Captain Beefheart

Captain Beefheart (b. January 15 1941) is the stage name of Don Glen Vliet (which he later changed to Don Van Vliet), a musician, mainly associated with the rock genre, but whose music is idiosyncratic and diverse to such an extent that it largely defies classification. Much of his work is conducted with an assembly of musicians, the Magic Band.

Captain Beefheart collaborated with Frank Zappa, who was a schoolfriend, although this relationship was subject to peaks and trough.

In recent years, Captain Beefheart has become somewhat reclusive and abandoned music for painting. His artwork is as extreme and innovative as his music was.