View source for Safe as Milk

{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{Infobox album
| name       = Safe as Milk
| type       = [[Album]]
| artist     = [[Captain Beefheart]] and [[The Magic Band|his Magic Band]]
| cover      = Safe_as_Milk.jpg
| alt        =
| released   = August 1967<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9ykEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA64&dq=billboard+safe+as+milk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiJv4StoJyLAxVjlu4BHTe_BwMQ6AF6BAgLEAM#v=onepage&q=billboard%20safe%20as%20milk&f=false|title=''Billboard'' New Album Releases|access-date=29 January 2025}}</ref>
| recorded   = Spring 1967
| studio     = RCA Studios, [[Los Angeles]]
| genre      =
*[[Blues rock]]<ref name="amg"/><ref name=Masters>{{cite web |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/captain-beefheart-and-his-magic-band-trout-mask-replica/ |title=Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band: Trout Mask Replica |last=Masters |first=Marc |date=April 28, 2018 |publisher=Pitchfork |access-date=2022-04-04}}</ref> 
*[[garage rock]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.avclub.com/article/beginners-guide-weird-world-captain-beefheart-211210|title=A beginner's guide to the weird world of Captain Beefheart|date=6 November 2014|publisher=|accessdate=8 July 2017}}</ref>
*[[rhythm & blues]]<ref>{{cite web |last1=Goldstein |first1=A.H. |title=Rip Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart |url=https://www.westword.com/music/rip-don-van-vliet-aka-captain-beefheart-5672758 |website=[[Westword]] |accessdate=9 August 2020}}</ref>
*[[acid rock]]<ref name="grooves">{{cite book|last1=Cooper|first1=Kim|last2=Smay|first2=David|title=Lost in the Grooves: Scram's Capricious Guide to the Music You Missed|date=2005|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781135879211|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jFKsR0K82hYC&pg=PT38}}</ref>
* [[folk rock]]<ref name= "Dimery 2010">Robert Dimery; Michael Lydon (23 March 2010). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition. Universe. {{ISBN|978-0-7893-2074-2}}.</ref>
| length     = 33:40
| label      = [[Buddah Records|Buddah]]
| producer   = [[Richard Perry]], [[Bob Krasnow]]
| prev_title =
| prev_year  =
| next_title = [[Strictly Personal]]
| next_year  = 1968
| misc       = {{Singles
 | name        = Safe as Milk
 | type        = studio
 | single1     = Yellow Brick Road" / "Abba Zaba
 | single1date = August 17, 1967
 | single2     = Plastic Factory" / "Where There's Woman
 | single2date = March 25, 1969
}}
}}

'''''Safe as Milk''''' is the debut studio album by American music group [[Captain Beefheart]] and his [[The Magic Band|Magic Band]], released in August 1967 by [[Buddah Records]]. A heavily [[blues]]-influenced work, the album features a 20-year-old [[Ry Cooder]], who played guitar and wrote some of the arrangements.

==Background==
Before recording ''Safe as Milk'', the band had released a few singles through [[A&M Records]], and it was to this company that the group first proposed their début album in 1966.<ref name="barnes 28">Barnes, p. 28</ref>  They presented the label with a set of [[Rhythm and blues|R&B]]{{nbhyph}}influenced demos, which the label felt were too unconventional and decided to drop the band.<ref name="barnes 28"/>  Beefheart later said the label dropped them after hearing the song "[[Electricity (Captain Beefheart song)|Electricity]]" and declaring it "too negative".<ref name="barnes 29">Barnes, p. 29</ref> A&M's [[Jerry Moss]] thought the content too risqué for his daughter's ears. This, plus Leonard Grant's severance as manager, added to the discontent. The band instead turned to [[Bob Krasnow]], who was then working for [[Kama Sutra Records]]; he recruited them to record for the company's new subsidiary label, [[Buddah Records|Buddah]].<ref name="barnes 30">Barnes, p. 30</ref>

Meanwhile, Beefheart had been secretly planning changes to the Magic Band's line-up—a practice common throughout the group's existence.  The group that recorded the two A&M singles had consisted of Doug Moon and Richard Hepner on guitars, Jerry Handley on bass, and [[Alex St. Clair]] on drums.  Hepner had already left, and Beefheart was keen to replace Moon with [[Ry Cooder]], who was then playing with [[Gary Marker]] and [[Taj Mahal (musician)|Taj Mahal]] in the [[Rising Sons]]. These and other changes resulted in a Magic Band with Handley on bass, St. Clair on guitar, and [[John French (musician)|John French]] on drums, with Cooder providing additional guitar parts. Cooder's arrival had been swayed by Marker, who had spent time with Beefheart and had been given to believe he would produce the album; in fact, Marker was only engaged in [[Beefheart#The flipside of success|demo recording]].

