Captain Beefheart Videography

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LEGEND:

TTB => Thought To Be

? => Don’t have a clue

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Source: Where the Action Is - TV show
Date: 1966 (144th day?)

RunTime: 4:18
Songs: Who Do You Think You’re Foolin’?, Diddy Wah Diddy
Video: Very Good- B/W
Audio: Very Good
CBHK
Comments: CB and MB on a Southern California beach. Kids playing in the sand, people frolicking
in the surf, and ‘gogo’ dancers. Quite a sight. A rather clean cut Magic Band does two songs
for a local Dick Clarke show. Time bar superimposed throughout. Also superimposed: across the
top "Where the Action Is 144/66", lower left hand corner "BBC", lower right hand corner "dcpi".

Source: French TV
Date: Recorded Cannes Beach 1/27/68.

RunTime: 7:02
Songs: Electricity, Sur ‘nough an’ yes I do
Video: Fair - B/W
Audio: Very Good
CB1
Comments: ‘INA’ superimposed down in right hand corner. INA: Institut National de l'Audiovisuel(Audiovisual National
Institute,some archive institution in France...) Shot on Cannes Beach Jan. 27, 1968. Still from
these sessions was used as the cover to the SAM-era compilation "Music in Sea Minor". Titles at
the start are in French.

Source: French TV
Date: Recorded Cannes Beach 1/27/68.
RunTime: 6:40
Songs: Electricity, Sur ‘nough an’ yes I do
Video: Good - Color
Audio: Very Good
CB3
Comments: Shot on Cannes Beach '68. Still from these sessions was used as the cover to the
SAM-era compilation "Music in Sea Minor".Titles at the start are in French. This version does
not have the voice over from the French announcer nor does it have ‘INA’ superimposed down in
right hand corner. Video pretty shakey to start with a couple of serious dropouts near the
beginning. This version slightly shorter than the B/W version.

Source: French TV
Date: Recorded Cannes Beach 1/27/68.
RunTime: 6:51
Songs: Electricity, Sur ‘nough an’ yes I do
Video: Excellent! Color
Audio: Excellent
CBPB
Comments: Shot on Cannes Beach '68. Titles at the start are in French. This version does
not have the voice over from the French announcer nor does it have ‘INA’ superimposed down in
right hand corner. Both sound and video are great. Time bar running across the bottom.
This version slightly shorter than the B/W version.

Source: Rome Goes Pop 68
Date: 1968

RunTime: 1:30
Songs: Sur ‘nough an’ Yes I Do
Video: Very Good - Color
Audio: Very Good
CB3,CBPB
Comments: This is a Beefheart oriented edit out of the show ‘Rome Goes Pop ‘68’. Show the band
live on stage performing the song. Cuts before end of song.

Source: Trout LP Promo
Date: 1969

RunTime: 5:15
Songs: ?
Video: Poor. B/W
Audio: Fair.
CB1
Comments: Could be from film TTB shot by/through Zappa during TMR sessions. Could be much more.

Source: Trout LP Promo
Date: 1969
RunTime: 5:06
Songs: ?
Video: Fair
Audio: Fair.
CB3
Comments: Could be from film TTB shot by/through Zappa during TMR sessions. Could be much more.
Video very dark in some spots although more can be seen on this version than the one on Video #1

Source: Trout LP Photo shoot
Date: 1969

RunTime: 2:00
Songs: The Captain's Fat Theresa Shoes
Video: Very Good.
Audio: Very Good.
CBMD
Comments: Film of the Trout Mask Replica photo shoot. Don is wearing the fish head and posing in front
of the red background we see on the cover of the album. Footage is dubbed over with a song by the GTOs
(Girls Together Outrageously). The song is called: The Captain's Fat Theresa Shoes
The notes with the song says: This is a song about a pair of crazed shoes Captain Beefheart wears.

Source: Zappa vault
Date: TTB 1969 or 1970

RunTime: ?
Songs: ?
Video:
Audio:
Comments: Per John French, the only live performance of the Trout Mask Replica band ever recorded
on film. Filmed by/through Zappa. Exists in his vaults?? Filmed in a club in LA. Other details
no longer retained.

