A ‘Dachau’ song so shocking and transformative, there’s nothing else like it

Captain Beefheart Image by Getty Images
Inspired in part by all the Jewish artists on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs, the Forward decided it was time to rank the best Jewish pop songs of all time. You can find the whole list and accompanying essays here.
“Some white folks think it’s hip to have Blacks in their band. I have Jews, man. They understand suffering.” Thus spoke Don Van Vliet (aka Captain Beefheart) years ago, on the cusp of my joining his Magic Band in 1980. He wasn’t kidding, either (well, maybe a little). But “Dachau Blues” is no joke. Surely it is the single most shocking, convincing evocation of the Holocaust ever committed to music of any sort. The only other comparison I can think of — for sheer sonic mayhem suffused with righteous Jewish anger — is Arnold Schoenberg’s “A Survivor from Warsaw.”
That “Dachau Blues” was composed and sung by a non-Jewish person boggles the mind (you could describe Van Vliet’s religious outlook as pantheistic, tempered by a healthy streak of animism).
“Dachau Blues” (from Beefheart’s 1968 album “Trout Mask Replica”) is such strong meat that its awesome power engendered two rather extreme responses I shall bear witness to. While an undergrad at Yale in the early 1970s, a fellow student friend of mine played this song to a very sensitive intellectual Jewish woman he was dating. The song’s overwhelming maelstrom of creepiness actually made her vomit in disgust.
Some years later a good friend here in the West Village wanted to rid himself of a pair of bossy roommates who were back from a European sojourn and intent on taking over and muscling him out of his own apartment. Upon hearing his tale of woe, I suggested he play “Dachau Blues” at 6 a.m. at the loudest volume possible. That did the trick. The couple were blasted awake and immediately freaked out and threatened to call the cops or professional medical help. To no avail. My friend stood his ground and kept on playing this song — and by 6 p.m. that same day, the smarmy pair had vacated the premises for good.
In 1810, German author Heinrich von Kleist wrote a memorable short story — “St. Cecilia, or The Power of Music” — about a group of anti-religious zealots who attack a Catholic convent but are rendered neutral (in fact are driven insane) by an orchestra of nuns playing the “Gloria in Excelsis” from an old Italian Mass. Similarly, nothing, I mean nothing, on this earth can withstand the relentless transformative power and provocation of “Dachau Blues.”
Gary Lucas is a nice Jewish boy (sometimes) who was hailed as “One of the best and most original guitarists in America … a modern guitar miracle” by Rolling Stone, which recently named his song “Grace” (co-written with Jeff Buckley) as “One of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.”
Join us at 7:30 PM on Wednesday, Feb. 16, for a spirited discussion of the Greatest Jewish Pop Songs of All Time featuring Forward contributing editor and author Seth Rogovoy; executive editor Adam Langer; former Vibe and Spin editor-in-chief of Vibe, Alan Light; DJ and SirusXM host Hesta Prynn; novelist and screenwriter Jennifer Gilmore; and Forward contributing music critic Dan Epstein. Register here:
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 2
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 3
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
- 4
Opinion Mike Huckabee said there’s ‘no such thing as a Palestinian.’ It’s worth thinking about what that means
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Trump’s plan to enlist Elon Musk began at Lubavitcher Rebbe’s grave
-
Film & TV In this Jewish family, everybody needs therapy — especially the therapists themselves
-
Fast Forward Katrina Armstrong steps down as Columbia president after White House pressure over antisemitism
-
Yiddish אַ בליק צוריק אויף די פֿאָרווערטס־רעקלאַמעס פֿאַר פּסח A look back at the Forward ads for Passover products
קאָקאַ־קאָלאַ“, „מאַקסוועל האַוז“ און אַנדערע גרויסע פֿירמעס האָבן דעמאָלט רעקלאַמירט אינעם פֿאָרווערטס
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.