[[Don Van Vliet]] has said that the title "Safe as Milk" is a sarcastic reference to the contamination in women's [[breast milk]], either with the pesticide [[DDT]] or radioactive [[strontium-90]]  in different published interviews.<ref name="Johnston2004">{{cite web |last1=Johnston |first1=Graham |title=Answers To Opaque Questions That Would Bug Most People |url=http://www.beefheart.com/answers-to-opaque-questions-that-would-bug-most-people-2/ |website=Photograph copyright Anton Corbijn, used with kind permission Captain Beefheart Radar Station}}</ref>

==Music and lyrics==
The album is heavily influenced by the [[Delta blues]], and this is apparent from the opening bars of the first track, "Sure 'Nuff 'n Yes I Do", based on [[Muddy Waters]]' "[[Rollin' and Tumblin'|Rollin' and Tumblin{{'"}}]].<ref name="barnes 36">Barnes, p. 36</ref>  The opening lyric, "Well I was born in the desert&nbsp;...", quotes "New Minglewood Blues" by [[Gus Cannon|Cannon's Jug Stompers]], an early version of "Rollin' and Tumblin". Elsewhere, the album features a version of [[Robert Pete Williams]]' "Grown So Ugly" arranged by Cooder.<ref name="barnes 42">Barnes, p. 42</ref>

Another of the more distinctive songs on the album is "Abba Zaba", one of three compositions credited solely to Beefheart using his real name. An [[AllMusic]] review of the track states, "Although not directly blues influenced 'Abba Zaba' contains peripheral elements of the wiry delta sound that informed much of the album", noting that Cooder's influence is heard here in the "chiming, intricate guitar lines" and "up front and biting bass work".<ref name="amg zaba">Planer, Lindsay. [{{AllMusic|class=song|id=t2689315|pure_url=yes}} Allmusic song review: "Abba Zaba"]</ref>  The track is named after the [[Abba-Zaba]] candy bar, which was supposedly a favorite of the young Beefheart. The band had, at one point, planned to name the album after the confection, but the bar's manufacturer, the Cardinet Candy Co., refused permission for use of the name, and the album was retitled. The black and yellow checkerboard pattern on the album's back sleeve, designed by [[Tom Wilkes]], is a relic of this idea—echoing the black and yellow colors of the candy bar wrapper.<ref name="amg zaba"/> Writing an obituary for Beefheart in 2010, for ''[[The Washington Post]]'', Matt Schudel said:
<blockquote>
"Mr. Van Vliet's lyrics and song titles owed a great deal to surreal poetry. Try as they might, his fans had a difficult time analyzing such lines as these from "Abba Zabba" on the 1966 album ''Safe as Milk'':
:Mother say son, she say son, you can't lose, with the stuff you use
:Abba Zabba go-zoom Babbette baboon
:Run, run, monsoon, Indian dream, tiger moon.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/18/AR2010121803166.html|title=Don Van Vliet, avant-garde rocker who performed as Captain Beefheart, dies at 69|first=Matt|last=Schudel|date=19 December 2010|publisher=|accessdate=30 September 2018|via=www.washingtonpost.com}}</ref>
</blockquote>

For some time, the involvement of [[Herb Bermann]] as co-writer on eight of the tracks was a point of confusion, as Vliet did not employ him, or indeed any regular co-writer at any other time in his career, and never discussed or clarified his role in the album. There was little record of his existence, though his name incidentally also appeared in a reference to an unproduced screenplay for ''After the Gold Rush'' on the 1971 Neil Young [[After the Gold Rush|album of the same name]]. Various Magic Band members had in fact indicated that the name may have been nothing other than a publishing-related pseudonym. It was only in 2003 that Bermann himself was finally located and interviewed, and his involvement as co-writer confirmed.<ref>[http://www.beefheart.com/herb-bermann The search for the mystery co-songwriter from ''Safe As Milk''] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624052203/http://www.beefheart.com/herb-bermann |date=June 24, 2016 }}</ref>

==Critical reception==

{{Music ratings
|rev1      = [[AllMusic]]
|rev1Score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref name="amg">Unterberger, Richie. [{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r3288|pure_url=yes}} Allmusic review]</ref>
| rev2 = ''[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music]]''
| rev2Score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Larkin|first=Colin|author-link=Colin Larkin|page=3074|title=Encyclopedia of Popular Music|year=2011|publisher=[[Omnibus Press]]|edition=5th|isbn=978-0857125958|title-link=Encyclopedia of Popular Music}}</ref>
}}

