Captain Beefheart's 10 commandments of guitar playing

After his last studio album in 1982, Captain Beefheart retired to the desert and devoted himself to painting © Neal Preston/CORBIS

10 suitably absurd/genius guitar commandments by the absurd/genius Captain Beefheart. Apparently they were sourced from the book Rolling Stone's Alt-Rock-A-Rama, re-discovered via BoingBoing this morning. Read on for a sample, check out Beefheart.com for the full 10…

"2. Your guitar is not really a guitar

Your guitar is a divining rod. Use it to find spirits in the other world and bring them over. A guitar is also a fishing rod. If you're good, you'll land a big one."

"8. Don't wipe the sweat off your instrument

You need that stink on there. Then you have to get that stink onto your music."