ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Avant-garde rock legend and visual artist Don Van Vliet, who performed under the name Captain Beefheart, passed away today at age 69. A representative of New York City’s Michael Werner Gallery, which hosted several shows of his paintings, confirms the sad news to EW. Van Vliet died of complications from multiple sclerosis at a hospital in Northern California this morning. MORE ROCK SNOB ENCYCLOPEDIA: CAPTAIN BEEFHEART, blues-braying Tasmanian Devil, industrial-strength surrealist, poet, painter, visionary, charlatan. Of all the people waving the freak flag in the ’60s, Captain Beefheart and the revolving-door personnel of his Magic Band waved it […]