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Product Description
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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
CD Description
Deluxe, definitive re-mastered edition of the Incredible String Band’s third album – a psychedelic masterpiece and the beginning of “world” music. For many fans, 1968 was the year of Incredible String Band's finest achievements with the release of their two most highly regarded albums: 'The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter' and the double LP - 'Wee Tam and the Big Huge'. Hangman's reached the top 5 in the UK album charts soon after its release in March 1968 and was nominated for a Grammy in the US. Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin said they found their way by playing Hangman's and following the instructions. Re-mastering supervised original producer Joe Boyd and engineer John Wood. Full page review in Uncut. Feature and full page review in Shindig!. Extensive feature and reviews in R2. Review and q & a in Record Collector. Reviews in fRoots 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 Also available FLED 3041 'Smiling Men With Bad Reputation' FLED 3071 'Journey’s Edge'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
52 of 54 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I hadn't heard this album since I was seventeen (and I won't say when that was) until I noticed that it was still available on CD, and bought a copy. Well, it was barmy then, and it's barmy now. Anyone who, upon listening to it, isn't immediately transported to a better, simpler, more imaginative and contemplative world needs to make contact with their inner child/hippy as a matter of some urgency. Dated? How can it be dated? It's as timeless as Adam and Eve or Winnie the Pooh! Profound? Who knows? Who cares? Just soak in the atmosphere. You may find that it is an acquired taste, being rather slow and lacking in the driving electronic rhythms we've been bombarded with over the past thirty-five years, but do give it a go.
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
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.
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Viewed by many die-hard fans as the jewel in the crown of Stringdom, this is THE Incredible String Band album to demonstrate, above all others, just what makes this unique band so wonderful. From the opening dream-like refelctions on childhood "Born in a house where the doors shut tight...shadowy fingers on the curtains at night.." to the exquisite dying fall of "Nightfall", this is strange, exotic, mesmerising and mysterious stuff. Oh, it just happens to be incredibly beautiful as well, for the most part. Memorable highlights include Robin's deceptively simple "Witch's Hat" ("sitting on her head like a parrafin stove"), Mike's fascinating epic "Cellular Song" ("amoebas are very small...."). Thrill to tales of the Emperor of China with his iron footwear, ponder the meaning of "Three is a Green Crown", or just go with the flow and enjoy. This is truly incredible music, much of which is currently to be heard live as Mike's IncredibleStringBand2003 go on tour. What better time to get to know (or revisit) this gorgeous album - then check out "5000 Spirits" and "Wee Tam & the Big Huge" for proof that this was no flash in the pan.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Add me to the list of worshippers!
This is by far their best album, apart from a fantastic Elektra compliation (a US import) of the early 70s, and comes like an alien transmission beamed directly from a time before... Read more
Published 5 months ago by N. Black
One of the best albums ever made
This was the third of The ISB's releases and came after the dazzling and groudbreaking 5000 Spirits which was described as a sort of folk Sgt Pepper. Read more
Published 13 months ago by M. D. Zukor
Superb Remastering Finally Releases The Music
This is not strictly a review of the content of this album, as there are many other excellent reviews on the topic. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Mr. J. A. Smith
the hangman
The hangman's beautiful daughter, what a superb album this is. How can words describe one of the most enigmatic albums of all time :buy it and devastate your synaesthesia big time
Published 19 months ago by Dr. D. Falkingham
Still not sure about this
As old age beckons I'm welcoming the chance to put together again the record collection of my misspent youth. Read more
Published 19 months ago by David Arturovitch
Fantasy hippy-folk classic
The Incredible String Band were the emblematic symbol of British hippiedom. The Scottish band played a formally free folk music that was typical of hippie civilization and culture. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Daniel Margrain
A Few Reservations . .
The third album was a significant step deeper into the uncharted forest of folk psychedelia, to the point where things were beginning to get serious. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Harvey Randall
OLD HAT
Why did I buy this ? I haven't a clue but I wish I hadn't bothered, outdated drivle that should be consigned to history
Published 24 months ago by G. KENNEY
Still delightful after all these years!
I had this on Vinyl from the day it came out and must have played it hundreds of times, but that was back then. Read more
Published on 17 May 2010 by Lucky Pierre
great music but .....
A bit of a shame there are no extra or alternate tracks etc, but some would say that such things tend to dilute the impact and shape of the original Album. Read more
Published on 20 April 2010 by Nick ( Larry )Lamb
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