Incredible [Import]

Track Listings

1. Incredible

2. God Bless

3. He Said

4. In The Morning

5. Ordinary People

6. Trouble Ain't

7. Little Girl

8. This Love

9. I Try

10. Hold On

11. God Has Smiled On Me

12. You Will Know

13. So Close

14. Thank You

15. Give It Up Let It Go

Editorial Reviews
Product Description
Includes Bonus Track "Happy", Not on the USA Version.

Incredible,Mary Mary,Sony,R&B/Soul

Incredible [Import]

Tracks:

Heard It Through The Grapevine - Marvin Gaye
Respect - Aretha Franklin
Four Tops - I Can't Help Myself
Stop! In The Name Of Love - The Supremes
In The Midnight Hour - Wilson Pickett
(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher - Jackie Wilson
Rescue Me - Fontella Bass
Soul Man - Sam
Sweet Soul Music - Arthur Conley
But It's Alright - J.J. Jackson
Try A Little Tenderness - Otis Redding
Green Onions - The MG's
Knock On Wood - Eddie Floyd
Mustang Sally - Wilson Pickett
Under The Boardwalk - The Drifters
What'd I Say (Part 1) - Ray Charles

Tracks:

Stand By Me - Ben E. King
Midnight Train To Georgia - Gladys Knight
Let's Stay Together - Al Green
Me And Mrs. Jones - Billy Paul
When A Man Loves A Woman - Percy Sledge
Tell It Like It Is - Aaron Neville
Rainy Night In Georgia - Brook Benton
(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay - Otis Redding
A Natural Woman (You Make Me Feel Like) - Aretha Franklin
I'll Be Around - Spinners
Show And Tell - Al Wilson
Oh Girl - The Chi-Lites
You Are Everything - The Stylistics
La-La-Means I Love You - The Delfonics
Love On A Two-Way Street - The Moments
Love Won't Let Me Wait - Major Harris

Album Description

The Incredible Soul Collection mines 32 definitive tracks, including #1 pop & R&B classics from Al Green, Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight, and Aretha Franklin. Slipcase. Rhino 2003.

Customer Reviews:

The Incredible Soul Collection.......2007-07-27

This collection did not disappoint. It was a lot of fun to listen to these songs and it livened up our party!

Incredible Soul Indeed!!.......2007-06-27

I have always enjoyed the pure rush I feel when listening to the great hits of Motown, and this CD set is one of the best.
I actually asked for this set as a Christmas gift & enjoyed it so much that I ordered the same CD's for a good friend of mine.
The collection of songs is outstanding and makes road trips or just an afternoon of kicking back an absolute blast.

Super Soul.......2007-03-09

This CD has a super anthology of songs that you loved from the 60's & 70's, all the great artists, Marvin Gaye, the Commodores, Otis Redding, the Supremes, Aretha. If you like the Motown Sound, this is a great collection.

Great CD!!!.......2006-08-25

I love this CD. It has so many of the songs I love all on one CD. It is great!

Great Collection of 60's and 70's Soul .......2006-06-01

The Incredible Soul Collection is an awesome 2-CD collection of some of the best songs from the 60's and 70's. Aretha, Marvin, Ray, Otis, Sam & Dave, and Gladys Knight and the Pips are just a few of the great artists on this collection.

This set is great to put in on a long drive, or on a lazy weekend afternoon. It makes you nostalgic and wistful on one hand, and grateful on the other hand that this music still lives and breathes in the hearts and minds of those of us who first experienced it so long ago.

The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery

Average customer rating:

5 Star - No Brainer!
Must have for Wes Montgomery fans
Wes: Great player and composer
So Sweet
The Best Wes

The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery
Wes Montgomery
Manufacturer: Ojc
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Bebop General | Bebop | Jazz | Styles | Music

Hard Bop | Bebop | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

Soul-Jazz & Boogaloo | Jazz | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Midnight Blue
Smokin' at the Half Note
Virtuoso (20 Bit Mastering)
Boss Guitar
Idle Moments

ASIN: B000000Y27
Release Date: 1991-07-01

Tracks:

Airegin
D-Natural Blues
Polka Dots And Moonbeams
Four On Six
West Coast Blues
In Your Own Sweet Way
Mr. Walker (Renie)
Gone With The Wind

Amazon.com

This 1960 record solidified Montgomery's reputation as the most important jazz guitarist to emerge since Charlie Christian in the 1930s. His two most-distinguishing traits---the mellow thumb-picking approach and the soft and round use of octaves--are in full bloom here. Montgomery tackles two standards, one tune each from Sonny Rollins and Dave Brubeck, plus four originals, including the classics "West Coast Blues" and "Four on Six." His solos are remarkably fluid and melodic while still capturing the essence of the blues idiom. He achieves a near-perfect balance of technique and emotion. On "Polka Dots and Moonbeams," his approach is unhurried and delicate; on the original "Mr. Walker," he produces lengthy, bop-inspired runs without ever losing control. Tommy Flanagan's gracefully understated piano proves a perfect match. Rather than compete with horn players and their styles, Montgomery relished the distinct and unique qualities of the guitar. --Marc Greilsamer

Album Details

Part of the 'masters of Jazz: The History Series 1949-1969'. 20 Bit Digitally Remastered.

Customer Reviews:

5 Star - No Brainer! .......2007-06-26

I challenge people to turn off the lights, pop this one on, lay down on your bed and really focus and concentrate on that guitar playing of Mr. Montgomery. You will be mesmerized. For it's beyond amazing! This is one recording a jazz guitar player doesn't want to miss. However, any fan of the guitar, no matter what your favorite category of music may be, will still thoroughly enjoy listening to this legend. The man was arguably the greatest jazz guitarist ever. He is my personal favorite among many favorites (i.e. Grant Green, Kenny Burrell, Joe Pass, Django Reinhardt, Charlie Christian, Jim Hall, Pat Metheny, et al... et al...). Out of all of the many great Wes Montgomery recordings I would put this one, along with "Smokin' at the Half Note", as my all-time most revered.

As Ralph J. Gleason, a very highly respected jazz writer, was quoted as saying in the original liner notes: "He (Montgomery) has the electric quality, that special gift of making whatever he does come alive, that marks the true artist. He has terrific swing, the ability to build solos dramatically (and) beautifully climax after climax, and everything he plays has a sense of rightness about it."

And what really makes this one even extra special is the trio behind Wes, backing him up are - Tommy Flanagan on piano, Percy Heath on bass, and his brother Albert Heath on drums. The swinging trio plays loose and always in perfect flow, each one of them turning in terrific performances. This is a definite must own for every fan of jazz out there. As you can see, the Amazon reviewers have spoken (as of today, this will be review #43) and it is rightfully holding a five-star status. I can't believe anyone would give this less.

