Jeff Cotton & The Tale Of Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band Interview

Tell me about growing up in Porterville, Tulare County, CA. What was your early childhood like before moving to the desert town of Lancaster in ‘62? When did you first begin playing music and what initially fascinated you about learning to play the guitar?

I was born in Lindsay, California and moved to Porterville from the 4th grade onward as I must have been ten years old. So we moved to the Porterville airport where my Dad took on the position of assistant manager of the airfield. I had already caught the music Bug, and would enjoy singing harmony with my Mom and her lady friend on weekends at the airport cafe, owned by my parents. In the fourth grade I took up playing the clarinet and through the 8th grade myself and another good friend, played the Christmas programs, etc. at Hope School. At that time, I was a champion speed skater, preparing to compete statewide. My other passion and hobby was designing, building and flying all manner of model airplanes which included some of the early radio control planes. I am extremely grateful to my parents, Ralph and Marge Cotton for allowing me to follow my own path even encouraging me to do so.

At that time, we owned a number of small aircraft, and my Dad being an Ace pilot, my mother a flyer as well, he would take me flying very often and of course, catching the bug I began learning to fly at a very early age. I was also preparing for my sailplane(glider) license because you could Solo at fourteen years of age. However for my thirteenth birthday, my parents gave me an old Kay acoustic arch top guitar and from that day forward, I was soaring! I remember finishing my 4th guitar lesson(I had learned the chords and melody to Walk Don’t Run by the Ventures)walking out to the parking lot and realizing, I didn’t need to take any more lessons from the instructor. Just before my fourteenth birthday we moved to Lancaster, Ca. In the Mojave Desert, home of the Omens, later Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, Frank Zappa and Blues in a Bottle which with the addition of Don Vliet, was soon to become the exact lineup For the famous Trout Mask Replica.

Do you have any siblings? What was life like on the Edwards Air Force base during that time? I understand you attended Antelope Valley High School. Can you tell me about those days and how The Balladiers came about?

I have a wonderful sister who was born on my twelfth birthday. What a birthday gift! We are still very close and live only four miles apart on Maui. Edwards Air force Base is 30 miles from Lancaster. I only went there to play music, and only a few times. That would be a great conversation to have with Randy Wimer... At AV High I did my best to schedule as many music classe s as I could. That meant symphony, music theory and Acapella Choir. At the time my bands were “the Intruders, then "the Allusions” Several of the choir members approached me and suggested forming A sort of Folk singing group and of course I agreed. It sounded pretty good as we all were choir members and we ranged from Baritone all the way to Soprano.

Where would guys rehearse? When did the band play its first gig and what was that experience like for you? How did you meet Merrell Fankhauser and John French and what initially led to you guys forming “The Exiles”?

Where we rehearsed depended on which band we're discussing... If it was the intruders or the Allusions, or Blues in A Bottle, it would be in one of the of the band members garages. It could've been Don Geisen, John French, Jeff Cotton or Mark Bostons place, etc. My first gig was with the Exiles. Merrell and I put together a lineup with Greg Hampton on Drums and Danny Stevens on Tenor sax. It was really exciting for me because we had a single record getting local airplay in the Mojave Desert at at the time it was number 9 on the charts. The single was “Please Be Mine and we packed the Hall which legally held four hundred people. So, Merrell’s dad Milt, had been speaking with my dad out at Fox field the local airport and he showed up at my house one evening and after Playing some tunes, we decided to start a band. As I recall, John French joined the Exiles for a brief time after I had moved on. I believe I was playing with another already well established band The Bounty’s who had a single on Dot Records entitled “No Yo RU” (China Night I love You).

I understand you guys had a couple hits in the LA area and recorded a number of singles on Glenn Records throughout the mid 60’s. Can you tell me about those early days of playing gigs and some of the performances that stand out in your mind to this day? What are some of the most memorable times outside of jamming and playing gigs during that time with the guys?

