captain beefheart electricity

don van vliet SINGING INK
poetry and fine arts - poemflits

DOODADS, DODOS, DINGSDA, DOEDAHS and DINGSIGHEIDJES !
some versions of a poem



it all began with an
american poem by don van vliet in magazine 1 june 1970 creem vol.2 #14
but which is best known from the
back cover of the 1971 elpee mirror man by captain beefheart and the magic band:

I LIKE THE WAY THE DOODADS FLY

by don van vliet - around 1969




but in a french translation for the switzerland magazine 1 march 1973 l'oeuf #15-16-17 suddenly dodos came in:

J'AIME LE VOL DES DODOS

by henri 'henrire' meyerdre 1972 




all got back to normal with the
german translation in an article called 'der rosa baffe morgen kichert' in (west) germany book 1979 rock session #3:

ICH MAG ES, WIE DIE DINGSDA FLIEGEN

by daniel gottschalk and udo pasterny 1979




and finally there appeared a song on holland cassette 1985 interphase using the original text:

DOEDAH time 13:15

by ret marut 1985

this one man band in a recording studio (or a group?) from holland must have thought: lets make some music - all tracks by me at the same time. so a collection of seemingly spontaneously produced noises just 'happens'. there are a clarinet and a sax, other copper and a diversity of fantasy sounds in it, all having the main intent to play against the grain! about fifteen minutes long he lustily (in dutch, of course): tingelt, tikt, slaat, ranselt, piept, knarst, toetert, kraakt, vervormt, blaast en mept dat het een lieve lust is. mainly short bits without any structure. yes indeed, that's no cacaphony - but dada...!

really relaxing and exciting himself, the guy who produced this pot-pourri of unsorted (?) notes of course wasn't afraid to use his voice as an important noise instrument. the uttered vocals are a cross between a japanese lecture on philosophy, a baby's rap, and someone being strangled - or probably all... never mind, after a several minutes long take-off he suddenly starts talking comprehensible english - at least, if you know what he's reciting...: 'i like the way the doodads fly'! and he really likes it! it even gets him into a totally deformed repeat which turns out to be the climax of the composition.

and, although it might seem a strange surrounding for a beefheart poem to emerge in, you can't say the music and the poem are cursing, altogether.




so... why not make
my own dutch version?

IK HOU ER VAN HOE DE DINGSIGHEIDJES VLIEGEN

by theo tieman 9 september 1999



  *

click clack back to the singing ink, return to the power station or search on

flits
captain beefheart electricity
as felt by teejo

streep

^