i would like to know if they were friends or not?why were they rivals and feuded?did they just tolerate each other?which do you prefer?how important do you find them to be to todays music?

Well, I don't know why they fought one another, but I definitely prefer Captain Beefheart. Although I don't think he has much influence over today's music.

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Cheeseburger lips!

Well, I'm a little out of it, because I never new Capt. Beef and Zappa ever acknowledged each other, bitterly or not.

I think Zappa continues to have an influence on music today, although certainly not the mainstream or even most non-mainstream music. But, could you imagine a Phish or (insert name of whatever band has replaced Phish) without Zappa? And no, I don't think the Grateful Dead alone is an influence in that sound.

Capt Beefheart is weirder. You could easily say he has influenced absolutely everything today, or nothing at all! Depends how you look at it. Or listen to it. Whatever.

Well, to start you off, Zappa produced Trout Mask Replica, and Beefheart appears on several of Zappa's records.

I'm not sure about the feud, to be honest. It seems to have been primarily driven by the Captain rather than Frank, and involved him drawing some very strange pictures, but beyond that, I'm not really sure. To be honest, he was by all accounts tempermental, inconsistent and pretty virtually impossible to work with. Thus a genius.

But yeah, for some awesome Zappa & Beefheart stuff, d/l "Willy The Pimp". Probably the most struttin'est song that doesn't feature any blacks.