Source: Amougies
Date: 10/29/69

RunTime: 6:00
Songs: ?
Video:
Audio:
Comments: Will be out on the 5 CD box set.

Source: Decals ad
Date: 1970

RunTime: 1:15
Songs: Woe-is-a-me-bop
Video: Fair. B/W
Audio: Good.
CB1
Comments: Just snippets of song with narration.

Source: Decals ad
Date: 1970
RunTime: 1:07
Songs: Woe-is-a-me-bop
Video: Good. B/W
Audio: Good.
CB3,CBMD
Comments: Just snippets of song.

Source: Zappa vault
Date: 1970 or ‘71

RunTime: ?
Songs: Big Joan, Woe is a me bop, Bellerin’ Plain
Video:
Audio:
Comments: 3 song promo film (never transferred to video) shot by Zappa and in his vault. Not
much chance it will ever see the light of day. Yes, I know those are the same three songs as
the following Detroit studio footage but this is different per John French. May include
Moonlight on Vermont.

Source: Warner vault
Date: 1971

RunTime: 13:02
Songs: Big Joan Sets Up, Woe-is-a-me-bop, Bellerin’ Plain
Video: Very Good
Audio: Very Good.
CB3,CB2,CB1,CBHK
Comments: Though many locations are listed for this clip (Kansas City, Wash DC, Cinci) I now
believe it to be shot in a studio in Detroit during the 1971 tour sponsored by Warner.
Absolutely amazing clip! May have been shown on the BBC at some point. May have been shown
on some local TV shows as promotional footage

Source: Warner vault "foot"age
Date: 1971

RunTime: 9:54
Songs: none
Video: Very good.
Audio: none.
CB3,CB2,CB1,CBHK
Comments: Done in the same studio and at the same time as the 71 Detroit studio footage. No
one seems to know why though. It’s just art I guess. It is footage of CB and the MB’s bare
feet. There is no audio on it.

Source: Documentary film
Date: 1971

RunTime: Feature length
Songs: ?
Video:
Audio:
Comments: Warner sponsored feature length film made of the ’71 tour with CB and MB and Ry Cooder
and his band. Directed by a guy named John Fizdale. Film can’t be located in the Warner vault
and Fizdale’s whereabouts are unknown. Both Ry and John French remember screening it in ’71 so
it did exist at some point.

Source: Spotlight Kid ad
Date: 1972

RunTime: :55
Songs: none
Video: Good. B/W
Audio: none.
CB3
Comments: Looks to be the inverse of the Decals ad above only at the end they show Spotlight Kid
LP cover rather than Decals. No sound on it.

Source: TTB Beat Club. Also thought to be shown on German TV.
Date: 1972

RunTime: 4:58
Songs: Booglarize ya Baby
Video: Ex. - Color. Weird camera effects throughout.
Audio: Good - some crackling
CB1,CB2,CB3
Comments:
Promotional footage (to be shown on various TV shows) and looks to
be shot by the same people who shot that live footage from 1971 -
which would place it as having been shot in a Warner Bros. promotional
studio. This is the 1972 band, as can be seen from the presence of Roy Estrada and the absence
of Drumbo. This is also available on a "Beat Club" laserdisc of dubious legality.

Source: German TV.
Date: 1972

RunTime: 5:21
Songs: Booglarize ya Baby
Video: Ex. - Color. Weird camera effects throughout.
Audio: Very Good
CBPB
Comments:
Here is the German TV version of the above with an intro. "N3" up in the left had corner throughout.
This is the 1972 band, as can be seen from the presence of Roy Estrada and the absence of Drumbo.

Source: Washington DC TV show
Date: TTB '71

RunTime: :60
Songs: ?
Video:
Audio:
Comments: OK, we have it on good authority by someone who remembers seeing it that this does exist.
Here is what they have to say "The show was called "Turn On", and was hosted by local DJ Barry Richards.
It aired on Saturdays on a local UHF station, WDCA-TV (Channel 20.) I don't remember a great deal
(I was young), but I do remember that the video was very dark -- this was typical for Turn On -- and
the band had some fun twirling what appeared to be rubber sparklers (they looked sort of like fan belts or
something.)

