Tag Archives for Captain Beefheart

Zig Zag Wanderer – Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band

Artist as Rock & Roll Enthusiast (aka ARE) Post: 19

For various reasons, I have decided that this is one of my theme songs. I have a few of them, not too many. Zig Zag Wanderer, it rings true for me on many levels. This decision comes after many years of living life and many hours of listening to music. This is a decision made through experience. I even wrote about it here, in another post.

I am not even a huge fan of Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band even though I respect Don Van Vleet and his important contributions to music as an alternative rock pioneer and beyond. In fact, I had not even heard this song until I was around 35-40 years old, when I took a deep dive into early psychedelic rock.

You can jump you can holler
Never lose what I have found
Heaven’s free ‘cept for a dollar
You can zig you can zag
Whoa I’m gonna stay around gonna stay around

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The Zig Zag Wanderer

I’ve never fit into any club. My entire life has been about zigging when much of my contemporary culture zagged. It’s not something I’ve always been aware of. It’s not even something I’ve always been happy about. For example, in high school, I was obsessed with fitting in yet was unable to do so no matter how desperately I tried. Turns out it wasn’t in my nature and to my great frustration, I just hadn’t yet realized this.

Over the years self-awareness and self-acceptance slowly grew from within. An unstoppable need to wander (mentally or physically) fills much of my time. My life has been spent learning to accept and embrace this revelation. I have no issue with it personally. However, professionally it’s a different story. It means that I’ve always been out of fashion. Never quite the perfect match for anything. It can still be a frustrating place to be at times. However, at this point in my life, I know who I am, The Zig Zag Wanderer.