Gary Marker's Most Amusing Beefheart Moment
Back when "Diddy-Wah-Diddy" was released, Don and the band did the mandatory lip-synch appearance on a local L.A. teen dance show called "9th Street West." It was hosted by an annoying, smarmy, miniscule, super-hyper DJ named Sam Riddle. Riddle's usual M.O. was to schmooze with the artist for a bit of time, either before or after their on-air performance--usually by asking a lot of inane questions. (He once actually asked Doug Sam, when "She's About A Mover" was chart-bound, "How many of you are there in the Sir Douglas Quintet?")
So anyway, back then no one knew that trying to interview Captain Beefheart was, at best, a shaky proposition. What happened was (and keep in mind that this was LIVE TV), after the Magic Band had finished their lip-synch, Sam Riddle came bounding up to Don, carrying a huge wad of white, waxed butcher's paper. "Captain Beefheart, Captain Beefheart!" he was yelling in his usual helium-drenched hyper-voice. "Look what I've got for YOU!" And with that, he whips open the butcher's paper, revealing a gigantic, wet, raw genuine beef heart--which he shoves up toward a startled Don Van Vliet's face. "It's a real beef heart! Whaddya think of THAT, Captain Beefheart?" he squeaked.
Without a second of hestitation, a now very angry DVV snakes his arm out, grabs the raw beef heart in his bare hand, holds it over Riddle's head, at which point the munchkin-like host starts backing away quickly. But not quickly enough. "What do you think of THIS, Sam Riddle?" Don growls, giving the heart a hefty squeeze. Bloody beef heart juice squirts, drools and dribbles all over Riddle's trendy pastel suit, with some overspray on his thick facial make-up. "You gotta lot of nerve sticking that ugly thing in my face," Don mutters, while Riddle smiles like an imbecile and announces a breakway for commercial a couple minutes ahead of schedule.
Needless to say, Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band were never invited back for another appearance on that particular TV show.
Gary wrote a caveat to the above story.
"The appearance I documented was a live, real time event, broadcast only to the LA area. They also taped the show for syndication across the country. When I told friends of mine in other cities to be sure and watch Beefheart's antics on the show, most reported back that the pivotal moment wherein he douses Sam Riddle with beefheart juice wasn't there; it had apparently been edited out. So, if any tapes of that particular show still exist, it's a rather tame version and the best moments of the encounter are missing. But it really happened, I saw it with my own two eyes, and so did a lot of other people in Los Angeles." - Gary Marker
pasted from:
http://www.beefheart.com/blog/index.html
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