The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter

The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter

Track Listings

1. Koeeoaddi There

2. Minotaur's Song

3. Witches Hat

4. Very Cellular Song

5. Mercy I Cry City

6. Waltz of the New Moon

7. Water Song

8. Three Is a Green Crown

9. Swift as the Wind

10. Nightfall

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Credited with being the first artists to fuse folk and psychedelic sensibilities, the Incredible String Band benefited from having two very complementary frontmen. Robin Williamson and Mike Heron were also extremely versatile musicians, as this, their third album, indicates: he two of them play 17 instruments here, including harpsichord, water harp, sitar, and oud. While Hangman's is a fascinating record dense with exotic rhythms and instrumentation, it also suffers in spots from the airy excesses of its creators. --Steven Stolder

The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter,The Incredible String Band,Hannibal,British Folk,British Folk-Rock,Folk & Traditional,Folk-Rock,Pop,Psychedelic,Rock

5000 Spirits / Hangman's Beautiful Daughter
Average customer rating:

2 psychedelic classics

diggin it

Two most important albums. Toghether for the first time

Double Magic !!!!

Damn hippies...

5000 Spirits / Hangman's Beautiful Daughter
Incredible String Band
Manufacturer: Collector's Choice
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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British Folk | Traditional British & Celtic Folk | Folk | Styles | Music
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Wee Tam / Big Huge

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Be Glad for the Song Has No Ending

Liege & Lief

ASIN: B00006BC4Z
Release Date: 2002-08-13

Tracks:

Chinese White
No Sleep Blues
Painting Box
The Mad Hatter's Song
Little Cloud
The Eyes of Fate
Blues for the Muse
The Hedgehogs' Song
First Girl I loved
You Know What You Could Be
My Name is Death
Gently Tender
Way Back in the 1960's

Tracks:

Koeeoaddi There
The Minotaur's Song
Witches Hat
A Very Cellular Song
Mercy I Cry City
Waltz Of The New Moon
The Water Song
Three Is A Green Crown
Swift As The Wind
Nightfall

Album Description

2CD set combines '5000 Spirits Or The Layers Of The Onion' with 'The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter'. Highlights include 'Chinese White', 'No Sleep Blues' and 'Nightfall.' Originally released in 1967 & 1968.

Customer Reviews:

2 psychedelic classics.......2005-12-29

Of the ISB's dozen or so albums released between 1966 and 1974, 5000 Spirits and Hangman's Beautiful Daughter rank as the two most essential, if not the most accessible (5000 Spirits is more accessible than Hangman, and that's saying something, anyway). Psychedelic silliness aside--and I'll admit it took me some time before I completely warmed to The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter (I had to rediscover Robin Williamson through his more recent work to really "get" what the Incredibles were about)--these are real classics of the period, and have stood the test of time far better than many other psychedelic albums.

The Incredible String Band have often been called the "first world music band," and given that they beat Kaleidoscope (whose most famous member is David Lindley) to the punch with their first LP by a year (the ISB's eponymous debut appeared in 1966, while Side Trips, the first Kaleidoscope album, hit the racks in '67), this claim is not exaggerated. Nor is it unjustified--there are many styles and instruments represented across the band's albums; you can hear sitars and Moroccan bowed gimbri on these tracks, along with raga, Balkan and Middle Eastern stylings. Later albums would feature the group steering a bit more toward their Celtic roots, but here, you can see the flags of many nations flying colourfully throughout the music. Personal favourites for me include "Chinese White," "No Sleep Blues," "Little Cloud," "The Hedgehog's Song," "Painting Box" and "First Girl I Loved" on 5000 Spirits; then "Koeeoaddi There," "The Minotaur's Song" (for the sheer silliness of it), "A Very Cellular Song," "Mercy I Cry City," "Three is a Green Crown" and "Swift as the Wind" on Hangman's Beautiful Daughter.

