Don van Vliet's achingly beautiful love song will linger to haunt you, long after its 2 minutes and 57 seconds have faded away

Listening to, say, Dachau Blues, Pachuco Cadaver or Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish on Captain Beefheart's surreal 1969 masterpiece Trout Mask Replica would hardly incline you to bracket Don van Vliet with the great balladeers. Yet here, barely three years later, he came up with as achingly beautiful a song of love and longing as you could wish to hear.

It's from the Clear Spot album – superbly produced in 1972 by Ted Templeman (choirboy-soundalike lead singer of cotton-wool poppers Harpers Bizarre turned studio wiz) – which also contains the fine tracks Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles and Big Eyed Beans from Venus. But it is My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains that lingers to haunt you, long after its 2 minutes and 57 seconds have faded away.

The Magic Band (largely intact from the crazed Troutmask sessions) are in fine form, featuring the fluid lead guitar of Zoot Horn Rollo (Bill Harkleroad) in counterpoint to rhythm guitarist Rockette Morton (Mark Boston) and bass player Orejón (Roy Estrada). And that's percussionist Ed Marimba (Art Tripp) on, appropriately, the marimba.

From experience, I can recommend reciting the lyrics to this song at a wedding. "I won't sleep until I find you/ I won't eat until I find you/ My heart won't beat until I wrap my arms around you" – there will not be a dry eye in the place. There are good covers of this by the Tubes and Everything But the Girl, but this is the definitive version.

After my son died, I dreamed that he and I were riding on the back of a motorbike driven by, of all people, Captain Beefheart. He was taking us to a better place. Whenever I hear this lovely song, that's where I go.