81. Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - Safe as Milk (June 1967)

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 Zabba

9. Plastic Factory

10. Where There's Women

11. Grown So Ugly

12. Autumn's Child

B+

Even if you're only familiar with Captain Beefheart at second or third hand, it shouldn't surprise you to know that this album is rambling, strange, eclectic, and faintly annoying. But before I listened to Safe as Milk, I'd only ever heard Trout Mask Replica, and so I was surprised at how listenable this album is. All the Beefheart hallmarks are there - odd time changes, songs that seem like their stitched together from three completely different works of music, vocals that sound like Howlin' Wolf being electrocuted to death while reading from his dream journal, and so on - but the album is firmly rooted in a sort of bluesy take on modern (for the time) rock and R&B, and so things only occasionally get out of hand. 

Really, the idea to marry Chicago and Delta blues of the rawest sort to modern pop rock production shouldn't really work, and to be fair it doesn't always. But this is a relentlessly inventive album, and I can't help but admire its ambition even if I don't feel much of a desire to listen to it again. Oddly enough, this was Beefheart's stab at mainstream success, and he was disappointed at the complete lack of impact it made on the charts. Maybe in 1967 his ambition might have made sense, but I doubt anyone listening to this record today can take seriously the idea of a bunch of kids rushing out to buy something like "Abba Zabba" or "Dropout Boogie".

This is obviously a pretty influential album, though. Tom Waits has admitted that he owes a significant debt to Beefheart, and it's clear that his vocal style on his more unhinged tracks is directly inspired by Beefheart's manic growl. Another obvious acolyte is PJ Harvey, whose early work, all atonal and full of freewheeling guitars, is partly inspired by Beefheart; and who opened her 1995 magnum opus To Bring You My Love with the words "I was born in the desert", which are also the first words on Safe as Milk. (She also seems to have copped the rhythm from "Dropout Boogie" for "I Think I'm a Mother"). 

But really, I don't much care for this album. Mostly, I think, it's the production. The version I listened to on Spotify sounds like it was recorded through a carboard box, and the arrangements are so busy and overdriven that it became overwhelming after a while. I also found that Beefheart's vocal was frequently buried in the mix, and half the time I had no idea what he was saying (as opposed to the other half, when I simply didn't understand the words coming out of his mouth). I can see why a lot of people would like this, but I don't have much time for it. It must have been pretty amazing when it came out but time has dulled its impact, and in any case I don't have a huge fondness for 60s hard rock. Which is odd because I actually quite like the much more difficult Trout Mask Replica.

I guess, in the end, I admire this album, and I admire Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, but I think his music was in some ways more important for the possibilities it opened up than as something anyone would want to listen to. The songs on this album are unusual and challenging and fun, but not the kind of fun I'm very interested in having.