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Hi all,

I've been wondering what's this song is about, and You might be able to help, since I became interested in some tiny details, too.

Poofter's Froth, Wyoming
March Eleven Sixty-Seven <- why "sixty seven"? - the song "happens" in '75, right?
Take a letter,
Ms. Abetter, <- is she a specific person?
An' our pigeons
Will be homing

...

Anon. --Wyo. Galoot <- it's an anonymus guy from Wyoming, right?

Thanks!

March Eleven Sixty-Seven probably means what Frank says when he's announcing it. That they've been planning it for a long time, since March 11th 1967

_________________
Make your checks payable to QUENTIN ROBERT DeNAMELAND, Greatest Living Philostopher Known to Mankind.

My guess is this one was written for Beefheart so a lot of it is just wordplay, fanciful, to give it that beefheart ring.

Always wondered if FZ had Steve Reich in mind with the line "come out to show 'em" (a piece that was reportedly an obsession of Beefheart's and that he referenced in "Moonlight In Vermont") or if it was a coincidence.

I have long suspected that Beefheart actually wrote Debra Kadabra and Poofter's Froth (and also The Torture Never Stops*) as they are very Beefheart-sounding. This would also fit with the rumors of bad blood between Don and Frank, and also Frank's rather naughty habit of rarely giving credit to the musician's in his band for their compositional contributions.


* see YCDTOSA Vol. 4

I say: Not a Chance in Hell. Written...or revised...FOR Don.

The bad blood thing between them is largely a myth by the point of BF.
Do a timeline like I did (abandoned) and ye shall see.

I must admit that I hadn't thought about it from that point of view, that they were written FOR Don. I can go with that.

Are you saying that the bad blood myth was created/perpetuated by Beefheart?

Sorry to sound stupid, but I'm not sure what you mean about doing a timeline. Where do you suggest I look, that would include this information?

A timeline is sorta biz-speak for tracking/documenting a series of events.
If ya look at the available evidence, that there was some serious bad blood between them at this point is pure poppycock. Frank did A LOT for Don at this point, post BF Tour (studio sessions, inviting him to participate as "the man in the street" at the Royce Hall concerts, helping him get a new band together, etc). The next Real fallout (or anger from Don) came, according to John Drumbo French, when Don was disgusted by the song Jewish Princess. Don, it seems, was a bit of a Zionist! Fast Forward to the infamous request for old tapes to include on CROW and all I can do is THANK FRANK he refused, 'cause we got a new Van Vliet song out of it. Did Frank "know?" Knew Donny could come up with something? I would think YES. There's lots more to it, but that's it in a nutshell.

Yes, I know what a timeline is. I just didn't understand what you were telling me. Anyway, thanks for the info. Very interesting.

From my recollections Frank and Don were not getting on very well by the end of the BF tour (and it wasn't a really long tour - one month maybe). According to Jimmy Carl Black, Don would sit onstage and draw pictures on his sketch pad of Frank as the Devil which Frank didn't cotton to. Frank also talked in the Real FZ Book how Don was always forgetting things while on that tour (like his saxophone for instance) so Frank was often frustrated with him. I got the feeling that there was a strong bond between the two but that there was always a lot of antagonism as well.

There is also FZ claiming that Beefheart failed his first audition for the band, which Beefheart said wasn't true.

However, I agree with brainpang that Debra Kadabra and the other songs mentioned above were written by FZ for Beefheart.