''Safe As Milk'' was prominently advertised in ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' and ''World Countdown'' in June 1967.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}} However, the band's planned appearance at the Monterey Festival that month fell through, and the record did not achieve popular success, failing to chart in either the United States, where none of Beefheart's albums would ever enter the top 100, or in the United Kingdom, where the band would enjoy modest success with later works such as ''[[Trout Mask Replica]]'' (1969). [[John Lennon]] had two ''Safe As Milk'' promotional stickers on cupboard doors at his home.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.beefheart.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/lennonsam.jpg|title=Photo of John Lennon lounging at his Surrey home, with "Safe as Milk" bumper stickers visible|publisher=|accessdate=8 July 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AboSCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT195&dq|title=Looking Through You: The Beatles Book Monthly Photo Archive |page=195|author=Tom Adams|publisher=Omnibus Press|date= 10 Aug 2015|isbn=9781783235438 }}</ref> In 1968, ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' praised Beefheart's voice, but stated that the album "failed by lapsing into dull commercial rock on the order of [[Love (band)|Love]]'s early efforts."<ref name=RS>{{cite magazine |last=Hansen |first=Barret |author-link=Dr. Demento |date=December 7, 1968 |title=Records |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140301112627/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/strictly-personal-19681207 |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |location=San Francisco |publisher=Straight Arrow Publishers, Inc. |access-date=August 14, 2014 }}</ref>

The album made a greater impact in Europe than in the U.S., with the British underground DJ [[John Peel]] being a noted admirer from the start, though the original British release was in mono only.

The album was included in Robert Dimery's ''[[1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die]]''.<ref name= "Dimery 2010">Robert Dimery; Michael Lydon (23 March 2010). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition. Universe. {{ISBN|978-0-7893-2074-2}}.</ref> In 1999, [[Jon Savage]] reflected in ''[[Mojo (magazine)|Mojo]]'': "''Safe as Milk'' remains a towering achievement: an [[avant-pop|avant-garde pop]] masterpiece from the time when they had only just started to make them. Along with the first couple of [[Love (band)|Love]] and [[the Mothers of Invention|Mothers]]' albums and ''[[The Velvet Underground and Nico]]'', ''Safe as Milk'' had a huge impact in the UK, largely thanks to radio play by John Peel; don't forget that it was hardly possible to get any actual San Franciscan albums until the end of 1967."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Savage |first1=Jon |title=Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band: Grow Fins |journal=Mojo |date=June 1999 |url=https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/captain-beefheart-and-the-magic-band-grow-fins |access-date=November 30, 2020}}</ref>

It was voted number 172 in [[Colin Larkin (writer)|Colin Larkin]]'s [[All Time Top 1000 Albums]] 3rd Edition (2000).
<ref name="Larkin">{{cite book|title=[[All Time Top 1000 Albums]]|editor=Colin Larkin|editor-link=Colin Larkin (writer)|publisher=[[Virgin Books]]|date=2000|edition=3rd|isbn=0-7535-0493-6|page=93}}</ref>

==Reissues==
The album was released in the UK on [[Pye International]], and subsequently reissued in [[Pye Records|Pye]]'s budget Marble Arch series (albeit bearing Pye International labels on the disc itself) as a 10-track, omitting "I'm Glad" and "Grown So Ugly". When Buddah's UK distribution passed to [[Polydor]] in 1970 it was again reissued, this time on Buddah in Polydor's budget 99 series and retitled ''Dropout Boogie''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/Captain-Beefheart-And-His-Magic-Band-Dropout-Boogie/release/982483|title=Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band - Dropout Boogie|website=Discogs|accessdate=8 July 2017}}</ref> Initially the track listing of this release matched the Marble Arch version, but the missing tracks were quickly restored. This 99 series release was also the first appearance in the UK of a stereo mix of the album.

In 1999, the now-correctly spelled [[Buddah Records|Buddha Records]], owned by [[Sony BMG]] who had acquired Buddah's back catalogue, remastered the album onto CD. They added seven bonus tracks, taken from the sessions for the unreleased ''Brown Wrapper'' follow-up album.  These tracks had been recorded around November 1967 (two months after ''Safe as Milk'''s release), and were from the same sessions that yielded the songs on ''[[Mirror Man (Captain Beefheart album)|Mirror Man]]'' (1971). BMG's Buddha also released ''The Mirror Man Sessions'' on CD in 1999, effectively an official issue of the [[phaser (effect)|unphased]] versions of ''Mirror Man'', with five further bonus tracks taken from the same sessions.

