Taking a random dive into the murky waters of my cd collection, the Helster came up with Safe As Milk, by Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band. Released in 1967, and featuring a young Ry Cooder on guitar...
Clive bought me this album for my birthday one year, and whilst it took a little while to clutch it to my bosom, it's now one of my favourite Beefheart albums, and an interesting record to compare with other 1967 releases more typical of the prevailing flower power times - Piper At The Gates of Dawn, or Sgt Pepper, for example.
On the terrific opener, Sho Nuff 'N' Yes I do, the good Captain (Don Van Vliet to his mum) claims to have been 'born in the desert, came on up from New Orleans'....and then the band crashes in, led by Cooder's slashing slide guitar...
It's marvellous stomping electric R'nB, with heavy influences of Howlin Wolf, Elmore James, and Muddy Waters. Some people are frightened away from Beefheart by the skronk and honk of Trout Mask Replica, but Safe As Milk is a pretty conventional blues rock album - well, conventional in Beefheartian terms anyway...
Beefheart retired to paint in the Mojave desert in the 80's, but in recent years members of the Magic Band reconvened to play some of his old tunes. I saw them twice, at the Rescue Rooms, the first occasion being one of the finest gigs I have been to - the band were just sensational, and clearly relished the chance to play this frenzied, crack tempo music for folks like us who missed out first time round.
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