{"id":28903,"date":"2025-11-25T08:32:49","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T08:32:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=28903"},"modified":"2025-11-25T10:08:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T10:08:17","slug":"music-discovering-beefheart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=28903","title":{"rendered":"MUSiC: Discovering Beefheart"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I came to Beefheart via a compilation cassette, or mixtape, in modern parlance, that a pal made for me, when we were both at secondary school. Thanks Edwin Wright, wherever you are (last spotted in Ely!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edwin put just one Beefheart track on said tape: \u2018Pachuco Cadaver\u2019, from TMR. I loved it, right from the get go. But for quite a long time I had no idea who it was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ah, the memories\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At the time – early\/mid teens – I was starting to go into Cambridge on my own. My favourite destinations were record shops: Andy\u2019s Records, Parrot Records, Garon. It was at a branch of Andy\u2019s that I finally bought this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And, lo and behold, within the labyrinth of musical madness herein, I found \u2018Pachuco Cadaver\u2019. Hallelujah!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll always be chuffed that, for me, my route into the heart of Beefheart\u2018s musical genius was – like the music itself – immediate, and visceral. I knew it was unusual. But far from finding it grating, I adored it. Right from the outset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For years after discovering this stuff, I\u2019d hear about folk \u2018finally getting it\u2019, along with the oft-repeated – and ludicrously wide of the mark – myth that Beefheart taught the entire band how to play, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many years later I saw John \u2018Drumbo\u2019 French, fronting a band keeping Beefheart\u2019s musical legacy alive, at The Junction, in Cambridge (UK). I also interviewed him<\/a>, whilst I was working for Drummer <\/em>magazine. The gig was pretty poorly attended. And Drummer<\/em> chose not to run the Drumbo piece. A sad reflection that Beefheart remains firmly on the outside.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I came to Beefheart via a compilation cassette, or mixtape, in modern parlance, that a pal made for me, when we were both at secondary school. Thanks Edwin Wright, wherever you are (last spotted in Ely!). Edwin put just one Beefheart track on said tape: \u2018Pachuco Cadaver\u2019, from TMR. I loved it, right from the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “MUSiC: Discovering Beefheart”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"MUSiC: Discovering Beefheart","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-7wb","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28903"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28903"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28911,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28903\/revisions\/28911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}