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"Safe as Milk" is the debut album from one of the most eccentric, bizarre, original, mindblowing, uncommercial and his-own-path-going musicians of the 1960s and 1970s - Captain Beefheart. His most famous record of course is the nearly insane "Trout Mask Replica", therefore you could be expecting something different from Don van Vliet (that`s Mr Beefhearts real name) and his trusty "Magic Band". You see, "Safe as Milk" is really a safe record and it`s nowhere near to the hilarious absurdity of "Trout Mask Replica". In essence it`s nothing more than a solid blues record. And Beefy himself sounds on here already as an old man, although he was only 25 when he recorded this stuff. When you listen to stuff like "Sure Nuff N Yes I Do", you don`t care whether Captain B was taking the stuff he played seriously or not, whether this all was supposed to be a pun or not, just just enjoy his eclectic performance.
Some of these tracks are a little bit more daring the rest - that would include "Dropout Boogie" with its unexpected tempo changes and the goofy "Yellow Brick Road" (my personal favourite on this record). In some ways it`s reminiscent of (although in the wrong historical order of course) to Tom Waits` music of the "Swordfishtrombones" era.
Despite this record being rather easy accessible by Beefheart`s standards it still took me some time to be able to enjoy some of the songs - Beefheart never cared much for what the general public thought of him after all and it`s no wonder that he never had a hit record in the States (although both Trout Mask Replica and Lick My Decals Off, Baby cracked the Top 30 in UK). His music isn`t for everyone and even such rather traditionally beautiful songs as " Where There`s Woman" wouldn`t make him a favourite for the occasional listener. But this record rocks anyway.