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Incredible String Band – “Liquid Acrobat…”(2)

November 12, 2020 · by listentomusicanywhere

Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.

The Incredible String Band.

There are 6 tracks on each side of this splendid LP. All 4 members are credited as such, though Rose has left and been replaced by one Malcolm. More of him next time; and there are some guest musicians too.

Track 1 on Side 1 Is “Talking Of The End”. This is a Williamson composition and lasts 5.28 minutes. It is a classic Robin song, staccato, eerie, and whimsical. He plays oud, violin, guitar, whistle and cymbals, and sings lead vocal. Mike plays organ and sitar and provides backing vocals. Likky (as Liquorice is called here) plays harmonium, organ and small hand drums, and supplies backing vocals. Malcolm plays harpsichord and hand drums and also does some backing vocals. One Stan Lee plays pedal steel guitar. This track is a wonderful introduction to this excellent album.

Track 2 is another Williamson composition called “Dear Old Battlefield” (2.59 minutes). This is heavier, rockier thing than Track 1, but is another truly brilliant song. Perhaps I should add now that the lyrics of all the tracks are printed in the inside of the gatefold sleeve, which makes the songs all the more enjoyable. Robin plays rhythm guitar and sings. Mike plays lead guitar and Likky does organ and vocals. Malcom plays bass, and Gerry Conway (late of Fotheringay – see way above!) plays the drums.

Track 3 is “Cosmic Boy”, for which the credits are unusual. The author of the “lyrics” is McKechnie (Likky), and Mike is credited with the “music”. It lasts 4.21 minutes. Likky sings solo and Mike plays piano, the only accompaniment. This is a slow, beautiful plaintive song, all the better for its sparse arrangement.

Track 4 is a Heron composition called “Worlds They Rise And Fall” and is a typical Mike thing, coming in at 3.23 minutes. The verses are strong and hearty, the refrains soft and gentle. Yet another musical gem to adorn this superb album.

Track 5 is a wonderful Williamson composition called “Painted Chariot”. This is a dramatic song, with strong singing and perfect musicianship. It lasts 4.12 minutes. Robin plays mandolin and kazoo and sings. Mike plays organ and Likky bass and kazoo. Malcolm plays kazoo, swanee whistle, and sings.

This is the back cover of the LP.

Pink Floyd – “Animals” (2)

September 20, 2020 · by listentomusicanywhere

Pink Floyd and the Incredible String Band.

Pink Floyd.

There are only 5 tracks on the LP, 2 on Side 1 and 3 on Side 2. Moreover, the first and last tracks on the album are Parts 1 and 2 of the same short, and on this record uniquely acoustic, songs, where again similarly uniquely Roger Waters sings with his “soft” voice.

The inner sleeve has the Side 1 lyrics printed on one side and the Side 2 lyrics on the other. These are the Side 1 ones:

As can be observed, the first track is “Pigs on the Wing (Part One)”, and is very much shorter than Track 2. As I mentioned above, this is a “soft” song with the sole accompaniment of an acoustic guitar. These are the words:

“If you didn’t care what happened to me,

And I didn’t care for you,

We would zig zag our way through the pain,

Occasionally glancing up through the rain,

Wondering which of the buggers to blame

And watching for pigs on the wing.”

Track 2 is a very long song called “Dogs”, and is the first of the “rockers”. All three of these are utterly brilliant and varied, with Dave Gilmour’s electric guitar adding its usual magnificent breaks. To give you a feel for the style of this one, these are a few of the lyrics from its second half:

“Just another sad old man

All alone and dying of cancer.

And when you lose control, you’ll reap the harvest you have sown,

And as the fear grows, the bad blood slows and turns to stone,

And it’s too late to loose [sic] the weight you used to need to throw around,

So have a good drown, as you go down, alone,

Dragged down by the stone.

I gotta admit that I’m a little bit confused,

Sometimes it seems to me as if I’m just being used,

Gotta stay awake, gotta try and shake off this creeping malaise,

If I don’t stand my own ground, how can I find my own way out of this maze?”

This is the back cover of the cover:

Incredible String Band – “Liquid Acrobat…”

September 5, 2020 · by listentomusicanywhere

Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.

The Incredible String Band.

The full title of this splendid 1971 LP by the ISB is “Liquid Acrobat As Regards The Air”, but this is the first and last time I shall refer to that full title.

This is its front cover:

Pink Floyd – “Animals” (1)

August 10, 2020 · by listentomusicanywhere

Pink Floyd and the Incredible String Band.

Pink Floyd.

“Animals” is the third and final album in the band’s classic trilogy, which marked for ever the zenith of their recorded output; and it is a very good LP indeed. In my humble view, it is actually the best of the three. It really is pure, unmitigated, absolute ecstatic joy to listen to from beginning to end.