OK, SOMEBODY must have a copy of this. Let's hear about it!

Source: Culture Rock
Date: 1972

RunTime: 1:07
Songs: Click Clack
Video: Very Good - Color
Audio: Very Good
CB3,CBPB
Comments: Another edit of Beefheart material from a French show called Culture Rock.
Unfortunately, clip cuts before end of song. Clear Spot era band. More material from this show
thought to exist from Paris TV. Anyone who has a lead on this...

Source: Whistle Test
Date: 1973

RunTime: 4:48
Songs: Big Eyed Beans from Venus
Video: Very Good.
Audio: Very Good.
CB3,CBPB
Comments: Has the Old Grey Whistle Test guy introducing it as captured live at the Rainbow with
Big Eyed Beans from Venus but in the concert footage behind the song they seem to be playing
something else with maybe the CS lp version of Beans dub’ed on top. Don’t know why. At the end he
comes back on to say that was CB from the Rainbow with Big Eyed Beans from Venus but it sure
didn’t look like it. Has Id bar running throughout. Like to see original footage!

Source: BBC tape for French TV(?) with ID bar
Date: 1974

RunTime: 38:00
Songs: Instrumental, Mirror Man, My-oh-My, Full Moon Hot Sun, Crazy Little Thing, horn solo by
?, Peaches, ?
Video: Very Good - color.
Audio: Very Good.
CB3,CBPB
Comments: This version is in color and has id bar (not counting) across the top.

Source: BBC tape for French TV (Pub)
Date: 1974
RunTime: 36:56
Songs: Instrumental, Mirror Man, My-oh-My, Full Moon Hot Sun, Crazy Little Thing, horn solo by
?, Peaches,
Video: Very Good - color.
Audio: Very Good.
CB4
Comments: This version is in color. Part of a TV show. Pub on this version evidently means they will
be showing advertisments.

Source: BBC tape for French TV (Pub)
Date: 1974
RunTime: 36:56
Songs: Instrumental, Mirror Man, My-oh-My, Full Moon Hot Sun, Crazy Little Thing, horn solo by
?, Peaches,
Video: Very Good - B/W.
Audio: Very Good.
CB5
Comments: This version is in B/W. Part of a TV show. Pub on this version evidently means they will
be showing advertisments.

Source: TTB Whistle Test
Date: 1974

RunTime: 3:10
Songs: Peaches
Video: Good.
Audio: Good.
Comments:

Source: USA NightFlight
Date: 1974

RunTime: 2:37
Songs: Upon the My-O-My
Video: Excellent
Audio: Excellent
Comments: Remarks about Beefheart in crawl at the bottom of the screen. Lip synced. Same shirt as on
Ogwt,but miming a sketch where 2 guys pretend to give him a trophy...

Source: Old Grey Whistle Test
Date: 1974

RunTime: 3:22
Songs: Upon the My-O-My
Video: Fair/Very Good
Audio: Very Good.
Comments: Song restarts part way through with better video

Source: Old Grey Whistle Test
Date: 1974
RunTime: 2:20
Songs: Upon the My-O-My
Video: Very Good
Audio: Very Good.
BCPB
Comments: This version the audio and video are very good but has a couple of drops on the video. Shorter than the last
because the song doesn't restart part way through.

Source: Old Grey Whistle Test
Date: 1974

RunTime: 3:30
Songs: This is the Day
Video: Good +/ Very Good
Audio: Very Good.
CBPB
Comments: Video a little shakey at times. Audio warbles and drops a little a couple of times. Very watchable though. VH-1
shows in the upper right hand corner throughout.

Source: Old Grey Whistle Test
Date: 1974

RunTime: 7:02
Songs: This is the Day, Upon The My Oh My
Video: Very Good.
Audio: Very Good.
Comments: My oh My on video #1.

