Incredible String Band

What's yr favorite stuff?

I'm a big defender of their later stuff as well as the early 'good' stuff, though not so into either of their solo stuff...

I also love Mike Heron's solo record, esp. the song "Audrey."

WEE TAM is my favorite. Lyrically, musically...everything. "Ducks on A Pond" is the most psychedelic song to ever feature kazoo, and somebody like Oldham or Sufjan really oughta cover "Puppies"

Changing Horses is cool too! Ain't that the one with "Big Ted" on it?

I'm with Roger on Wee Tam being something of a high water mark.

John Coltrane will always be my alltime favorite across the board, but The Incredible String Band are not far behind.

Robin Williamson's Skirting the River Road was the greatest album released last year. It accomplishes everything I think music should accomplish. I get the feeling it has been overlooked as was Paddy McAloon's I Trawl the Megaherz.

For the longest time I had a framed vinyl copy of The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter displayed in my office at work and I would tell people that Williamson is my father and I was the young boy standing near him. That album is often my bible.

"Job's Tears", the opening song on 'Wee Tam' is but one of the many marvels of the 'Wee/Huge' couple.

I'm not really sure they were flirting with Scientology when "Job's Tears" was recorded, that came later - the influence of ol' LRH is definitely there on everything they did from "Changing Horses" onwards. Can I just say that "Liquid Acrobat As Regards the Air" is easily the best thing they did post-Scientology - altho some of Robin's songs are a bit feeble on it, all of Mike's songs are great and Robin contributes their best "long song" since the glory days: "Darling Belle".

But you've all answered it already, left me nothing to add. Except that "This Moment" is on *I Looked Up*. A high spot, yes, on another patchy album.

My favorite post-Elektra tunes by them are "Antoine" and "Seagull", both Heron songs on Earthspan.

I recently picked up this CD by them of BBC sessions called "On Air". I know the CD is pretty rare (at least here in the U.S.); I remember seeing it in the mid-80s when CDs first came out, but you never see it anymore. Does anyone know when these sessions were recorded? I think Malcolm LeMaistre was in the band, so it must have been in their later years...

holy shit. these guys are touring??

Has anyone heard their (newish) Nebulous Nearness album? It's supposed to be rerecordings of the "hits"....

espers (fishtown, philadelphia, PA) will be the opening act. they opened for Ghost last night. very witchy folk.

not really. i've deferred to quentin compson on many issues in the past. one slip up about a local band (that has hardly any fans at home) is inconsequential.

Their magical self titled debut combines the elemental sound of acid-folk with the baroque arrangements of late 60s chamber rock. Fully versed in the sumptuous vernacular of drug music, the cradle of Appalachian song, and the succinct truths of the three-minute pop ballad, Espers is an irresistible collection of sweet and subtle songs essential for fans of Fairport Convention, Pentangle, Jackson C. Franck, Linda Perhacs, Bread, Love & Dreams and Bert Jansch. Espers give us the sound of music the way it should be heard - with the ease, infectious grace and absolute beauty of an ever expansive trio bound for always greater pastures.
-----

OK, so they're a six piece now. Chris plays some percussion/bass, and they have a percussionist. they don't really have a drummer as such. so it's: two acoustic guitarists, a keybs/harpsichord, bass, cellist, percussionist.

sad thing is MTS, based on the crowd for Ghost the other night, most folks in philly don't know about them either.

Dude bought everything Ghost were selling.

If I didn't have to work tomorrow night, i'd find a way to get over to the NorthStar. It's a banner day when I cross Broad St.

"The Incredible String Band will be doing some downsizing for their forthcoming US tour, their first in thirty years.  The economic constraints of transatlantic touring mean the ISB will be going over as a three-piece in September - Mike Heron, Clive Palmer and Lawson Dando.  This also opens the way for a more acoustic and intimate approach, well suited to the spirit of their classic 1966-70 albums from which they will be drawing the greater part of their concert repertoire.  Lawson will accordingly be playing less keyboards, concentrating instead on guitar, mandolin, harmonium, percussion etc."

confirmed that otto's from rochester. he claimed that we'd met at a party once. i have no recollection of this [swigs vodka from glass]!

i got 5000 spirits today. it's great. yeah.

better than the c.o.b. lps, which are just ok.

