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The Incredible String Band – “Wee Tam and The Big Huge” (1)

October 17, 2017 · by listentomusicanywhere

Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.

The Incredible String Band.

At this point, for me, the story gets very interesting.

You recall, perhaps, that I had a chum at school who had a really hip elder brother, and from him I had learned that the ISB had released an album called “Wee Tam and The Big Huge”, and I think I knew from the start that it was a double LP. The period 1968 to 1970 was a classic one for such things, starting with The Beatles’ “White” album, Pentangle’s “Sweet Child” and Cream’s “Wheels of Fire”, all in 1968, “Ummagumma” of course, the current topic on the Pink Floyd alternation, in 1969, and in 1970 the Byrds’ “Untitled” and the ISB’s “U”. With the exception only of the White album and “U”, all these doubles comprised a studio LP and a live LP. And, of course, there was also in 1968 “Wee Tam & The Big Huge”.

In the very early days of 1972, I was browsing through the LP racks in a record shop in Sheffield UK, I think it was Bradleys or Wilson Peck, when to my shocked amazement I found this:

Yes, the front cover set out the lyrics, and it was an ISB LP called “The Big Huge”! I was utterly at a loss to understand what was going on, but of course I bought it, and was indeed delighted with the music on it. Anyway,this was the back cover:

And by this time it came on the “butterfly” Elektra label:

I remained mystified, but had other things to occupy my mind, notably girls and school; it was a very depressing time for me.

Pink Floyd – “Umma Gumma” (3)

October 12, 2017 · by listentomusicanywhere

Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.

Pink Floyd.

As previously noted, like Side 1, Side 2 comprises just two live tracks. These are versions of items from the group’s second LP, “A Saucerful of Secrets”, firstly “Set The Controls For The Heart of The Sun”, and secondly the title track. In each case the recordings are slightly longer, and MUCH better than the studio renditions.

Track 1 has an extended middle 8 instrumental section, with one or two dramatic contrasts. The vocals are virtually inedible, which is a bit of a shame, but the overall effect is very appealing.

Track 2 is a masterpiece. If you look back to the description of the studio track, which can be found a few posts ago, it is a neatly divided 12 minute track comprising 3 discrete 4 minute sections. The first is a bit atonal, the second majors on a repeated drum break, and the third is the glorious “chord progression” bit, far better than the other two. On the live version, the first two bits get just 3 minutes each, but wisely, the last bit gets 7 minutes. Moreover, the first section is a tuneful, fairly dreamy thing, most pleasant to the ear, and the second section is dramatically livened up by some amazingly distinctive Gilmour guitar. It really is one of the very best things Pink Floyd ever got on record.

This album was one of the first to come out on the new EMI Harvest label:

The Incredible String Band – “The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter” (3)

October 6, 2017 · by listentomusicanywhere

Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.

The Incredible String Band.

Side 2 of the LP opens with a Mike Heron composition called “Mercy I Cry City”, on which he takes the lead vocals, with Robin adding just bits here and there. It is a fairly frantic lament about city life, lasting just 2.49 minutes, but it is an excellent ditty none the less. I have always found this one to be very moving, as at one point the singer describes himself as a “sin-drenched Christian”, which is exactly what I am.

Track 2 is a weird Williamson chanson titled “Waltz of the New Moon”, coming in at 5.01 minutes. It is quite brilliant, with a fairly strong constant beat. Track 4 is an even weirder and more brilliant Williamson epic, lasting 7.40 minutes, called “Three Is A Green Crown”. It is less structured than Track 2, and talks of the “second self”, and features the plaintive plea “let not the swan be brought low”. I have always loved this one to bits.

Sandwiched between these two, however, is a short and relatively conventional song called “The Water Song”, just 2.41 minutes long. It is a beautiful, subdued, strictly intoned song which is indeed about water.

This forms a serial Williamson trilogy in the middle of Side 2.

The penultimate track on the album is a classic Mike Heron song about children’s nightmares, called “Swift As The Wind”. It is of medium length, at 4.50 minutes. The refrains are truly eerie, taking the form of: “There is no blood; the night is all around my child; you must stop imagining all this…”. Chilling though it is, it is still a great song.

Track 6 on Side 2 ends the LP, and is a most fitting cadence indeed. It is a Williamson composition called “Nightfall”, and is the shortest track on the record at a mere 2.29 minutes. It is an ISB lullaby, very dreamy and soporific, and ends the LP just perfectly.

