Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band- Safe As Milk C/D?

(sorry for the potty mouth and insinuations about your mental conditions, I just really like this record.)

In fact, there really isn't much Beefheart I haven't enjoyed except Unconditionally Guaranteed. (I haven't heard Bluejeans & Moonbeams.)

Other than the 70s lounge background vocals on "Too Much Time", I can't find too much fault with Clear Spot.

because of this thread I went out and bought loads (well 4) of so-called 'classics' at mid-price at selectadisc. I bought safe as milk yesterday and listened to half of it this morning and it sounds fantastic.

though electricity's arrangement is good i was hoping for a more 'full on' blues-ier version of this track (that i have anyway on another comp). but its only a minor quibble.

Great idea, in principle. Unfortunately, I can't do it on my home CD player since I lost my remote.

I wouldn't say it was a shock but it was definetely great hearing 'I'm glad', a doo-wop number basically.

The blues riffing is terrific and the songwriting is great. I thought this rec was better then clear spot/spotlight kid (though the latter has its moments of course but I neevr got into some of the tracks on those recs and the same goes for 'Ice cream for crow').

at least half a dozen unique recodings, plus the ones like the first one which i think are comparatively tame

The A+M session stuff (produced by David Gates!) that just predates SAM is also well worth tracking down - there's a great versh of 'Do Wah Diddy', no kidding.

Why did you not guide me towards this earlier? I just downloaded it. Holy. Shit. I live for moments like this.

Sincerely,
poortheatre

(this is my first beefheart album, by the way. the cover of T.M.R. always turned me off haha)

listen to one 'plastic factory'! "factory no place for me / bossman, let me be"

xpost - if you can get past the cover, trout mask replica will peel your skull back like no other

It's my third favorite Beefheart LP, below "Doc" and "Decals." I like it better than "Shiny Beast" or even "Clear Spot," the latter which is one I listen to frequently. I've come to appreciate his less-weird stuff over the years.

I go back and forth with Beefheart. I don't know if anyone saw the recent Francis Davis piece in the Voice about the new album of re-workings of Beefheart material. Davis, whose opinions I always respect, says that for him, Beefheart never quite achieved the synthesis of blues and free jazz he was after, except for a few times on "Replica." I'm not really even sure at this late date if that was indeed what Beefheart was after...given that the superficial aspect of saxophone-over-guitar hardly, to my ears, equals "free jazz" + blues. I just hear that music as a straight rip off r&b by someone who absorbed the idea of jazz timekeeping, maybe. I think Beefheart satisfies me more that does Ornette on things like "Body Meta" or "Dancing in Your Head," much as I like those records, because Beefheart just seems structurally more concise, I guess. But there are times when I become quite impatient with Beefheart, somehow, and I think it has to do with the lyrics, which don't always quite deliver for me. I think it's a shame that his best stuff, on "Decals," wasn't better recorded, and wish he hadn't added all that sax to "Flash Gordon's Ape," which is probably my favorite Beefheart song ever. I guess what I'm saying is that I don't think jazz thinking can really get at Beefheart, seems to me you need to think about it more as an extension of something like Richard Berry? I don't know. It's music that still confounds me, even though I have pretty much relaxed into just enjoying the drumming on a lot of it, and I don't know any other music where the tension between the drumming and everything else are exploited so well. I do know that when I want to hear Beefheart I usually go to "Clear Spot" and "Decals" and a few things off "Doc" like "Dirty Blue Gene" and a couple songs off "Ice Cream for Crow." And "Safe" in its entirety.

I just had to yell out how GREAT the song Electricity is. I'm just rockin' and rollin' to it in my chair over here!

the whole record is really great for listening to at work, actually. keeps you moving. or me, at least.

factory's no place for me bossman leave me be

what other (probably non-Beefheart) albums sound like this album

this album is so good ... not sure what else sounds like this ... maybe some of the rising sons stuff? band w/ ry cooder & taj majal from around the same time. kinda but not really. i always get a slight 13th Floor Elevators feel from Safe As Milk too.

Mothers Of Invention "Freak Out" also, and yeah the 1st Elevators album.

