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.
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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.

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