Hey! What the hell is this: http://www.amazon.com/Tricks-Senses-Incredible-String-Band/dp/B001K859PC
Anybody heard it? Worth the $$$?

haven't heard it yet, but 'All Too Much for Me/Take Your Burden to the Lord/Let It Shine on Me' was previously on some versions of the Chelsea Sessions CD, was recorded at the same time as Wee Tam & Big Huge and is just as good as anything on those albums.

I'll sing you this October song,
Oh, there is no song before it.
The words and tune are none of my own,
for my joys and sorrows bore it.

Beside the sea
The brambly briars in the still of evening,
Birds fly out behind the sun,
and with them I'll leavng.

The fallen leaves that jewel the ground,
They know the art of dying,
And leave with joy their glad gold hearts,
In the scarlet shadows lying.

When hunger calls my footsteps home,
The morning follows after,
I swim the seas within my mind,
And the pine-trees laugh green laughter.

I sed to search for happiness,
And I used to follow pleasure,
But I found a door behind my mind,
And that's the greatest treasure.

For rulers like to lay down laws,
And rebels like to break them,
And the poor priests like to walk in chains,
And God likes to forsake the.

I met a man whose name was Time,
And he said, "I must be goin,"
But just how long that was,
I have no way of knowing.

Sometimes I want to murder time,
Sometimes when my heart's aching,
But mostly I just stroll along,
The path that he is taking.

every cell in my body has it all writ down.

one day when the moon was full i thought i might settle down
found myself a pretty little girl
and i stopped all my running around
but just when the preacher come along
and he's just gonna pop on the ring
this funny little hedgehog comes
running down the aisle
and i don't have to tell you what he did sing

highly recommend this radio bcast from 1968. http://ow.ly/eBVVJ

The Clive Palmer book through Helter Skelter was a very interesting read. Not sure if it would be remotely available now. I got it for a couple of pounds a few years ago, think literally £2, probably from FOPP.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Empty-Pocket-Blues-Music-Palmer/dp/190513925X

right you can get it then.

huh didn't know that existed. looks good. i need to get those COB records too.

They or at least Moyshe Mcstiff was the main impetus for the setting up of Sunbeam records thanks to Richard Morton Jack having worked for the rip-off artists at Radioactive.
RMJ wanted to do the release as well as he could and make sure royalties were paid, Radioactive weren't so hot on the royalties.

Anyway, I'd recommend the Sunbeam Moyshe, haven't seen if they have a Spirit Of Love & can't find one mentioned.
I have one on another label, not sure which.

There was a live set from '72 on Dime in May. think it was pretty good.

I couldn't make it through that Clive Palmer book. Must still have it around somewhere. I paid top whack (well - £15) for the Sunshine Possibilities album a few years ago and didn't think much of it. Consequently I've got a bit of a downer on Clive.

Saw Robin at the Half Moon Putney a couple of years ago and he was excellent.

would love to see williamson sometime. i saw the robin-less ISB a few years ago in the US w/ Palmer looking very amused/ancient.

While my students were working on album-cover art the other day, one of them--triggered by having seen the covers for Cheap Thrills and After Bathing at Baxter's--asked to hear some actual hippie music. So I played "Dark Star" and "China Cat Sunflower" off YouTube, and then, just on a whim (it's not really hippie music, but it's strange, and great hippie music is almost always strange), I switched over to "A Very Cellular Song." My twenty-something student teacher: "What is that? That's awful."

Couldn't take the gimbri?

haha i put on A Very Cellular Song at work a couple weeks ago, my co-worker couldn't deal.

