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Williamson spent several months studying music in Morocco, and Palmer left the group to travel to Afghanistan. For the String Band's second album, The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion, exotic touches such as the Middle Eastern oud, Indian sitars, and tambouras began to permeate the group's sound. The band's lyrics also became more whimsical; highlights include Williamson's tale of insomnia No Sleep Blues
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Duración: | 03:52 |
Año: | 1968 |
Formato: | 7" |
A la venta: | 01/07/1967 |
Lado B: | Painting Box |
Disquera: | Elektra |
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Mike Heron - voz, guitarra y armónica Licorice McKechnie - voz y percusión Danny Thompson - doble bajo John Hopkins - Piano Soma (Nazir Jairazbhoy) - sitar y tamboura |
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No Sleep Blues
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Blues de no dormir
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Cracks rack the windows, Howls hold the floor; Rains rot the rafters, And do you just have to snore? It's a most inclement climate, for the season of the night, Is that mouse playing football, oh I thought they didn't like the light? And the dawn comes sneaking up When it thinks I'm not looking; I am starting to grieve, man, I used to know but now I believe, man. They tell me sleep is a gas, and if I want to lay down, But I'm sorry I woke you, I mean I've got the no sleep blues. There's mayhem in this mansion, Since the cows were coming home, With delirium no sleepum, In a cloud of nylon foam. But release scours the outhouse, And a hard rain sears the sky, But if you let the pigs decide it, They will put you in the sty. And the dawn comes sneaking up When it thinks I'm not looking; I am starting to grieve, man, I used to know but now I believe, man. They tell me sleep is a gas, and if I want to lay down, But I'm sorry I woke you, I mean I've got the no sleep blues. I think I'll get a picture, And I think I'll put it on a nail. I think I'll get another one, And put it in a pail. But the pail got so rusty I called it red, red, red for fun, And I laughed like a leaver till you ought to seen it run. And the dawn comes sneaking up When it thinks I'm not looking; I am starting to grieve, man, I used to know but now I believe, man. They tell me sleep is a gas, and if I want to lay down, But I'm sorry I woke you. I mean I've got the no sleep blues. The size of the future declared itself no part, Aloof like a Sultan in the autumn of your heart, But the heart got so hearty, that it pulled for the shore, And the sailors fired a big salute, and it made my ears quite sore. And the dawn was sneaking up When it thinks I'm not looking; I am starting to grieve, man, I used to know but now I believe, man They tell me sleep is a gas, and I want to lay down, But I'm sorry I woke you, I mean I've got the no sleep blues. I mixed stones and water just to see what it would do. And the water it got stoney, and the stones got watery too. So I mixed my feet with water just to see what could be seen, And the water it got dirty, and the feet they got quite clean. And the dawn comes sneaking up When it thinks I'm not looking; I am starting to grieve, man, I used to know but now I believe, man. They tell me sleep is a gas, and if I want to lay down, But I'm sorry I woke you, I mean I've got the no sleep blues |
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The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion was the second LP by The Incredible String Band, released in July 1967. Since recording their debut album the previous year, the original trio had been reduced to two, Mike Heron and Robin Williamson. They recorded The 5000 Spirits... in London in early 1967. The album also featured Pentangle's Danny Thompson on double bass, Williamson's girlfriend Licorice McKechnie on vocals and percussion, master sitar player Nazir Jairazbhoy (credited as "Soma"), and, on piano, counter-culture activist John "Hoppy" Hopkins, who had just set up London's UFO Club with the album's producer, Joe Boyd. The album demonstrated considerable musical development and a more unified ISB sound. It displayed their abilities as multi-instrumentalists and singer-songwriters, and gained them wide acclaim. As well as winning favourable reviews in the music press, it was received enthusiastically by the DJ John Peel, who regularly featured tracks from the album on his influential Perfumed Garden programme on the pirate radio ship Radio London. The 5000 Spirits... went to Number One in the UK folk chart, and was named by Paul McCartney as one of his favourite records of that year. The lyrics, the band's various Indian and Arabian instruments, and the striking cover art by The Fool, led to it being placed as a psychedelic work. Much of the music itself, however, draws more widely on traditional British folk music. The album included Heron's "The Hedgehog's Song", Williamson's "First Girl I Loved", later recorded by Judy Collins, Jackson Browne and Don Partridge, and his "The Mad Hatter's Song". With its mixture of musical styles, the album paved the way for the band's more extended forays into psychedelia, while also containing whimsical references to talking clouds and a magic Christmas tree. In 2002, Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, chose "The Hedgehog's Song" for his appearance on the BBC radio programme Desert Island Discs. He described the chorus - "Oh, you know all the words, and you sung all the notes / But you never quite learned the song, she sang / I can tell by the sadness in your eyes / That you never quite learned the song" - as "a powerful summing-up of life and relationships". The Album was seen in the 2009 Philip Seymour Hoffman movie Pirate Radio as the last item Bob Silver attempts to rescue from the sinking broadcast platform that was the vessel Rock Radio. (Doctor Dave declares "Oh dear, that is not a good record." and throws it back.) |