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.
Podcasts:
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by Captain Beefheart
Safe As Milk
by: Captain BeefheartWell my cigarette died when I washed my face
Dropped some drops in an ashtray hit a wrong place
Woman at my blinds to see spiders spinning lines
Its a safe as milk it's a safe as milk
I never heard it put quite that way
The shape I'm in is a gone a way
They called a day they called a day
Yesterday's paper headlines approach rain gutter teasing rusty cat sneezing
Soppin wet hammer dusty and wheezing
Lusty alley whining trashcan blues
Children running after rainbows stocking poor
Gracious ladies nylon hanging on to line
Jumping onto leg looking mighty fine
Sorrows lollipop lands stick-broken on a dark carnival ground
Pop up toaster cracklin
Aluminium rhythm and sound
Ev'ry day pencil lazy and sharp
The icebox inside looking like a harp
E-lectric bulb been out for years
Freezer fumes feed the gas tears
Cheese in the corner with a mile long beard
Bacon blue bread dog eared (repeat twice)