Must have for Wes Montgomery fans.......2007-05-12

This was my first Wes Montgomery CD, I listened to it for years, it was then stolen from me, but I still remember the sounds on the recording now. I will definitely but the tracks again. This CD shows what Wes Montgomery is all about, all the different elements in his playing are showcased and each track is enjoyable and intriging to listen to.

Wes: Great player and composer.......2006-12-31

Wes Montgomery is the father of modern jazz guitar. His style sounds fresh today. But, he also composed some incredibly catchy tunes in this hard-bop style. "D-Natural Blues", "Mr. Walker", "West Coast Blues", and my favorite "Four-on-Six",have all become standards and are played here with elegance, logic and a tremendous sense of swing. You'll never tire of this great music.

So Sweet.......2006-11-05

Reminds me of those late, after-hour joints in Chicago when I was living a happy, smokey jazz lush life in that great city. It's three in the morning, the music jumps, every foot is tapping to his sweet, solid sound and I'm young again. And what a great time Wes and his fellows are having -- Tommy Flanagan on piano, Percy Heath bass and Albert Heath on drums. A perfect mix of exceptional talent and chemistry. For you newcomers, pay attention -- this is music!

The Best Wes.......2006-10-28

Years ago I had read in a jazz magazine how some top jazz guitarists were influenced by this album, so wanting to find out more about Wes I bought it. This was also my first Wes album(CD), and I was blown away!
All I had heard before was some of his more "pop styled"songs. I started buying a lot of him, but I still don't think there's a better one. Every song is great, the band is great, and I like the sound of his guitar better than a lot of his others. This is got to be in the top ten of all guitar records! In my opinion, an essential jazz recording.

Average customer rating:

Great Sampling Collection
Six Decades of Film Music
Excellent collection with fine performances
"essential film scores from 1939 to 2004 ~ Incredible Music"

The Incredible Film Music Box

Manufacturer: Silva America
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Romantic (c.1820-1910) | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Italian | Languages | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Movie Scores | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

Movie Soundtracks | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

Star Wars | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

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Classic Big Band | Swing Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music
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ASIN: B0007S687Y
Release Date: 2005-05-10

Tracks:

Gone With The Wind: Overture
Citizen Kane: Overture
Casablanca: As Time Goes By
It's A Wonderful Life: It's A Wonderful Life
The Third Man: The Harry Lime Theme
The Searchers: Suite
The Bridge On The River Kwai: Colonel Bogey March
Vertigo: Prelude
Touch Of Evil: Main Title
Ben-Hur: Parade Of The Charioteers
North By Northwest: Prelude
Psycho: Suite
The Magnificent Seven: The Magnificent Seven
Lawrence Of Arabia: Overture

Tracks:

To Kill A Mockingbird: Suite
The Great Escape: Main Title
Doctor Zhivago: Main Title & Lara's Theme
The Good, The Bad And The Ugly: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
Once Upon A Time In The West: Jill's Theme
2001: A Space Odyssey: Also Sprach Zarathustra
Midnight Cowboy: Midnight Cowboy
Get Carter: Main Title
A Clockwork Orange: Ode To Joy
The Godfather: Waltz & Love Theme
Jaws: Jaws
Rocky: Gonna Fly Now
Taxi Driver: Suite
Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope

Tracks:

Superman: Main Theme
Alien: End Title
Raging Bull: Intermezzo From Cavalleria Rusticana
Raiders Of The Lost Ark: Raiders March
Blade Runner: End Titles
E.T.: The Extraterrestrial: Adventures On Earth
Once Upon A Time In America: Deborah's Theme
Back To The Future: Main Theme
Witness: Building The Barn
Aliens: Main Title
Cinema Paradiso: Cinema Paradiso
Glory: Charging Frot Wagner
Dances With Wolves: The John Dunbar Theme
Unforgiven: Claudia's Theme

Tracks:

The Piano: The Heart Asks Pleasure First
Schindler's List: Main Theme
Braveheart: End Credits
Titanic: My Heart Will Go On
Saving Private Ryan: Hymn To The Fallen
American Beauty: Any Other Name
Gladiator: Now We Are Free
Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring: The Fellowship
The Girl With The Pearl Earring: Griet's Theme
Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl: Suite
Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban: Suite
Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events: The Letter That Never Came
Finding Neverland: Impossible Opening
The Incredibles: Overture

Customer Reviews:

Great Sampling Collection.......2007-07-29

Over the past thirty years, my father and I have been collecting film music on various formats--vinyl, tape, reel-to-reel, CD, recording it from the movie, even. This collection is a great starter for someone who wants to start owning movie music. Lots of big hitters, including Hermann, Barry, Conti, Mancini, and Goldsmith as well as some contemporary scores that are great, too. This is the type of collection I would make for a friend who asks "what scores should I start with?"

Six Decades of Film Music.......2007-05-13

This is film music for the classical music lover. The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra presents excellent arrangements of a number of classic film themes (although several pieces of the 56 film classics selected for this 4 CD set are not orchestral arrangements, but rather specialty arrangements). Besides great film composers such as John Williams, Elmer Bernstein, Ennio Morricone, and James Horner, classical composers such as Richard Strauss and Pietro Mascagni make an appearance. On several of the numbers the Crouch End Festival Chorus adds the human voice to the power of the full symphonic orchestra to create true movie magic. If you like the sound of a full symphony orchestra playing some of the most recognized themes ever written, you'll love these CDs.

Excellent collection with fine performances.......2007-03-28

Silva Screen Records, based in England, has been issuing some fine collections of film scores, more in one box than we have the right to expect. This four-CD box contains scores by many of the best writers, including Max Steiner, Bernard Herrmann, Dimitri Tomkin, Kenneth J. Alford (The Bridge on the River Kwai), Elmer Bernstein, Maurice Jarre, Ennio Marricone, John Barry, Nino Rota, John Williams, James Horner, and more. We can all think of additional film scores we wished were included, but then there's no way this collection could be all-inclusive. The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, supplemented by Crouch End Festival Chorus on some numbers, does a very competent job...The liner notes give the basic information without any commentary, and as far as I can see, contain only one error. Am I wrong or are tracks 9 and 10 on the fourth CD mislabeled? Track 9, which runs 7:33, seems to have the excitement of "Pirates of the Caribbean" (which I did not see) and track 10, which runs 4:22, the more sedate "The Girl with the Pearl Earring (which I also did not see). Listings seem to have them reversed.

