safe as milk

Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band made their outrageous emergence with this wild, weird, and wonderful welding of white boy blues and spellbinding sideways psychedelia.  Don Van Vliet came from the town of Lancaster in the Southern California desert, where he hooked up with Frank Zappa.  Together they came up with the moniker Captain Beefheart, though Van Vliet said, "Don't ask me why or how." 

Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band became a local sensation and they won a contract with A&M in a battle of the bands.  They released a version of Bo Diddley's 'Diddy Wah Diddy' that became a hit in Los Angeles.  Beefheart recorded a number of demos for an album; but Jerry Moss rejected them as too negative.  A&M released another single 'Frying Pan'; but it didn't go anywhere.  

A year later, Bob Krasnow of Kama Sutra Records liked the demos enough to produce 'Safe As Milk' for the subsidiary label Buddah. Richard Perry co-produced the sessions at RCA Studios in Los Angeles with Don Van Vliet on vocals, harmonica, bass marimba, and arrangements; Alex St. Clair Snouffer on guitar, bass, and background vocals; Jerry Handley on bass and background vocals; John French on drums and background vocals; and Ry Cooder on guitar, slide guitar, bass, and arrangements.  Additional musicians included Samuel Hoffman on theremin; Milt Holland on log drum and tambourine; Taj Mahal on tambourine, bass, and guitar; Doug Moon on guitar; and Perry on harpsichord.

Cooder recalls:  "He had great musical ideas. It was kind of an interesting event. I still think that 'Safe As Milk' is a good record. What's really good there is the master tape. It's mixed badly. Hopeless mix... hopeless... terrible. Stupid thing was done which was to take it into a cheap studio to save some money.... The master tape of that album is utterly fantastic. They should take it to Japan and redo it. What a great sound. 'Cause it was cut in a good studio on tube equipment - it's a fantastic sound. I was pretty impressed with what he had figured out. Not always logical, but always interesting."

Beefheart expressed:  "During our 'Safe As Milk' era, we were over in England and I walked right off the stage about ten feet in mid-air. Then fell down about six feet, got up and ran back up on the stage and asked them, 'Why'd you drop me?' Because it was them holding me up with the vast potentiality of their energy. But once I'd begun to do it out there over their heads, they looked up and began to think en masse, 'How the hell is he doing that?' - the contact was broken...I don't think I do magic, I think I do spells."

The band did well in the psychedelic music scene until lead guitarist Cooder quit the band right before major gigs scheduled in San Francisco. 'Safe As Milk' never charted in the US or the UK; but it has become a cult classic and is, indeed, the safest place to start in Beefheart's idiosyncratic and influencial career.  






'Safe As Milk'
full album:



1.     0:00 Sure 'Nuff 'n Yes I Do  (Don Van Vliet, Herb Bermann)
2.     2:15 Zip Zag Wanderer  (Van Vliet, Bermann)
3.     4:55 Call on Me  (Van Vliet)
4.     7:32 Dropout Boogie  (Van Vliet, Bermann)
5.   10:05 I'm Glad  (Van Vliet)
6.   13:36 Electricity  (Van Vliet, Bermann)
7.   16:44 Yellow Brick Road  (Van Vliet, Bermann)
8.   19:12 Abba Zaba  (Van Vliet)
9.   21:56 Plastic Factory  (Van Vliet, Bermann, Jerry Handley)
10. 25:05 Where There's Woman  (Van Vliet, Bermann)
11. 27:15 Grown So Ugly  (Robert Pete Williams)
12. 29:42 Autumn's Child  (Van Vliet, Bermann)
13. 33:45 Safe as Milk (Take 5)  (Van Vliet)
14. 37:59 On Tomorrow  (Van Vliet)
15. 44:56 Big Black Baby Shoes  (Van Vliet)
16. 49:46 Flower Pot  (Van Vliet)
17. 53:42 Dirty Blue Gene  (Van Vliet)
18. 56:26 Trust Us (Take 9)  (Van Vliet)
19. 1:03:48 Korn Ring Finger  (Van Vliet)