And I must disagree strongly with the reviewer who said that Robin Williamson's more recent work is that of a minstrel--that's most disingenuous. Williamson is a *bard*, thank you very much (he's even an honourary member of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids). It is my fond hope that he'll eventually return to the U.S. and tour here; that's one show I'd gladly pay admission for.

diggin it.......2005-09-24

I am what you would call a newbie to the string band, and a newbie to english folk rock in general. but i am really diggin it. it's zany, psychadelic and folky all at once. there really is no other sound like this. it's like a bunch of minstrels strung out on drugs.

Two most important albums. Toghether for the first time.......2005-06-02

`The 5000 Spirits or The Layers of the Onion' (5000 Spirits) and `The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter' (Daughter) by The Incredible String Band (TISB) in a single package gives you the opportunity to get the two albums which put this band on the 1960's musical map.

The easiest way to point out the company this band was in is to cite a 1968 newspaper review of the `5000 Spirits' album which compared it favorably to the very summit of pop music at that time, the Beatle's epochal `Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'. On the one hand, there is no question in my mind that this album is NOT as good as `Sergeant Pepper...'. And yet, we are still listening to both albums today.

`The 5000 Spirits or The Layers of the Onion' and that review was strong enough for me to look out for the TISB's next album (Daughter) and I was appropriately rewarded when I first heard this work on vinyl about 35 years ago. For starters, it simply hangs together much better than the earlier album. `5000 Spirits' seems to be just a collection of imaginative songs, most of that are probably considered `novelty songs'. `Daughter' is tied together by several parallel themes, the most important of which is linked to the album title and consists of stories admonitions, and entertainment's for an adolescent girl. The second theme running though most of the songs is the classic ancient elements of earth, air, fire, and water.

Oddly enough, these are TISB's second and third albums. The first presented the group as a trio of men, which slimmed down to just Williamson and Heron for the second album, to grow to the pair of men plus a healthy chorus of women and children backing them up on all sorts of oldish instruments.

The very best thing about these old albums is that they are so much better than the material Williamson and Heron are doing today. Williamson has largely become the traveling minstrel of Medieval days whose material he transformed into highly original songs for a decade, starting in the late 1960's. It is also appropriate to see these and other albums released in pairs, as TISB did more than their share of double albums, starting with their next release, `Wee Tam & The Big Huge' which puzzled me when they were simultaneously released by Elektra in 1968 as two different albums.

See my reviews of the individual albums for more details.

Listen and enjoy, Listen and enjoy...

Double Magic !!!!.......2004-03-30

I have these records in single cd's, but having this double is double magic!!
These works (specially Hangman's...) fulfilled my life over eight years ago, when I finally found it on cd. The Incredibles are so unique, a lot of people trying to imitate them with fabulous and theatrical worlds, but this mysticism is in many ways the most sincere, with that naif flavour and gayness and pure "joie de vivre"...
"The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter" it's a kind of an Ancient Magic Compendium...also one of the most brilliant records of the sixties...to me in a very high place...
I love them, Robin and Mike and the childish girls Licky and Rosie...I bound to them...

Damn hippies..........2004-03-20

Like Pentangle on acid. Way too much acid, and without the girl singer most of the time. Makes Donovan sound like Johnny Cash. In some ways, these guys' talents were better used as sidemen on Shirley and Dolly Collins' record The Power of the True Love Knot. They really can play, but, my god, the singing...the songs...although sometimes it's so psychedelically ridiculous, so over the top, so shameless it's kinda fun...kinda...if you have a very high tolerance for this sort of thing...

Average customer rating:

This does nothing for me
A ONE-OF-A-KIND GROUP
The definitive TISB album. Buy It!!
Adorable
haunted

The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter
The Incredible String Band
Manufacturer: Hannibal
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

British Folk | Traditional British & Celtic Folk | Folk | Styles | Music

General | Folk | Styles | Music

Traditional Folk | Folk | Styles | Music

Folk Rock | Rock | Styles | Music

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Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

Hannibal Records | Amazon.com Label Stores | Stores | Music

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The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion
Wee Tam / Big Huge
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Liege & Lief
The United States of America

ASIN: B000000645
Release Date: 1994-05-16

Tracks:

Koeeoaddi There
Minotaur's Song
Witches Hat
Very Cellular Song
Mercy I Cry City
Waltz of the New Moon
Water Song
Three Is a Green Crown
Swift as the Wind
Nightfall

Amazon.com

Credited with being the first artists to fuse folk and psychedelic sensibilities, the Incredible String Band benefited from having two very complementary frontmen. Robin Williamson and Mike Heron were also extremely versatile musicians, as this, their third album, indicates: he two of them play 17 instruments here, including harpsichord, water harp, sitar, and oud. While Hangman's is a fascinating record dense with exotic rhythms and instrumentation, it also suffers in spots from the airy excesses of its creators. --Steven Stolder

Album Description

Credited with being the first artists to fuse folk and psychedelic sensibilities, the Incredible String Band benefited from having two very complementary frontmen Robin Williamson and Mike Heron. Includes the songs 'Witches Hat' and 'A Very Cellular Song'. Warner. 2006.

Customer Reviews:

This does nothing for me.......2006-09-16

In the world of English folk, this is supposed to be a landmark album. I like Steleye Span, Richard Thompson, Nick Drake and the Strawbs but I do not like this. It is too weird and has nothing in common with conventional popular music.

This is way too English, way too folkie (in a middle ages/minstrel way!) and not aligned with any aspect of conventional rock and roll. I listened to it once, put it away and have not touched it in 5 years.

You know when you go to one of those "Renaissance fairs", drink and have a great time. This is for the eccentric people that act in the Renaissance fairs.

A ONE-OF-A-KIND GROUP.......2006-06-24

Although this is not my very favorite ISB album, Hermester Barrington has described in his review of this CD, and in a delightfully creative way, the music contained in the entire Incredible String Band catalog. This may indeed be one of the best in an unbroken string of fabulous works, but I believe that each Incredible String Band lover's sentimental favorite is whichever album they heard first (my first exposure was to WEE TAM & THE BIG HUGE; it remains an all-time favorite, rivaled only by the band's later, very different album, LIQUID ACROBAT AS REGARDS THE AIR). Reading the other reviews of THE HANGMAN'S BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER, I can only nod my head in agreement with most of what has been said. This album IS one of the definitive ones, but I should add that it is but one stop on a long, artistically successful journey that includes virtually no aberrations, and which is rich with unexpected twists and turns on and off an unpaved path. No other group of artists has been more independent of trends, fads or commercial considerations. Although the group might be lumped in with Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention and Pentangle, if it must be categorized, it is really almost an entire genre unto itself, with the aforementioned groups, as great as they are, much more conventional in both material and musical approach. Even when ISB made later forays into rock, pop and country, they did so, it seems, only to expand their palette of colors, growing and developing according to their own peculiar and beautiful vision. HARD ROPE & SILKEN TWINE, in my opinion, is at least as good as their self-titled debut recording (I actually like the later one much better; and come to think of it, the first record may be their weakest) and we are talking several years separating the two. I would not necessarily recommend HANGMAN as a place to start for beginners, as it is one of ISB's most musically and lyrically challenging efforts, but I could easily be wrong, as other reviewers fell in love with the band because they first heard this record...

The definitive TISB album. Buy It!!.......2005-06-02

`The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter' (Daughter) by The Incredible String Band (TISB) is the album which established my affection for their music. I first became aware of the act with a newspaper review of `The 5000 Spirits or The Layers of the Onion' (5000 Spirits) which compared the album favorably to `Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'. See my review of this album for my full assessment of this album, but rest assured I do not agree that this album is in the same league as one of the most important music albums of the 1960's.

`The 5000 Spirits or The Layers of the Onion' and that review was strong enough for me to look out for the TISB's next album (this one) and I was appropriately rewarded when I first heard this work on vinyl about 35 years ago. For starters, it simply hangs together much better than the earlier album. `5000 Spirits' seems to be just a collection of imaginative songs, most of that are probably considered `novelty songs'. `Daughter' is tied together by several parallel themes, the most important of which is linked to the album title and consists of stories admonitions, and entertainment's for an adolescent girl. The second theme running though most of the songs is the classic ancient elements of earth, air, fire, and water.

