Album Review: Safe As Milk - Captain Beefheart

Album: Safe As Milk
Artist: Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band
Label: Buddah Records
Release Date: September 1967

Famous for releasing 'Trout Mask Replica', a weird and (some would say) wonderful album to follow 'Safe As Milk', Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band were lead by Don Van Vliet, a notoriously strict bandleader and composer who had a lot of different ideas on how music should sound to many of the popular artists in the 1960s. This first album contains a lot less of the trademark "weirdness" that can be found on later albums, but in my opinion is even more worthy of a listen.

'Sure Nuff 'N Yes I Do' begins the album with a distinct country and blues flavour but you also get the impression that Captain Beefheart is almost mocking the conventional pop voice of the day with his own take on it. It's fairly upbeat and fast paced, but is outdone on both fronts by the second track 'Zig Zag Wanderer' which takes more rock influence alongside the country sound of the guitars and percussion. With a prominent bassline and catchy chorus, the song is a highlight of the album.

'Call On Me' showcases Van Vliet's vocal style as the instruments take less of a leading role in the song. It seems to be a mix between a typical pop voice, and a country singer with elements of madness thrown in for good measure. 'Dropout Boogie' continues features an unconventional song structure based around a main verse with instrumental breaks of varying styles inbetween repetitions. The song's lyrics seem to tell the story of a college dropout as they go through life, and the various problems they face.

As one of the longest songs on the album "I'm Glad" slows the speed of the songs a little, influenced by the genre of soul it has brass and backing vocals and light guitar instead of the driving blues rock of the songs preceding it. The last song on the first side, 'Electricity' is an unconventional blues trip with distorted vocals and blues influence. According to Van Vliet, the band's record label at the time thought the song was too negative for release and critics noted that the song used "ghostly theremin in the most disconcerting way"

The beginning of the 2nd side shows some of Van Vliet's oddity, introducing a reference tone before starting 'Yellow Brick Road' which seems happy and whimsical on first listen, but features a shouted chorus and less optimistic lyrics than would be expected. 'Abba Zaba' is another strange song with nonsensical lyrics and country and blues influence. It's here that some early similarities with Frank Zappa's music can be heard (they later collaborated in 1969 on Zappa's album 'Hot Rats').

'Plastic Factory' seems like a song that could be taken straight out of classic blues history, with old timey lyrics and harmonica. It's an interesting arrangement and definitely still fits with the newer sounding, more psychadelic parts of the album despite its classic sound. 'Where There's Woman' begins fairly innocuously with slow guitars and lively bass but develops to into a more lively song fairly quickly. 'Grown So Ugly' features a clever time signature in its verse and a lively chorus and is one of the best songs on the second side of the album.

The final song 'Autumn's Child' is the longest and slowest song of the album, featuring distorted vocals, prominent theremin and a blues break in the middle. It's not as lively as most of the songs that are before it, but still ends the album well. Overall 'Safe As Milk' is a bluesy collection of songs influenced by many genres, with Van Vliet's on take on how things should be dominating their general impression and sound. For 1967 it's an amazingly different experience when the Beatles were only up to Sgt. Peppers.

Rating 4.25/5.00