I tried playing a tape of the HGB lp on camp in the early days and it was viewed as unlistenable by Levellers fans. Gorlumme, how does one deal with people with poor taste?

don't know where I got the initials HGB for HBD but anyway, would have thought that it would be more popular and even something that people would be familiar with. But no, people's noses turned up at one of the greatest lps of all time in favour of post-commercialisation Levellers. bleurgh.

I thought you must be referring to something esoteric that only 'Stringheads' would know.

I think Wee Tam and BIg Huge are more 'accessible'.

less magical though

If asked to play hippie music I'd put on some "Gift from a Flower to a Garden"-era Donovan.

ISB is wonderful. Anyone that doesn't think so is lacking soul.

I've turned a lot of people on to ISB. I think set and setting are important to the enjoyment of music. I'm usually not working when I listen to them. Listened to Hangman's in its entirety on New Year's Day this year, that was good.

there's something strange and kinda spooky in the air while listening to ISB for the first time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W_Pk4cqGGo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HN9y1z1Z9A

"Be Glad for the Song Has No Ending", a really incredible film originally made for BBC's Omnibus.

Every time I see a photo of a group of ragtag people standing in front of some trees, I think of ISB.
I almost tagged this picture ISB but I thought it was unnecessary

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbwjiq8HcM1rcq6xho1_500.jpg

I'm reading their Wikipedia page. I had forgotten they became Scientologists!

Listening to "Wee Tam" tonight. I really love the song "Air", so so beautiful.

Breathing, all creatures are
Brighter then than brightest star
You are by far
You come right inside of me
Close as you can be
You kiss my blood
And my blood kiss me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXtKESEZQLg

I haven't seen it confirmed anywhere, but Clive Palmer has died according to twitter

best COB song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kVgn6iBz4A

Oh no, I hope not.

saw him play about 5 years ago at a local veggie fair. not that it was exactly crowded to begin with, but his band pretty much cleared the room by the end of their set and there was just me and david tibet and his wife left watching. can't really remember what he played exactly - a lot of it was newer material - but i do remember that everything had the same warmth to it but with that wistful autumnal edge. seemed like a good guy who wasn't particularly phased by the fact that no-one was there, dunno why i didn't go and say hi

news seems to have come from wizz jones so i guess that's that

Aw, shame, RIP Clive.

listened to Moyshe McStiff and the Tartan Lancers of the Sacred Heart this morning. lovely record. i saw him w/ the reunited ISB about a decade ago -- was sort of hard to tell whether he was happy to be there or kind of embarrassed, but his playing was great. looked like a man from another time.

Shame...really like the Spirit of Love C.O.B album.

aw, man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXK9gti146g

I'm wondering if the debut album sounds very crackly in places or if it's my headphones going bad.

None of their classic albums sound quite as good as i want them to. Fledg'ling remaster of Hangman's didn't provide the refresh I'd hoped for.

I just saw that prices are rising massively on the Fledg'ling Incredible String Band cds on Amazon marketplace.
That's the ones with the Joe Boyd remaster that people were thinking of as definitive back in 2010 when they were released. Since he was the original producer he should be about the best person to revisit the source and get the required sound.
Unfortunately Fledg'ling's license has lapsed, so I wonder if that master will ever reappear?
The label now have 3 copies of Hangman's Beautiful Daughter left and that's it.

Meanwhile BGO seem to have all the studio lps in print including 2fers of the later lps. They put out new versions of the early stuff last year. 1st 3lps on a 2cd set and a 2cd of Wee Tam and the Big Huge.
Those new ones are remastered by an Andrew Thompson, a name I'm not familiar with.
Could be good , but I don't know how they compare with something that has direct input from the original producer

Amazon is confusing things further by listing cheap marketplace prices next to the thumbnails of the Fled'gling releases. But if you click on the marketplace price you're taken to a BGO version of the cd. The BGO WT&BH has a redesigned slipcase with an alternative sleeve. All the Fledg'ling Joe Boyds have a stripe down the edge of the sleeve.

