Don Van Vliet 1941-2010
I'd like to offer my sincere condolences to his family, friends and especially his wife Jan. We will miss you greatly, Don.
Into the sun in my gliderUpdate: 10am 18.12.2010
There's a shadow beside her
Up 'n' down through the blues
Clouds give me my silent cues
I'm up in my glider
With a shadow beside her
It begins to rain on her window pain
Up in my glider
There's no shadow beside her
Thundering 'n' lightning
Gettin' pretty frightenin'
I feel like an outsider
Then the sun shows through 'n' right on cue
There's a shadow beside her
Up 'n' down through the blues
I'm up in my glider
'N' I'm telling you boys there ain't no noise
'N' me and my baby ain't never gonna bring my glider down
The obituaries can be found elsewhere today. You already know we love him and you also know why.
Until now, I wasn't expecting quite so many other people to feel the same way, however.
I heard the sad news about Don shortly after 10pm last night, made a quick update to the site and then sat back and watched Beefheart mentions on Twitter flood past, so much faster than I could actually read them. He was in the top 10 trending topics three times ("beefheart", "vliet" and captain" and he's also in there now with "trout mask") both worldwide and here in the UK.
Shortly after the emails started pouring in and obituaries and tributes were popping up like little octafish fry. For some time he was the most read story on the BBC website and is still the second story as I write this nearly 12 hours later. Right now he has four of the five most read stories on The Guardian.
My phone alerts me whenever I receive an email with a small "dong" sound. As I went to bed last night I didn't silence it like I normally do and it was contentedly fluttering away all night long going "dong... don.... dong.... don.... Don...." as I was drifting in and out of sleep, gazing at the outpouring of tributes again and then drifting back off to sleep.
I put some music on - my first choice was a big soppy Beefheart fave, Observatory Crest. Ness, with a puzzled look on her face said "I'd have thought you'd want to listen to Captain Beefheart" and wasn't sure whether to believe me when I assured her that I really was.
On it went "as the sky turned white in the middle of the night" - emails, Twitter, tales of private wakes happening all over the world; a world which seemed to have finally taken notice of this fantastically interesting and creative man.
I referred to it as sad news but I'm not feeling sad. I'm amazed at the attention he has received. Under any other circumstance it would be a joy and even under these circumstances it is heart-warming.
It had made me sad over the last couple of decades to think of his continuing illness and how awful it must be for such a mentally agile man to endure. Today I just feel like a celebration, knowing that stereos all over the world are doing the hoodoo hoe-down to the sounds of Trout Mask Replica, Safe As Milk, Shiny Beast and Lick My Decals Off Baby. Articles like this are popping up everywhere today, and don't miss the fond comments posted after Alexis Petrids's Beefheart tribute.
We listened to Strictly Personal over breakfast and I don't think it has ever sounded better. Rather unexpectedly, we're having a good time here. My inbox is exploding, the stereo is jumping and it's a day to enjoy.
Don, we will miss you so much, but I don't really think you're going away for a very long time yet.
I was sad, my head hung down I felt really badPlease feel free to leave your thoughts and tributes for Don and best wishes for Jan on this page below and on Steve's parallel post too.
Now I'm glad, glad about the good times that we've had
Posted by Graham Johnston at 10:36 PM - post a comment