Yes, I did play on a few singles directly after “Please be Mine”, the record that had reached number 9. The second single, “Send Me Your Love” was backed with “Don’t Call on Me” which by the way was my first recorded guitar solo as well as the first song which had been co-written and published in my name. And in 1965, We had a single released on Golden Crown Records, written by the writers of “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feeling which was a turntable hit on more than forty radio stations across the nation, but which suddenly died on the vine when the two partners in the Record Company, disbanded. My good friend and drummer Randy Wimer and I, would spend much time out in the middle of the Desert, praying, vision questing and meditating, as we were always seeking and discussing Truth. Just imagine being 20-30 miles from the lights of civilization, under the magnificent celestial canopy of the heavens, outside of our usual environment, more effectively tuning-in to the mysteries of creation, surrounding and interpenetrating our consciousness.

Tell me about Blues in a Bottle and how this outfit came to be. This group featured even more future Magic Band members such as Mark Boston, French and Bill Harkleroad. What led to the decision to form this group and how did you and French initially meet Bill and Mark? Where did you guys play gigs and what were those times like?

It seems each if us were always playing in some band and after the Exiles I had formed the Intruders and shortly afterward, the Allusions. Next, Blues in A Bottle just sort of naturally came together. We were all really delving in to the Blues, at at that time we admired the Yardbirds, for their progressive, somewhat avant-garde approach. Our set would consist of some Yardbirds, some Motown, City Blues As well as some original songs that I had been writing at that time. My memory is a blur when it comes to the first time we heard Bill Harkleroad play... I just remember we were super impressed. The same with Mark Boston, who was a Real Bass player, not a frustrated guitarist! In 1966 & 67’ we played gigs at a large venue called Exposition Hall, where, at that time CBMB as well as other local bands from the Mojave Desert would perform. We did quite well, even upstaging the Magic Band at one of the concerts. We also played a number of “Battle of the Bands” in Lancaster. Keep in mind, that at one time the personnel in Blues in A Bottle would later become the Trout Mask Replica lineup, only with the addition of Don Vliet. One of our incarnations played in LA on the Sunset Strip. I remember a short set at Pandora’s Box, and in various venues in the Los Angeles area.

With the psychedelia scene sweeping the nation and even more so right in the heart of LA, what were the mid 60’s like for you during that time as a young man before joining the Magic Band? What led to you replacing Ry Cooder and Gerry McGee exactly in ‘67? Having met and played with some of the other guys prior, what was your first impression of the late Don Van Vliet?

I was a seeker, an experimenter, a Viet Nam dissenter and smack dab in the middle of the Psychedelic era. Alternate perceptions, perspectives and musical conceptions were the order of the day. There was nothing like getting way out in nature, in the gentle poppy laden hills of the Mojave Desert where no artificial light, no man made edificecould be seen for miles and delving deep into the mental, emotional and spiritual landscape within... We would end up back in Lancaster at the Desert Inn, for coffee and to sort of collectively sum up the experiences of the previous night. As it was expressed to me, after Ry split due to Don’s, to put it lightly shaky mental state and poor business decisions, they took on Jerry McGee An accomplished country music guitarist, but his style wasn’t particularly right for the Band. Next came Junior Madeo, a Jazz player, who didn’t really fit in musically. Don Vliet could be the most charming individual and for the first week, or so as the new kid on the block, you’d think you were getting the royal red carpet treatment. However after the “honeymoon,” things would begin to change significantly. I remember moving in to the compound in Tarzana,Ca. (in the neighborhood we were known as “The Nomads) and for probably the first week, Don and I would get out at night and drive his Jaguar Mark III around the San Fernando Valley, while he looked for girls… I myself was much more interested in getting up to speed with the music which would become Mirror Man and Strictly Personal. I had plenty to keep me busy as my Fender Jaguar had been immediately swapped for a hollow body Gibson 150, which was like entering another dimension. Previous to this, I had been working on perfecting a style of lead guitar playing that was fluid, with less contrast between notes, maybe similar to a violin. The Gibson had what I call ‘telephone wire strings”, very large and virtually unbendable. Of course they were excellent for slide/bottleneck, and great for feedback.

How did you're joining the band come about? I understand it was partly due to the “Mount Tamalpais incident”. Can you tell me about that and what exactly happened? Would you mind walking me through some of the process and approach to tunes such as “Ah Feel Like Ahcid”, “Beatle Bones N’ Smokin’ Stones”, and “Son Of Mirror Man - Mere Man”?

