Don Van Vliet, better known as Captain Beefheart, with the guitarist Jeff Morris Tepper in 1980.Credit...Ebet Roberts Don Van Vliet, an artist of protean creativity who was known as Captain Beefheart during his days as an influential rock musician and who later led a reclusive life as a painter, died Friday. He was 69 and lived in Trinidad, Calif. The cause was complications of multiple sclerosis,
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