"essential film scores from 1939 to 2004 ~ Incredible Music".......2005-05-16

When I think of the "Golden Age" of Hollywood, many composers come to mind...you gave the usher your ticket in the theater and sat down, knowingly you were going to get your moneys worth...when the curtain opened and you heard those first few notes...you sat back, watched and listened as the film score and orchestra worked their magic...now we have the ultimate from Silva Screen Classics "The Incredible Film Music Box", featuring a four disc set of the essential film scores of the past 60 years...covering several decades from 1939 through and up to the present 2004

There are compilations and then there are "Compilations" beginning with a classic that even the youngsters today recognize "GONE WITH THE WIND" (1939) (Max Steiner), sweeping score that captures the tragic history of the South during the Civil War, one great cue after another, it doesn't get any better than this, nominated by the Academy for Best Original Score...and closing on Disc 4 with "THE INCREDIBLES" (2004) (Michael Giacchino), the big hit in computer animation from Walt Disney & Pixar that once again pit Super-Heroes against the forces of evil...our family of five Supers prove crime doesn't pay, but box-office receipts do...gotta love it!

Silva Screen Classics as usual, has put quality into this 4-CD-Set featuring The City Of Prague Philarmonic Orchestra and the Crouch End Festival Chorus conducted by Kenneth Alwyn, Bill Ashton, Paul Bateman, James Fitzpatrick, Mario Klemens, Derek Wadsworth, and Nic Raine. Recorded in "Dolby Surround" with the new technology of "HDCD", this is a "film-score-buffs" dream, one to treasure now and years to come.

Some selections are missing, but when you think of what Silva has included, it is impossible to please everyone...was happy to see "TOUCH OF EVIL" (1958) from composer Henry Mancini, as I feel this composer deserves all the recognition that has been overlooked recently in the music world...This collection is aimed directly at the "Serious Film Score" music fans and collectors...Silva is as always, perfect in every way...just the way we like 'em!

Total Time: 4-CD-Set ~ Silva America 1181 ~ (5/10/2005)

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
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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

General | Folk | Styles | Music

Folk Rock | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Psychedelic Rock | Classic Rock | Styles | Music

Folk | Imports | Stores | Music

Rock | Imports | Stores | Music
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The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion
Wee Tam / Big Huge
U
Liege & Lief
The United States of America

ASIN: B0000263JN
Release Date: 2006-02-28

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:

Two tracks I really like
Quantity Over Quality
Mediocre
One Hundred Greatest TV Themes
Pretty close to original recordings

One Hundred Greatest TV Themes

Manufacturer: Silva America
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Movie Scores | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

Movie Soundtracks | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

Television Soundtracks | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

Star Trek | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

General | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

Marches | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music

General | Vocal Pop | Pop | Styles | Music

General | Soundtracks | Indie Music | Stores | Music
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All-Time Top 100 TV Themes
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ASIN: B00005Y49F
Release Date: 2002-08-27

Tracks:

The A-Team - Nic Raine
The Addams Family - Nic Raine
The Adventures Of Robinson Crusoe - Nic Raine
Airwolf - Derek Wadsworth
The Avengers - Mike Townend
Barnaby Jones - Jerry Goldsmith
Batman - Nic Raine
Battlestar Galactica - Nic Raine
Baywatch - Derek Wadsworth
Beverly Hills 90210 - Derek Wadsworth
Bewitched - Nic Raine
Between The Lines - Mark Ayres
The Bill - Nic Raine
Bonanza - The Philharmonia Orchestra
Brideshead Revisited - Derek Wadsworth
Buck Rogers In The 25th Century - Nic Raine
Burke's Law - Derek Wadsworth
Cagney And Lacey - Derek Wadsworth
Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons - Mark Ayres
Casualty - Mark Ayres
Cheers - Mark Ayres
Dallas - Nic Raine
Dangerman (Secret Agent) - Mike Townend
Doctor Who - Mark Ayres
Doctor Kildare - Jerry Goldsmith

Tracks:

Doogie Howser, M.D. - Derek Wadsworth
Dynasty - Nic Raine
The Equalizer - Derek Wadsworth
Falcon Crest - Derek Wadsworth
Fireball XL-5 - Derek Wadsworth
The Fugitive - Nic Raine
Hawaii 5-0 - Mike Townend
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys - Nic Raine
The High Chaparral - Nic Raine
Highway To Heaven - Derek Wadsworth
Hill Street Blues - Derek Wadsworth
The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy - Mark Ayres
The Incredible Hulk - Derek Wadsworth
Jason King - Mike Townend
Jesus Of Nazareth - Paul Bateman
Joe 90 - Derek Wadsworth
Johnny Staccato - Derek Wadsworth
Knight Rider - Derek Wadsworth
Kojak - Mike Townend
L.A. Law - Derek Wadsworth
Land Of The Giants - Nic Raine
Little House On The Prairie - Derek Wadsworth
Lonesome Dove - Nic Raine
Lost In Space - Nic Raine
Lou Grant - Derek Wadsworth

Tracks:

Magnum, P.I. - Derek Wadsworth
A Man Called Ironside - Mike Townend
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. - Derek Wadsworth
M*A*S*H - Nic Raine
Miami Vice - Mark Ayres
Mike Hammer - Derek Wadsworth
Mission Impossible - Mike Townend
Monty Python's Flying Circus - Nic Raine
The Munsters - Derek Wadsworth
Murder She Wrote - Derek Wadsworth
Newhart - Derek Wadsworth
North And South - Derek Wadsworth
Northern Exposure - Derek Wadsworth
NYPD Blue - Mark Ayres
The Outer Limits - Nic Raine
Perry Mason - Mike Townend
The Persuaders - Mark Ayres
Peter Gunn - Mike Townend
Police Squad - Nic Raine
The Prisoner - Mike Townend
Quantum Leap - Derek Wadsworth
Randall And Hopkirk (Deceased) - Mike Townend
Red Dwarf - Mark Lambert
The Rockford Files - Mike Post
Roseanne - Dan Foliart

Tracks:

The Saint - Mike Townend
Seaquest DSV - Nic Raine
Space 1999 - Derek Wadsworth
Star Trek - Mike Townend
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Derek Wadsworth
Star Trek: Voyager - Nic Raine
St. Elsewhere - Derek Wadsworth
The Streets Of San Francisco - Nic Raine
Stingray - Barry Gray
Taxi - Derek Wadsworth
Thunderbirds - Derek Wadsworth
Thirty Something - Derek Wadsworth
The Time Tunnel - Nic Raine
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - The Philharmonia Orchestra
The Twighlight Zone - Nic Raine
Twin Peaks - Derek Wadsworth
U.F.O. - Derek Wadsworth
The Virginian - Nic Raine
Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea - Nic Raine
Wagon Train - Paul Bateman
The Waltons - Jerry Goldsmith
The Wild Wild West - Derek Wadsworth
Young Riders - John Debney
Xena: The Warrior Princess - Paul Bateman
The X-Files - Mark Ayres

Customer Reviews:

Two tracks I really like.......2007-07-21

The Mission Impossible theme is performed well.
The Fireball theme is actually much improved on this version. I prefer the orchestra and the vocals over the original.

