In 1965 a young contemporary of Frank Zappa called Don Van Vliet decided his own name wasn’t interesting or psychedelic enough, and changed it to Captain Beefheart, a name that would ring down through the annals of progressive, experimental and psychedelic music for decades, and reverberate in even the work of many musicians later to come, including the venerated Tom Waits. Beefheart’s music could probably only be rivalled by the gleeful madness of Zappa, and I certainly found at least one of his albums totally inaccessible to me, leaving me with some trepidation in covering him here. But he is or was a massive influence on so many artistes and on the subgenre in general that I could not afford to leave him out.
Like some progressive rock progenitors, Beefheart’s music seldom if ever troubled the charts, though his albums have gone on to appear in “best of” lists all over the spectrum, and he is revered and referred to by many a musician. A volatile, enigmatic personality, it seems Beefheart had something of a dictatorial approach to his work and his band, best reflected in this quote from drummer John French, taken from Wiki:
”If Van Vliet built a house like he wrote music, the methodology would go something like this... The house is sketched on the back of a Denny's placemat in such an odd fashion that when he presents it to the contractor without plans or research, the contractor says "This structure is going to be hard to build, it's going to be tough to make it safe and stable because it is so unique in design." Van Vliet then yells at the contractor and intimidates him into doing the job anyway. The contractor builds the home, figuring out all the intricacies involved in structural integrity himself because whenever he approaches Van Vliet, he finds that he seems completely unable to comprehend technical problems and just yells, "Quit asking me about this stuff and build the damned house."... When the house is finished no one gets paid, and Van Vliet has a housewarming party, invites none of the builders and tells the guests he built the whole thing himself.”
Not the nicest of people then, and certainly when I listened to --- well, suffered bravely through ---
Trout Mask Replica I just got the feeling of someone having a laugh, imagining people listening to this and calling it music. I certainly didn’t enjoy it. I’m told though by people who know far more about him than I that his debut album was a lot more conventional than
Trout Mask Replica, and if so, it’s something I’ll be thankful for, because I do not fancy going though
that again. For those wondering, when we get to that album I’ll just be referring back to my previous review of it: I don’t think my fragile psyche could take another trip through that particular wonderland. But this was his first release under his band’s name, one of thirteen in total he would release up until his retirement from music in 1982.
Album title: Safe as milk
Artiste: Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band
Nationality: American
Label: Buddah
Year: 1967
Grade: C
Previous Experience of this Artiste: Trout Mask Replica (Shudder!)
Landmark value: As detailed above, Beefheart had a massive influence on progressive rock, but what effect
this particular album had is debatable, so after listenign through to this I would say not that much really.
Tracklisting: Sure ‘nuff ‘n yes I do/ Zig-zag wanderer/ Call on me/ Dropout boogie/ I’m glad/ Electricity/ Yellow brick road/ Abba zaba/ Plastic factory/ Where there’s woman/ Grown so ugly/ Autumn’s child
Comments: It’s pretty straightahead Delta blues here, which is a relief for me but nothing terribly progressive yet. It’s pretty basic up until “I’m glad” which has a nice motown soul feel to it, then the weirdness that would become Beefheart’s trademark (it says here) starts to leak in as “Electricity” hits and he assumes a sort of moaning, warbling voice which I can see Waits adopted from about 1983 onwards. Country jamboree then on “Yellow brick road”, a few years before Elton snagged it, and I find “Abba zaba” very annoying.
If this is seen as the easy way into Beefheart, then while it doesn’t give me nightmares in the same way TMR did, I really don’t see myself being a fan of him ever. This I just find pretty generic with a side of weirdness tacked on and it’s not for me. I also don’t see anything particularly progressive about it, not here anyway. It’s a good blues album, but there are so many of them I couldn’t say this is any better than any of them, or indeed any worse. The only real interest in this for me is hearing where Waits learned to develop his voice, and I can hear echoes of him again in “Where there’s woman”. Other than that I’m just bored.
Favourite track(s): Sure ‘nuff ‘n yes I do, I’m glad, Yellow brick road, Where there’s woman
Least favourite track(s): Electricity, Dropout boogie, Abba zaba
Overall impression: Decent album, no shock to the system like TMR but nothing that special.
Personal Rating: 
Legacy Rating: 
Final Rating: 