I think one of the many things I appreciated about Captain Beefheart was the way he had with words. Here are my favorite lyrics from the Good Captain, sometimes insightful, sometimes playful, sometimes just plain silly, but always absolutely original.
“Ashtray Heart” from Doc At The Radar Station (1980)
“You used me like an ashtray heart,
Right from the start…a case of the punks,”
Another day, another way,
Somebody’s had too much to think,
Open up another case of the punks!”
“Dirty Blue Gene” from Doc At The Radar Station (1980)
“She’s not bad, she’s just ge-net-i-ca-lly mean,
Don’t you wish you’d never met her?”
“Grow Fins” from The Spotlight Kid (1974)
“I’m gonna grow fins,
And go back in the water again,
If you don’t leave me alone,
Imma take up with a mermaid and leave you landlubbin’ women alone…”
“Nowadays A Woman’s Gotta Hit A Man” from Clear Spot (1972)
“Nowadays a woman has to haul off and hit a man to make him know she’s there,
Other night a woman came up and hit me like I wasn’t even there,
Yeah, um, dawned on me man,
That a man been doin’ a woman unfair”
“Click Clack” from the Spotlight Kid (1972)
“We’ll I had this girl, threatened to leave me all the time,
Threatened to go down now,
Go down to New Orleans, get herself lost and found”