Yutututututut-yutututututut-yututututata-ta-tawowowow!

Having fun with the second album. Find it quite invigorating actually. I don't get this light whimsical sense of fun coming across so well very often.

Some of it beautifully carefree without going into the thing I hate most in music: sounding like you don't even give a fuck about the music you're playing.

I love the second album.. especially the heron tunes

childlike whimsy with its cock out and its women captive

no objection to distaste for ISB but that take makes no sense to me.

done this already but their vibe is 100% creepy cult to me, and that's even before considering the whole scientology thing - i would need strong anecdotal evidence showing otherwise to dissuade me. sorry for shitting up yet another isb thread but thbd was the single most unpleasant listening experience i've had of late and i will not withhold from expressing my revulsion until it is either resolved or chased away. live and let live sure but i'm not certain that was isb's credo

ISB: Still Freakin' Out The Squares

i would need strong anecdotal evidence showing otherwise

would be nice to have strong anecdotal evidence for the concern. seen this band live and they seemed chill. the records are pretty chill too. seen their documentary, also chill. what exactly is the cause for alarm?

does it go past "you got a bad vibe"?

Sound like a lovely bunch of guys to me.

Yutututututut-yutututututut-yututututata-ta-tawowowow!

I guess I just have never heard anything, at least pre-Scientology, that sounds aggressive or manipulative or particularly sexual, it all sounds like pretty sincere folky hippies who are really excited about instruments and drugs and making new sounds. It’s kind of culty in that it feels like they’re existing in their own world/community but I don’t hear anything sinister in it. But then I’m in the cult so I would say that.

imago needs his bumps felt

LOL @ the idea of Robin Williamson being sinister in any way whatsoever!

Listening to ISB recently, randomly googling pics of them etc and ended up reading some ex-Scientologist forums with people talking about auditing them back in the day. One guy claiming he knows where Licorice McKechnie is - supposedly in California not wanting to be found. No-one else has seen her in 30 years.

Yutututututut-yutututututut-yututututata-ta-tawowowow!

otm

Williamson's MYRRH album is a strange little record. Love these guys and I get the creeps from anything remotely "culty" so I think imago's take is interesting.

Myrrh is great

Had not seen this groovy thread before, and didn't know Clive had shuffled off this mortal coil, damn. In days of yore, I incl. a microview of Moyshe among a tiny Voice round-up of outriders, Dred Foole etc.:
COB
Moyshe McStiff and the Tartan Lancers of the Sacred Heart

In the summer of 1971, COB, Clive's Original Band, led by Clive Palmer,
dropout co-founder of the Incredible String Band, descended through dogpaths of
Cornwall and into a London studio: barefoot buskers, shaking from their knapsack
the likes of cannily enigmatic "Lion of Judah," which darts across the parade
route of all orthodoxies. Meanwhile, the soulful "Chain of Love" has its own
karmic seeds to burn. And that's all, acid folks! But a taste for anyone who hasn't heard it.

I was in awe of these guys in my late adolescence. I must have been 16 or 17 when I bought a copy of Relics of the Incredible String Band and that record really changed me. I couldn't believe the level of musicianship, the intelligence, and just the sheer beauty of those early records.

Williamson's MYRRH album is a strange little record.

I didn't say the guy wasn't capable of strangeness - he surely is!

Cant decide between "Little Cloud" and "First Girl I loved" from second album as my favorite.

Confess that I find a lot of the Mike Heron's tweer songs difficult to listen to - with Williamson the wtfness tends to compensate for the tweeness, though not all the time.

A reminder that RW can be pretty twee:

ducks on a pond
ducks on a pond
verrrrrry prrrrrretty
swimming 'round

for example

Heron wrote “Chinese White” from that album, which I don’t think is twee in the way you would call Hedgehog Song or Little Cloud twee if you were so inclined. Have long wondered what the story is with “Chinese White.”

xp always thought of Heron as the McCartney to Williamson's Lennon, in some ways

Chinese White is a pigment used in painting.

