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I’m sure you’ve been asked the question, if you could, where in time would you like to go simply as an observer. I have many answers, but lately the main one would be in the office of A&M Records circa 1967 when Captain Beefheat & The Magic Band delivered to A&M co-head Jerry Moss the demos for what was to be the band’s first album.

In 1966 the band had released two singles on A&M – a thunderous cover of Bo Diddley’s “Diddy Wah Diddy” backed with the Captain’s “Who Do You Think You’re Fooling.” The single was produced by David Gates, who would go on to form the very aptly named band Bread (all that’s missing is the first word, White). The second single, also produced by Gates, had a Gates-penned tune called “Moonchild” on the A side and the Captain’s “Frying Pan” on the flip side.

Jerry Moss is the M of A&M. The A is Herb Alpert. Herb was very busy in 1967 with his own band, The Tijuana Brass, who were very hot at that time. So I’m sure Jerry was overseeing the label talent and had the Captain’s demo for the first album on his desk.

Of course, there has to be a single. Let’s say it was “Electricity.”

Yeah, I’d like to be there when Jerry Moss had his mind blown by his first – and possibly last – listen to “Electricity.”

“WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!” 

I imagine was the first thing he screamed. It’s documented that he said something to the effect of, “My teenage daughters and her friends would never listen to that!”

Yes, Jerry! You nailed it. Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band are not for tennyboppers.

But since life is funny like that, they did make the record on another label. In fact the Captain’s Safe As Milk was the first album released on the new Buddah label, an offshoot of the MGM-distributed Kama Sutra, where they were labelmates with ultra teenybopper bubblegummers Ohio Express and 1910 Fruitgum Company.

The Captain has always insprired a wide range of responses, but I have long maintained that his debut record Safe As Milk is a masterpiece of the 1960s.

It’s an amzing record. Beyond the fact that it features the writing and vocals of the eccentric artist/musician Don Van Vliet, who, with a vocal range of seven octaves, became Captain Beefheart for his music career, it is also an early showcase for his brand-new guitarist, 20-year-old Ry Cooder, whose first band with Taj Mahal, started in 1965 when he was 17.

The Rising Sons played regularly in top LA clubs such as The Troubador and Ash Grove. Many had high hopes for them, but they disbanded in 1966.

The album itself carries few details about personnel or the making of the record, other than that Cooder arranged two of the dozen tunes – the Delta bluesish album opener with stinging slide guitar “Sure ‘Nuff’ N Yes, I Do” and the penultimate track on side 2, the stop-time blues of “Grown So Ugly,” a song that allows the Captain to showcase some of the higher end of his vocal range.

The first time I seriously listened to Safe as Milk, I went looking for liner notes to see who was playing tuba on on that first track, but the credits are nonexistent. It took another listen to realize I was hearing not a tuba but an incredibly deep and resonant bass.

The bass plays a big role in putting across the second track as well, the great “Zig-Zag Wanderer.”
That’s followed by the Captain at his poppy best with the bouncy “Call On Me.” Another thunderiing bass line in this song.

Then buckle up for “Dropout Boogie,” with the Captain doing his best voice-grating Howlin’ Wolf impression.

The Captain is at his crooning best in “I’m Glad,” complete with a doo wop chorus.

And then, my all-time favorite Captain Beefheart tune – “Electricity.” For one thing, best ever use of a Theremin, a perfect instrument for a song called “Electricity.” It’s just a great psychedelic rocker to end side 1.

Side 2 opens with the sweet “Yellow Brick Road.” That’s followed by “Abba Zabba,” with Ry Cooder playing bass, including a solo.

The thermin makes an eerie return in the balladic album ender “Autumn’s Child.”

Safe As Milk was released in the spring of 1967. Producer and manager Bob Krasnow booked the band to appear at the Monterey Pop Festival the third weekend of June, but since they hadn’t played the record live, he booked them a test gig at a festival on June 11.

Beefheaart started the gig off with a song unknown to relative newcomer Cooder. They followed that with “Electricity,” but a short time into the song, Beefheart walked away from his microphone, stepped off the stage and fell onto Krasnow. Neither was hurt.

When Cooder learned that Beefheart’s strange behavior at the festival was due to his having taken LSD before the gig and badly hallucinating on stage, he never worked with the Captain again. Now, without a guitar player, the band was unable to play Monterey, and perhaps that is why you have never heard of Safe As Milk.

The title Safe As Milk was the Captain’s reference to contemporary reports that chemical pollutants such as DDT were being found in human breast milk. The original album came with a bumper sticker with the album title next to a baby doll head.