The Artist Formerly Known As Captain Beefheart

Untold stories behind the culture-defining and newsmaking musical performances, sketches and cameos of the past 50 years.

With the help of more than 10,000 dedicated Zappa fans, this is the long-awaited definitive documentary project of Alex Winter documenting the life and career of enigmatic groundbreaking rock star Frank Zappa. Alex also utilizes in this picture thousands of hours of painstakingly digitized videos, photos, audio, writing, and everything in between from Zappa's private archives. These chronicles have never been brought to a public audience before, until now.

A look at the roots of the historic music scene in L.A.'s Laurel Canyon featuring the music of iconic music groups such as The Byrds, The Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield, and The Mamas and the Papas.

1969. Man lands on the moon. Half a million strong at Woodstock....and Led Zeppelin perform in the gym of the Wheaton Youth Center in front of 50 confused teenagers. Or did they? Filmmaker Jeff Krulik chronicles an enduring Maryland legend, of the very night this concert was alleged to have taken place, January 20, 1969, during the first Presidential Inauguration of Richard Nixon. Led Zeppelin Played Here presents a mid-Atlantic version of what was happening nationwide as the rock concert industry took shape. Featuring interviews with rock writers, musicians, and fans, and several who claim they were witnessing history that night.

In this surrealistic and free-form follow-up to the Monkees' television show, the band frolic their way through a series of musical set pieces and vignettes containing humor and anti-establishment social commentary.

Emerging from the Detroit music scene of the 1970s in a flurry of long hair and sequins, Alice Cooper restored hard rock with a sense of showmanship, while simultaneously striking fear into the hearts of Middle America with the chicken-slaughtering, dead-baby-eating theatrics that would cement his identity as a glam metal icon. Meticulously crafted from rare archival footage, Super Duper Alice Cooper tells the story of the man behind the makeup, Vincent Furnier, the son of a preacher, who got caught in the grip of his own monster.

Utilizing potent TV interviews and many forgotten performances from his 30-year career, we are immersed into Frank Zappa’s world while experiencing two distinct facets of his complex character. At once Zappa was both a charismatic composer who reveled in the joy of performing and, in the next moment, a fiercely intelligent and brutally honest interviewee whose convictions only got stronger as his career ascended.

This episode focuses on Zappa's early 70s albums, Overnight Sensation (1973) and Apostrophy (') (1974). Together they encapsulate Zappa's extraordinary musical diversity and were also the 2 most commercially successful albums that he released in his prolific career. Included are interviews, musical demonstrations, rare archive & home movie footage, plus live performances to tell the story behind the conception and recording of these groundbreaking albums. Extras include additional interviews and demonstrations not included in the broadcast version, 2 full performances from the Roxy in 1973 and Saturday Night Live in 1976, and new full live performance done specially for these Classic Albums.

With one of the most memorably stunning voices that has ever hit the airwaves, Linda Ronstadt burst onto the 1960s folk rock music scene in her early twenties.

The thrilling, debauched and frequently hilarious adventures of the legendary Melbourne post-punk band, in their own words.

BBC documentary on the long-running British TV show, Top of the Pops.

BEAUTIFUL NOISE is an in-depth exploration of a music movement in the late twentieth century, a fascinating period when some innovative musicians mixed guitar noise into conventional pop song structures while maintaining a philosophy of letting the music speak for itself. Although many of the people interviewed are notoriously press shy they have opened up about their music and experiences from over 20 years ago, how they defied the rules and became sonic innovators that have inspired so many.

This documentary is about the first five years of BBC Radio 1 and contains interviews with the disc jockeys and other folk who were involved in the station's inception. It also contains footage from the previous pirate radio era as a means of explaining why Radio 1 came about.

"Touring makes you crazy," Frank Zappa says, explaining that the idea for this film came to him while the Mothers of Invention were touring. The story, interspersed with performances by the Mothers and the Royal Symphony Orchestra, is a tale of life on the road. The band members' main concerns are the search for groupies and the desire to get paid.

A documentary analyzing the social, political and cultural climate of Hollywood in the mid-1960s.

John Peel's Record Box is a documentary film made by Elaine Shepherd, released on 14 November 2005 on Channel 4. It was nominated for Primetime Emmy Award. It is about a small private collection of the British radio DJ John Peel who died in 2004 at the age of 65. Peel's main archive contained more than 100,000 vinyl records and CDs. This smaller private collection, however, contains 143 singles - some of them doublettes - stored in a private wooden box representing some of his personal favourites. According to the documentary, there are no singles by Peel's favorite group, The Fall, because he kept them in a separate box. The film features interviews with John's wife Sheila Ravenscroft, radio DJs and artists like Mary Anne Hobbs, Sir Elton John, Ronnie Wood, Roger Daltrey, Fergal Sharkey, Jack White, Michael Palin and Miki Berenyi.

Documentary about the rise and fall and rise again of the legendary John Otway.