Source: Mudd Club, New York City
Date: 1980

RunTime: 35:00
Songs: Hair Pie (Feldman & Van Vliet duet), Best Batch Yet, Dirty Blue Gene (Beginning only),
Sugar N' Spikes , Ashtray Heart, Doctor Dark, Sheriff of Hong Kong (Beginning only), Making Love
to a Vampire with a monkey on my knee, Suction Prints (cuts away maybe 20 seconds before end),
Big-Eyed Beans
Video: Fair - Good
Audio: Good
CB2
Comments: Some of the songs are clipped and the fidelity is not very good. The camera shots are
not that great, though of course anything is interesting. They do a few tunes not done on other
video footage (a great "Sugar 'N Spikes", note-perfect pretty much, and an interesting thing of
Don blowing sax all over the "Hair Pie" bassline, which they open with).

Source: Mudd Club, New York City
Date: 1980
RunTime: 34:42
Songs: Hair Pie (Feldman & Van Vliet duet), Best Batch Yet, Dirty Blue Gene (Beginning only),
Sugar N' Spikes, Ashtray Heart, Doctor Dark, Sheriff of Hong Kong (Beginning only), Making Love
to a Vampire with a monkey on my knee (I'm told they only attempted this on stage 2 or 3 times),
Suction Prints (cuts away maybe 20 seconds before end), Big-Eyed Beans
Video: Fair.
Audio: Good.
CB4
Comments: Same as previous entry. Hand held in a dark venue. Shot from right up front though.
TTB shot by Gary Lucas. Low lighting requested by CB? Annoying people in audience.

Source: French TV
Date: 1980

RunTime: 27:14
Songs: Nowadays a Woman’s, Best Batch Yet, Dirty Blue Gene, Safe as Milk, Flavor Bud Living, Bat
Chain Puller, Big Eyed Beans from Venus
Video: Poor. Video starts out really faded but gets better.
Audio: Good.
Comments: Filmed in Paris and aired on a TV show called Chorus.

Source: French TV
Date: 1980
RunTime: 26:56
Songs: Nowadays a Woman’s, Best Batch Yet, Dirty Blue Gene, Safe as Milk, Flavor Bud Living, Bat
Chain Puller, Big Eyed Beans from Venus
Video: Very Good.
Audio: Very Good.
Comments: Filmed in Paris and aired on a TV show called Chorus.

Source: French TV
Date: 1980
RunTime: 28:31
Songs: Nowadays a Woman’s, Best Batch Yet, Dirty Blue Gene, Safe as Milk, Flavor Bud Living, Bat
Chain Puller, Big Eyed Beans from Venus
Video: Good +. Two drops. Bleeds a little.
Audio: Very Good.
CBPB
Comments: Filmed in Paris and aired on a TV show called Chorus. This version has three guy standing in the
street, one reading an introduction in French. This is the best copy of ones I have.

Source: California TV "Eye on LA"
Date: 1980

RunTime: 7:13
Songs: Nowadays a Woman’s, Big Dig, A Carrot Is As Close As A Rabbit Gets To A Diamond
Video: Good.
Audio: Good.
CB4,CB2
Comments: Some music, interview, and comments. The interviewer is Tom Moyer, a local anchor
- NOT a young Tom Snyder!

Source: Letterman
Date: 1982

RunTime: 11:00
Songs: Interview only
Video: Very Good.
Audio: Good.
Comments: Promoting "Ice Cream for Crow". First of the two Letterman appearances.

Source: Music Video
Date: 1982

RunTime: 5:11
Songs: Ice Cream for Crow
Video: Very Good
Audio: Very Good.
CBPB
Comments: One serious audio and video drop near the beginning.

Source: Saturday Night Live
Date: 11/22/80

RunTime: 7:40
Songs: Hot Head, Ashtray Heart
Video: Very Good
Audio: Very Good.
Comments: The person yelling "Shit!" at the end of the SNL performance was Radames Pera,
the once child actor playing "Grasshopper" in the TV show, "Kung Fu." He was
disgusted with the Beefheart performance. It was evidently his first exposure to Don's
music. The "yeah" that follows is from another person.

