You gunna need somebody on your bond

I mentioned Ornette Coleman in a previous blog, and how Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet) used a wind instrument Coleman had given him on an early recording, “You’re Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond”  from the 1967 Mirror Man Sessions.  I’ve been listening to that a lot lately.  It’s wild, as is most Beefheart stuff.  Ornette’s Town Hall 1962 has also been on my playlist, as has Joe Henry’s Scar. Ornette played on some of the tracks on that album, the best of all is the unlisted track at the end.  It reminds me of the some of the stuff on Soapsuds Soapsuds, an album Ornette did with Charlie Haden in 1977.

 Joe played the Corner Hotel in Richmond quite a few months back, performed a lot of the songs from Scar, just him, his voice and guitar, an an upright-bass player.  No Ornette to be heard, but it was mesmerising.  And Charlie was in Melbourne a little later in the year. We saw him too, in the cold ole Town Hall, Bill Frissell on guitar.

Here’s a portrait of Beefheart (Van Vliet) by Anton Corbijn.  We used it for my article, “Sounds of Shadows”, in World Art.  Van Vliet is a painter too, a good one at that.  If you can, listen to his “Carson City (Owned T’ Alex) from The Original Bat Chain Puller.  It will blow your mind.