Safe as Milk

1	Sure Nuff 'N' Yes I Do 2:13
2	Zig Zag Wanderer 2:39
3	Call on Me 2:35
4	Dropout Boogie 2:29
5	I'm Glad 3:30
6	Electricity 3:07
7	Yellow Brick Road 2:25
8	ABBA Zaba 2:41
9	Plastic Factory 3:07
10	Where There's a Woman 2:08
11	Grown So Ugly 2:26
12	Autumn's Child 4:00
13	Safe as Milk Bonus Track / Take 5 4:11
14	On Tomorrow Bonus Track / Instrumental 6:56
15	Big Black Baby Shoes Bonus Track / Instrumental 4:50
16	Flower Pot Bonus Track 3:54
17	Dirty Blue Gene Bonus Track / Instrumental 2:42
18	Trust Us (Take 9) Bonus Track 7:20
19	Korn Ring Finger Bonus Track 7:26

Barnes & Noble

Beefheart's first full album is the work of one creative wizard just beginning to work out his vision -- the Captain himself, Don Van Vliet, who'd made a couple of rough garage singles but was figuring out how to rupture pre-war blues into something rich and alien -- and another whose talent had blossomed instantly and fully, then-20-year-old slide guitarist Ry Cooder. SAFE AS MILK's intermittent stabs at garage-pop normalcy and psychedelic whimsy aren't as interesting as its berserker blues -- "Electricity," "Sure 'Nuff 'N Yes I Do" -- where Van Vliet's blood-raw, dazzlingly protean voice catches a ride on Cooder's growling leads and stretches words into pure abrasive sound. His rhythms are starting to break away from straight-ahead boom-boom too, hinting at the staggering blurts he developed later on. The seven bonus tracks on this edition are actually half-finished outtakes from the MIRROR MAN SESSIONS, mostly valuable as evidence of how fast Beefheart's music was already changing six months later. Douglas Wolk

All Music Guide

Beefheart's first proper studio album is a much more accessible, pop-inflected brand of blues-rock than the efforts that followed in the late '60s -- which isn't to say that it's exactly normal and straightforward. Featuring Ry Cooder on guitar, this is blues-rock gone slightly askew, with jagged, fractured rhythms, soulful, twisting vocals from Van Vliet, and more doo wop, soul, straight blues, and folk-rock influences than he would employ on his more avant-garde outings. "Zig Zag Wanderer," "Call on Me," and "Yellow Brick Road" are some of his most enduring and riff-driven songs, although there's plenty of weirdness on tracks like "Electricity" and "Abba Zaba." [Buddha's 1999 reissue of Safe as Milk contained restored artwork and seven bonus tracks.] Richie Unterberger