Incredible String Band

"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.

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.