Safe as Milk

Safe as Milk is the debut album by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, released in 1967. A heavily blues-influenced work, the album featured a 20-year-old Ry Cooder, who played guitar and wrote some of the arrangements.

Today, Safe as Milk is one of Beefheart's most acclaimed works. It hints at many of the features — such as odd time signatures ("Abba Zaba," "Dropout Boogie") and surreal lyrics ("Electricity") — that would become trademarks of Beefheart's music.

Background

Before recording Safe as Milk, the band had released a couple of singles through A&M Records, and it was to this company that the group first proposed their début album in 1966. They presented the label with a set of R&B-influenced demos, which the label felt were too unconventional and decided to drop the band. Beefheart later said the label dropped them after hearing the song "Electricity" and declaring it "too negative". 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.