The Band needed someone to compliment the current lineup of Alex St. Clair and Jerry Handley, with John French on drums. So John mentioned my name and Don agreed, having already had his eye on me as well as on the remaining members of Blues in a Bottle whom he had been watching closely at our previous gigs. This question would have to be answered by John French, who was the first of us to be drafted into the band. I came later. Ah Feel like Ahcid was played by Alex on his small hollow body guitar In G tuning... Then immediately after, playing with that track, in another key altogether. Mostly ad-libbed. Beatle Bones was written without piano, much of it being loosely dictated by Don through, singing and whistling or through discussion. I used cardboard interlaced around the strings up near the bridge, which gave the intro guitar that muted sound which I thought worked well with the slide guitar. Son of Mirror Man - Mere Man This track was a take off on Mirror Man and was largely ad-libbed on the spot.

I understand there was some rather difficult drama around the “Magic Mountain” gig which resulted in the band not getting the opportunity to benefit from the Monterey Pop Festival. Can you tell me about the Euro gigs that took place in January of ‘68, more specifically the “Middle Earth" and "Speakeasy" club gigs after “Strictly Personal” was released?

I was not yet in the Band at the time of the Magic Mountain fiasco, but I can certainly discuss the European tour of 68’. I remember opening at the Middle Earth, the first gig in which we were actually welcomed with open arms. I remember there being a line of people waiting, it seemed like several blocks long. From the moment we stepped on stage we were On. The crowded hall was filled with fans seated, many of them crosslegged on the floor. The sound was good, and we played for close to two hours, nearly nonstop. At one point a barefoot young man came up to the stage to share his appreciation and Don reached in his pocket, gave him some cash and told him to get a good pair of shoes. I recall it was a young Joe Cocker. Maybe half way through the set, Don asked for a coke and someone brought him a coke laced with LSD, thus the straight soprano sax that John and I had purchased for him just before leaving California became almost glued to the microphone for the duration! It was a lot of noise and fun... I came out on stage first, and knelt down in front of my amplifier and spoke a benediction by flesh horn. If you haven’t heard it, listen to “Pena” on Trout Mask Replica. The Speakeasy was also a memorable time for me. We stayed upstairs where the rooms were, although I don’t recall how many nights we stayed. One evening Don came to John and I and said that something was happening with Brian Jones who at the time was rooming right next to us. So we both went over and knocked several times with no response. Upon returning to Southern California, we heard the sad news of the untimely passing of Brian Jones.

Walk me through the process of working on the band’s most prestigious and wonderfully outrageous release to date, “Trout Mask Replica”. What was the process of writing and recording that record? As a guitarist and in the words of Don himself, “Steel Appendage”, what did you want to achieve and/or express with this release? What was your particular approach to this masterpiece?

Most of the parts/movements were transcribed by John French And played for each of us individually by him . Each us had our own unique way of assimilating the material, I myself wanted to hear it played several times so I could get the feeling, first. Once I had that, it was time to go off and practice. We would then come together and play for many hours, perfecting the collective movements. I believe that the energy so intensely focussed by our dedication to the project allowed us to successfully record all of the material in six and one half hours. We were so rehearsed that at one point, I watched Frank fall asleep. There was not so much for him to do. Now, the Vocal recordings are another story... So after the Band laid down the instrumental, Don went down to the studio for several nights, singing the lyrics and adding the horns. I came in one night, sang the lead to Pena and the choruses on Ella Guru. If you listen closely to Ella Guru you will hear me say “Hello Moon, Hello Moon”, because Frank being in the control room, had her cradled in his arms at that very moment. She was as I recall just a year old. I purely wanted to see it executed with as much precision as was humanly possible. Many of the songs were recorded in the first take. We had an appreciation for what we were playing. And we all four honestly believed that TMR was going to be important, thus we sacrificed much to help bring it to a successful birth. At one time after Don’s expulsion of John French, we brought in a talented Jazz guitarist named George Kohler who would only join if he could bring along his own drummer. I spent several weeks teaching him his tracks, he being quite capable. Yet off they went. Must not have been their cup of tea.

I have to ask, is it true that during the 8 month sessions of “Trout Mask Replica”, Don put you guys through, for lack of a better word, a living hell? Can you tell me about those times and what was going on exactly within the band?

