The Mystery Man from The Magic Band: Captain Beefheart's Writing Partner Revealed Paperback – May 24, 2015

The history the poetry intriguing and interesting.

The book, The Mystery Man from The Magic Band, like its prime subject, is unusual, atypical, unique. It’s not your normal dry prose chronological biographical exposition of an artist’s life. Rather it is an interesting collection of bits and pieces of things written about or by the artist, which together weave a fascinating and effectively comprehensive picture of this unique talent’s career.For musicologists and cult fans of Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band, it is invaluable, for it presents original lyric sheets prepared by Mr. Bermann, not just of the eight Safe As Milk songs, but lyric sheets for a total of 64 songs, some of which have been recorded and marketed, and many others which have never seen the light of day before.The collection of penned works include a warm-hearted forward by Mr. Bermann’s long time friend, actor Alec Baldwin; an informative introduction by Magic Band drummer John “Drumbo” French; an extensive interview of Mr. Bermann about his career, life, and work for Captain Beefheart by journalist, Derek Laskie, along with Mr. Laskie’s explanatory introduction to the interview; an Appendix presenting an assortment of relevant historical documents, providing hard evidence of elements of Mr. Bermann’s career; and a treasure trove of engaging photographs depicting various moments from Mr. Bermann’s life and career. All in all, it paints a vibrant picture of the creative life of an intriguing, original, innovative artist. It is an interesting, entertaining and captivating read, especially at this time when the worldwide coronavirus pandemic has deprived us of fresh theatre, musical concerts and new motion pictures, and compelled us to remain isolated at home.

I expected a little more from this book. I'm a big fan of CBMB and had seen them live four or five times. There is a forward then some odds and ends then just a lot of lyrics. I much preferred John "Drumbo" French's book. Sure, this is still interesting to a point. I would suggest this to rabid fans and all compleatests .

Great book! Highly recommend!

I'd give it more than 5 stars if I could. Love the material, layout, and copies of the actual songwriting. Very interesting book about a very interesting man. The "Foreword" and "Special Thanks" alone show the impact Mr. Bermann had on the music and entertainment industry. (Buy and) read this book.

it was very interesting, creative and awesome!

An interesting read for hard core Beefheart aficionados, others should pass

This is a well-written and enjoyable walk through a musical history that has faded and we wouldn't want it to die off. The preservation of memorable joys and musical roots is a welcome relief from some of the other stuff around!

Herb Bermann was brought in to help with the lyrics to Safe As Milk and other songs. His story didn't come to light until the late 1990's.Here is an eye-opening extract from the book."I wrote [a song] called “Y’ Got T’ Trust Us!” I wrote all the words and it showed up on the Strictly Personal album after Safe As Milk with my name off it. How about that for being burned, for a song called “Trust Us”? Bermann told me that the Captain Beefheart albums in all contain about twice as many of his songs as he was credited or paid for. Without Bermann’s songs it seems that Strictly Personal (1968) would have been a completely different record too. …just as many songs that were backlogged in the collaboration between Don and myself were effectively stolen from me. How that happened or who was responsible I really don’t know…. Despite this disappointment Bermann is very grateful to Van Vliet, who passed away in 2010. His work on Safe As Milk led to all sorts of opportunities. I built a whole screenwriting career hop-scotching off of that. I’ve written for Steven Spielberg, and won a Writers Guild Award. I’ve become a guest lecturer at the UCLA Film Department, and several of my scripts are archived in their library’s Special Collection. I have workshops for young aspiring writers and poets and screenwriters and songwriters. The whole underpinning and foundation of kicking off decades of the rest of my life was built upon the Safe As Milk material with Don."I bought the Kindle edition of the book as it was a lot cheaper BUT it does not contain any of the lyric sheets.A fascinating insight into the lost man of Captain Beefheart.