Safe As Milk 3
A magic band
That start aside, let’s talk about the initial singles. Because the Magic Band got a contract early. What were The Captain and his Magic Band up to? I can’t dig deep, but the first singles use the ‘rock’ instrumental setup of drums, bass, voice/guitar. In fact, through the years the band, reassembled often, stuck to that setup closer than most bands bar a few punks. Even other sounds, which occasionally add arranged/pop effects, are played instruments.
As for the initial sound, the Magic Band are what people call Rock‐Blues. The band are an odd proposition. So‐claimed genre playing often is. If the band copy any Blues, it’s likely, if not Howlin’ Wolf, some Chicago club form. The music depends on electricity, and has a open‐ended chug rithm. Already with the high and inventive lead guitar. But the Magic Band, initially, are not Blues in song‐shape. On the first singles, at least, the shape has a whiff of San Francisco (though the band lived near L.A.) “We’d rock but are too stoned”. Not that I’m accusing.
The first single “Diddy Wah Diddy” was a cover of a track by Bo Diddley (producer David Gates suggested it). Plenty will say that American and Brit bands had covered Bo Diddley tracks as they are rithm‐eccentric and excellent pop writing. But with the Magic Band, this leads to something of their own. There’s a touch of heavy, with the bass reduced to a one‐note thump on verses, the drums take a role in shaping, cymbals are used for punctuation, and if the point needs making a crawling low bass effect. That’s before the harmonica, near inaudible on the Bo Diddley version, pushed upfront and bold. And Van Vliet’s vocal growl, though he’s straightforward, with no whoop‐inflexion and less range.
The Van Vliet B‐Side, ‘Who Do You Think You Are Fooling’ shows there’s more. The most distinctive feature in these singles is the drum/bass riff. This is the play centre of the song. Compared to later efforts by other bands, these riffs are short and blunt, so much so that, defying usual musical usage, I’ll call them ‘figures’. The figures are in pitch choices basic. The guitar sometimes spurs the figure forward, or squalls from the top. This isn’t rock, because the figures are not shaped to the tune, nor do they form a tune—like in some Blues music, any form is in the figure, which stand alone. Similar dynamics can be heard in some urban‐block Southern Rhythm and Blues (”’Neighbor, Neighbor’ by Jimmie Hughes which rocks some…?), and in the soon‐to‐come Heavy music, but where the Magic Band found them, I’m not sure. Perhaps it’s their attempt to play the Chicago Blues.
I know some people won’t buy this for other reasons, but this open‐ended stomp makes the Magic Band a legitimate Blues band. ‘Blues’, as critical term, is barely any definition at all. But, like the Rolling Stones, the Magic Band learned from those records, and what they took was thought‐through and hard‐earned. Indeed, they heard and learned something in some Blues which has not been captured since. That made them, from a non‐cultural background, maybe the best. Don’t forget, they were starving too. No problem why people were interested. Though early, they’d slot in a Nuggets compilation. ‘Diddy Wah Diddy’ was a regional hit.
Things would go further, or become more exposed. The next single, ‘Moonchild’ may have had a Van Vliet‐like title, but was a tune by producer David Gates (Bread etc.) dragged through rocks. It’s B‐side was another composition credited to Van Vliet called ‘Frying Pan’, which performance confirms the shapes of ‘Who Do You Think You Are Fooling’. And then, the unreleased single, ‘Here I Am, I Always Am’, which verse‐play is eight × four bar figure (three beats), then a second section of two × four bar figure (three beats), then a two × seven‐bar figure (thump). This is unusual, and on this track catchy—read musical—if out there. From these following tracks, what the Magic Band is up to is audible—they will not recreate the ‘Blues’, they will reconstruct them.
This shows in ways other than the music. For example, when composing, whatever he was on about the Captain wasn’t singing ‘Found My Babe’, ‘My Babes A Good ’Un’, “Lost My Babe’, or ‘Goin’ Back To Chicago’—and when he did it was as a garbled often allusive lyric. Robert Cristgau calls Van Vliet “the world’s funniest ecology crank” and also says that “of course” a later album (‘Clear Spot’) contains “Much womanizing…”. In other words, much of Van Vliet’s material is about relationships, so more commonplace than may seem from it’s expression. Then again, the take of the songs is original—‘Nowadays A Woman’s Gotta Hit A Man’ (‘Clear Spot’) —and he has ways only he would go such as his interest in seeing with the eyes of a child, which is a part with a primitivist ethic.
A few later demonstration recordings (which I got to hear) underscore the band at the time. ‘Obeah Man’ runs on a fast riff, shunted up and down chords with only a verse‐chorus pause. ‘Triple Combination’ has a one‐chord riff that that beats the bar into a two count. The band will experiment with through‐riffs of interesting rithmic combinations. The Captain’s vocals are part of this. This is close to the Howlin’ Wolf Chicago band, which used similar bar‐block arrangements to churn a song along—the difference is in the rithmic arrangements tried, which are more adventurous than the four beat of the Chicago Blues.
One thing and another
After the initial singles, the original guitarist bailed because the band were getting ‘Avant‐Garde’. The band were dropped by their record label, taken up by another label, launched into recording. Or, doing their thing, and known for it. The Magic Band also gained a new drummer. Somewhere between the drummer and Van Vliet pathways, uptempo work shortened to the max. It often developed a highly accented, impatient beat that sounds like Polka or maybe cabaret. Close to the recording, Van Vliet coaxed onboard a guitarist from a nearby folk band, called Ry Cooder. Ry Cooder added slide guitar, could play intricate parts and compose too. The San Francisco vibe burned off and they were not Blues‐Rock anymore, more something of themselves with references. People might have a point if from here on out they scorn the Magic Band as ‘Blues’. Whether the playing, composition or lyric the band are now an outback Art take on the style.