Heron wrote “Chinese White” from that album, which I don’t think is twee in the way you would call Hedgehog Song or Little Cloud twee if you were so inclined.

I'm specifically thinking of stuff like Hedgehog Song and Little Cloud or something like Cousin Caterpillar. Mind you, Williamson wrote Big Ted which isn't even a good tune.

"Little Cloud" was one of the tunes i put on a mix tape i made for him the week he was born,,, backed it up with the Femmes "I'm Free" cuz they both make me imagine skipping through a sunny flower-filled field.

I like Big Ted till the boogie woogie chorus part

their twee-est tune is "Puppies," surely

Not the ultimate dog song "God Dog"?

I love that song but prefer the Shirley & Dolly Collins version tbh

I definitely prefer Robin songs pound for pound but “Chinese white” might be the best thing either of them wrote. Where the f did that thing come from.

3 listens in, loving Hangman's Beautiful Daughter. In college there was an IT exercise to use vectors to draw a cassette with "Incredible String Band - Hangman's Beautiful Daughter" written on it. I didn't even know if they were a real band at the time.

Wish youtube had that interview of Billy Connolly complaining about people who don't like Incredible String Band. I know this could be pure blurb fluff talk but all the same I'm intrigued by Connolly saying that Heron's book changed the way he thought about music.

Are you talking about the recent book that Connolly wrote the foreword for?

It's called You Know What You Could Be.

Right. The video clip - the one from the documentary where he's talking about people in London wearing elaborate clothes who only came out for Incredible String Band shows? Because I feel like I've watched that clip on Youtube at least five times!

It's here I believe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il44CZU19YI

I was thinking of a show called Shrink Rap that he did with his wife interviewing him. He was talking about the biggest regret of his life being trying too hard to get into things and wishing he had accepted earlier that you cant understand all of the good things.

Just read this, maybe you've all heard this stuff but I found it interesting, including the observation about the sharp drop in their fame.
https://web.archive.org/web/20071023215030/http://cosmedia.freewinds.cx/media/articles/grn040197.html

Quite blown away by the best songs on Hangman's Beautiful Daughter. Enriched my past few weeks considerably. "A Very Cellular Song" is so moving and the atmosphere of the opening track is perfect.

"Here we go, slithering"

Always meant to listen to this band but didn't anticipate getting this wrapped up in them. Kind of a revelation.

One of the many things I like about "A Very Cellular Song" is one of the singers imitating some instrument (which I cant pin down) vocally. It works so much better than I'd think it would, because it's close but not freakishly accurate.

Don't hate me but Cellular is too long imo

One of the many things I like about "A Very Cellular Song" is one of the singers imitating some instrument (which I cant pin down) vocally. It works so much better than I'd think it would, because it's close but not freakishly accurate

Where does this happen? I don't remember this tbh.

There's a bit where Mike Heron sounds a bit like a kazoo, and possibly a Jew's harp.

Current release of the 1st 3 lps is together as a 2cd isn't it?
NOt sure how the sound compares to the Joe Boyd remasters on BGO since I haven't heard it.

Also never really progressed beyond Wee Tam & The Big Huge and the live set from 68.
NOt sure what I'm missing since that is about when they slid into Scientology.

When did they extract themselves from scientology?

They never did, while they existed. I'm not sure if Robin Williamson is still involved, I don't think so, but he certainly was for longer than any of the others - 30/40 years? He doesn't talk about it. Heron left in 80s/90s I think? Rose after she left the band. No-one knows where Likky is but she was definitely still involved before she disappeared.

It's interesting to listen to the later ISB albums (and pretty much every Robin Williamson album) and try to work out the Scientology references.

