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21 June 2021

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Pink Floyd – “Animals” (3)

Pink Floyd – “Animals” (3)

Pink Floyd and the Incredible String Band. Pink Floyd. As mentioned before, there are three tracks on Side 2. This is the “lyrics sleeve” for it: As you can see, Track 1 is called “Pigs (Three different types)”. This is a brilliant, soft rocker, but the main thing I love about it is the repeated refrain “Ha ha charade you are”. Then comes another long song called “Sheep”. This is a somewhat…

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Incredible String Band – “Liquid Acrobat…”(2)

Incredible String Band – “Liquid Acrobat…”(2)

Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.

The Incredible String Band.

There are 6 tracks on each side of this splendid LP. All 4 members are credited as such, though Rose has left and been replaced by one Malcolm. More of him next time; and there are some guest musicians too.

Track 1 on Side 1 Is “Talking Of The End”. This is a Williamson composition and lasts 5.28 minutes. It is a…

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Pink Floyd – “Animals” (2)

Pink Floyd – “Animals” (2)

Pink Floyd and the Incredible String Band.

Pink Floyd.

There are only 5 tracks on the LP, 2 on Side 1 and 3 on Side 2.  Moreover, the first and last tracks on the album are Parts 1 and 2 of the same short, and on this record uniquely acoustic, songs, where again similarly uniquely Roger Waters sings with his “soft” voice.

The inner sleeve has the Side 1 lyrics printed on one side and the Side 2…

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Incredible String Band - "Liquid Acrobat..."

Incredible String Band – “Liquid Acrobat…”

Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.

The Incredible String Band.

The full title of this splendid 1971 LP by the ISB is “Liquid Acrobat As Regards The Air”, but this is the first and last time I shall refer to that full title.

This is its front cover:

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Pink Floyd - "Animals" (1)

Pink Floyd – “Animals” (1)

Pink Floyd and the Incredible String Band.

Pink Floyd.

“Animals” is the third and final album in the band’s classic trilogy, which marked for ever the zenith of their recorded output; and it is a very good LP indeed.  In my humble view, it is actually the best of the three.  It really is pure, unmitigated, absolute ecstatic joy to listen to from beginning to end.

There are only 5 tracks on the…

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Incredible String Band – “U” 6

Incredible String Band – “U” 6

Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.

The Incredible String Band.

Side 4 has just 3 tracks, all of which are completely different, and all of which are absolutely brilliant.

Track 1 is “Cutting The Strings”  (5.03 minutes).  It is a typically weird Williamson composition with a really eerie start, but goes on to be quite rousing.  It is one of the most cheering and uplifting songs I have…

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21 June 2020

Ah, and once more the nights start drawing in again.

In memory of Tim Hart deceased.

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Pink Floyd – “Wish You Were Here” (3)

Pink Floyd – “Wish You Were Here” (3)

Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.

Pink Floyd.

Track 2 on Side 2 is the Title Track “Wish You Were Here”.  It is a genuinely sentimental song, a Waters/Gilmour composition, and really classic Pink Floyd.  It is soft and gentle, and these lyrics give you a feel for the ambience of the track:

“We’re just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,

Running over the same old…

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Incredible String Band – “U” 5

Incredible String Band – “U” 5

Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.

The Incredible String Band.

This is a post very special indeed to me, as it starts by talking about Track 5, the final track, on Side 3.  This is a Williamson composition called “Puppet Song”, lasting 6.15 minutes, on which Robin is the sole performer, singing and playing guitar.  It is very special to me, as it was the first ISB track I ever heard.  I…

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Pink Floyd – “Wish You Were Here” (2)

Pink Floyd – “Wish You Were Here” (2)

Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.

Pink Floyd.

There are effectively three songs on Side 2 of the LP, the first of which is a Waters’ composition called “Have a Cigar”.  This neatly follows the previous track, the last one on Side 1, “Welcome To The Machine” [see last Pink Floyd post], in that it is very much about the world of the music business, at least as it was in 1967 when the band…

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Incredible String Band – “U” 4

Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.

The Incredible String Band.

Track 2 on Side 3 is an instrumental called “Astral Plane Theme” (4.55 minutes).  It is a Williamson composition, and he is the sole performer on it, playing one instrument only, guitar.  This is a truly remarkable tour de force.  It encompasses a huge variety of different styles, including bursts of flamenco, and is delivered…

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Pink Floyd - "Wish You Were Here" (1)

Pink Floyd – “Wish You Were Here” (1)

Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.

Pink Floyd.

This LP is a thinly veiled tribute to the late Syd Barrett, who was still very much alive when the record was being made, and indeed sat in on some of the recording sessions.  He was the main man in the original line up, which only made one and a bit LPs [see above].

Side 1 is almost wholly taken up with Parts 1 – 5 of the main theme, a piece…

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Incredible String Band – “U” 3

Incredible String Band – “U” 3

Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.

The Incredible String Band.

As was noted in the last ISB post, this is a remarkably long album, and almost certainly the “best value” full price album I have ever bought.

Anyway, we now get to Side 2, which kicks off with a brilliant instrumental called “Partial Belated Overture” (2.54 minutes), composed by Mike, who plays piano and [electric] guitar. …

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Pink Floyd – “The Dark Side Of The Moon” (3)

Pink Floyd – “The Dark Side Of The Moon” (3)

Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.

Pink Floyd.

The second side is one long track.  It really is impossible on the LP (but not of course the CD) to determine exactly where one track ends and the next begins, except of course for the start of the first track and the end of the last one.  There is also a lot of that mumbling I mentioned earlier, but I now see that all this adds to the…

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Incredible String Band – “U” 2

Incredible String Band – “U” 2

Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.

The Incredible String Band.

This was one of the first full price albums I ever bought,  the third I think after “Liege & Lief” by Fairport Convention and “Alchemy” by the Third Ear Band, and I bought it almost exactly 49 years ago, after Christmas 1970 but before New Year’s Day 1971.

I had heard the track “Puppet Song” on the radio, the first Incredible…

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Pink Floyd – “The Dark Side Of The Moon” (2)

Pink Floyd – “The Dark Side Of The Moon” (2)

Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.

Pink Floyd.

There are two odd things about this LP.  The first is that it is liberally peppered with snatches of almost completely unintelligible spoken interludes.  The second is that on both sides of the record, the tracks seamlessly elide into each other, so that you can’t tell where one ends and the next one begins; with one arguable exception.

Track…