Don Van Vliet

Born: 15th January 1941, Glendale, California, USA. Died: 17th December 2010, of complications from multiple sclerosis, in Arcata, California, USA. First recorded appearance: "A Low Forceps Delivery", featuring Don Glen Vliet, at Glendale Research Hospital 16:25 hours on 15/01/41. Don Van Vliet, aka [a=Captain Beefheart], vocalist, harp-player, saxophonist, flautist, songwriter, lyricist, poet & painter. Frontman of The Magic Band and artist with a dozen official albums and more besides. An often perverse career path, interwoven with Frank Zappa, followed by 'retirement' in 1982 when he went to live in seclusion with his wife [a=Jan Van Vliet] and paint full-time. He subsequently released some poetic works, which accompanied his art portfolios & exhibitions. His career in music & art featured in the BBC documentary "The Artist Formerly Known As Captain Beefheart", with narration by & vignettes by , , , & other past members of (In late April 1966 Vliet enrolled for 3 months with the American Federation Of Television And Radio Artists, using the pen-name of Don Van Vliet with a hand-scrawled caveat of "Captain Beefheart" added to the document - see images).

Vliet's compositions & tracks have also featured in the following films: "Abba Zaba" in [i]Something In The Air[/i] (2012); "Clear Spot" in [i]How To Be[/i] (2008) and [i]Things We Lost In The Fire[/i] (2007); "Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles" in [i]The Big Lebowski[/i] (1998) and vocals on Nitzsche's "Hard Workin' Man" in [i]A Civil Action[/i] (1998) and [i]Blue Collar[/i] (1978); "Electricity" in [i]Entourage[/i] (TV show, Season 5).