Source: Saturday Night Live
Date: 11/22/80
RunTime: 9:13
Songs: Hot Head, Ashtray Heart
Video: Excellent
Audio: Excellent
Comments: This version includes a longer shot of CB and the band at the end in the Saturday
Night Hug. Also a little longer as it includes more intro stuff.

Source: Letterman
Date: 1982

RunTime: 8:46
Songs: Interview only
Video: Fair
Audio: Very Good.
CB1
Comments: Promoting paintings.

Source: Local San Francisco news story
Date: 198?

RunTime: 1:34
Songs: Don says a few words.
Video: Very Good-
Audio: Very Good
Comments: San Francisco News piece on Art Exhibit opening. Don speaks, as do a few fans. Not sure of the date
but Don looks a bit like he does in the '94 Yo Yo Stuff. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art opening;KRON-TV,San Francisco,

Source: Anton Cordijn Film "Don Van Vliet - Some Yo Yo Stuff"
Date: 8/24/94

RunTime: 12:43
Songs: What Are We Going to do With You, Piano solo by Don
Video: Good
Audio: Very Good
CB4
Comments: Short film made by Anton Cordijn through the BBC. Consists of DVV speaking on various
topics. Sometimes questions/topics are posed by David Lynch (yes THE Lynch, not the other one).
What looks to be a 1994 Don is superimposed in the lower part of the screen while he answers or
comments. His lips never move though. His speech is extremely slow and somewhat labored. Sounds
like a victim of a stroke possibly. One of the most depressing things I’ve seen. No hope he’ll
ever make music again. At one point they ask him if he has heard any sounds lately and a piece on
the piano is played. He does an a capella during the beginning.

Source: Anton Cordijn Film "Don Van Vliet - Some Yo Yo Stuff"
Date: 8/24/94
RunTime: 7:30
Songs: What Are We Going to do With You, Piano solo by Don
Video: Excellent
Audio: Very Good
CB6
Comments: Short film made by Anton Cordijn through the BBC. Consists of DVV speaking on various
topics. Sometimes questions/topics are posed by David Lynch (yes THE Lynch, not the other one).
What looks to be a 1994 Don is superimposed in the lower part of the screen while he answers or
comments. His lips never move though. His speech is extremely slow and somewhat labored. Sounds
like a victim of a stroke possibly. One of the most depressing things I’ve seen. No hope he’ll
ever make music again. At one point they ask him if he has heard any sounds lately and a piece on
the piano is played. He does an a capella during the beginning. Unfortunately, while better
quality than the other version, this one cuts about half way through.

Source: The Artist Formerly Known as Captain Beefheart
Date: Broadcast 8/19/97

RunTime: :55
Songs: Video clips of: Sur’ nough Yes I do (from Cannes Beach clip - partial)
Diddy Wa Diddy (Beach Blanket Beefheart! - partial)
Electricity (from Cannes Beach clip - partial)
Unidentified - on stage with TMR band
Film clips from "the TRM house"
Clips from the Eyewitness Los Angeles piece
Lick My Decals commercial
Click Clack from 1971 - from Culture Club, partial
I’m Gonna Burglarize Ya Baby - from Beat Club, partial
CB talking about why he paints (need excercise) - 1971
Full Moon - French TV 1974, partial
Upon the My Oh My - Whistle Test 1974, partial
Best Batch Yet - French TV 1980, partial
Bat Chain Puller - French TV 1980, partial
Ice Cream for Crow video 1982, partial
CB talking about no more touring, rather paint - 1982
Video: Excellent
Audio: Very Good
CB6
Comments: Beefheart career retrospective broadcast on BBC. Put together some time earlier.
Interviews with Doug Moon, Ry Cooder, Frank Zappa, John French, Matt Goerning, Jimmy Carl Black,
Bruce Fowler, Eric Feldman.

Source: The Artist Formerly Known as Captain Beefheart
Date: Never broadcast

RunTime: :15
Songs:
Video: Excellent
Audio: Very Good
CB6
Comments: Beefheart career retrospective made for the Late Show on the BBC by Elaine Sheppard
but never broadcast. Elaine narrates this one. While shorter in length, it does have some clips not in the longer
version. Mostly having to do with DVV painting.