Quantity Over Quality.......2007-01-15

As a musician myself, I know too well that one of the most important ingredients in ANY performance (live or recorded) is passion. The recordings here generally lack the same passion and sheer drama of the originals. Much of the instrumentation has been reduced to a cheezy, thin, plastic synthesized replica. The performances are simply a watered-down lackluster version of the classic originals. If it were not for the sheer volume of tracks compiled here, I would have rated the comp only "one star".

Mediocre.......2006-05-17

The sound quality for this collection isn't much better than the samples offered by Amazon.

One Hundred Greatest TV Themes.......2005-08-06

I have watched almost all the shows that are on these 4 cd's. Many were made before I started watching TV. Most I've seen once or twice before.

Pretty close to original recordings.......2005-07-24

Definitely not as good as the originals. You'll probably notice the slight differences since it's stuff you saw and listened to every week or everyday in reruns growing up, but it's still an amazing collection.

Average customer rating:

OFF THE CHAIN
Simply Incredible!
Yahoo's Launchcast Radio
Can it get any better?
Mary-Mary Rox my Sox!!!

Incredible
Mary Mary
Manufacturer: Sony
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Gospel | Christian & Gospel | Styles | Music

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Thankful MaryMary
Mary Mary
Kiss
Purified
Day by Day

ASIN: B000065V1U
Release Date: 2002-07-16

Tracks:

Incredible
God Bless
He Said
In The Morning
Ordinary People
Trouble Ain't
Little Girl
This Love
I Try
Hold On
God Has Smiled On Me
You Will Know
So Close
Thank You
Give It Up Let It Go

Amazon.com

On this follow-up to their groundbreaking debut, Thankful, Mary Mary continue their crusade to hip a new generation to the Gospel. Their gift for making the Word accessible to the masses has something to do with their secular R&B sound (with Warryn Campbell's knack for hip-hop beats adding that radio-ready feel). But there's a great deal more to these sisters than their ability to sound like Whitney or Mary J. Erica and Tina's phenomenally powerful voices are served and met admirably by their writing skills--resulting in some highly inspired yet street-credible material. "Give It Up Let It Go" has elements of funk (and sounds a bit like Nikka Costa's "Everybody Got Their Something"). "He Said" takes youth culture's apathetic "wherever, whatever" attitude and flips it, soaring to unexpected heights with the message that God will always be there for you, wherever you are and whatever happens. And the chorus of "In the Morning" is a particularly striking example of lyric and melody perfectly matched--the key change at phrase's end is a stroke of brilliance. Mary Mary can successfully cover Stevie and hang with Darkchild; this album is a testament to why. --Laura Etling

Customer Reviews:

OFF THE CHAIN.......2005-10-19

THIS CD IS BETTER THAN THE LAST CD AND LET ME TELL YOU THE LAST CD WAS OFF THE CAHIN. LIKE I SAID IN THE LAST REVIEW FOR MARY MARY. THEY ARE ONE OF THE BEST GOSPEL SINGER IN THE WORLD AND THIS ALBUM JUST PROVES THAT ONE THING. THERE IS NO ONE LIKE THEM. THESE SONGS THAT THEY COME UP WITH IS JUST AWESOME. THE BEATS ARE HOT. THIS IS A MUST HAVE. YOU ARE GETTING YOUR MONEYS WORTH. MARY MARY IS OFF THE CHAIN. AND EVERYBODY NEED TO HEARS THIS. RATHER YOU ARE A BELIEVER OR NOT YOU NEED TO HEAR IT. I PRAY THAT THIS REVIES WAS HELPFUL BUT LIKE I SAID THIS CD IS HOTT AND OFF THE CHAIN!!!!!!!!!!!

Simply Incredible!.......2005-09-22

i am usually very sceptical about christian albums and although i first heard the album through a friend, it was not long b4 i bought my own copy. one thing that i have always found lacking in gospel albums (personally) is a lack of artistic originality. i think because most gospel artists are good singers they don't put in a lot of work on the rest of their music (lyrics, production etc) but this album does all that. Not only are the lyrics of great quality and highly uplifting, the production and dark child are fantastic, and obviously the sisters are always excellent. All in all it makes for one of the best gospel albums i've ever heard and now i'm going to get all their other ones!

Top 5;
1.) Incredible
2.) So Close
3.) God Bless You
4.) You will know
5.) Trouble Ain't

Yahoo's Launchcast Radio.......2005-09-12

I think it is a wonderful CD, very uplifting and continues to draw me closer to God.

Can it get any better?.......2005-07-12

Mary Mary has the most soul-reaching lyrics I have ever heard. I explore so many different Christian artist. From gospel to contemporary, but no one ever touches my heart like their music. I feel that Heaven opens up when I hear their songs. It's like their singing everything I want to pray to God but don't know how to express it in words. This CD also touches on every emotion you go through as a Christian. It talks about the happy days and the down ones. I am so thankful to God for ministering in song through Mary Mary. I HIGHLY recommend anyone buying this CD. No matter what your music taste, I think you'll enjoy it.

Mary-Mary Rox my Sox!!!.......2005-06-15

They are soooooooo great. Their music has a good beat, and is very inspirational!!

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
Changing Horses / I Looked Up
U
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:

Bongorama
ONE OF THE GREATEST ALBUMS EVER
Full Of Breaks

Bongo Rock
Incredible Bongo Band
Manufacturer: Mr Bongo
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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What It Is! Funky Soul And Rare Grooves (1967-1977)
Sound of Silver
Cold Heat: Heavy Funk Rarities 1968-1974, Vol. 1
In My Own Time
Sound Grammar

ASIN: B000G1T072
Release Date: 2006-11-14

Tracks:

Apache
Let There Be Drums
Bongolia
Last Bongo in Belgium
Dueling Bongos
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
Raunchy '73
Bongo Rock
Kuburi, Pt. 1
Sing Sing Sing
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
Wipeout
When the Bed Breaks Down, I'll Meet You in the Spring
Pipeline
Okey Dokey
Sharp Nine
Hang Down Your Head, Tom Dooley Your Tie's Caught in Your Zipper
Apache [Grandmaster Flash Remix][*]
Last Bongo in Belgium [Breakers Mix][*]

Customer Reviews:

Bongorama.......2007-06-09

First heard this on a college radio station and thought it was a new re-mix club/dub mix that was the bomb. Scored it on Amazon only to find out it was the Original. Some cuts I think are great but the overall style is too repetitive with the bongo solos for all the songs. I think the purchase was worth it for Apache alone but many won't like the stylings of 70's funk with the Mancini like strings and the bongo flavorings. For collectors mostly.

