The Incredible String Band - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1967-1968

 

The Incredible String Band - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1967-1968 

Paul says: In the poll I conducted in February of new musical acts you'd like to see BBC albums from, the Incredible String Band tied for third place. So here's the start of a series of BBC albums by them. I found enough for seven albums.

Personally, I've never really gotten into the Incredible String Band. I know they were talented, and their style of psychedelic folk was unique and interesting, but their songs generally don't grab me. Still, the voters have spoken, so here you go.

The heart of the band were the singer-songwriters Robin Williamson and Mike Heron, with the two roughly doing about the same number of songs. In fact, for some of the time period of this album, they were the only two members of the band. However, in 1968, their girlfriends at the time, Licorice McKechnie and Rose Simpson, were also made band members. Happily, they were talented singers and musicians.

This band arguably peaked early, around the time period of this album. If you look at the crowd-sourced ratings of their albums on rateyourmusic.com, their 1967 album "The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion" and their two 1968 albums "The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter" and "Wee Tam and The Big Huge" are their highest rated ones. 

All the performances here are unreleased. The first four songs are from a 1967 appearance on the "Top Gear" radio show, hosted by John Peel. The rest all date from early 1968. Tracks 5 through 7 are from "Once More with Felix," a BBC TV show hosted by Julie Felix. Tracks 8 through 12 are from the "Night Ride" radio show, which was also hosted by Peel. The last two songs are from another appearance on "Once More with Felix."

Unfortunately, one song is repeated, "Painting Box." It's both the first song and the last song. And two of the songs have "[Edit]" in their titles because Peel spoke over the music a little bit. That was pretty unusual for him. I did the usual, using the UVR5 program to wipe the DJ vocals while keeping the music.

This album is 52 minutes long.

01 Painting Box [Edit] 
02 Mercy I Cry City
03 Chinese White [Edit]
04 Nightfall 
05 Three Is a Green Crown
06 Geordie
07 See All the People
08 You Get Brighter 
09 All Too Much for Me
10 Ducks on a Pond 
11 I Bid You Goodnight 
12 Won't You Come See Me 
13 The Half-Remarkable Question 
14 Painting Box 

Now as I was one of the folk who asked Paul if he could find more ISB I have to post this and it is my pleasure to share. I went through a phase last year one time of playing every album back to back and thoroughly enjoyed that but what I didn’t have and was astonished to see others on Paul's site ask for same as live sessions and ROIOs 

Have at it String Band fans!