Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band - Diddy Wah Diddy and Who Do You Think You're Fooling

Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band
Where The Action Is -- ABC (US TV) 1966
May 24, 1966

A. Who Do You Think You're Fooling?
B. Diddy Wah Diddy

This is the earliest piece of film of Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band (though not the earliest of Captain Beefheart; that's here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HMTYz-jQWk)

At this point they had been together almost 18 months and were trying to 'make it'. They had recorded their first single for A&M with David Gates producing - 'Diddy Wah Diddy' (an update of a Bo Diddley song) and 'Who Do You Think You're Fooling?' (written by Don) - and it had been released in April 1966.

As part of the promotion for the single their management got them an appearance on Where The Action Is on 24 May 1966. (Note: they also appeared on the TV music show '9th Street West' at around this time but no copy of that seems to have survived.)
The band performing here is slightly different to that which had recorded the single. Guitarist Rich Hepner had left and Alex Snouffer had moved back to guitar after a spell in the drum seat which was now occupied by Paul (PG) Blakely. Doug Moon was on second guitar and Jerry Handley was on bass.
As was the case for any rock and pop act back then there wasn't an option to play live. You mimed to your record or didn't get airtime.

The band look a bit self-conscious on the beach surrounded by a lot of teens in swimming costumes. The camera drifts off several times to the kids fooling about in the surf. In hindsight this looks quite incongruous - a blues band playing in these surroundings - and very 'un-Beefheart' like!
Where The Action Is was a popular midweek afternoon music show produced by Dick Clark for ABC TV. It filled a spot that had been vacated by American Bandstand's move to Saturdays. It ran from 28 June 1965 to 31 March 1967 and had thousands of teens rushing home from school to catch the show.
The show lasted just 30 minutes. It's theme song was 'Action' sung by Freddie 'Boom Boom' Cannon which became a moderate hit in late 1965. The house band was Paul Revere and the Raiders and the show provided them with a launch pad for a successful career.

There were other show regulars who along with Paul Revere would mime to cover versions of current pop hits. Each show would include usually two guest singers or bands performing their latest release. And the whole thing was hung together on Dick Clark's voice-over commentary.
The show pioneered the use of exotic locations for shows and it toured several popular resorts across the USA.

Most episodes were, however, filmed in southern California, at the Big Bear ski resort in the winter, and Malibu in the summer (which is possibly where this footage was filmed).

Category:

Music

Tags:

• captain beefheart
• diddy wah diddy
• 1966

[soulgalore]

booheaven1000 you are a class act. This is priceless footage. The teens are looking almost as awkward as the band, clapping along in a not quite getting it way. Keep it coming.

[bookheaven1000]

@soulgalore Thanks! I'll be uploading a full recent Magic Band concert soon so stay tuned!

[englanderm1969]

great footage, I've never seen the beginning of the clip before- thanks for the video. In response to yoursaxman about ry cooder: Thats Alex "St. Claire" Snouffer who started the magic band and got Don to join. Ry didn't come in until a year or two later to organize arrangements for the recording of Safe as Milk.

[yoursaxman]

a very young Ry Cooder @ :55 ?

[FastANDBulbous117]

Am I the only one who thinks Don looks like Carl Sagan in this video?

[ellaguru2112]

Good lord the Captain was a handsome fox back then! Awesome footage! Thanks for posting this!

[radioahead]

Thanks for the upload, and for the insightful commentary.

[lamccaugh]

Don looks like Sonny Bono at 1:02

[ZigZagWanderer]

Great stuff, thanks for posting !

[Superchickenman159]

FIRST!