ONE OF THE GREATEST ALBUMS EVER.......2007-01-27

FROM MICK JAGGER TO MARTIN SCORSESE THIS ALBUM HAS INSPIRED MORE PEOPLE THAN [PERHAPS] ANY EVER RECORDED. ALWAYS IMITATED , NEVER DUPLICATED THIS IS THE ONE.I AM SO HAPPY THAT IS FINALLY BACK IN RELEASE.

Full Of Breaks.......2006-11-14

The Incredible Bongo Band is probably not a band most people have heard of, but one of their songs, "Apache" is one of the most sampled songs in hip-hop especially by old school acts of the 80's. Run-DMC, LL Cool J, Nas, The Geto Boys, The Ultramagnetic MC's, Grandmaster Flash, KRS-One, Kool Moe Dee and countless others have used the drum break from the song (The Sugarhill Gang had a minor hit with "Apache Rap"). The group wasn't really a group at all, but a studio concoction of session players who were quickly assembled in 1972 to round out a soundtrack album (the less than memorable The Thing With Two Heads) with two tracks. Those two tracks, "Bongo Rock" & "Bongolia", led to the full-length album Bongo Rock and the follow-up Return Of The Incredible Bongo Band. If you are a fan of 70's style funk music, then this is an album for you, but mostly it is only notable for the breaks some of the songs provided.

The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion

Average customer rating:

If you let the pigs decide it, they will put you in the sty
Their Most Famous, but not their best. I still love it!
"I'm not the kind to complain.."
ONE OF 'THE' GROUNDBREAKING RECORDINGS OF THE 1960s
Groundbreaking Album From Incredible String Band

The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion
The Incredible String Band
Manufacturer: Wea/Warner
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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

General | Folk | Styles | Music

Folk Rock | Rock | Styles | Music

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Folk | Imports | Stores | Music
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The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter
Wee Tam / Big Huge
U
Be Glad for the Song Has No Ending
Be Glad for the Song Has No Ending/Liquid Acrobat as Regards the Air

ASIN: B000026G3D
Release Date: 2004-02-23

Tracks:

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

Amazon.com

Stone psychedelic freaks Robin Williamson and Mike Heron were two talented multi-instrumentalists who were eventually joined in the Incredible String Band by their earth-goddess lovers, Licorice and Rose. They tapped into the British Isles' centuries-old traditions of myths and folklore, updating the ancient sounds with inspired, multi-layered recordings and a modern twist that helped you envision fair maidens riding unicorns through green and fertile fields while simultaneously advocating better living through chemistry. Hell, the title alone of this, their second album, is more psychedelic than anything the Jefferson Airplane ever did. --Jim Derogatis

Album Description

Inside, 5000 Spirits is full of whimsical delights. It was produced by Robin Williamson and Mike Heron once they had returned from travels. Robin himself had managed to pick up a variety of different instruments in Morocco and they all seem to get in there somewhere. Clive Palmer who had started the String Band with Robin had gone off to Afghanistan and did not rejoin the others. 5000 Spirits was quite unlike anything else that was around at the time. Anyone expecting something like Disraeli Gears or Odessey & Oracle would have been surprised by what the String Band was offering. The fusion of folk, blues, psychedelia and, certainly what we now call World Music, gave 5000 Spirits a unique sound that has guaranteed a place in music history. Warner. 2003.

Customer Reviews:

If you let the pigs decide it, they will put you in the sty.......2006-09-10

This album sits at no. 2 in my list of the greatest albums ever made. It really is that good!I have been listening to this album regularly for nearly 40 years, ever since it came out, and have never tired of it. It has stood the test of time better than many better selling contemporaries for sure. There is no other album that I can say that about. I never tire of the stunning acoustic guitar work, or trying to fathom the meanings of the lyrics.Even the name of the album is brilliantly chosen. The 5000 sprirts, well yes it is very spiritual as is all good music, and looks at things from different spiritual perspectives. The Layers of the Onion, yes, it is a bit like pass the parcel. When you think you understand something, you find there is a whole new layer of meaning underneath, and even after 39 years I can't claimto have got to the bottom of it.OK some of the songs are easy. The whimsical ones, like Little Cloud and the Hedgehog Song, and obvious ones like Painting box and The first Girl I loved. But do you fully understand the Eyes of Fate or even Chinese White? I love The Mad Hatters Song, since it is very Christian, and I am a Christian. It even mentions Jesus. The First Girl I Loved seems a very personal song, and very beautiful, but one that I and I am sure many others can relate to. And even if you don't, the guitar work is stunning. I was a young man back in the 1960s always seems to me to be the one track that doesn't fit. It is pure science fiction! Not particularly spiritual, or with any great depth, or with many "layers" but it could have been the basis of a novel. Yes it is a great album. If you don't know it buy it. But be warned, it is something you either love or hate. My wife does not like it at all, but then there are certain instruments she can't stand, and I think the oud is one (bagpipes is another, but there are not bagpipes on the 5000 spirits) My favourite of all of the ISB albums.Just in case you are wondering which is the one album I consider betterthan this , it is Pink Floyd's "Wish you were here".

Their Most Famous, but not their best. I still love it!.......2005-05-31

`The 5000 Spirits or The Layers of the Onion' (5000 Spirits) by the new (in 1967) duo known as The Incredible String Band (TISB) is, surprisingly, not their first album. But, like the Jefferson Airplane about the same time with `Surrealistic Pillow', it is with this album that the duo of Robin Williamson and Mike Heron made an impact on the overheated world of popular music that was the mid-1960's.

The easiest way to point out the company this album was in is to cite a 1968 newspaper review of the 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.

In the 1960's, I was following avant-garde / rock music about as closely as you can imagine, without actually playing an instrument. My great ambition was to discover new groups that would succeed commercially and artistically, before that great success actually happened. The source of my belief in my ability to do this lay in my having decided, on hearing Barbara Streisand's first album, while still in high school, that this singer will go far. Lo and behold, by her third album, she was sharing stages with Ethel Merman and Judy Garland. I would go on to successfully `discover' David Bowie, James Taylor, the J. Geils Band, and Rod Stewart upon hearing their first solo albums released in the United States.