There are only 5 tracks on the LP, 2 on Side 1 and 3 on Side 2. As far as I can tell, all of the actual singing is done solo by Roger Waters, virtually all of it in his “gruff rock” style. However, the best bits are without doubt the instrumental breaks that punctuate the singing, all but one of which feature Dave Gilmour’s distinctive guitar. No doubt other members of the band would have done some of the non-verbal backing vocals.

This is the front cover of the splendid outer gatefold sleeve; and yes, that really is an inflatable pig being flown over Battersea Power Station as it was in 1977, the year of the album’s release:

Incredible String Band – “U” 6

June 25, 2020 · by listentomusicanywhere

Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.

The Incredible String Band.

Side 4 has just 3 tracks, all of which are completely different, and all of which are absolutely brilliant.

Track 1 is “Cutting The Strings” (5.03 minutes). It is a typically weird Williamson composition with a really eerie start, but goes on to be quite rousing. It is one of the most cheering and uplifting songs I have ever heard, oddly enough. Robin sings lead and plays guitar, mandolin, gimbri, fiddle and flute. Licorice provides backing vocals and Mike plays sitar.

Track 2 is “I Know You” (3.22 minutes). Uniquely it is a Licorice compostion, her surname being McKechnie. She is the solo contributor to the song, singing and playing guitar. It is a hauntingly beautiful thing, and utterly unlike anything ever recorded by anyone else.

Track 3 is a truly magnificent cadence to the album, an epic song called “Rainbow” (15.22 minutes!). It is a Heron compostion, and an absolute masterpiece. Mike does lead vocal and plays piano, organ, guitar and bass. Robin does the backing vocals and plays drums, soondri, fiddle, flute and mandolin. Licorice also provides backing vocals and drums. Rose also provides backing vocals and bass. It really is a huge joint enterprise, and not just by the band. Mal and Malcom, members of the dance group Stone Monkey, join in with more backing vocals. It comprises many different sections, ranging inter alia through rock’n’roll, gospel, folk, jazz and ballad. It is sheer joy and ecstasy from beginning to end.

There are some credits at the foot of the back cover:

“Sleeve photography by Francis Loney, Phil Franks, Jon Bloom / Sleeve design by Bob Heimall: co-ordination Graphreaks / Costumes by Jane Mock of Skin, Los Angeles / Front Cover painting and set design by Janet Shankman / Dances by Stone Monkey / Engineering by John Wood / Produced by Joe Boyd, Witchseason Productions Ltd. / Manufactured by Polydor Records Ltd., London / Sleeve made by MacNeill Press Ltd., London, S.E.1.”

And in closing on “U”, this is the right side of the inside of the cover:

On any view of the matter, this “surreal parable in song and dance” is monumental in the truest sense of the word.

21 June 2020

June 21, 2020 · by listentomusicanywhere

Ah, and once more the nights start drawing in again.

In memory of Tim Hart deceased.

Pink Floyd – “Wish You Were Here” (3)

June 13, 2020 · by listentomusicanywhere

Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.

Pink Floyd.

Track 2 on Side 2 is the Title Track “Wish You Were Here”. It is a genuinely sentimental song, a Waters/Gilmour composition, and really classic Pink Floyd. It is soft and gentle, and these lyrics give you a feel for the ambience of the track:

“We’re just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,

Running over the same old ground. What have we found? The same old fears.”

The LP ends with Track 3 on Side 2, which comprises Parts 6-9 of the main track on the album, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”. It will be remembered that this LP is a tribute to Syd Barrett. The lyrics are sparse, and I set them out in full here, as they well deserve:

“Nobody knows where you are, how near or how far. Shine on you crazy diamond.

Pile on many layers and I’ll be joining you there. Shine on you crazy diamond.

And we’ll bask in the shadow of yesterday’s triumph, and sail on the steel breeze.

Come on you boy child, you winner and loser, come on you miner for truth and delusion, and shine!”

This is a paper disc enclosed with the packaging:

Next Pink Floyd time, we start on the third and final LP in the classic trilogy, “Animals” which really does constitute the zenith of this fantastic band’s existence. This is not to say that the other stuff isn’t good; on the contrary, the precedents are in some ways better, and there were a few very good bits later. But when anyone thinks about Pink Floyd now, who knows the whole catalogue, these three epitomise what Pink Floyd contributed to music.

Incredible String Band – “U” 5

May 21, 2020 · by listentomusicanywhere

Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.

The Incredible String Band.

