Out of over nine hours of recorded material, Zappa has created a jigsaw that equals that of Burroughs (in writing) and Warhol (in film).

In attempting to look at his work, it is a mistake to take each album as only an individual statement. Each piece of recorded work fits (not always neatly) into the preceding pieces as well as the ones that are not yet written, let alone recorded.

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All we have heard of the Captain since those early days has been in connection with his association with Frank Zappa.

So the obvious question to ask him was how this association had affected his music. The reply, to say the least, was a surprise: "All this crap put out by Zappa is nonsense. I have only met the guy about 20 times in my life. He's ripped off so many of my ideas, for instance 'Hot Rats' was my idea," said Beefheart. (read more)