Until I heard this TISB album, based on the strong review, I had not heard much of the English folk genre except to Donovan Leitch, who was billed as the English Dylan. So, I immediately and correctly connected the style of TISB with the mystical / mythical / trippy style of Donovan. And, every time I encountered a contemporary British folk act, I was anticipating something sounding like TISB. In retrospect, I'm really happy that groups such as Fairport Convention and The Pentangle did not sound like TISB, because the thing they did was just as enjoyable in itself and better than a wan copy of some other band, although there was a fair amount of mutual influence being passed around among these bands and from Mr. Dylan from across the pond.

Oddly enough, `5000 Spirits...' also has a lot in common with `Sergeant Pepper...', especially with songs such as `Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds' and `For the Benefit of Mr. Kite'. According to the Beatles, both songs are simply inspirations from pictures drawn by young Julian Lennon in the first case and a circus poster in the second case. Many of Heron and Williamson's songs have that same sense of being about nothing more than whimsy, especially Heron's `Painting Box', `Little Cloud', and `The Hedgehog's Song'. On the other hand, this judgment may be making them less interesting than they really are, especially as `Painting Box' is something of a love song.

This is not an album of great songs. `When I'm 64', `A Little Help From My Friends', and especially `A Day in the Life' are great songs. There is nothing like these classics on this album. Even among the whole TISB body of work, there are songs from other albums that stick in the head with more staying power than any song on this album. In fact, while it is not a GREAT song, I went to the trouble of memorizing the Gilbert and Sullivan homage, `The Minotaur's Song' from TISB's next album, `The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter'. The only song from this album which brings an `oh yes!' to my heart when I hear this album is the finisher, `Way Back in the 1960's with its parody of Bob Dylan and of 1960's oldsters reaction to the hippie counterculture of that time.

And yet, this album has great value in that if it were not for it's critical success, there may not have been all those other great TISB albums to come. Few albums can quite bring back the sense of the 1960's as this one.

"I'm not the kind to complain..".......2004-01-31

...about this album. It's brilliant! Robin is a genius and Mike not far behind him! They are a very overrated duo of songwriters. Folk-rock never sounded so good, I swear. Bob Dylan and The Chioeftans must love them! Highlights on the album are:

"Chinese White"-surreal, love the bowed gimbri
"No Sleep Blues"-funny lyrics.Do you just to snore?
"Blues For The Muse"-the best song on the album, bluesy and great, Mike harmonica and Robin's lyrics are perfect!
"The Hedgehog's Song"-Mike, you've got quite the sense of humor. I keep imagining Sonic the hedgehog in this.
"First Girl I Loved"-their best known song, beautiful.
"Way Back In The 1960s"-great way to end the album! Love the lyrics!
You need this album, verrry bad.

ONE OF 'THE' GROUNDBREAKING RECORDINGS OF THE 1960s.......2003-03-10

With the release of their eponymous first album, the Incredible String Band made it know to the music listening public that a new force had arrived - one which would inject some energy and vitality into the folk music scene in the UK and the world. With the appearance of this album, THE 5,000 SPIRITS or THE LAYERS OF THE ONION, there could be little doubt that something special had been born. The albums which were to follow over the next few years bore this out dramatically.

THE 5,000 SPIRITS was released originally in 1967 - at the height of the psychedelic music movement. One only has to look at the artists of the day, and their releases, to see the rapidly expanding imaginations and creativity at work, breaking new ground right and left. This album, I feel, stands head and shoulders above most other releases of its day, in many ways - it should be regarded as a classic for its lyrical content alone. Musically, the ISB were going places - and drawing from sources - that other artists would only dare to touch in years to come. I believe it was their long-time producer, Joe Boyd, who once said that the ISB was the original `world music' group - he couldn't have stated it better.

After the critical acclaim garnered by their first album, the trio (at the time composed of Robin Williamson, Mike Heron and Clive Palmer) split up and traveled separately. The music Robin and Mike heard (for the band had become a duo by the time this album was recorded) around the world touched their souls - they breathed it in and gave it back to there listeners, combining both vocal and instrumental styles and techniques that would most like never have met if not for their artistic explorations. Mike had begun playing the sitar, and Robin's singing clearly bears the influence of the voices he encountered in the Middle East and Asia. The two writers' heads were already bursting with poetry and ideas born in their native lands - myths from Europe and Asia mingled with other images, creating a heady concoction perfectly suited to the times. Listeners were eager to hear something new - something besides the standard pop fare of the day, love songs with `moon/June/spoon' rhymes. The ISB gave it to them in abundance.

The album is pretty evenly balanced between the two writers - an equity which would be present in most of their subsequent releases as well. Licorice McKechnie makes her first appearance with Robin and Mike on this recording - and they are assisted by Danny Thompson on bass here and there. The songs deal with a variety of subjects - even the aforementioned love songs are present, but in the ISB's own unique style.

The set opens with Mike's `Chinese white' - the bowed gimbri played by Robin on this track lets the listener know right away that things have `expanded' a bit since the band's 1966 release. `The bent twig of darkness grows the petals of the morning', sings Mike - a beautiful image worthy of traditional Asian poetry. Mike's other songs on this album run the gamut from love songs (`Painting box' and the eternally lovely `Gently tender') to humorous looks at our place in the world (`Little cloud' and `The hedgehog's song') to a song offering encouragement to the listener to reach for his full potential (`You know what you could be'). The seriousness of some of his topics is gently offset by a childlike quality that, through the ensuing years, would infuse most of his writing with an innocence that would endear it to his fans.

Robin's offerings here are for the most part more serious than Mike's - but there is humor in his writing as well, as is evidenced by `No sleep blues' and the hilarious `Way back in the 1960s'. His `First girl I loved' - covered by Judy Collins as `First boy I loved' on her WILDFLOWERS album - is simply one of the most beautiful songs ever written to a first love, looking back with honesty and tenderness on the gifts exchanged, both physical and emotional. His guitar work on this song - and, actually, throughout his career - is astonishingly creative and lovely. In 'The eyes of fate', he muses `O who can see in the eyes of Fate all life alone in its chronic pattern?' - his lyrics are, throughout this album and all to follow, insightful, probing, spiritual. He is one of the most amazingly talented writers ever to pen a verse.

There are a couple of places in the recording where the signal is over-driven - but that's to be expected, given the era from which this dates. The remastering has been done lovingly - the sound on the cd is as good or better than any edition of the lp I ever owned.

