Listentomusicanywhere's Blog

[Buying the albums sampled on "Picnic"; a slight detour.]

Today we embark on a consideration of the extraordinary music on Volume II, Side 1 of which opens with two short tracks, the first lasting one minute, and the second a mere 10 seconds.

Track 1 is “Pataphysical Introduction – Part I”, which has a fairly pleasant tonal tune and a scattering of barely audible vocals, which become clearer right at the end with an intro to Track 2, “A Concise British Alphabet – Part I”, which is exactly that.

Track 3 is a track that lasts 5.59 minutes called “Hibou, Anemone and Bear”.  Most of this is a jazz-based instrumental, but it does contain some fairly agreeable and, as often, auto-biographical lyrics sung by Bob Wyatt.

Track 4 is “A Concise British Alphabet Part II”, which lasts 12 seconds during which the alphabet is sung again, but this time backwards.  This one elides seamlessly into Track 5 “Hulloder”, which only lasts 54 seconds, but is quite a nice little Bob Wyatt ditty.

Track 6 is “Dada Was Here”, of 3.26 minutes duration, and is largely a fairly formless piece with a few tuneful bits towards the end.

Track 7 is “Thank You Pierrot Lunaire”, which takes just 49 seconds, but again is quite agreeable to listen to, with some interesting Bob Wyatt words.

[Buying the albums sampled on "Picnic"; a slight detour.]

As mentioned last time, Volume II has notes, which are anonymous, inside the gatefold sleeve.  These read like this:

“There is music for the body and there is music for the mind.  Music for the body picks you off the floor and hurls you into physical activity of whatever type you may prefer at the moment.  Music for the mind floats you gently downstream, through pleasurable twists and turns, ups and downs, rapids and calm waters.  The Soft Machine plays music for the mind.  In its strictest sense, it may impose some cerebral responsibility on the listener, because you can’t really hum along or have the tune pass through your head as you walk in the streets.  But the ultimate good feeling that the Machine generates will always remain with you, and the final emotional benefit is well worth the thinking toll.  Since their first album, thr Soft Machine has aged and changed.  Hugh Hopper has joined the group on bass, making the trio tighter than ever.  Additional instrumentation has been used where necessary to advance the musical maturity of this superbly advanced group.  In general, everbody’s heads are more together.  After hearing this album, yours will be also.”

Well, that’s one way of putting it.

[Buying the albums sampled on "Picnic"; a slight detour.]

The last track on Volume I, being track 7 on Side 2 of the LP and Track 13 on the CD, is a mere 50 seconds long, but is a brilliant cadence to the album.  It is a quirky “robotic”instrumental called “Box 25/4 Lid”, but is very good to hear.

Well, onto Volume II.  The front cover of this seems to have been “octopus machine woman” for want of a better description.  Against a yellowy green background is a picture of this thing, which is humanoid in form, and where its face should be is a photo of a pretty girl’s visage.  The rest of the picture is drawn, the torso being mechanical, with cogs where the breasts would be.  There is much hair swirling about in the form of snake-like white curling hosepipes.  The arms and legs are widely akimbo, and in her left hand she holds a wispy mans head.  The overall effect is most octopussy.  Above her in blue is the name “THE SOFT MACHINE”, beneath that in smaller red capitals “VOLUME TWO”.

The band was still a trio, but Hugh Hopper had replaced Kevin Ayers.  The cover appear to have been gatefold, the inside being entirely taken up with a black and white photo of the group, with some weird artefact in the middle top left, and some writing.  More next time.

[Buying the albums sampled on "Picnic"; a slight detour].

Track 9 on the CD is the third track on Side 2 of the vinyl version of Volume I.  This is a classic Kevin Ayers composition called “Lullabye Letter”.  Much electronics and swirling organ here, certainly not a lullaby, but a splendid minor key Soft Machine Vol I rocker.

The next track is the repetitive one “We Did It Again”, another Kevin Ayers song, and unusually one where he does the vocals; on all the other the singing is done by Bob Wyatt.  The only vocals here, however, comprise the phrase “I did it again”, repeated over and over again.  It is only the brilliant backing track which makes this one listenable.

Track 11 is a short instrumental called “Plus Belle Qu’une Poubelle” which is French for “More Beautiful Than A Dustbin”.  It only lasts 1.01 minutes, but starts with the same fantastic 4 beat 5 semitone interval intro of the next track, which is the seminal “Why Are We Sleeping?”  This is the penultimate track on the LP and lasts 5.33 minutes.  It is a joint composition of all 3 of the Vol I line-up, and an absloute gem of a song.

One more to go, then, on Vol. I, and thence to the “Best record of 1969?????????”

[Buying the albums sampled on "Picnic"; a short detour].

It’s good to be back.  It is to be hoped that things will be back to normal for a while now, say, until Easter.

The track which ended Side 1 of Volume I is track 6 on the CD.  This is the utterly brilliant Hugh Hopper composition “A Certain Kind”.  This is certainly the best song ever to be produced under the Soft Machine name, and is a truly splendid piece.  It is a soft and gentle love song loaded with classical and baroque organ sequences, and is sheer joy to listen to from beginnining to end.  Towards the closing part of the lyrics is the phrase: “And loving you the way I do makes everything seem right again”, words which were of immense comfort to the 17 year old kid I was when I first heard them.