When you get four young wide-open-minded musicians together with a much older band leader, one who is paranoid schizophrenic and having been overindulged as the only child, you might just have a recipe for the macabre! The classic brain-washing techniques of sleep deprivation, food deprivation demeaning conversation etc., was the general diet for that approximate nine months’ of work. Long hours of being the bad person for the day, the person who is standing in the way of the bands success. And not knowing who will be chosen the next day to be thrown into the arena, to be interrogated, belittled, berated and even sometimes punched. I have said before how Jeff, John, Bill and Mark were all tight friends as well as bandmates, long before joining the Magic Band. The agenda was to turn each against the other by destroying the trust between us, isolating us from one another so that we would be more effectively controllable. Interestingly enough, the four of us musicians, making up the TMR lineup have just recently reconnected and it is as if we had picked up where we last left off, yet minus the trauma of more than fifty years passing. I say, these are the fun spots that we occasionally get to experience

Your last work with the band was during the “Mirror Man” sessions. Can you tell me about that project? I understand it was around this time you departed from the band due to some nasty altercations with Jeff Bruschell. You can go into as much, or as little detail about that as you’d like. This led to re-connecting with Merrell. Were you guys always in contact during your time with Captain Beefheart?

Actually, the chronological order of the three albums that I contributed to are as follows. 1. Mirror Man Sessions 2. Strictly Personal, 3. Trout Mask Replica. Mirror Man included some of the earliest material that I learned upon joining up in 1967. As you know, there is a strong Delta Blues influence on Mirror Man because those were the early years relatively, before the music would really begin to morph toward the Avant-garde. You may recall that some of the material is sparsely arranged, giving it a looser and more laid back feel, being much more improvised than the other two albums. The incident with temporary drummer Jeff Bruschell was unfortunate. He was new, naive, and Don had a very tight control over all of us younger ones. But it wasn’t all bad. Now I would be free to resume my own career and to get back into my creative process which had to be put on hold for the CBMB years. Merrell Fankhauser was never too far away. Occasionally Randy Wimer would bring him over to the Trout House And Merrell would sit on a stool, tell us a story, or two and play some of his latest songs. Very entertaining!

What initially led to the decision to form MU? Leaving the rather chaotic reality of the Magic Band, what was it like to rejoin with Fankhauser on this project for you on a personal level? Can you tell me about writing and recording the band’s critically acclaimed debut album?

I’ll have to give you the short hand version now and maybe at a later date, we can get in to the real meaty stuff.... So, through a series of visions and due to some interesting timing, we were impressed to form a new band. I moved down to Woodland Hills, actually fairly close to the TMR House and within a short period of time, Merrell, Randy Wimer my long time friend and drummer, and Larry Willey who had played bass guitar with me in a number of bands pre-Beefheart such as Blues in A Bottle, found ourselves intensely creating new music, rehearsing beginning to perform regularly and becoming really a tight act. At that time it was exhilarating for all of us, as we had all played together in the early days, and for me personally, for the first time in Two and a half years, the creative energy which I was not allowed to express in the Magic Band, literally exploded through me and together, Merrell and I co-wrote some good music. And having the musicianship that Randy and Larry brought to the table, it made it such a pleasure to rehearse. The album entitled MU Having such musicians as Randy Wimer and Larry Willey, made teaching the songs to the band a real high and joyful experience as there was a focussed work ethic. We would rehearse for hours and watch new sculptures in sound taking shape! We recorded the first album in Walley Heider Studios in Los Angeles, which at the time was on the cutting edge technologically speaking. We completed the album in Four hours! I can only remember a few tracks needing a second take. Listen to the horns in Nobody wants to Shine(I would rather it be titled “Everybody Wants to Shine, but that’ another story)to the Bass Clarinet solo as well as both the accompanying harmony horns which were written and recorded on the first take.

How did you approach the space of MU that was immediately different from that of the Magic Band? How did the deal with RTV Records come about? The band would go on to record two more albums “The Last Album” and “Children of the Rainbow”, but were not released at the time of their conception. Can you tell me about those projects and why they were essentially shelved at the time until the early to mid 80s?