Anyone with any sort of appreciation for the musics of different parts of the world, of exploring the myths with which mankind has explained the unexplainable, who has ever asked the really deeply rooted, `half-remarkable' questions, will find in the music and lyrics of the Incredible String Band the voices of kindred spirits of the closest order. This album - and, indeed, everything they released up until about 1970 (and they produced a lot of music in that short span) - is as beautiful and relevant today as when it first appeared. Moreover, there are still those who will never `catch up' to them.

The band continued to experiment and expand into the follow-up album, THE HANGMAN'S BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER, issued the following year...

Groundbreaking Album From Incredible String Band.......2001-12-11

In 1966 the Incredible String Band completed their first album simply titled "The Incredible String Band." Upon the completion of the album, the band made a curious career move...they retired. The principal members felt that they had reached their pinnacle of acheivement and decided to get out of the music business. Banjoist Clive Plamer headed for Afganistan, while multi-instumentalist Robin Williamson travelled to Morocco to learn to play Moroccan flute. Only Mike Heron remained in Edinburg Scotland, (the group's home) where he gigged with the rock band Rock Bottom and the Dead Beats. Robin stayed in Morrocco about six months and returned to Scotland with dozens of exotic musical insturments. Together Robin and Mike reformed the Incredible String Band with Robin's girlfriend Licorice "Likkie" McKenzie. The new Incredible String Band recorded "5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion", which was released in 1967, the year of Sgt. Pepper's and the Summer of Love. This album with it's strange musical alchemy, surreal lyrics, and gentle whimsy placed the String Band in the vangaurd of the burgeoning psychedelic movement in Europe and the USA. The ISB counted amoung it's fans Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Led Zepplin and Steve Winwood. The album is a ground breaking soundtrack of psycedelica's Age of Innocence and charted the course for the development of the String Band until 1972, when the group's increasing involvement in the Scientology movement caused a creative implosion.

The first thing you notice about "5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion" is it's arresting mystical day-glow cover art by Simon Marijke. Marijke was the painter of the fabled psychedelic Rolls Royce owned by John Lennon. The cover art broke with traditional notions what kind of art should grace the cover of an album. If you saw this album in a record store bin in 1967, you would indeed know that "something's happening here."

The talented Mike Heron and Robin Williamson played about 40 different musical insturments between them. Exotic intruments like the sitar, hand drums, gimbri and the jew's harp were featured on "5000 Spirits", giving the music the feel of a cosmic global stew. The surrealistic lyrics inspired by eastern mysticism, American blues, celtic lore, and pagan mytholology transported the listener to a paralell reality akin to Tolkien's Middle Earth. With "5000 Spirits" two powerful voices with distinct visions emerged as one: Mike Heron's gentle pantheism rooted in folk traditions and Robin Williamson's cosmic and often elegalic mysticism blended the Celtic bardist tradition.

Some of Mike's most memorable songwritting is on "5000 Spirits. On "Painting Box" Mike's gentle voice blends with Likkie's waifish harmony to produce a delicate impressionistic gem about love and the beauty of imagination. Mike's worship of nature is apparent in "Little Cloud", where a passing cloud beckons him to float to distant lands. Many of ISB's chemically fuelled devotees interpreted "Little Cloud" as invitation to pass through doors of perception via a certain substance often licked from blotter sheets in the sixties. Robin Williamson's "First Girl I Loved" is a melancholy reflection on "a grown-up female stranger" who at age 17 was his first love. Robin's plantive voice rises from his intimate Galeic conversational tone to a mornful atonal Arabic wail as he recounts thinking of his first love in the "six sad morning and in the lonely midnight." The song is the most requested and most recorded in Williamson's considerable body of work. When Judy Collins heard the ISB perform "First Girl I Loved" on tour together, she changed the gender to "First Boy" and it is a favorite of her fans. Jackson Browne recorded it on "Rubaiyat" which was a Elektra tribute to the Striggers. Robin's other masterpiece was "My Name Is Death" an existential bow to the inevitabilty of death, "the question that cannot be answered."

"Five Thousand Spirits or the Layer of the Onion" is a flat-out Sixties classic and the first milestone the long pilgrimage of the Incredible Sting Band. It is a pilgrimage that appears to never end... Robin Williamson made the 2001 best of [...]music critics list for his stunning C.D., "The Seed-At-Zero." Mike Heron and Robin Williamson recently reformed the Incredible String Band and are touring the U.K. in October, November and December of 2001. Likkie McKenzie the third Sting Band member on this album moved to California in the 1970s where she worked as a waitress and coat checker. About 10 years ago, Likkie, in the cosmic String Band fashion, set out on a journey across the desert in Arizona, and was never seen or heard from again.

Wee Tam / Big Huge
Average customer rating:

SOME OF ISB'S BEST MADE BETTER STILL

TISB-Wee Tam/Big Huge

Wee Tam and the Big Huge

The ISB at their very, very best in this SINGLE album

A High Water Mark of the ISB

Wee Tam / Big Huge
Incredible String Band
Manufacturer: Collector's Choice
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
British Folk | Traditional British & Celtic Folk | Folk | Styles | Music
General | Folk | Styles | Music
General | Rock | Styles | Music
Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

5000 Spirits / Hangman's Beautiful Daughter

Changing Horses / I Looked Up

U

The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter

Be Glad for the Song Has No Ending/Liquid Acrobat as Regards the Air

ASIN: B00006BC50
Release Date: 2002-09-10

Tracks:

Job's Tears
Puppies
Beyond The See
The Yellow Snake
Log Cabin Home In The Sky
You Get Brighter
The Half-Remarkable Question
Air
Ducks On A Pond

Tracks:

Maya
Greatest Friend
The Son Of Noah's Brother
Lordly Nightshade
The Mountain Of God
Cousin Caterpillar
The Iron Stone
Douglas Traherne Harding
The Circle Is Unbroken

Product Description

Disc 1: Wee Tam:
1. Job's Tears
2. Puppies
3. Beyond The See
4. Yellow Snake, The
5. Log Cabin Home In The Sky
6. You Get Brighter
7. Half-Remarkable Question, The
8. Air
9. Ducks On A Pond

Disc 2: The Big Huge:
1. Maya
2. Greatest Friend
3. Son Of Noah's Brother, The
4. Lordly Nightshade
5. Mountain Of God, The
6. Cousin Caterpillar
7. Iron Stone, The
8. Douglas Traherne Harding
9. Circle Is Unbroken, The

Format: CD

Customer Reviews:

SOME OF ISB'S BEST MADE BETTER STILL.......2006-08-06

While the remastering is expert and reveals even more of the human warmth of this work, it's difficult to write about the music of Robin Williamson and Mike Heron for the simple reason that they pretty much created their own genre. Who will we compare to the Incredible String Band? The sources and reference points of and in their music are many and widespread. Typically filed under "FOLK", the music of The Incredible String Band was and is much more. A few years after the band broke up, Robin wrote of his interest in creating a "fusion" of different musical cultures, traditions and styles. Seen from this perspective, "Wee Tam / Big Huge" must be one of the first fully-realized examples of that fusion.