Many of the songs on `Daughter' still have the novelty flavor about them, but are ennobled by their role as children's entertainment. The centerpiece `entertainment' is the song I committed to memory way back then, `The Minotaur's Song', which is a classic TISB blend of myth and (Gilbert and Sullivan) parody, including references to `the earth', in keeping with the four elements theme. If it were not for the reference to Gilbert and Sullivan and the song based on microbiology (`A Very Cellular Song'), one can almost imaging these songs being written by traveling minstrels out in the hinterlands in a squire's manor house before the advent of either gas or electric light.

In fact, one theme which seems to run through much of the TISB work is the notion of homemade entertainment, based on the beatnik / hippie culture of 1960s.

The Incredible String Band does much that is very good in later albums, but this is the one I always think of first when I come back to listening to them about once every year. This is the album that captures their style, subjects, and themes much better than the highly praised earlier album.

If you are roaming around recordings of obscure 1960's Scottish performers, this is the album to try if you have an interest in The Incredible String Band!

Adorable.......2005-01-12

They don't make them like this anymore! 'The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter' is a great 60's album filled with a creative openness, authentic feeling and an unrestrained experimentation.

The opening track 'Koeeoaddi There' encapsulates all of these qualities. Williamson tells an evocative tale of childhood, backed with melodic, inventive chord and tempo changes. 'The Minotour's Song' is a startling contrast of music hall and greek mtyhological lyrics, highlighting the ISB's influences. 'Witch's Hat' has a beautiful folk melody, again the song structure packed with incident. Mike Heron's 'A Very Cellular Song' begins as an old gospel hymn before it travels the world in its wonderful array of instruments, an early bridge between western music and world music in general. Heron's Dylanesque 'Mercy I Cry City' is a poetic rant against the unnatural prison of the urban landscape. 'Waltz Of The New Moon' harks back again to the Romantic poets in its ode to the wonders of the natural landscape. Here the harp sound is at once lilting and glorious. Like 'A Very Cellular Song', 'The Water Song' sings a hymn to the evolutionary power of the natural world using strange and unusual instruments to create the onomatopoeic sounds of water. The most Eastern-tinged of the tracks on the album is 'There Is A Green Crown' telling another tale of natural wonder that I can't help thinking would be frowned upon and scorned in today's irony-laden culture. On 'Swift As The Wind' Heron tells of how the grown-ups around him tried to make him give up his childhood imagination, something that has obviously remained with him throughout his musical career.

Williamson's 'Nightfall' closes this adorable album mixing Eastern sounds with the American south, prefiguring Ry Cooder by a number of years.

haunted.......2004-12-28

This album has haunetd me for 35 years. If your mind is open you will be rejoicing..if its not been opened do not pass this offering.

Average customer rating:

The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter
Viola Peacock
Manufacturer: Bedazzled
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Indie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Dream Pop | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

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ASIN: B000001M01
Release Date: 1996-08-12

Tracks:

The Big Slip
An Angel A Week
February
The City Behind Us
Burnt
Gael
Chemical Babies
Downtime
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Average customer rating:

Hangman's Beautiful Daughter
The Incredible String Band
Manufacturer: Universal
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

British Folk | Traditional British & Celtic Folk | Folk | Styles | Music

General | Folk | Styles | Music

Folk Rock | Rock | Styles | Music

Psychedelic Rock | Classic Rock | Styles | Music

Folk | Imports | Stores | Music
ASIN: B000GALE22
Release Date: 2006-09-04

Tracks:

Koeeoaddi There
Minotaur's Song
Witches Hat
Very Cellular Song
Mercy I Cry City
Waltz Of The New Moon
Water Song
Three Is A Green Crown
Swift As The Wind
Nightfall

Album Description

Limited Edition digitally remastered Japanese pressing of this 1968 album comes housed in a miniature LP sleeve featuring one bonus track. 2006.

Album Details

Japanese Digitally Remastered Limited Edition Issue of the Album Classic in a Deluxe, Miniaturized LP Sleeve Replica of the Original Vinyl Album Artwork.