« Prior to his joining the Magic Band, Moris Tepper had proved that he could play some of the more knuckle-busting guitar parts from the Beefheart back-catalogue. He also harboured ambitions of being a singer-songwriter. Van Vliet was innately suspicious of this and applied some unorthodox homespun psychology into the process of breaking down Tepper's potential ‘catatonic state’. He reckoned the guitarist had been listening to too much of the Beatles and was consequently humming (the note) ‘c’ in the middle of his forehead. Despite Tepper's protestations that he didn't have perfect pitch and therefore wouldn't know what ‘c’ was, Van Vliet's solution was bizarre, but ultimately effective. Tepper describes one of the ‘very strange rituals’ that were happening at this time: ‘He put me in this little bathroom closet that was the size of just the toilet – you couldn't move – and made me listen to this track called “Red Cross Store” by Mississippi John Hurt over and over and over for three hours. I'd come out and say, ‘I've got to eat, I'm starving,” and he said, “No, you've got to hear more.” He'd go, “Did you really hear it, did you hear it?” and he'd look in my eyes and go, “No, you've got to hear it more. You haven't heard it yet.” »

...