Lunar Notes - Zoot Horn Rollo's Captain Beefheart Experience - Bill Harkleroad

Bill Harkleroad, christened Zoot Horn Rollo by the good Captain, played in the Magic Band for a number of years and appears on classics such as Trout Mask Replica, Spotlight Kid and Clearspot, and toured with the group, made TV appearances and was as close of a confident as Beefheart had in any of his bands. As with John "Drumbo" French, this book highlights his time with the group but unlike Drumbo's 800 page missive, Harkleroad presents a concise 100+ pages, which means a lot less details, but less repetition, as well. Another apparent homemade, small press release, an editor might have helped in places (there are some typos, for instance), but overall this is a good, informative read.

After reading Drumbo's detailed book, there not a lot of new information here, but we get Bill's point of view on everything, of course, and one of the more interesting things that he mentions - interesting to me as a guitarist, anyway - is when he is talking about guitar overdubs on Clear Spot - first time they did this and something that French doesn't discuss as he wasn't on the album. But, they overdubbed multiple guitars - electric and acoustic - and even mandolin and Rickenbacker 12 string! Wildly different from the earlier records where the instrumental tracks were mostly done live with only a few overdubs of other sounds - sax, theremin, percussion, etc.

He gives a brief overview of his thoughts on the songs that he recorded but then life with the Captain became a bit too much and he left and went on to form Mallard with a couple of the other members (the entire band bailed on Van Vliet just before a tour, apparently, and he found a group of "normal" musicians and formed more of a "rock" band), who did a couple of albums before disintegrating due to the usual lack of funds and "musical differences".

Disillusioned, Bill played in a cover band for a while and ended up dropping out of performing and became a guitar teacher working at a music store, which is where he leaves off in the book. Happy, and glad that he has left behind a body of work that people care about, but content to be away from that world.

As daunting as it was, I did like the details in Drumbo's tome, and this one could use a bit more info, but it's worth looking into as a fan.