When Hippies Ruled The World takes a trip back to the end of the psychedelic Sixties - the dreams, trips, movies, and music - to a time that love was all that was needed. From 1967 to 1970, the hippie revolution gave us great anthems, great events, great sex and great big afghan coats. The music was by The Doors; queen of the hippies Joni Mitchell; and the world was set alight by the number 1 hit Fire by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Hippies dropped out at the biggest festival, Woodstock, and were turned on by LSD and free love. The whole experience was literally set on film by Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda in Easy Rider while the hippest of all looked East and followed in the trail of the Beatles to India.

A one-hour documentary on the making of Frank Zappa's bizarre 1971 comic musical. Vintage private footage from Frank's personal archives plus behind-the-scenes of the actual shooting and recording. With Ringo Starr, Theodore Bikel, Keith Moon and such songs as "Sleeping in a Jar," and "Strictly Genteel." The inside history of the first feature-length film to be shot on video in 6 days.

A documentary on the life and music of manic-depressive, paranoid-schizophrenic cult music icon Wild Man Fischer.

Produced for Dutch television and directed by Roelof Kiers, this documentary offers an observational portrait of musician and composer Frank Zappa in the early 1970s. Filmed at Zappa’s home and during rehearsals and performances with the Mothers of Invention, the program combines interviews, backstage scenes, and concert footage recorded at the Fillmore West featuring Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan. Alongside performances and informal conversations, Zappa reflects on his musical influences, creative methods, and views on American culture and politics while working on projects such as 200 Motels.

In a little over an hour, 'VIDEO FROM HELL' provides a preview of current and projected Honker releases, including 'BABY SNAKES', 'THE TRUE STORY OF 200 MOTELS' and 'UNCLE MEAT' (all 1987 releases) along with segments of 1988 shows still in preparation ('YOU CAN'T DO THAT ON STAGE ANYMORE'- which will be released after the multi-CD package, 'I NEED YOUR LOVE' - the homespun philosophy of Al Malkin, and 'AN AMERICAN DISSIDENT' - the homespun philosophy of Frank Zappa).

Don van Vliet, alias "Captain Beefheart", is one of the most influential, misunderstood, talked about, admired, copied, treasured, loved and quoted musicians and yet he is still an obscure and mysterious artist. His quite abrupt artistic transformation from working with a microphone to a paintbrush in 1982 and his consequent move from the desert to the ocean meant even less direct contact with the outside world than before. Subsequently there is very little information about Don from this time onwards and this short black-and-white film made in 1993 is an unique opportunity to see and hear this unique man

Experimental commercial made for Captain Beefheart's LP of the same name. Is in MOMA despite a stunted release.

A film by Frank Zappa made for the Dilexi Foundation on KQED

After Homer accidentally pollutes the town's water supply, Springfield is encased in a gigantic dome by the EPA and the Simpsons are declared fugitives.

A defective lamp reveals a heartbreaking truth about what Homer believes is reality, and an AI-powered tablet befriends and controls Maggie. The Simpsons struggle to find the light through two dark tales of the curious and bizarre.

Loki is banished from Asgard once again and must face his toughest opponents yet: the Simpsons and Springfield’s mightiest heroes. The God of Mischief teams up with Bart Simpson in the ultimate crossover event paying tribute to the Marvel Cinematic Universe of superheroes and villains.

The residents of Springfield search for Christmas cheer.

On their way to daycare, Homer loses track of Maggie who hops in Grogu's hovering pram for a hyperspace-hopping adventure across the galaxy. Facing a squadron of Imperial TIE fighters, Maggie brings the battle to Springfield in this epic short celebrating all things Star Wars.

It's Mother's Day and Marge Simpson joins the moms of Disney+ on a special holiday outing that turns into an epic galactic adventure filled with heroes, villains, and Stewie from Family Guy.

Homer and Marge's fun couples' date night goes off the rails when Marge learns Homer left the kids unsupervised with only the doorbell camera as a babysitter. Frustrated with her imperfect husband, a tipsy Marge stirs up a trilogy of fantasies of a different Homer.

The Planet Express crew return from cancellation, only to be robbed blind by hideous "sprunging" scam artists. Things go from bad to worse when the scammers hack Bender, start traveling through time, and take Earth over entirely! Will the crew be able to save the day, or will Bender's larcenous tendencies and their general incompetence doom them all?

A young musician travels to London in pursuit of his dreams, but winds up the sole witness to a bizarre murder.

A sleazy chef is forced to face the truth about the man he has become and realizes that he has the chance to begin again.

A mockumentary, rockumentary featuring the spoof radio DJ's from Harry Enfield's sketch shows. Telling of their rise to fame, their influence on music history and fall from grace in a parody of real life radio presenters.

Captain Beefheart Under Review documents the career of the unique musician. The film combines performance footage by the man and his various back-up players along with interviews by colleagues who illuminate aspects of some of the songs and offer testimonials on the genius of the artist.