couple poems 3:07
15 Gary thanks Jerry 0:21
16 Introduction of Terry Van Vliet; Terry speaks 5:02
17 Terry reads the poem: Captain Beefheart at the Roxy 3:03
18 Gary wonders where Victor Hayden (The Mascara Snake) is 0:09
19 Gary introduces Francis McCarthy; Francis speaks and reads some poems 6:43
20 "Horror films are the only true reality" 1:47
21 Gary and Phil Brown speak 16:38
22 Mark Blake reads "You Should Know by the Kindness of a Dog, the Way a Human Should Be" 1:59
23 V. Vale 5:52
24 Marion Vale, "the token girl," reads her recollection 7:22
25 Ralph Carney 2:33
26 Gary talks about Don's composition "method" and his guitar 1:34
27 Gary plays a medly starting with "Sure Nuff N' Yes I Do" and "Ice Cream for Crow" (acoustic) 4:20
28 Gary talks about Don and the details of Evening Bell 12:35
29 Gary plays "Evening Bell" (electric) 3:22

Enjoy!