Wee Tam [Import]

Incredible String Band | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 13, 2008)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Warner Bros UK
• ASIN: B000026G3E
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #212,351 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BRILLIANT WORDS AND WORLDS, May 21, 2002

By 

Kerry Leimer (Makawao, Hawaii United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Wee Tam (Audio CD)

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.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars O I REMEMBER IT ALL FROM BEFORE..., November 28, 2001

By 

Larry L. Looney (Austin, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wee Tam (Audio CD)

When Elektra's US division released this recording in America in late spring/early summer of 1968, they were unsure that it would be marketable as a two-record set, so it was issued as two separate lps. Given the unpredictability of the music market, this was probably a prudent decision -- but I'm glad to see that Hannibal has honored the ISB's original intent and made it available as a reasonably-priced double cd. The two albums should definitely be considered as a whole.

This was the first release I bought by the ISB -- and I was hooked immediately on the exotic melodies, the instruments gathered from all corners of the earth...and the lyrics. I was attending college at the time, and I showed some of the lyrics to my English professor -- he instantly recognized them as songs, but he was very impressed with the quality and depth of the poetry. The songs address a wide variety of topics -- life, love, spirituality, mankind's place in the scheme of things -- and do so with intelligence, insight and gentle wit.

The arrangements on this set are decidedly less complex -- but, I think, just as adventurous -- as those on the preceding recording THE HANGMAN'S BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER (which came out just 4-5 months earlier). They are perfectly suited to the season of the year -- lighter, less complicated than the darker mood of the prvious album. The lyrics are allowed to dominate.

I think I was a fan from the opening bars of 'Job's tears', the first track. I was mesmerized by the beauty and depth of these songs. Yes, I was at an impressionable age (I was 18) -- but as the years have passed under the bridge, I've found that I can return to these recordings (and, indeed, most of the ISB's work) again and again, still spellbound by the wonder of the music found here. The work has aged well.

Later in their career, the ISB ventured more into electric instruments -- being pushed there, I suspect, by folks at their new label, Island, thinking that perhaps a more electric sound might be more marketable (Island was the home stable to period stalwarts such as Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, John Martyn and Richard Thompson). Some of these later experiments came off well, some less successfully -- but throughout their career, until their demise in the 1970s, the ISB were always interesting.

Williamson and Heron remained individually active after the band split -- Williamson being extremely prolific -- and I was happy to see last year that they're working together again, that the ISB has been reformed. There are tours and new recordings in the works -- I'll look forward to both eagerly. Meanwhile, I know I'll continue to enjoy their catalogue -- especially this set, which is probably my favorite of their many releases.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spacey hippie music that has aged quite well, thank you, September 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Wee Tam (Audio CD)

Hangman's was a classic and following it was certain to be a let-down. But Wee Tam and the Big Huge stand on their own as a classic. They had a minor (In the U.S. ) hit with You Get Brighter, but the band was never as popular as it should have been. This CD holds up quite well over time. I had it, but my home was burglarized and all my CDs were stolen. It's a testament to the quality of this CD that it is among the first 25 or so of the 300-plus CDs that I had that I am replacing. I can't wait for it to arrive. I'll put on my (newly replaced) headphones, drop one of the discs in my (newly replaced) CD player, kick back in my old an ugly (and unstolen) gray recliner and go off on a nicemental excursion. Ah, I can't wait.