Safe as Milk

by Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band

Overview

Beefheart's first full album is the work of one creative wizard just beginning to work out his vision -- the Captain himself, Don Van Vliet, who'd made a couple of rough garage singles but was figuring out how to rupture pre-war blues into something rich and alien -- and another whose talent had blossomed instantly and fully, then-20-year-old slide guitarist Ry Cooder. SAFE AS MILK's intermittent stabs at garage-pop normalcy and psychedelic whimsy aren't as interesting as its berserker blues -- "Electricity," "Sure 'Nuff 'N Yes I Do" -- where Van Vliet's blood-raw, dazzlingly protean voice catches a ride on Cooder's growling leads and stretches words into pure abrasive sound. His rhythms are starting to break away from straight-ahead boom-boom too, hinting at the staggering blurts he developed later on. The seven bonus tracks on this edition are actually half-finished outtakes from the MIRROR MAN SESSIONS, mostly valuable as evidence of how fast Beefheart's music was already changing six months later.

Product Details

Release Date:	06/01/1999
Label:	Sbme Special Mkts.
UPC:	0886978829023
catalogNumber:	788290
Rank:	30920

Tracks

1. Sure 'Nuff 'N' Yes, I Do
2. Zig Zag Wanderer
3. Call on Me
4. Dropout Boogie
5. I'm Glad
6. Electricity
7. Yellow Brick Road
8. Abba Zaba
9. Plastic Factory
10. Where There's Woman
11. Grown So Ugly
12. Autumn's Child
13. Safe as Milk
14. On Tomorrow
15. Big Black Baby Shoes
16. Flower Pot
17. Dirty Blue Gene
18. Trust Us (Take 9)
19. Korn Ring Finger

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band   Primary Artist