Safe as Milk is the debut studio album by American music group Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, released in August 1967 by Buddah Records.

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.

[11] 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'".

[12] 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".

[14] Writing an obituary for Beefheart in 2010, for The Washington Post, Matt Schudel said: "Mr. Van Vliet's lyrics and song titles owed a great deal to surreal poetry.

[18][19] In 1968, Rolling Stone praised Beefheart's voice, but stated that the album "failed by lapsing into dull commercial rock on the order of Love's early efforts.

[7] In 1999, Jon Savage reflected in Mojo: "Safe as Milk remains a towering achievement: an avant-garde pop masterpiece from the time when they had only just started to make them.

In 1999, the now-correctly spelled Buddha Records, owned by Sony BMG who had acquired Buddah's back catalogue, remastered the album onto CD.