Clive Bradley's Personal Pages

The 5000 Spirits (or the Layers of the Onion)
1967, Produced by Joe Boyd

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

And you're probably, married now
House and kids and all
And you've turned into,
A grown-up female stranger
And if I were lying near you now
I'd just have to fall...

There never has been another band like the ISB and probably never will be, they were an 'aquired taste' in 1967 and one few are likely to aquire now. It is hard perhaps to remember that in those days some considered Psychodelic drugs to be more entheogenic than recreational, and set out on a spirtual quest.
Their music features some very unusual stringed instruments such as Bowed Gimbri, Soma Sitar, & Oud Mandolin. The marvelous Danny Thompson plays double bass on most tracks.

The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter
1968

Koeeaddi There
The Minataur's Song
Witche's 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

Oh ah ee ooh there's absoutely no strife
Living the timeless life:
If I need a friend I just give a wriggle,
Split right down the middle,
And I when I look, there's two of me
Both as handsome as can be
Oh here we go, slithering
Here we go, slithering and squelching on...

Apparently this reached number 5 in the UK album charts! I discovered it a little later, yet 35 years on I find I have commited the strange but strangely evocative lyrics to memory almost perfectly.
Possibly because my friend Dave Davies and I spent so much time singing them.
This Album also features David Snel on Harp and Dolly Collins on Portative Organ (Water Song) and Piano.
She also arranged the Harpsichord part on Walz of the New Moon.

Wee Tam

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

There comes a time to every man,
When he must turn his back on the crowd
When the glare of the lights gets much too bright
And the music plays too loud
Man a man must run from the deeds he has done
Recalling those days with a sigh,
Winter is nigh let us fly
To my log cabin home in the sky...

I've never liked the label "Psychodelic Folk" applied to the ISB, but it is hard to dismiss entirely.
Do I detect an air of Tolkien's Middle Earth? There is something Elvish about Robin Williamson, and Numorian about Mike Heron....
Originally released as two separate LP's or a double gatefold the above is from the single LP cover of Wee Tam.

The Big Huge

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

Down main street I go on a duffle coat, hoping instead
For a little room (yawn) I'm so tired
With this big bag of coal on my head
It's a top hat I'm trying to sell,
Or a lesson to learn
Vaguely seeking some fire to burn...

For me it is on this Album that Mike Heron's Sitar playing reaches it's peak on Maya and The Iron Stone.
Continuing that though about Tolkien, The Iron stone does seem to be some kind of Palantir, and the Circle is Unbroken evokes thoughts of the Grey Havens...
But if Lordly Nightshade isn't about acid - I'll eat that Top Hat!