Ashtray Heart chords by Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band

Firstly released in 1980 on the album Doc At The Radar Station, on Virgin records, this song features John French (Drumbo) who at the time, had moved from drums to guitar in this lineup of the Magic Band consisting of him and Eric Drew Feldman on bass, Mellotron (employed by Don Van Vliet because he claimed it had a "merthiolate sound") and synthesizers, Jeff Moris Tepper on guitars, Bruce Fowler on trombone and Robert Williams on drums, actually has John French playing the drums (as well as on "Sheriff Of Hong Kong"). Gary Lucas, Don's manager at the time also makes guest appearances playing french horn on "Run Paint Run Run" and the guitar solo "Flavor Bud Living". Considered to many as one of the most abrasive albums from Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band, this song is allegedly about the feud that Don Vliet had entered with Frank Zappa for the second time after their relationship deteriorated when Don was a guest at the April-May '75 tour (documented on the album Bongo Fury, credited to both Zappa, Beefheart and the Mothers) and came to a head when Zappa's manager Herb Cohen, funded the sessions for the then unreleased (but widely bootlegged and now remixed and restored in 2012 by the Zappa Family Trust) Bat Chain Puller album from 1976. Many of its' songs were re-recorded (including "Brickbats", which is on this album) due to legal lawsuits between Zappa and Cohen, whereupon Zappa stalled the release of the album. Many of the lyrics make no quite veiled references allegedly to Frank; A notable performance of this song which included a short soprano saxophone solo by Don was aired on Saturday Night Live, hosted by Malcolm McDowell, aired at 22nd November 1980. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.