Captain Beefheart – Upon The My O My

Captain Beefheart, like Zappa, has always been known as odd. I love odd so that music fits me in a lot of ways. I’ve always liked the quirky artists who try something out of the ordinary and believe me…Captain Beefheart is that. This song has a hell of an intro groove to it. I also liked Happy Love Song.

Captain Beefheart was born Don Van Vliet and was a prodigious sculptor in his childhood. I first heard about him from a Beatles book…as I did with a lot of the artists I know. John and Paul were fans of his albums Trout Mask Replica and Safe As Milk. There are two stories about how he got his name – the one he gave to David Letterman was that he chose it because he had a “beef in his heart” about how humanity was ruining the environment.

This song and album are very accessible to a lot of people. It’s almost like he’s daring you to admit he can write “normal” without losing the weirdness. The song comes from the album Unconditionally Guaranteed in 1974, the Captain Beefheart album, where the edges got filed down. The band and some fans didn’t like the album because it was more conventional than some of his other albums. The man couldn’t win either way he went.

He is taking blues and R&B shapes and bending them until they look unfamiliar, but still feel like music you’ve heard and loved. He did bring in some other musicians on this album, like Mark Marcellino on keyboards, Andy DiMartino on guitar, and Del Simmons with the sax and flute. His Magic band played as well.

After this album, the Magic Band quit because of financial reasons and also because Beefheart ran a tight ship. Here is the full album Unconditionally Guaranteed on YouTube.

Upon the My-O-My

The decks were stacked
The wind blew low, the wind blew high
The stakes were low, the stakes were high
Upon the My-O-My
Hands low, hands high,
Ho-ho-ho, hi-hi-hi
Hands low, hands high
Upon the My-O-My
How was I to know she was so shy?
Upon the My-O-My
Across the light, across the night
You can hear the Captain’s cry
Hands low, hands high
Upon the My-O-My
Got to make her roll, got to make her fly
Upon the My-O-My
Now tell me, good Captain,
How does it feel
To be driven away from your own steering wheel
Upon the My-O-My . . .

…

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

27 thoughts on “Captain Beefheart – Upon The My O My”

  1. If this dude was odd and wanted to market himself, he should have called one of his albums “Where’s The Beef?” By the sounds of your post dude was a little out there.

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  2. With the other music I liked in those days, I was “supposed to” be a Captain Beefheart fan. I’ll have to admit I liked the concept of him more than the reality. HIs singing isn’t my favorite (though it beats the falsetto of the Bee Gees disco era).

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    2. I agree completely with your post. You took the words right out of my mouth. I was “supposed to” be a Captain Beefheart fan. YES!!! Liked the concept more than the reality! That’s me on Beefheart.

      Thanks for making me feel eloquent this morning. 🙂

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  3. Pingback: Captain Beefheart – Upon The My O My – MobsterTiger

  5. Well that’s different. I recognize the Captain from his album covers more than hearing his music, but the snippets I’ve heard have been too ‘out there’ for me. This one though isn’t too bad, though if I’d heard it back in the day it wouldn’t have come home with me. But it’s good to have a few weird, experimental artists doing their own thing

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      1. Well, CB, I should be able to enjoy the music of Beefheart as absolute art. But even today , when I listening to “The Dust Blows Forward And The Dust Blows Back”, too much unexplained social energy spills out the speakers.

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  7. I know you have posted on Beefheart before and I probably said I was familiar but limited in my knowledge. Same applies here with this song. But the passionate delivery in that video clip was something to behold.

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      1. Howlin Wolf influenced a bunch of these guys with his vocal style. Plus in your music travels you must of come across Ry Cooder being in his band when he was very young. I’d like to hear what he would have to say about that looking back. CB is A CB fan.

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      2. I never knew Ry was in his band! I will have to search for that. While searching I did just watch a video (sound only) on Captain Beefheart/Howlin’ Wolf ….damn it sounded great dude….a song called Shaped Like Jelly (1971)

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