in 1975, while his alter ego captain
beefheart struggled to come back after his disastrous 'country & western'
adventure, don van vliet produced two drawings which who knows why were
used for record sleeves of other artists. both pieces of art work were
brought out some years later, with the drawing inside the gatefold of the
notably french release znr * barricade 3 from 1977
as the strangest item.
more logic was involved in his contribution
to an elpee released by l.a.f..m.s. or in full: (the) LOS ANGELES FREE
MUSIC SOCIETY under the title BLORP ESETTE, and its follow-ups:
because as captain beefheart he always lived quite close to that metropole.
i don't possess any of the elpees with all sorts of alternate music without
clear direction, so i'll let alan saul explain:
Actually, there were 3 LPs in the blorp-esette
series, but only 2 volumes.
Volume 1 was LAFMS
5, released in 1978, and features Don's well-known 1975 drawing
the title of which is escaping me at the moment (it's the woman
holding a chicken with another chicken on her head and another
seemingly making up her dress). The label on side
one is a piece of Don's art [with 'l.a.f.m.s.' text, dated '77 -
teejo].
LAFMS 10 was
blorp-esette volume two. This is from 1980 (1979 crossed out). The
label has Don's other 1977 artlabel on side one
(this one says 'Los Angeles') and 'for
guitar players' on side two.
LAFMS 11 was
also volume two, has Don's ['los angeles'] label
on side four and 'Blorp Esette's Greatest
Hits' on side three. Released in 1980.
Both of
the volume twos come from the same
time (1980) and both have Don's red and black drawing of a person
in a hat (I always associate this with Sam With The Showing
Scalp Flat Top [from the 1975 zappa / beefheart / mothers * 'bongo fury'
tour - t.t.]) with the sky looking down.
*
these obscure releases were seldom seen items
(the first volume consisted of only 500 copies, for instance) until the
whole project - including previously unused material - was collected on
a re-mastered 4cd edition in 1999. the set is accompanied by an extensive
notes booklet which also reveals: 'blorp esette volume
one is dedicated to lisa
and helene, don and jan van vliet and
all those dead guys who aren't around to appreciate it, then or now'.
the four pieces of van vliet art work coming
with the ceedee re-issue are:
volume two
- front covers 'PERSON IN A HAT' drawing:
front of box
volume one - side
one 'L.A.F.M.S.' LABEL occasional drawing:
printed on ceedee one
volume two - sides
one and four 'LOS ANGELES' LABEL occasional
drawing: printed on ceedee four
volume one - front
cover 'BLORP ESETTE' drawing: booklet
cover
*
okay, over to the
drawings. right! first, let's look at the most used front cover
of the series, the 'PERSON IN A HAT' - although i do it with great
reluctance because it's so ugly! usually
don van vliet could make brilliant drawings, but this one sure is a
failure!... maybe he was nervous as the following day he would
have his birthday - the signature date says: 1 14 79 [or 77] - or because
he used an uneasy drawing pen, but the result actually is unworthy to the
quality of this website (it also is a mystery why it was used as the front
of the 4cd box instead of the other drawing)! so, just for
the record:
don van vliet 140179
(or 77)
*
next, i'm sorry i can't bring you good reproductions
of the occasional label layouts he designed: the reflection of the
scanner on the plates makes them unreal... all i can offer is one off the
vinyl original (once shown at the internet site of alan saul, to be honest):
l.a.f.m.s. label -
volume one, side one - 1977
*
last but not least
is the untitled drawing which adorned the cover of the first elpee. that
'BLORP ESETTE' woman with chickens really has the touch of brilliance
failing in the later cover, as you can see for yourself:
don van vliet 1975
yeah, a very, very
nice drawing i can look at for hours - but oops,
uh, that's not the cómplete
sleeve... which is here
because it is an essential addition to that interview there with the following
dialogue:
you did a cover
for the album 'blorp esette'.
oh, ace and duce. i
like those guys. they seem to be among those people who have a hold. which
is why i did that. i was quite annoyed by the fact that he put 'blorp esette'
right in the middle of my drawing. i think he could have found some other
way to do that. he's a nice guy.