Side 2 of Volume I opens with a frantic but very pleasant little rocker called “Save Yourself”, which lasts 2.25 minutes.  This is Track 7 on the CD.

The next track lasts a mere 1.03 minutes is a short but most agreeable instrumental piece, called simply “Priscilla”, and elides gently into the next song, “Lullaby Letter”, of which more next time.

For about a week or so, I may not be able to post much or at all.

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible. The next post will major on the best track that Soft Machine ever did: “A Certain Kind”.

[Buying the albums sampled on "Picnic"; a short detour.]

The CD clone of the double vinyl record was released on Big Beat as CDWIKD 920 1n 1989, published by Ace Records Limited.

Track 1 of Side 1 is “Hope For Happiness”, which does what it says on the tin.  It is a splendid little song to open the album, performed in the unique way that the first Soft Machine album did things, which is difficult to describe.  It is a sort of staccato close harmony upper register style, which is most attractive.  This one comes in at 4.22 minutes.

Track 2 is the marvellous instrumental “Joy of a Toy”, after which of course Kevin Ayers titled his first LP.  This is a guitar solo with drums and bass backing, which starts languidly, but builds up gradually to a frantic crescendo at the end of its 2.50 minutes.

Track 3 is “Hope For Happiness (reprise)”, and is exactly that, although it introduces a most sweet new melody over its 1.39 minutes.

Track 4 is a classic, little, typically introspective Bob Wyatt autobiography called “Why Am I So Short?”  As usual it features a very clever and attractive combination of words and music.

The penultimate track on Side 1, track 5, is a long near-instrumental called “So Boot If at All”, which lasts 7.25 minutes.  It is a tonal, varied, and perfectly entertaining piece, and right at the end it has a short reprise of the refrain from “Why Am I So Short?”  Brilliant touch.

[Buying the albums sampled on Picnic; this being a short detour.]

This double LP of the first two Soft Machine albums was released on the Probe label as GTSP 204.

The cover notes of course extend to both Volumes 1 and 2; they were written by a chap called John Halsall.  At the end of his notes he quotes a section from the sleeve notes on the original “Volume One” :

“The music of the Soft Machine includes the shock values of unstructured composition, although many of their works are songs.  Electronic devices add the impact of sensory bombardment.  But these effects are mere gimmicks unless they are used with sensitivity and logic.  The Soft Machine is an exciting testimonial: men need machines but machines need men AND ideas to produce meaningful experience.  The group creates music that is meaningful, also appealing, because it has good taste, craftmanship and, most of all, involvement.”

The cover noters confirm the line-up on “Volume One” as comprising Kevin Ayers, Robert Wyatt, and Mike Ratledge.  It is of course the presence of Kevin Ayers on this firtst LP which occasions the detailed mention of this record just now.

Next time, onto the spendid music of that first LP.

[Buying the albums sampled on "Picnic".]

And a brief deviation even from that!

I last mentioned the first two Soft Machine in thes annals well over a year ago, and really then only in passing.  I have been minded to revisit them in more detail as a direct result of listening to “Shooting at the Moon” for the first time for many years.

I only have these as the double set, but I do have them as a double vinyl LP, and as a CD which crams both of them onto one disc.

The vinyl I think dates from 1973, but the only dates given on it are the dates of the original LPs, being 1968 and 1969 respectively.

I have always assumed that the cover of the double album shows a version of the front cover of Vol I on the front and of Vol II on the back, but I don’t know for certain.  However, I shall refer to them as such for ease of reference.

The front cover of Vol I has a montaged colour photo in a large circular frame surrounded by pictures of large cogs, on a pale lime green background.  The photo shows three chaps, two seated and one standing, and to their right the rear view of a crouching lady clad only in her underwear.  The guy who is standing has his right palm uplifted and is looking upwards.  Various odd bits and pieces float in the montage.  Most evocative.

[Buying the albums sampled on "Picnic".]

Side 2 of the LP comprises just two tracks, the first of which comes under the generic heading of “The Oyster and the Flying Fish”.  However, there are no fewer than 4 separate pieces in this track, and we considered the first three of these in the last post.

The final part of Track 1 is “Red Green and You Blue”.  This is a bit on the “coffee shop jazz” side, but is in fact quite a listenable little KA ditty.  It has all the typical hallmarks of a whimsical Ayers wandering thing, an deserves its place on an LP more than many of the other bits on this one.

The last track on the album is the title track, “Shooting at the Moon”, and uniquely on the LP is a lone track, being the entirety of Side 2 track 2.  It lasts some 5.38 minutes, almost all of the last 4 of which are instrumental and rather repetitive, and is one of his “disturbing” songs, but it is actually not a bad one.  And so ends this quirky record, Side 2 ending suddenly, but not as abruptly as Side 1.

I intend to say more about Kevin Ayers, but for the next post or two I plan to take a short detour into the first two Soft Machine LPs.