The Space of MU... For me, Early MU was the most natural creative expression that this 22 year old had experienced up until that time. RTV came about through an old friend of Merrell’s. It is interesting that I could have used my contacts to insure that we would get professional treatment, yet for some reason I did not. We actually recorded one more album together in 1974 being engineered by Barry Mayo, a good friend who had previously recorded an album for Quicksilver Messenger Service in a WW II barracks on the Island of Oahu. Because of potential Legal ramifications I will not be commenting on either Children of the Rainbow, or The Last Album, other than to mention that although there were some high points musically, MU was drifting away from the Progressive Avant-Garde approach.

What initially led to your decision to retire from music around this time in ‘75? I understand you became a follower in Christ and joined the Christian Ministry. Can you tell me about this journey and what inspired, or touched you to go this route after being a musician in America’s ultimate sweet spot for rock n’ roll?

I fell in love and married a bright and beautiful Hawaiian lady in June of 74’. MU had developed a serious rift. You can’t spread Peace when your own organization doesn’t have it. I call that hypocritical. And there were a number of poor decisions made by several members, some great opportunities lost which would have put MU on the map. So, I never did join the Christian Ministry, that was someones story. However I did fully embrace the Lord and received the New Birth. It was the logical move to make, having spent many years of my life as a devoted seeker of truth, even studying in a number of esoteric organizations, as well. A seed had been planted back in 1970 when a friend and Master of the San Fernando Valley Rosicrucian Lodge invited us to see the Great Healer Kathryn Kuhlman. At the time, both Randy Wimer and I were fascinated with Spiritual Healing and this was our opportunity to Experience in real time. In 1974(I’ll call him “the One Who is Love”)spoke to me saying, ”Jeff Cotton it’s time for you to Live. Well I thought I had been living! I’d been playing music, traveling, doing all of those kinds of the things that successful Musicians do, right? I was being led step by step to a much richer and expanded life experience one in which things began to be viewed in a much larger perspective than heretofore, and because of that I have received blessing upon blessing and am unto this day filled with gratitude.

I’m jumping ahead, but I wanted to quickly touch on the fact that after a near 50 year hiatus recently some new music entitled, “The Fantasy of Reality?” Can you tell me about writing and recording that album and what it was like for you to jump back into the world of music?

“The Fantasy of Reality” is my first Solo work, ever. The bulk of this album was recorded in Washington state. However I did finish it up, during the pandemic, here in Hawaii. So I play all of the instruments which includes guitars, bass, vocals, keyboards, harmonica, Bass clarinet, straight soprano saxophone and I arranged the drums, being digital. I need to clarify that from the time of “the sinking of MU” up until the present, I have continued to write and to play. However when I finally found the recording equipment capable of capturing the essence of the music, I was excited. Up until then, recordings seemed sterile, even lifeless. We had cut our teeth on 4 track Ampex machines, the same equipment that the Beatles had used. The analog sound, the sound of tape was warm, full and inviting. The time was creatively pregnant and I had total freedom. Most of the material was recorded between 2005 and 2018 and due to family circumstances it was recorded in small increments of sometimes fifteen minutes, sometimes thirty and occasionally I would have the luxury of several uninterrupted hours, usually late at night when my other duties were done. This work spans seven genres, rock, jazz, blues, Hawaiian, folk, Avant-garde and classical. It is meant to be a kind of Smorgasbord and a sampling of my roots. In early 2018 I and my three adult children moved back to Hawaii and soon after meeting Andre Deslauriers (the Engineer Who collaborated with me on “Elvirus”) we began working on completing the “The Fantasy of Reality” At this time Randy Wimer (drummer in MU) and I, began re-writing much of the lyrics, bringing us into the the present and into the “roaring 20’s.

How much has changed since you last approached that realm of life and what did you want to express as well as explore with this body of work? Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers?

We have all seen and experienced great changes in the world and unfortunately many of them are not particularly good ones. However, as I take stock of the past fifty, or so years of my life I would have to say that although much of the journey has been uphill, it’s quite inconsequential when one feels that they’ve been given wings. Yet only by the Grace of God. In this body of work it was my intention to share my joy, to uplift, to encourage others no matter who they are, no matter what their field of expression, to acknowledge that we need one another, and that we, if we choose, will get through this time and emerge triumphant. Listen to “The Fantasy of Reality” with your heart. I appreciate the opportunity to connect with you. Thanks to you all...

“An artist without fans, is like ”a tree without soil”.

Jeff Cotton