The Incredible String Band - BBC Sessions, Volume 6: In Concert, Paris Theatre, London, Britain, 11-23-1972 | Albums That Should Exist

 

The Incredible String Band - BBC Sessions, Volume 6: In Concert, Paris Theatre, London, Britain, 11-23-1972

Paul says: Once again, here's a BBC album by the Incredible String Band. It's a short concert from 1972.

I'm posting this due to the poll from some months back about which musical acts had the greatest demand for more BBC albums. I'm still having a hard time getting into the music of this group, but I only have one more album to go and then I can post albums from others chosen in that poll. 

This is all from one concert. However, only some of the tracks have been officially released, specifically: tracks 2, 6, 10, and 12. Those all appeared on the "Across the Airwaves" BBC compilation. But a bootleg source fills in the gaps and has the same sound quality. Actually, the vocals were low in all the unreleased songs, but I fixed that using the UVR5 program, so you shouldn't notice a difference in the sourcing now.

This album is 38 minutes long.

01 talk 
02 I Know That Man 
03 talk 
04 My Father Was a Lighthouse Keeper 
05 talk
06 The Circle Is Unbroken
07 talk 
08 Turquoise Blue 
09 talk 
10 The Old Buccaneer 
11 talk 
12 Black Jack David 
13 talk 
14 Jigs Medley [Instrumental] 

(all songs Incredible String Band) 

The Incredible String Band - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: 1972-1973 | Albums That Should Exist

 

The Incredible String Band - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: 1972-1973

Paul says : Here's another album that I'm posting due to the big BBC poll from a few months ago. It's an album of studio sessions from the Incredible String Band. 

Note that, right now, I'm concentrating on posting albums by Richard Thompson and the Incredible String Band for that poll. I've got two more from this band after this one, and lots more from Thompson. Once I finish with those two, XTC and Elvis Costello will probably be my next main targets from that poll.

This album consists entirely of music from four BBC studio sessions in 1972 and 1973. Seven of the 14 songs - exactly half - have been officially released on the official album "Across the Airwaves." Most of the sessions are split, with some songs appearing from a session and some not. However, the sound quality is pretty close between the released and unreleased ones.

This album is an hour and three minutes long. 

01 Restless Night 
02 Down Before Cathay 
03 Secret Temple 
04 Oh Did I Love a Dream 
05 Rends-Moi Demain 
06 Hangman's Medley 
07 Maker of Islands 
08 Raga Tune 
09 Saturday Maybe 
10 At the Lighthouse Dance 
11 Black Jack David
12 Dreams of No Return 
13 Jane 
14 Dear Old Battlefield 

The Incredible String Band - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: 1970-1971 | Albums That Should Exist

The Incredible String Band - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: 1970-1971

Paul says: I'm still not into the Incredible String Band, but here's another BBC album from them, due to their high results in the BBC poll I did a while back. This is a third volume of BBC studio sessions.

There's an official album of BBC performances by this band, but it skips a lot of music. This album is a case in point. The first four songs are from that album, "Across the Airwaves," but everything else remains unreleased. Also, those first four songs are from two different BBC sessions in 1970, while tracks 5 to 8 are from one 1971 BBC session, and tracks 9 until the end are from another 1971 BBC session. 

In the time period here, the band was still a foursome, with Mike Heron, Robin Williamson, Licorice McKechnie, and Rose Simpson. But that would change around the end of 1971. During this time, the band released no less than four studio albums: "I Looked Up" and "U" in 1970, and "Be Glad for the Song Has No Ending" and "Liquid Acrobat as Regards the Air" in 1971. 

This album is 50 minutes long.

01 Everything's Fine Right Now 
02 Raga Puti 
03 Ring Dance
04 Long, Long Road 
05 You Get Brighter 
06 Jigs [The Bird that Lives on Rain - Yellow Flames of Whin - Jenny in the Mosshouse - Drunk]
07 How We Danced the Lord of Weir 
08 The Actor
09 The Circle Is Unbroken
10 Sailor and the Dancer 
11 Tree 
12 Living in the Shadows

As I was one of the people who begged Paul at ATSE to find us more BBC Incredible String Band here is this . . . . largely good quality despite various sources and incarnations

ATSE : Volume 2 ISB | The Incredible String Band - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: 1969-1970

The Incredible String Band - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: 1969-1970

Paul he say: Here's a second volume of the Incredible String Band performing for the BBC. Like Volume 1, it consists entirely of studio sessions.

In 1967, the band consisted only of singer-songwriters Robin Williamson and Mike Heron. But by the time of this album, Licorice McKechnie and Rose Simpson joined as well, as you can see from the cover image. They released the albums "Changing Horses" in 1969 and "Looking Up" in 1970.

In 2007, the archival album "Across the Airwaves: BBC Radio Recordings 1969-74" was released. Seven of the songs here come from that, while the rest remain unreleased. Those seven are the first four, plus tracks 9 through 11. It's obvious that that album wasn't meant to be complete, even with sound quality considerations, because the unreleased tracks 12 and 13 are from the exact same BBC session as three that were chosen.

A bunch of the songs on this album had the lead vocals low in the mix. I fixed that for all the songs except the first four, which sounded fine. As usual, I used the UVR5 audio editing program to do that. 

This album is an hour and four minutes long. 

01 Fine Fingered Hands 
02 All Writ Down 
03 Dust Be Diamonds 
04 Theta 
05 The Letter 
06 This Moment 
07 Gather Round 
08 Waiting for You 
09 Empty Pocket Blues 
10 Beautiful Stranger 
11 Won't You Come See Me
12 Flowers of the Forest 
13 Dark Eyed Lady 

Sterling work by Paul here as he finds more ISB for us fans out there and as I was one of the ones requesting same here ’tis! Enjoy! For the song has no ending . . . . . 

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!