Really enjoying Wee Tam & The Big Huge. Beautiful album cover(s). Got mixed feelings about how on one song (chilly chilly chilly) they create an amazing atmosphere just to rip it to shreds with a kazoo, it's kind of hilarious.

I completely love wee tam and the big huge
Talk about a strong opener
Also ducks on a pond my god

I've never really paid Wee Tam and the Big Huge enough attention. I've only really listened to the first three lps. Must dig Wee Tam out again.

It belongs in the first 4 imo even though you can see the seeds of some of the dud moments of changing horses being planted

Every time this thread is revived, I hope it's someone announcing that Licorice is doing great and releasing a new solo album but would prefer not to return to the public eye.

My one complaint so far: Licorice sings an amazing part in the opener but barely sings (if it all) after that on the album. Come to think of it, she's underutilized on the previous two albums.

Don't know how far I'll go into their albums + solo albums but I think I'm won over enough to go further than most people. We'll see. I might just splash out on the next few albums. Definitely getting the first solo albums.

There’s a very good incantatory piece on a later robin album - “five denials on merlin’s grave”

Also his much much later ECM albums are very good

Changing Horses is not so far from Wee Tam and the Big Huge. I like "Mr. and Mrs." the most.

My one complaint so far: Licorice sings an amazing part in the opener but barely sings (if it all) after that on the album. Come to think of it, she's underutilized on the previous two albums.

She wasn't officially in band until the next album.

Job's Tears is the best. Only track on Changing Horses I really like is Creation, I think of it as Cellular Song pt 2, lots of great loopy Robin lyrics - "I would advise stilts for the quagmires"!

Love "White Bird" on "Changing Horses".

Yeah white bird and creation are both keepers

That's like half an hour! (I don't much like "Creation" though tbh)

Finished listening to Wee Tam & The Big Huge. Cant decide if I like it just as much as Hangman's Beautiful Daughter.

"Beyond The See" is one of those great little instrumentals that could be easily overlooked, the type of thing that you have a tantalizing memory of but cant recall the band who did it. There's so many of those that I don't think that great music is always that memorable. You can forget these brilliant things so easily because they seem so brief.

!!!!

Rose is writing (has written?) a memoir of her period with the band (1967-71) and has started sharing memories/insights on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/IsbRose

"On FB a photo of ISB on ice at Glen Row. That is the Lic. I want to remember, funny sometimes, always engimatic, loving in her own way, and strong with a strength I learned a lot from. Then she got cut off from her roots in the universe."

"The whole filming of Be Glad in a morass of Welsh mud and gloom was not the rural utopian commune experience. Not for any of us, despite funny tales of Big Ted."

"M & R as 'babe magnets.' With beautiful and interesting faces, sunny onstage personalities, colourful imaginations, musical ability, lyrical charm, fluid personae etc., between them they fitted in to all fantasies for all people"

"I remember Big Sur for sharing a dip in the warm springs at Esalen one evening with Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young and Joni Mitchell - imagine them singing in the bath together and that's it. Amazing"

Via Rose on Twitter, this link to a recent interview with Licorice's American ex-husband, where he details what happened to her.

https://youtu.be/ksMT5OFNhSI?t=1375

Thanks jay, I read/watched both of those things. Rose is awesome and what happened to licorice is incredibly depressing. I also had no idea miscavige’s dad was doing a Scientology expose series on youtube til now!

Ha yeah Jon I shoulda mentioned that about who the host was!

sad stuff — knew that she had disappeared into the desert, but didn't know about her breakdowns ... weird that her ex claims that the ISB was hugely responsible for scientology's spread in the UK ... is that accurate?

also, goddamn, scientology is weird. (obvious, but it always bears repeating)

XP - Someone should tweet Rose and ask her about that, were the whole band scientologists at one point? How did they raise awareness without it ever being documented? Seems off.

Wow on that video, just wow.

Also it's very odd that with the benefit of hindsight he doesn't seem one bit reproachful that as his wife was being driven mad by scientology and to help her, instead of taking her to a doctor he took her to see the people that were driving her crazy.