I've been rocking Link Wray's self titled a lot this week and while it's not exactly like Safe as Milk it is one of the best soul/rock records I've ever heard. Everyone's heard the first couple of discs from the Grow Fins box, right? Cuz that shit is incredible.

In the wake of The Beatles mono box I've been investigating other treasured 60s albums in their mono versions and I have to say the mono Safe As Milk (easily found on blogs) is phenomenal.

I got the mono "Strictly Personal" recently, that one is too.

All those bonus tracks are incredible. The de-phased Strictly Personal stuff and all those tracks like "Moody Liz" and the early "Dirty Blue Gene."
This era of Beefheart is undeniable. Great stuff.

Love this album so much. I've never been able to properly get into Trout Mask Replica (though I can admire it), but this is gold.

TMR requires a lot of listens before it starts to weave its charms, and you have to be in a particular mood to stick it on. Safe as Milk is a much easier ride, and its amusing to think that Electricity freaked record company people back in the day. Zig Zag Wanderer, I'm Glad and Autumn's Child are some of the loveliest things he ever did.

The Complete Mirror Man Sessions, with all the de-phased tracks from Strictly Personal (I think I know what I'm talking about?) is like the second album between Safe and Trout...you can hear it on tracks like Trust Us, Safe as Milk and Moody Liz, (along with Kandy Korn, my Beefheart POO) where Beefheart's unique take on L.A. pop begins to morph into this sort of free-jazz-blues-jabberwocky...

what other (probably non-Beefheart) albums sound like this album

― surfboard dudes get wiped out, totally, Thursday, January 28, 2010 9:13 PM (7 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i think Zig Zag Wanderer and Call on Me would fit right in on the first Love album. First 13th Floor Elevators album is prtty close. I haven't heard all of it, but I'm thinking maybe Parable of Arable Land?

Parable is sort of its own thing. Those free-form freakouts kind of put it in a class by itself.
Serious answer: Moby Grape.

Like, I could hear the Magic Band doing "Sitting by the Window."

really?

Obvious answer the Yardbirds, although clearly vocally Relf is a lot more normal than the Captain.

This is a brilliant album - I listen to it way more than TMR.

How's about Dr Feelgood's Down By The Jetty?

https://sphotos-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/1069811_10151603179803791_904776181_n.png
looks like sundazed is putting this out

hell yeah, will buy. it really does sound better!

I used to have a mono CD of this album but stupidly sold it when the Buddha remasters came out.

weird, my cd is mono. I didn't even realize there was a stereo version. did I miss out on selling some expensive rare cd?

I've got the One Way reissue, OW 29088, with a bunch of bonus tracks, and "Under License from Buddah", but also "Due to the age of these tapes, some tape hiss, hum or other anomalies may appear." No prob on my old boombox, though no clue if stereo.

so I've been reading about it and apparently the old mono cds were actually a fold down of the stereo mix. wtf. why would they do that?

Pretty common practice, the fold down. You can get lost in an internet rabbit hole researching such things. Ask me how I know.

it makes sense that it would have been done back in the day to release the mono version of the LP but why would they have put that on CD in the '90s? very strange. maybe it's the only tape they had.

Is a fold down simply a sum of the two channels?

I'm not a mono obsessive or anything, but I just really don't care for the hard-panned, drums on the left, guitars on the right sort of stereo mix that they used for the remasters. If there was a less extreme stereo mix available, I'd have no problem with that.

will have to check my 'Marble Arch' copy

really don't care for the hard-panned, drums on the left, guitars on the right sort of stereo mix

It's not the only thing wrong w/ that reissue but yeah this is terrible.

If you're at all proficient in Audacity you can fix this just by 1) duplicating the track; 2) flipping the left and right channels; 3) bringing the levels down on the new track until the channels bleed across (to your taste); and 4) merging the two tracks, adjusting levels etc.

Dear ILM,

Why did you not guide me towards this earlier? I just downloaded it. Holy. Shit. I live for moments like this.

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Monday, March 28, 2005 12:08 AM (10 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^ this. I've been trying to find a way into Beefheart for years, I mostly just like a few scattered songs in his canon, but I just listened to this album for the first time yesterday and it's really wonderful start to finish.

this interview with the drummer made me want to finally investigate these records: http://www.thetrapset.net/past-episodes/