The back cover credits the photos to one Iain Skinner.

I was only able to afford this LP in Oxford, while I was at University, from the trendy shop in Little Clarendon Street, in 1976, when it came on the US “butterfly” label:

Pink Floyd – “Umma Gumma” (2)

September 28, 2017 · by listentomusicanywhere

Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.

Pink Floyd.

Apart from the name of the group, this album has one thing in common with the first album “Piper at the Gates of Dawn” [see above]. This is that Track 1 on Side 1 is “Astronomy Domine”. The version here, however, is a live performance, being one of the four such that comprise the music on the first LP of the double album that it is. The back cover tells us that the live tracks were recorded at MOTHERS, Birmingham, and the Manchester College of Commerce in June 1969, but it does not give any details of which tracks were recorded where.

By a huge margin, the most visited post on this blog is a two part thing I did on the Fairport Convention M1 Crash about 5 years or so ago. The reason I mention it here is that it happened the previous month, May 1969, 12 May 1969 to be exact, and the group were on their way back to London on the M1 having done a gig at MOTHERS, Birmingham.

Anyway, the live version of “Astronomy Domine” is indeed a tour de force. From the very first notes it is a spine chilling masterpiece; and it demonstrated that the band did not need Syd Barrett to make it work. It goes on for about 8.30 minutes, with an extended instrumental middle 8, and it really is one of the best things the group ever recorded. Truly classic stuff.

There are only two tracks on each side of the live LP, and the second one on Side 1 is something which at that time had never appeared on any studio record, “Careful With That Axe, Eugene”. It is renowned for featuring Nick Mason’s vocal debut, in that he supplies the blood-curdling scream at the song’s zenith. Prior to that we have a slow, menacing build up, and after that there is a bit of a jam with Dave Gilmour letting rip for all he could.

The back cover of the album is extraordinary, showing the band’s van and all its equipment neatly laid out on a road in a perfect V shape, with the gong on top of the van; it also carries the track listing and all the credits:

The Incredible String Band – “The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter” (2)

September 22, 2017 · by listentomusicanywhere

Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.

The Incredible String Band.

The album opens with a Robin Williamson song called “Koeeoaddi There” [yes,really!]. It is a splendid overture to the LP, being a stylised recollection of childhood years. It is classic ISB stuff, with Robin very much taking the lead vocal on the verses, but with the whole ensemble in its unique harmony joining in the fairy-like riddle refrain.

Track 2 is another Williamson composition, this one however delivered in an over-the-top Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera style. It is called “The Minotaur’s Song”, and it does what it says on the tin. Part of the chorus is the phrase “I can’t dream well because of my horns”. Again Robin does solo vocals on the stanzas, with support mainly from Licorice on the refrains.

Track 3 on Side 1 is yet another Williamson song, but very short (2.30 minutes) and very different from the first two. It is called “Witches Hat”, and is a light, lilting, whimsical thing in which the singer imagines himself as being such a thing. It features just Robin and his guitar.

Side 1 ends with one of the most celebrated pieces the band ever did. It is an epic (12.55 minutes) Mike Heron composition titled “A Very Cellular Song”, and its basic topic is anaerobic reproduction. However, it features several different styles and genres throughout its lengthy course. Heron freely admits that it had a close connection with an LSD experience, a trip as it was known. The closing sections include “We Bid You Goodnight”, originally done by The Bahamian Pindar Family and often used by the Grateful Dead to conclude their sets, and “May the long time sun shine on you” which has its origins in a Sikh spiritual called “On That Day”. On any view of the matter, it is certainly a truly remarkable piece, and a brilliant cadence to the first side.

The back cover shows the two chaps ion winter garb:

Pink Floyd – “Umma Gumma” (1)

September 16, 2017 · by listentomusicanywhere

Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.

Pink Floyd.

As noted in the last post, this was the first Pink Floyd album I ever heard of, in the late autumn of 1969, when I had just started my third year at the grammar school, except that it had that year become comprehensive, and, for the first time in its history, co-educational. I always knew it comprised two LPs, a live one and a studio one, and that the first track was stunning.

The front cover was intriguing:

It shows the four members of the band in a scene by an internal doorway leading directly into a garden. However, in the top left quarter of the tableau is a mirror, in which we see the same scene repeatably but with the chaps rearranged each time in ever decreasing size. On the floor are white capital letter blocks neatly spelling out the group’s name, to the left of which is the distinctive EMI Harvest label logo. Magic stuff, particularly for a thirteen year old schoolboy. I turned fourteen a couple of weeks before the end of the 1960s.