Pretty sure it was well known that ISB were all Scientologists at the time that they were into it... which was for years.

"Back in 1971, ISB and Chick Corea were the biggest names Scientologists could lay claim to." — Joe Boyd http://cosmedia.freewinds.be/media/articles/grn040197.html

yeah, i just didn't know how active ISB were in terms of actually recruiting people. is Corea still a scientologist?

Not sure that they themselves were active in recruiting; it's more that their public example of embracing Scientology drove curiosity towards Scientology from their followers.

As for Chick Corea, yup, still a Scientologist.

(xp) OTM on ISB and LRH. They never hid the fact they were Scientologists, and from '69/70 onwards their songs are peppered with Scientology references, I think their albums often carried dedications to 'the Commodore' (guess who) - Robin Williamson's solo albums certainly were - and there's even a picture of LRH on the sleeve of "Earthspan" if you look for it.

http://philippe.andrieu.free.fr/concerts/Affiche/009024.jpg

Wow on that video, just wow.

^^

I hope all the downvotes on that video are scientologists.

Changing Horses is a good album! There are no bad songs, it's just that the writing isn't quite as tight and the performances aren't quite as magical.

Can't find a Clive palmer or C.O.B. thread. Just seen that somebody has upped the live C.O.B. set from 1972 to Dime.
THought some of you might want to know.

As a follow-up to that scientology video posted upthread, there have been a number of posts on the "Amoeba's Are Very Small" facebook page since then, saying with confidence that Likky is alive and living in Northern California.

I was contacted by an individual, a writer for a music publication, who wanted to do an update on her. He saw this FB page and that I knew her years ago. He had some leads on where she was, he sent me photos of various people wondering if I thought they were Likky. We went back and forth for about a year. None of them looked right to me. Finally, he hired someone from law enforcement, and working with that person they found her. The law enforcement person was very friendly, he spend a few hours with Likky at her home in California. They went through old photo albums of her with the band, talked about "the old days" etc. She was shocked that anyone cared. The journalist relayed this all back to me. As far as I know Licorice didn't actually say "don't disclose my location", but out of respect we are just not doing it. When I knew her, the ISB was something she was very sad about. I just don't want her to be flooded with people. I don't know if she's in touch with any of the former members. My guess is no, but I could be wrong about that. Things change. The breakup of the band was not good. They really splintered off into different ways. But time can heal these things so maybe its all ok now. I was Likky's friend for a while. That doesn't grant me access into her life or the band. I'm just reporting what I found, what I know and what I think based on knowing her. The person who found her said it was actually pretty easy, it just took a little digging and there she was.

not ISB but incredibel

https://blogthehum.com/2016/03/02/ellen-fullman-her-long-string-instrument-and-three-archival-films/

I just listened to 5000 Spirits for the first time ever and this is cracking me up:

Yutututututut-yutututututut-yututututata-ta-tawowowow!

I heard it as "bow wow" which is even funnier imo.

Robin Williamson is undeniable, huh? I just played a random song off American Stonehenge (Man in the Van) and was marveling at it seconds in, now here I am playing Side B through and thinking that it doesn't matter Ian Anderson didn't make all-acoustic solo albums in the '70s, Williamson had it covered.

Alright so American Stonehenge is first-listen perfect / visionary / Syd meets Ian meets Peter Stampfel madcap -- I had a feeling I'd like Williamson and the ISB but haven't done more than distracted sampling 'til now. I'm on a big reverse chronology kick apparently, so I've just hit "play" on ISB's final album Hard Rope & Silken Twine, which supposedly sucks. But Maker of Islands has just wrapped up its six-minute run and I'm in tears...?

And the second song is live, frighteningly spare, and raw as fuck. What is happening?

