When I used to hear about Captain Beefheart, I'd think about 2 things: the album cover for "Trout Mask Replica", and Frank Zappa. Some freak doing his best Howlin' Wolf impression and running with it. "Safe As Milk" is Beefheart's first album.
From Blues, to Soul, to Rock & Roll, this album covers it all, injects a half gram of pure grade A lysergic acid right into it's own femoral artery, and somehow turns it into one of the weirdest yet completely accessible albums ever made. I'll be frank, "Trout Mask Replica" can be hard to take in for virgin ears. I think most people that find that album enjoyable had first heard it in some fucked up state, be it drugs, stress, adrenaline; whenever it was, it hit them a certain way and tweaked their ears for it. "Safe As Milk" is no less weird, but its weirdness lies more in the consciousness of the Blues than absolute schizophrenia.
This is HEADPHONE music, TRUST ME. From the first notes of the album... delta blues guitar in the far right, and Beefheart's growly voice in your left, everything has its perfect place in the mix. Shits gonna get panned back and forth, you're gonna get dizzy n' foam at the mouth but dig every moment. It hard to decide which instrument takes the cake. The bass punches you, so groovily. The guitars are bluesy, and the percussion has to be the most psychedelic of them all.
This is Howlin' Wolf on a drug cocktail as the Beatles produce the album (whom also happen to have eaten one too many caps)
One of the most interesting things in this album has to be all the riffs and melodies you recognize. So many musicians have used this album as a toolbox to grab things from to make their own craft all the more interesting. I've heard The Birthday Party, The Black Lips, The Mummies, Thee Oh Sees, and more that's not coming to me.
How did the 50's turn into this...
And there's a song titled "Abba Zabba"... how can you not be curious?
10V3, Amir
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