The Incredible String Band – “The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter” (1)

September 13, 2017 · by listentomusicanywhere

Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.

The Incredible String Band.

This LP has always seemed to me to be the “darkest” of all the ISB albums, but this may be just a subconscious effect of the title. However, there is also a bit of a sense of ancient foreboding in the front cover:

This is a motley crew. To the left stands Mike holding a grotesque mask. A child separates him from Robin, who is seated holding a jester’s rattle. To the right of the picture is Licorice holding a dog. In the middle at the back, between two men, is another woman who may well be Rose, Mike’s girlfriend who became a formal member of the band along with Licorice a few months later. One of the men could be a chap called Malcolm LeMaistre, who joined the band in 1971. The whole tableau is set against the bleak background of a forest in winter. All are dressed in medieval clothes, even the hapless kids.

The music, however, though mainly a bit serious in delivery, is really not very dark at all.

The Turtles – “The Battle of the Bands”

September 9, 2017 · by listentomusicanywhere

I take a brief break now from the current Pink Floyd/ISB series to mention this remarkable album, or rather its packaging.

The Turtles were one of the very best pop groups of the 1960s, and released six LPs, one every year from 1965 to 1970. two of its constant members, Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman subsequently joined Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention in the early 1970s, when they were known as the Phosphoresent Leech and Eddie.

At the last UK Record Store Day I was able to purchase a box set of all the six albums. The fourth in the series, released in 1968, is the only one with a gatefold sleeve, and is titled “The Battle of the Bands”. When you open it up, you see 11 pictures of the then 5 chaps in the group dressed up as the competing bands in question:

Pink Floyd in 1969 (Part 2)

September 7, 2017 · by listentomusicanywhere

Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.

Pink Floyd.

In the previous PF post I mentioned that 1969 is my favourite year. It was also a uniquely prolific year for prog rock. It was the only year in which the classic line-up of the Moody Blues released 2 LPs, the only year in which Fairport Convention released three and Led Zeppelin two; it was also the only year in which Pink Floyd released two albums. We have already seen that the first of these was “More”. The second was a double LP called “Ummagumma”; it was the very first Pink Floyd record I was ever aware of.

It seems that with the possible exception of the late Rick Wright, the band were still trying to come to terms with what they were trying to do. Dave Gilmour was probably the first to succeed, developing a brilliant, unique guitar style where his solos have been described as “sheets of sound”, which virtually defined prog rock for a decade.

On 14 April the band played a gig at the Royal Festival Hall in London. Nick and Roger were into the presentation side of things, whereas Rick and Dave concentrated on the music; this proved to be a very successful recipe for a stage show.

Work on “Ummagumma” had started early in the year, and the original idea was that it would be released in March. In fact, it turned out to be so atypical in terms of what EMI (the record company) were expecting, that it did not get released until October 1969. This delay was very fortunate; originally it was a single studio recorded LP, but when the time came for its release it had a second live LP added to it, because EMI thought it would prevent buyers feeling ripped off. It was also issued at a “budget” price, and sold far better than anyone expected.

The Incredible String Band in 1968

August 24, 2017 · by listentomusicanywhere

Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.

The Incredible String Band.

In 1968 I finished my first year at the grammar school and started my second. It was also the year, I found out some time or times later, in which the ISB released two or three albums, depending entirely on how you choose to count them.

The previous year, after the release of “The 5000 Spirits…”, the ISB had done a series of small venue concerts all over the UK, mainly in London clubs. Amongst the most significant of these was a support for Pink Floyd [see current] and Fairport Convention [the Judy Dyble line-up; see way above] in October at the Saville Theatre, and later that month a double bill with Shirley & Dolly Collins [see way above] at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. This is a poster advertising it:

However, the manager of the ISB at that time, Joe Boyd, had the bright idea of booking big gigs for the band over the following 12 months, and as it turned out they were sell-outs. This had much to do with the band’s third LP.

As I have mentioned on several occasions, at school I was fortunate enough to have a pal who had a really cool elder brother, and he was the source of an immense amount of information to me in my early months of prog-rock. On learning early in 1971 that I had bought the ISB album “U” [to which we shall come in a month or three], he told me about two earlier albums they had released. both of which had titles that were pure magic to my ears; one was called “The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter” and the other “Wee Tam and the Big Huge”. As I would learn much later, these were the 1968 records, and that was the order in which they were released.

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