Captain Beefheart

Captain Beefheart (aka Don Van Vliet) and The Magic Band produced what is commonly regarded by critics and fans as one of rock's few truly original bodies of work. Combining elements of free jazz, blues and rock, they produced something distinctly different from anything which had ever been heard before, and heavily influenced a wide range of later musicians such as Tom Waits, PJ Harvey and John Lydon. In the words of Frank Zappa, "Listen, be quiet and pay attention to this man's music, because if you don't, you might miss something important and we wouldn't want that to happen to you. You need all the friends you can get." Quite simply the most original and greatest musician of the last 100 years.