In 2013, [[Sundazed Music]] released the mono mix of ''Safe As Milk'' on LP and CD.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://sundazed.com/captain-beefheart-and-his-magic-band-safe-as-milk-lp.aspx |title=Captain Beefheart on Sundazed!  |work=Sundazed |year=2015 |accessdate=April 19, 2017}}</ref>

==Track listing==
All songs written by [[Herb Bermann]] and [[Captain Beefheart|Don Van Vliet]] except where noted. All CD bonus tracks written Don Van Vliet.
{{Track listing
| headline = Side one
| title1   = Sure 'Nuff 'n Yes I Do
| length1  = 2:15
| title2   = Zig Zag Wanderer
| length2  = 2:40
| title3   = Call on Me<ref name="callonme">Some sources credit "Call on Me" to earlier Magic Band drummer [[Vic Mortensen]], and not Van Vliet or Bermann.</ref> 
| writer3    = Van Vliet
| length3  = 2:37
| title4   = Dropout Boogie
| length4  = 2:32
| title5   = I'm Glad
| writer5    = Van Vliet
| length5  = 3:31
| title6   = [[Electricity (Captain Beefheart song)|Electricity]]
| length6  = 3:07
}}
{{Track listing
| headline = Side two
| title7   = Yellow Brick Road
| length7  = 2:28
| title8   = Abba Zaba
| writer8    = Van Vliet
| length8  = 2:44
| title9   = Plastic Factory
| writer9    = Van Vliet, Bermann, Jerry Handley
| length9  = 3:08
| title10   = Where There's Woman
| length10  = 2:09
| title11   = Grown So Ugly
| writer11    = [[Robert Pete Williams]]
| length11  = 2:27
| title12   = Autumn's Child
| length12  = 4:02
}}
{{Track listing
| headline = CD bonus tracks
| title13   = Safe as Milk 
| note13=Take 5
| length13  = 4:13
| title14   = On Tomorrow
| length14  = 6:56
| title15   = Big Black Baby Shoes
| length15  = 4:50
| title16   = Flower Pot
| length16  = 3:55
| title17   = Dirty Blue Gene
| length17  = 2:43
| title18   = Trust Us 
| note18=Take 9
| length18  = 7:22
| title19   = Korn Ring Finger
| length19  = 7:26
}}

==Personnel==
===Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band===
* [[Don Van Vliet]] – lead vocals, harmonica, marimba, arrangements
* [[Alex St. Clair|Alex St. Clair Snouffer]] – guitar, backing vocals, bass (9, 10), percussion
* [[Ry Cooder]] – guitar, slide guitar, bass (8), percussion, arrangements
* Jerry Handley – bass (except 8, 10), backing vocals
* [[John French (musician)|John French]] – drums, backing vocals, percussion

===Additional musicians===
* [[Samuel Hoffman]] – [[theremin]] (6, 12)
* [[Milt Holland]] – log drum, tambourine, percussion (2, 4 and 8)
* [[Taj Mahal (musician)|Taj Mahal]] – tambourine, percussion (7)
* [[Russ Titelman]] – guitar (12)

===Production===
* [[Richard Perry]] – producer (at RCA Studio), harpsichord
* [[Bob Krasnow]] – producer
* [[Hank Cicalo]] – engineer (at RCA Studio)
* [[Gary Marker]] – engineer (demos at Original Sound & Sunset Sound)

==References==
{{Reflist}}
* Barnes, Mike (2000). ''Captain Beefheart''. Omnibus Press. {{ISBN|1-84449-412-8}}

==External links==
<!-- This is a licensed stream for the album, which is allowed under Wikipedia polices -->
*[https://archive.today/20130416134945/http://www.radio3net.ro/dbartists/supersearch/U2FmZSBhcyBNaWxr/Safe%20as%20Milk ''Safe as Milk''] ([[Adobe Flash]]) at [[Radio3Net]] (streamed copy where licensed)

{{Captain Beefheart}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Captain Beefheart albums]]
[[Category:1967 debut albums]]
[[Category:Albums produced by Richard Perry]]
[[Category:Buddah Records albums]]
[[Category:Blues rock albums by American artists]]
[[Category:Psychedelic rock albums by American artists]]
[[Category:Acid rock albums]]
[[Category:Avant-pop albums]]<!--per Savage-->
[[Category:Garage rock albums by American artists]]