Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - 1967 [1999] "Safe as Milk"

Safe as Milk is the debut studio album by American rock group Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, released in June 1967 by Buddah Records. A heavily blues-influenced work, the album featured a 20-year-old Ry Cooder, who played guitar and wrote some of the arrangements.

Beefheart's first proper studio album is a much more accessible, pop-inflected brand of blues-rock than the efforts that followed in the late '60s -- which isn't to say that it's exactly normal and straightforward. Featuring Ry Cooder on guitar, this is blues-rock gone slightly askew, with jagged, fractured rhythms, soulful, twisting vocals from Van Vliet, and more doo wop, soul, straight blues, and folk-rock influences than he would employ on his more avant-garde outings. "Zig Zag Wanderer," "Call on Me," and "Yellow Brick Road" are some of his most enduring and riff-driven songs, although there's plenty of weirdness on tracks like "Electricity" and "Abba Zaba." [Buddha's 1999 reissue of Safe as Milk contained restored artwork and seven bonus tracks.]

Underground classic, absolute genius and one of my favourite albums of all time. Crank up the volume. Yes, it's warped and weird but this is easily the most accessible of all of Beefheart's albums. It features a 20 year old Ry Cooder, who is magnificent throughout. There's a real mix on here: "Sure 'Nuff' and Yes I Do" starts off like a straightforward Delta Blues before being amplified and injected with Amphetamine, "Zig Zag Wanderer" has a heavy R&B baseline and the R&B theme continues with what has to be the most "pop" tune he has ever done, "Call on Me". Nothing is mainstream though, there's sharp jangly guitars cutting through the horns gently fading in and out as as the percussion phases from left to right. Then you're hit with the weird, grungy, heavy "Dropout Boogie", the mood totally changes for the sentimental "I'm Glad" with it's Doo-Wop backing harmonies and the side finishes with the weird, high voltage, up tempo "Electricity" which utilises the Theremin to great effect. Side Two starts with the folky- rock "Yellow Brick Road" followed by " the pure psychedelia of "Abba Zabba" - Ry Cooder takes the bass here to great effect. Next comes "Plastic Factory" which sounds like Howlin' Wolf on Acid. "Where There's Women" is a touching tune with beautiful lyrics. "Grown So Ugly" is the only cover on the album and like the opening track is like heavy, psychedelic, Delta Blues. The album closes with the trippy, beautiful "Autumns Child" which again utilises the Thremin. Everyone should know this album.

"I may be hungry, but I sure ain't weird," Don Van Vliet, a.k.a. Captain Beefheart, famously intones on this bright-sounding remastered version of the 1967 debut by Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band. Safe as Milk is a bold, tough-ass distillation of Delta blues stomp and '60s garage-punk swagger, fused with a radically polyrhythmic and tempo-shifting style that one might term "art rock." Listening to the delightfully playful, absurdist "Abba Zabba," it's easy to see why Lester Bangs called Beefheart "the only true dadaist in rock"; the song is a good indication of the intricate, rule-breaking music the Magic Band would continue to hone. But there are also formidable ballads (the psychedelic "Autumn's Child," the lachrymose "I'm Glad"), midtempo pop-soul tunes (the Otis Redding-ish "Call on Me"), and straight-ahead blues-rock workouts ("Plastic Factory"), all of which showcase the fretwork of a young Ry Cooder. Much has been made of Beefheart's multiple-octave vocal range; he sings menacingly on "Dropout Boogie" and allegedly broke a very expensive microphone on the eerie "Electricity." The last seven tracks on this reissue (for the most part fascinating, unfinished instrumentals) were recorded with a different lineup; they are outtakes from Mirror Man Sessions.

Track listing:

01.    "Sure 'Nuff 'n Yes I Do"    2:15
02.    "Zig Zag Wanderer"    2:40
03.    "Call on Me[22]" (Van Vliet)    2:37
04.    "Dropout Boogie"    2:32
05.    "I'm Glad" (Van Vliet)    3:31
06.    "Electricity"    3:07
07.    "Yellow Brick Road"    2:28
08.    "Abba Zaba" (Van Vliet)    2:44
09.    "Plastic Factory" (Van Vliet, Bermann, Jerry Handley)    3:08
10.    "Where There's Woman"    2:09
11.    "Grown So Ugly" (Robert Pete Williams)    2:27
12.    "Autumn's Child"    4:02
CD bonus tracks
13.    "Safe as Milk (Take 5)"    4:13
14.    "On Tomorrow"    6:56
15.    "Big Black Baby Shoes"    4:50
16.    "Flower Pot"    3:55
17.    "Dirty Blue Gene"    2:43
18.    "Trust Us (Take 9)"    7:22
19.    "Korn Ring Finger"    7:26

Personnel:

    Don Van Vliet – lead vocals, harmonica, marimba, arrangements
    Alex St. Clair Snouffer – guitar, backing vocals, bass, percussion
    Ry Cooder – guitar, bass, slide guitar, percussion, arrangements
    Jerry Handley – bass (except 8, 10), backing vocals
    John French – drums, backing vocals, percussion

Additional musicians

    Samuel Hoffman – theremin (6, 12)
    Milt Holland – log drum, tambourine, percussion
    Taj Mahal – tambourine, percussion
    Russ Titelman – guitar