This is a post very special indeed to me, as it starts by talking about Track 5, the final track, on Side 3. This is a Williamson composition called “Puppet Song”, lasting 6.15 minutes, on which Robin is the sole performer, singing and playing guitar. It is very special to me, as it was the first ISB track I ever heard. I can’t quite remember exactly when this happened, but it was certainly a radio broadcast, and for some reason I always associate it with a meeting at the curate’s house. I don’t think that’s where I heard it; rather, I think I was discussing it there with a chap some years older than I was, who was an ISB fan. The song has a remarkable opening, with the words more spoken than sung; and these are the words: “Now you may have observed, that if you walk into a wall, you get a certain sensation of reality.” The song goes on to tell the tale of a “little man” who sets out to find the meaning of life. He starts with his spouse:

“So he asked his wife about it, and his wife said yes

Come back and see me if it’s time to know less

You do too much aquestioning of the world at large

Everybody knows the politician’s in charge.”

This is a truly brilliant, lilting song, and I was immediately hooked. It ends up with the little man asking God about it. But the lyrics and tunes are just fantastic. These are a few of the words:

At the “Kinghouse” he sees the Politician:

“He had false pretendies, I had to love his style

Bound to make some havoc with that violin smile”

And on his way up to heaven, or rather just before, the “narrator” sings:

“Oh the past is something, we all have some

Universal history is a bundle of fun”

I hope this gives a true feel for this wonderful song

This is a close up of the price label. I referred to the error on it in my first post on this record. If I had bought it 7 weeks after I did, it would have cost me ten shillings/50 new pence more!

Pink Floyd – “Wish You Were Here” (2)

May 13, 2020 · by listentomusicanywhere

Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.

Pink Floyd.

There are effectively three songs on Side 2 of the LP, the first of which is a Waters’ composition called “Have a Cigar”. This neatly follows the previous track, the last one on Side 1, “Welcome To The Machine” [see last Pink Floyd post], in that it is very much about the world of the music business, at least as it was in 1967 when the band came into existence. However, it is a much more relaxed number than its predecessor, and again it is classic stuff. To provide a feel for the ambience of this one, here is a short extract from the lyrics:

“The band is just fantastic, that’s what I think. Oh by the way which one’s Pink?”

This is the back cover of the outer sleeve:

Incredible String Band – “U” 4

April 4, 2020 · by listentomusicanywhere

Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.

The Incredible String Band.

Track 2 on Side 3 is an instrumental called “Astral Plane Theme” (4.55 minutes). It is a Williamson composition, and he is the sole performer on it, playing one instrument only, guitar. This is a truly remarkable tour de force. It encompasses a huge variety of different styles, including bursts of flamenco, and is delivered with perfect precision and timing. It would have required a great deal of effort on Robin’s part to produce this, and it is indeed a minor masterpiece.

Track 3 is another Williamson composition, a dirge-like chant called “Invocation” (4.48 minutes). The credits are unique: ” Robin, with thanks to Greg Heat’s voice sitar”. Robin does sing the whole thing solo, to the positively eerie accompaniment of this “voice sitar”. It is an extraordinary piece, featuring the often repeated refrain “Aid me, and I will aid you”.

Track 4 is another Williamson composition, a truly brilliant thing called “Robot Blues” (4.02 minutes), and it really does what is says on the tin. Robin performs this entirely on his own, singing along to a classic 12 bar blues tune which he plays on the piano. It is well worth setting out some of the lyrics of this one:

“Down in Robot City, you might think it’s play play play

But a Number 5 Robot he must work in all the night and day

Number 1 come by me, he give my work to me

Oil the flowers, fix the showers, clean the electronic trees

Shine the light, fix it right, now listen carefully

Don’t you go romancing with that pretty Number Three

[Chorus, which I’ll set out at the end]

When I see that Number 3 I get charge all in my dial

When I see that Number 3 my piston fills with oil

You know what I’m talking about

But she likes that Number 1 because he’s rich with all my toil toil toil

That Number 3 she charm the heart of any robot man

Moving her body like an old tin can

If I could get my claws on her I would lubricate her free

I’ve got a perfect action why won’t she play with me

[Chorus]

Well I think I’ll get a ray gun

I will see what that will do

I think I’ll get a ray gun

I think I’ll get a ZZ Special Q

I will blast the Number 1’s gaskets

and his coils I will refuse to renew

He seen me coming, sneak up from behind

switched off my ignition and he left me stone blind

I could not see to blast him

here’s the ending of my tale

He went off with Number 3 and I cursed to no avail

[and the song ends with the

Chorus:

and that’s why why I got the Robot Blues

Down in my heart compartment

Down in my old magnetic sole shoes”

Side 3 ends with Track 5, but I’ll leave that until the next ISB post; it’s called “Puppet Song” and as I noted in my first “U” post, it is a very special track to me.

This is the left side of the inside of the album cover:

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