Since the sessions were released in 1984 we will get to it once his catalog hits that decade. Recorded in the 60’s but looks like not released until 84.
Even though reissued in 1984, the four singles tracks were released originally in 1966 on A&M except for "Here I Am I Always Am" which made it's first official appearance on this 1984 EP.
From 1967, SAFE AS MILK From Wiki: Safe as Milk is the debut album by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, released in 1967. A heavily blues-influenced work, the album featured a 20-year-old Ry Cooder, who played guitar and wrote some of the arrangements. Today, Safe as Milk is one of Beefheart's most acclaimed works, and is considered more accessible than some of his later works. It hints at many of the features — such as odd time signatures ("Abba Zaba," "Dropout Boogie") and surreal lyrics ("Electricity") — that would become trademarks of Beefheart's music. Background Before recording Safe as Milk, the band had released a couple of singles through A&M Records, and it was to this company that the group first proposed their début album in 1966. They presented the label with a set of R&B-influenced demos, too negative". A&M's Jerry Moss thought the content too risqué for his daughter's ears. This, plus Leonard Grant's severance as manager, added to the discontent. The band instead turned to Bob Krasnow, who was then working for Kama Sutra Records; he recruited them to record for the company's new subsidiary label, Buddah. Meanwhile, Beefheart had been secretly planning changes to the Magic Band's line-up—a practice common throughout the group's existence. The group that recorded the two A&M singles had consisted of Doug Moon and Richard Hepner on guitars, Jerry Handley on bass, and Alex St. Clair on drums. Hepner had already left, and Beefheart was keen to replace Moon with Ry Cooder, who was then playing with Gary Marker and Taj Mahal in the Rising Sons. These and other changes resulted in a Magic Band with Handley on bass, St. Clair on guitar, and John French on drums, with Cooder providing additional guitar parts. Cooder's arrival had been swayed by Marker, who had spent time with Vliet and had been given to believe he would produce the album; in fact Marker was only engaged in demo recording. Music and lyrics The album is heavily influenced by the Delta blues, and this is apparent from the opening bars of the first track, "Sure 'Nuff 'n Yes I Do", based on Muddy Waters' "Rollin' and Tumblin'. The opening lyric, "Well I was born in the desert ...", quotes "New Minglewood Blues" by Cannon's Jug Stompers, an early version of "Rollin' and Tumblin". Elsewhere, the album features a version of Robert Pete Williams' "Grown So Ugly" arranged by Cooder. Another of the more distinctive songs on the album is "Abba Zaba", one of three compositions credited solely to Beefheart using his real name. An AllMusic review of the track states, "Although not directly blues influenced 'Abba Zaba' contains peripheral elements of the wiry delta sound that informed much of the album", noting that Cooder's influence is heard here in the "chiming, intricate guitar lines" and "up front and biting bass work". The track is named after the Abba-Zaba candy bar, which was supposedly a favorite of the young Beefheart. The band had, at one point, planned to name the album after the confection, but the bar's manufacturer, the Cardinet Candy Co., refused permission for use of the name, and the album was retitled. The black and yellow checkerboard pattern on the album's back sleeve, designed by Tom Wilkes, is a relic of this idea — echoing the black and yellow colors of the candy bar wrapper. For some time, the involvement of a Herb Bermann as co-writer on eight of the tracks was a point of confusion, as Vliet did not employ him, or indeed any regular co-writer at any other time in his career, and never discussed or clarified his role in the album. There was little record of his existence, though his name incidentally also appeared in a reference to an unproduced screenplay for After the Gold Rush on the 1971 Neil Young album of the same name. Various Magic Band members had in fact indicated that the name may have been nothing other than a publishing-related pseudonym. It was only in 2003 that Bermann himself was finally located and interviewed, and his involvement as co-writer confirmed.
Because I was a late starter with Beefheart's work, I started with his "safer" albums. This was one of the first I tried, and I was rightly impressed. I first heard Beefheart on Zappa's Hot Rats album, and instantly loved that voice!
...I came to Safe As Milk after I had fallen in love with TMR, Strictly Personal and Mirror Man. I was kind of put off by it’s “straightness” at first, but then grew to like it. I’m still not to hip on the slower songs though. My $.02
I watched videos of Captain Beefheart in the 60's from the SAM time period. He looked like a really confident frontman.
All songs written by Herb Bermann and Don Van Vliet except where noted. Side one 1. "Sure 'Nuff 'n Yes I Do" 2:15 2. "Zig Zag Wanderer" 2:40 3. "Call on Me" (Van Vliet) 2:37 4. "Dropout Boogie" 2:32 5. "I'm Glad" (Van Vliet) 3:31 6. "Electricity" 3:07 Side two 7. "Yellow Brick Road" 2:28 8. "Abba Zaba" (Van Vliet) 2:44 9. "Plastic Factory" (Van Vliet, Bermann, Jerry Handley) 3:08 10. "Where There's Woman" 2:09 11. "Grown So Ugly" (Robert Pete Williams) 2:27 12. "Autumn's Child"
I have the white vinyl Buddah issue. Sounds good to my ears but not sure if there is a grail for this title.
Here's my old story again in finding out about this mysterious band. I started listening to Captain Beefheart's/Magic Band in the cassette and early 90s CD era but his music was hard for me to find on cassette and CD at first in the early days. I was living in a small town in S.D. (Aberdeen) and bought the Storm Thorgerson, "Classic Album Covers of the 60s" book and found a few great books in the library a year later that mentioned Beefheart and his music when I moved to St. Cloud, MN. Lillian Roxon's Rock Encyclopedia was one of them. So I only had a visual perspective of the band and the name Captain Beefheart just made me go on a hunt to try and find the music. In 1991 I found a Holland import cassette titled Abba Zaba at The Electric Fetus. This compilation had tracks from both SAM and MM so this was my musical introduction to this bands music. It was almost like being musically reborn hearing these weird sounds with these odd lyrics. I was a changed person musically after this. I then found the "At His Best" cassette which had more songs from SAM but between the two cassettes I had I was still missing one song, Where There's Woman. I finally found my first Beefheart CD in the winter of 1992-93 in the form of SAM on an import CD from Canada, 1992 Kama Sutra/Unidisc records at Best Buy of all places and the One Way CD of MM shortly after. I spinned SAM and MM for a long time and by the time 1994 came around I bought the first CD reissue of Strictly Personal. I bought all the early albums on CD during this time up to and including Lick My Decals Off, Baby plus archival reissues like the I May Be Hungry/Sure Ain't Weird Sequel CD and the A&M sessions CD. SAM is easily the most accessible album in his discography but still "out there" compared to other artists from that time. This album will always be my favorite followed closely by the other Buddha era material and the A&M sessions. Below is a photo from Discogs of my Abba Zaba cassette that got me started:
