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Cheetah Magazine wrote on November 1967: ‘Safe As Milk is a total delight. It’s hard to characterise the group, because they are capable of sounding like anybody. But everything they do is permeated with a weird and fascinating sense of humor… There are some obvious parodies, like ‘I’m Glad’, which is like The Miracles’ ‘Baby, Baby’, but is ‘Sure Nuff N’ Yes I Do’ a take-off on one of the West Coast blues bands? Is ‘Zig Zag Wanderer’ a parody of The Grateful Dead? It doesn’t really matter: their sense of humor (and it’s musical as much as it is verbal) isn’t anything as pointed asRead More →

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Track list: Side 1: Sure ‘Nuff N Yes I Do Zig Zag Wanderer Call On Me Dropout Boogie I’m Glad Electricity Side 2 Yellow Brick Road Abba Zabba Plastic Factory Where There’s Woman Grown So Ugly Autumn’s Child Side 3 Safe As Milk (take 5) On Tomorrow Big Black Baby Shoes Flower Pot Side 4 Dirty Blue Gene Trust Us (take 9) Korn Ring Finger. Press release from Simply Vinyl: It has taken us ages to finally get a decent Captain Beefheart album together. So thank God we’ve finally managed to snag one of his greatest classics – the legendary “Safe As Milk”. For manyRead More →

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Track list As the original Safe As Milk, but also with: Safe As Milk (take 5) On Tomorrow Big Black Baby Shoes Flower pot Dirty Blue Gene Trust Us (take 9) Korn Ring Finger Notes: All of the above tunes, apart from Korn Ring Finger, were previously available on the now deleted I May Be Hungry But I Sure Ain’t Weird Sequel collection. The Safe As Milk album has been thoroughly re-mastered, bringing significant improvements in sound quality. Packaging is based upon the original vinyl release, with new sleevenotes by John Platt. A small press item appeared announcing this release. Released on 1st June 1999Read More →

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In: Grow Fins, Mirror Man, Safe As Milk, The Dust Blows Forward
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Oh, the yin and yang of it all. At the exact moment the music industry is overrun with homogenized teen harmonisers, along comes a grizzled, determinedly weird voice from the deep vault, bellowing a sloppy counterattack to all that manufactured cheer. It’s Captain Beefheart, superhero of the surreal, right on cosmic cue. More than 35 years after Beefheart (the nom de rock of Don Van Vliet) and his Magic Band began sending psychotropic messages from the exotic outposts along rock’s fringe, his category-defying music is about to experience an unlikely rebirth, courtesy of catalogue projects on three different labels. The recordings – a five-disc boxRead More →

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It was with some excitement that I first heard about these re-releases, perfectly timed to coincide with what appears to be a significant increase in interest in the magic music of the Magic Band from both music consumers and the industry itself. Just as we are all about to Grow Fins and feast upon a host of previously unreleased music from Revenant, here are two Magic Band classics which, although hardly wilting anyway, have benefited from having a serious breath of fresh air breathed into them. Buddha’s Safe As Milk and The Mirror Man Sessions boast a brand new mastering of two magnificent albums, anRead More →

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BMG-owned Buddha Records will debut in the spring with expanded, newly remastered reissues of such out-of-print works as Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band’s Safe as Milk and Mirror Man, Nilsson’s John Lennon-produced Pussy Cats, Graham Parker’s The Mona Lisa’s Sister and Daryl Hall’s Sacred Songs. All will be fleshed out with CD bonus tracks, some of them previously unreleased. Like Sony’s Legacy imprint, Buddha – with a new spelling to boot – will have access to its parent company’s vaults, but will focus on artists whose significance is measured by more than chart numbers. The inaugural batch, which also includes compilations of previously unreleasedRead More →

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Compiled by Jasper Leach. Jasper acknowledges that this listing contains inacuracies. If you can help with any further info or corrections, please let us know. All songs (unless noted differently): Produced by Richard Perry and Robert Krasnow Engineered by Hank Cicalo/Gary Marker Arranged by Don Van Vliet “Sure ‘Nuff” and “Grown So Ugly” arranged by Ry Cooder Recorded at RCA Studios, Hollywood, CA, April 1967 All words and music by Don Van Vliet and Herb Bermann Note from Jasper: This is probably one of the most inaccurate lists I’ve compliled. It has been reported by many band members that studio musicians were brought in byRead More →

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Recording details Date – April 1967 Studio – Sunset Sound, Hollywood; RCA Studios, Hollywood Producer – Richard Perry, Bob Krasnow Engineer – Hank Cicalo, Gary Marker Musicians Don Van Vliet – vocals, harmonica, bass marimba Ry Cooder – guitar, bass Alex St Clair Snouffer – guitar, backing vocals Jerry Handley – bass John French – drums, backing vocals Doug Moon – guitar (Sure Nuff only) Milt Holland – percussion Russ Titelman – guitar Taj Mahal – percussion Sam Hoffman – theremin unknown horn players, harpsichord player and harpist. See Leach’s Listings for a thorough guide to who did what on Safe As Milk, compiled for theRead More →

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Captain Beefheart Under the philosophy that “life is art and art is life” (CREAM), DON VAN VLIET alias CAPTAIN BEEFHEART went down as one of the most dazzling personalities in rock history. This stubborn musician, painter and sculptor, whose voice ranged seven and a half octaves, allowed his extraordinary creativity run totally free, to the extent that categorisation attempts of any kind simply bounced off his productive genius. “Delta blues, avantgarde jazz and rock & roll” (ROLLING STONE) entwined themselves to become a twentieth-century music style that had lasting influences on american bands such as “The Residents”, “Pere Ubu” and “Devo”. BEEFHEART’S chaotic “Magic Band”,Read More →

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In: The Legendary A&M Sessions
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Track list: Diddy Wah Diddy Who Do You Think You’re Fooling Moonchild Frying Pan Here I Am I Always Am Album overview from Graham Johnston Originally recorded in 1965, this mini-album features the biggest, rumblingest tightest rhythm and blues tunes ever, and contains a few pleasing suggestions of what would follow. Open Up A Case Of The Punks! Colin B. Morton sent along the following cutting from the very first issue of Sniffin’ Glue 1976 (this has since been reprinted in a 20-issue bound coffee table edition), which gives “Diddy Wah Diddy” a big seal of approval. I’m not sure I entirely agree with theRead More →

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This is an interesting documentary release – From Straight to Bizarre: Zappa, Beefheart, Alice Cooper and LA’s Lunatic Fringe. It comes from Chrome Dreams who you may remember from the Captain Beefheart: Under Review DVD. The dvd documents Zappa’s attempt to control his recordings by setting up his own labels, Straight and Bizarre – while at the same time releasing music from LA’s freak scene which would otherwise have never made it to vinyl. Although it mentions all the albums released it concentrates on those by Alice Cooper, The GTOs, Wild Man Fischer, Jeff Simmons and, of course, our man Captain Beefheart. So for Beefheart fans thereRead More →