Safe as Milk

The band first offered A&M a set of R&B-influenced demos in 1966. The label thought them too unconventional and dropped the group, and Van Vliet later said it was Electricity that A&M found too negative. Bob Krasnow, then at Kama Sutra Records, brought them to the company's new Buddah label. Demos were made at Original Sound Studio and Sunset Sound, and the recording was finalized at RCA Studio in Hollywood. Beefheart was keen to replace guitarist Doug Moon with Ry Cooder, who had been playing with Gary Marker and Taj Mahal in the Rising Sons, and Cooder arranged much of the material.

Most songs are credited to Herb Bermann and Van Vliet, and Abba Zaba is one of three credited to Van Vliet alone. Grown So Ugly is a Robert Pete Williams song arranged by Cooder, and the opening Sure 'Nuff 'n Yes I Do is based on Muddy Waters' Rollin' and Tumblin'. Van Vliet said the title was a sarcastic reference to contamination in women's breast milk, naming DDT in one interview and strontium-90 in another. The album did not chart in the United States or Britain, and John Lennon had two promotional stickers for it on cupboard doors at his home. Rolling Stone praised Van Vliet's voice in 1968 but said the album lapsed into dull commercial rock. In 1970 the British Buddah reissue was retitled Dropout Boogie.