Editing Captain Beefheart (section)

=== ''Doc at the Radar Station'' ===
[[File:Don Van Vliet and Gary Lucas, "Doc at the Radar Station" sessions, Soundcastle Studios Glendale Ca. May 1980.jpeg|thumb|Don Van Vliet and [[Gary Lucas]] during the ''Doc at the Radar Station'' sessions (May 1980)]]
''[[Doc at the Radar Station]]'' (1980) helped establish Beefheart's late resurgence. Released by [[Virgin Records]] during the [[post-punk]] scene, the music was now accessible to a younger, more receptive audience. He was interviewed in a feature report on [[KABC-TV]]'s ''Channel 7 Eyewitness News'' in which he was hailed as "the father of the [[New wave music|new wave]]. One of the most important American composers of the last fifty years, [and] a primitive genius". Van Vliet said he was "doing a non-hypnotic music to break up the [[catatonic]] state ... and I think there is one right now."<ref>{{YouTube|yIlVXzC85TU|Van Vliet interviewed on KABC-TV's ''Channel 7 Eyewitness News''}} 1980. Retrieved on April 9, 2010.</ref>

Steve Huey of ''Allmusic'' cited ''Doc at the Radar Station'' as being "...{{nbsp}}the strongest album of his comeback, and by some as his best since ''Trout Mask Replica''", "even if the Captain's voice isn't quite what it once was, ''Doc at the Radar Station'' is an excellent, focused consolidation of Beefheart's past and then-present".<ref>{{cite web|last=Huey |first=Steve |url={{AllMusic|class=album|id=r3301|pure_url=yes}} |title=Doc at the Radar Station &gt; Overview |website=Allmusic |access-date=February 11, 2010}}</ref> Van Vliet's biographer Mike Barnes writes of "revamping work built on skeletal ideas and fragments that would have mouldered away in the vaults had they not been exhumed and transformed into full-blown, totally convincing new material".{{sfn|Barnes|2011|p=362}} During this period, Van Vliet made two appearances on [[Late Night With David Letterman]], and performed on ''[[Saturday Night Live]]''.