In a seemingly simple, quiet framework, ISB delivers a dazzling array of ideas about music and about humankind and our perceptions of the worlds in and around us -- what are we and what we are -- with diverse and complete musical authority. How else could you possibly pull off a song titled "Puppies" without being accused of creating kitsch? This is profoundly ambitious stuff. "Wee Tam / Big Huge" allows us to witness nothing less than the patchwork creation of a being in "Maya" who is comprised of the many archetypes of the human race: "businessmen his nervous system, no-hustle men his stomach" and, my personal favorite, "opinions are his fingernails". Here, as throughout this record, small metaphors create greater metaphors, leading to saturated meanings. Throughout, the lyrical content matches the musical innovation. Always poetic and illuminating, I'd question the typical "psychedelic" conclusion: this stuff is too aware and well worked out. Remember: "At bath time the hippies, in chains, they are crossing the hall..."

As a contrast to the long and almost tone-poem-like pieces such as "Maya" and "Job's Tears" and rollicking fiddle tunes like "Log Cabin Home", there are a pair of very short, haiku-like pieces that are as pure as they are beautiful. "Son of Noah's Brother" and the more remarkable, myth-imbued "Yellow Snake" demonstrate that condensed and concise poetry can be as powerful as the more elaborate and extended work.

There is also a sense of the sacred throughout, from the every day in "Air" and the wonderfully inventive "Duck's on a Pond" to the collage of religious and literary phrases that comprise the lyrics of "The Mountain of God". Through a rich mix of musical and cultural ideas, "Wee Tam / Big Huge" makes the monumental accessible, and the miniature profound without ever resorting to cloying sentimentality, cliche or the dead ends of blind faith. This is music of approachable, constant and everyday beauty. Music as easy to love today as it was when the world was new.

TISB-Wee Tam/Big Huge.......2006-02-22

The other reviews correctly describe the richness and beauty of these albums. Mystical yet fun, fascinating musical concepts, still fresh after so many years. Highest rating...BUT...while wonderful on the ears, terrible on the eyes. Bad job on the lyrics insert, which are truly microscopic to the point of being unreadable. I'm lucky to have the original vinyl for reading. Otherwise, get a high-powered microscope. Still, a gorgeous recording, as are all their early releases.

Wee Tam and the Big Huge.......2005-08-10

I had not heard this for thirty years. Many of the songs have stayed with me. The best recordings they ever did - before they got too self conscious. Still a classic - modern bands are just too cautious. They all want to be cool.

The ISB at their very, very best in this SINGLE album.......2005-06-03

`The Big Huge' and the `Wee Tam' are nominally two different albums by The Incredible String Band (TISB) when actually; they were released simultaneously in 1968 as if they were a double album where you could buy the two disks independently. The sense with which the two titles can be combined as `The Big Huge Wee Tam' is one small sign of how these two albums were always supposed to be seen as a single work, in much the same way as Dylan's `Blond on Blond' and the Beatles' `white album' are two phonographs in a single album.

It is due to this title combination that I always considered `The Big Huge' as the first of the two recordings. The second reason is because the first cut on this album, Williamson's `Maya' so completely captures the style and spirit of both albums. It also clearly connects TISB with the style of Donovan Leitch as exemplified in his song `Atlantis'. There must be some name for this kind of song in song writing circles, and I wish I knew it, as it is so distinctive in construction. Basically, it enumerates between eight and twelve things, generally people, in a group where each type serves a particular person or fits a role in the whole. The simplest example of such a song might be the `Do-Re-Mi Song' from `The Sound of Music'. Both `Maya' and `Atlantis' are much more complicated, but fit the same basic pattern.

`Maya' is doubly interesting in that it is almost certainly based on the famous illustration on the frontispiece of Thomas Hobbes' great work `Leviathan' on political philosophy, where the head of the sovereign sits on a body composed of smaller bodies.

This pair of albums may have been the high point of the TISB recording career. At the very least, together with `The 5000 Spirits or The Layers of the Onion' and `The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter', it created a body of work which at the very least insured the durability of the groups modest popularity well into the 21st century. And, I believe it is the last set of recordings they did in the style of original writing they established in `5000 Spirits...' With their next works, I detect definite changes in style and more independence from Mike Heron, as he released a solo album around this time.

I made the observation in a review of `The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter' that many of the songs can be heard as evening entertainment for children on their way to bed. I can strengthen this analogy with this album with the references to Tolkien's fiction in one or two of these songs. Add to this references to A. A. Milne's `Winnie the Pooh' and songs about caterpillars and I rest my case. Very few of their songs relate to that most favorite song subject, romantic love. Much more time is spent on adventure, discovery, tall tales, and nonsense rhymes.

For those of you who may be coming to TISB from encounters with Fairport Convention and The Pentangle, I suggest that TISB is the gold standard of original writing based on Celtic and other world folk traditions. Fairport Convention, especially Sandy Denny may have written some great songs and Jansch and Renbourn of `The Pentangle' are probably greater instrumentalists, but TISB conveys a folkish charm that is truer to the great 1960's counterculture spirit than any other band.

A High Water Mark of the ISB.......2003-12-16

This is a magical album (and yes, it is one album, as a reviewer below noted). There are songs here which feel simultaneously ancient and totally innovative, achingly beautiful and unfathomably mysterious -- at this moment I am thinking of the songs "The Circle is Unbroken" and "The Iron Stone." But really everything here is amazing. This is one of those albums where you feel that the artists were stretching every nerve and muscle, reaching out beyond themselves to grasp something which they had glimpsed. A masterpiece is made when they succeed, and that's what happened here. And the beauty is not just conceptual. Sure, these guys were picking up a bewildering variety of instruments they had never learned how to play, but they pull it off; it all works. And Williamson's voice... a careless listener will think he's just tunelessly jibbering sometimes, but he's not, he's not... His voice glides and modulates all over the place, always exactly where he wants it to be. This work was really a transcendent, watershed event. For myself, I find it has an intensity unrivalled by any of the Incredibles' other albums, though "U" and "5000 Spirits" and "Hangman's" are all essential listening as well. But this is really something special.

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