E208: Byron Coley on Beefheart + Lydia Lunch + Terry Reid R.I.P.

For this episode we're joined online from northwest Massachusetts by the legendary Byron Coley, champion of all things weird and non-mainstream.

After describing his somewhat peripatetic childhood, our guest explains – very amusingly – why as a teenager he hated the Beatles and what led him eventually to the more subversive sounds of the Mothers of Invention and their ilk. A digression on the Grateful Dead – whose Jerry Garcia we lost 30 years ago this month – is followed by Byron's memories of first reading R. Meltzer and Nick Tosches in Crawdaddy! and Creem... and how a teaching assistant grad student inspired him to "write like you talk".

After Barney reads from Byron's 1980 New York Rocker piece on Lydia Lunch's 8-Eyed Spy – prompting our guest's recall of first seeing her No Wave trailblazers Teenage Jesus & the Jerks live – we hear about his 1978 Rocker interview with the incomparable Captain Beefheart. This in turn leads to clips from Gary Lucas' audio interview with the artist born Don Van Vliet, recorded in January 1972.

After a quick late '70s/early '80s detour via his temporarily adopted California, Byron talks about his return to the East Coast and his writing for Boston's Forced Exposure – not to mention his rather more lucrative "Underground" columns for Spin. In passing he explains how his friendship with Sonic Youth led to a declaration of war on Bob ("Dean of American Rock Critics") Christgau. We finish up by paying tribute to blue-eyed-soul man Terry Reid and beloved Salsa star Eddie Palmieri.

Finally, Mark and Jasper talk us out with remarks on newly-added library pieces about the Legendary Stardust Cowboy (1968), Ronnie Wood and cronies (1974) and Lana Del Rey (2019).

Many thanks to special guest Byron Coley. Find his book C'est La Guerre in all good bookshops and follow him on BlueSky @byroncoley.bsky.social.

Pieces discussed: Way Out West With 8-Eyed Spy, Sonic Youth, Captain Beefheart: Grow Fins, Jason Gross interviews Byron Coley, Jerome John Garcia 1942-1995, The Grateful Dead: Burnout Sets In, The Exhumation of The Dead, Captain Beefheart audio, Terry Reid, Terry’s Funky Steamer, Eddie Palmieri: The Man Who Stirred Up Salsa, Top Tunes: the Legendary Stardust Cowboy, The Night Ron, Keith, Mac and Rod played a gig without falling over and Lana Del Rey Lives In America's Messy Subconscious.