Yes, Captain Beefheart himself is 69 today. It’s no secret that he’s popular in the house of Wow Cool. Just released from Proper Records is the long-awaited biography by long-time Magic Band member and arranger John (Drumbo) French, Beefheart: Through the Eyes of Magic. It appears that the book is currently only available in the UK and Europe, and, as of this writing, it is not yet in stock from Amazon, but is available through other sellers from Amazon.co.uk. For readers of the excellent, and up-until-now definitive Beefheart Bio by Mike Barnes, it’s been a long wait for this book, as French heavily teased that he was working on his own book back then and revealed relatively little of that mystical hermetic life as a member of the Magic Band. Proper also released French’s latest album Drumbo: City of Refuge last year, and it is solidly in the Magic Band tradition and well worth getting.
