Line #47 Music/SafeAsMilk


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/safe_as_milk_615.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350: Don't zig zag wander around this album. Play and listen to it!]]
3
4	''Safe As Milk'' is the 1967 debut album by Music/CaptainBeefheart, generally regarded as one of his best albums, along with ''Music/TroutMaskReplica'', ''Music/LickMyDecalsOffBaby'', ''Music/ClearSpot'', and ''Music/DocAtTheRadarStation''. It's also full of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness. On this album, Beefheart is closer to the {{Blues}} sounds he tried to emulate his entire career than on any of his later albums. Some tracks such as "Call On Me" and "I'm Glad" are quite traditional, but amazing tracks like "Sure 'Nuff 'n' Yes I Do", "Dropout Boogie", "Electricity" and "Autumn's Child" show the experimental directions Beefheart would become famous for.
5
6	This is the only album recorded while Ry Cooder was in the Magic Band. On the cover, Cooder is the guy with sunglasses in the back.
7
8	Music/JohnLennon and Music/GeorgeHarrison were big fans and photographed in the presence of the ''Safe As Milk'' bumper stickers.
9
10	'''Tracklist'''
11
12	[[AC: Side One]]
13	# "Sure 'Nuff 'n' Yes I Do" (2:15)
14	# "Zig Zag Wanderer" (2:40)
15	# "Call On Me" (2:37)
16	# "Dropout Boogie" (2:32)
17	# "I'm Glad" (3:31)
18	# "Electricity" (3:07)
19
20	[[AC:Side Two]]
21	# "Yellow Brick Road" (2:28)
22	# "Abba Zabba" (2:44)
23	# "Plastic Factory" (3:08)
24	# "Where There's Woman" (2:09)
25	# "Grown So Ugly" (2:27) (a cover of Robert Pete Williams)
26	# "Autumn's Child" (4:02)
27
28	'''Personnel'''
29	* Don Van Vliet - vocals, harmonica
30	* Alex St. Clair - guitar, bass, vocals, percussion
31	* Jerry Handley - bass guitar
32	* John French - drums
33	* Music/RyCooder - guitar, bass
34	* Samuel Hoffman - theremin
35	* Milt Holland - log drum, tambourine, percussion
36	* Russ Titelman - guitar
37
38	!!Dropout Tropes:
39	* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: "Safe As Milk"
40	--> ''Freezer fumes feed the gas tears''
41	* AlliterativeTitle: "'''Z'''ig '''Z'''ag Wanderer", "'''B'''ig '''B'''lack '''B'''aby Shoes".
42	* {{Blues}}: Like most of Beefheart's albums it starts off with blues music, but then it moves into bizarre territories. However, this album is closer to traditional blues than many of the albums that followed.
43	* BreakUpSong: "I'm Glad".
44	--> ''But I'm glad, glad of all the good times that we've had''.
45	* CallOnMe: "Call On Me".
46	* ContinuityNod:
47	** The second track of Beefheart's next album ''Music/StrictlyPersonal'' is called "Safe As Milk". An early take (take 5) can be heard on ''Safe As Milk'' as a bonus track.
48	** The bonus tracks "On Tomorrow" and "Trust Us" (Take 9) would be heard in a different version on ''Music/StrictlyPersonal''.
49	** The track "Dirty Blue Gene" shares a similar title with "Dirty Blue Gene" from ''Music/DocAtTheRadarStation'' (1980), but is a totally different song. The melody of "The Witch Doctor's Life" from ''Music/IceCreamForCrow'' (1982), however, is exactly the same as "Dirty Blue Gene" from ''Safe As Milk''.
50	* CoverVersion: "Grown So Ugly", a blues song by Robert Pete Williams.
51	* CreatorThumbprint: Vliet was said to have enjoyed candy a lot, which led to the writing of "Abba Zabba" .
52	* FaceOnTheCover: Beefheart and the band seen through a fish eye lens.
53	* FishEyeLens: The album cover is shot that way.
54	* FoodSongsAreFunny: "Abba Zabba", about the candy brand of the same name.
55	* MundaneMadeAwesome: "Electricity", an amazing song about electricity, and "Abba Zabba", about a brand of candy.
56	* OneWomanSong: "Where There's Woman".
57	* OneWordTitle: "Electricity".
58	* ThePowerOfLove: "Autumn's Child", probably the most bizarre love song ever written that still sounds genuine and passionate.
59	* ProductPlacement: In "Sure Nuff 'N' Yes I Do" Beefheart mentions he's got a "brand new Cadillac". "Abba Zabba" was inspired by a brand of candy.
60	* QuestioningTitle: "Where There's Woman?"
61	* RecordProducer: Bob Krasnow, Richard Perry.
62	* ShoutOut:
63	** "Sure 'Nuff Yes I Do" has opening bars inspired by Music/MuddyWaters' "Rollin' and Tumblin'". The opening lyric "Well, I was born in the desert" quotes "New Minglewood Blues" by Cannon's Jug Stompers".
64	** "Yellow Brick Road" is inspired by ''Film/TheWizardOfOz''.
65	** Music/SonicYouth covered "Electricity" as the final track on the delux edition of their album ''Music/DaydreamNation''.
66	** The Edgar Broughton Band was inspired by "Dropout Boogie" and "Apache" by The Shadows to create the single "Apache Drop Out"
67	*** "Dropout Boogie" was also covered by Music/TheKills on their EP "Black Rooser" (2002).
68	** In ''Film/HighFidelity'' a desperate record collector wants to buy a copy of ''Safe As Milk'', but Barry (Jack Black) refuses to sell it to him, because he deems him unsuitable to own it. [[spoiler: Eventually he just gives it away to a random client and fools him it's something totally else.]]
69	** Music/PJHarvey's song "Meet Ze Monsta" from her album ''Music/ToBringYouMyLove'' (1995) uses the lines "You told her you love her/ so bring her to mother/ You love her, adapt her/ you love her, adapt her/ Adapt her, adapter/ adapt her, adapter" from Beefheart's "Drop-Out Boogie". The title track "To Bring You My Love", also opens with the same line "Sure 'Nuff 'N' Yes I Do" from does: "Well I was born in the desert, came on up from New Orleans".
70	* SillyLoveSongs: "Yellow Brick Road" and "I'm Glad".
71	* SillyWalk: "Zig Zag Wanderer"
72	* SpokenWordInMusic:
73	--> ''The following tone is a reference tone, recorded at our operating level.''
74	* SuckySchool: "Dropout Boogie".
75	--> ''Go to school, go to school\
76	Go to school, go to school\
77	Just can't, just can't\
78	Just can't, just can't \
79	Drop out, drop out\
80	Drop out, drop out\
81	Can't get a job\
82	Can't get a job''
83	* SurprisinglyGentleSong: "I'm Glad", a straightforward break-up song without surreal lyrics or weird experimentations.
84	* {{Theremin}}: "Electricity" and "Autumn's Child" use one.
85	* TitleTrack:
86	--> ''Well, my cigarette died when I washed my face\
87	Dropped some drops in an ashtray hit a wrong place\
88	Woman at my blinds to see spiders spinning lines\
89	It's safe as milk, it's-ah safe as milk''
90	* WordSaladLyrics: It's a Captain Beefheart album, folks!

Context Music / SafeAsMilk