I remember seeing him live in Edmonton in the early 70's. I believe he was on the bill with Quicksilver Messenger Service and The Velvet Underground. Being with the student radio station at the time I was involved in interviewing various musicians, and had about a 45 minute interview with him (wish I still had the tape). My most vivid memory of that interview was his insistence that he was NOT one of Frank Zappa's "novelty" acts--and his resentment that Zappa was trying to parade him that way. I think this was shortly after Zappa had started his "Bizarre" label and had put Van Vliet ont he label, ---and also recorded a mentally ill man called Wild Man Fisher--and Van Vliet felt that Zappa was exploiting this man.

Interesting, because his obituary refers to his positive affiliation with Frank Zappa.