I'll go ahead and liveblog this. The rest of Side A sounds more earthly but is plenty good. The three latter songs have a charming sunset glow to them. It makes sense to think that these are the last well-meant efforts of a formerly (in fact, as recently as the first two tracks on the same LP) transcendent group. It's like Richard & Linda Thompson's First Light and Sunnyvista but, I think, much better.

Now I'm three minutes into Side B's 19-minute sole denizen Ithkos and the air is heavy with the smoke of Tull.

Halfway through Ithkos, what is this ratty folk prog!

Ithkos has ended. It was bombastic and silly and wonderful and I, like the duck egg at the end of The Fat Lady of Limbourg, am now a puddle on the floor. Strange that an album this insane and beautiful is not an established cult classic. And it came out in Britain in 1974! you'd think this era + locale had been thoroughly excavated by now!

Their earlier, imperial era must be to blame. Sounds like no one except ISB fanatics ventures out this way, and they presumably come seeking something different.

"Glancing Love" and "Dumb Kate" are both kind of terrible and "Cold Days of February" is badly served as a muddy live recording (also Williamson chickened out and changed the lyrics). Mind you this album is miles better than the album that came before it, that really is a dog of an album.

I think people were just bored of them by 1974 and they were bored of each other and heading in different directions, Williamson doesn't contribute much to the writing of "Hard Rope and Silken Twine".

the only good thing about No Ruinous Feud is the cover which cracks me up whenever I see it

No Ruinous Feud is sounding pretty awkward on first play, true. These arrangements... hmm. Intriguingly weird at times, but I can't tell whether it's the kind of weird that will get better or just more solidly awkward if I listen more.

It's definitely OUT THERE. The awkardness sounds ingenuous. I can't think of anything else that sounds like this that also takes itself seriously, which this album mostly seems to.

At the Lighthouse Dance played as I was typing this -- pretty great! Not too far a cry from A Saucerful of Secrets.

Ah, I know -- with No Ruinous Feud, I feel like I've found my way to the party that Tull's Hare who Lost His Spectacles and Floyd's Several Species of Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave stumbled woozily out of.

"What, the escapees didn't warn you? You still came? Well okay then, welcome."

"No Ruinous Feud" is the only ISB album I can't imagine wanting to listen to.

a fish on a dish
is that what you wish?

I've been playing No Ruinous Feud a lot this week, actually. Such a weird little album.

i'm looking forward to checking it out. i'm on a similar journey as you but proceeding chronologically. WTBH was such a revelation to me. previously had only really been familiar with 5000 spirits

Wee Tam (i choose to think of them as two albums) is i think my favorite ISB

They were also released as separate albums. I have the LP version of just The Big Huge by itself.

yeah it was a UK/US difference

i feel that WT maybe has a hair on BH in terms of the overall experience, but BH has "Maya," which is just about the best thing they ever did

(nb i haven't heard a whole lot post-1970 so my statement is subject to revision)

As much as I normally love their commitment to conjoining the sacred and the profane, the shift in tone in "Ducks on a Pond" is kind of hilarious. Starts out utterly transcendental and then becomes a frantic fogey jug band birthday party stomp fest. Anyway, I'll take it

I think that's my favorite ISB song (and probably one of the only songs I like that features a kazoo).

When my niece was very young (2 or 3 years old), I was charged with keeping an eye on her while her mom ran a quick errand, and she had this crazy crying jag. Not being a parent, I had no idea what to do, but I guess my instincts kicked in because I sang this to her to calm her down. It worked like a charm!

They are the ultimate swings and roundabouts band - especially because it's so often in the same song.

Haha. Yes. Though I think I prefer the jug band stomp interludes to the occasional level-headed Mike Heron songs where he manages to sound uncannily like Cat Stevens. (Not that I have any particular beef with Cat Stevens. Just don't need that distraction. It's hopelessly unfair anyway given that Heron's vocal timbre was unleashed on the world a fraction earlier IIRC?!)

Forgot to bookmark and didn't see the replies. Amazing to hear that ISB can mollify a three-year-old, though I'm not surprised either