The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter
Acid folk[1]
Length49:51
LabelElektra / WEA
ProducerJoe Boyd
The Incredible String Band chronology
The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion
(1967) 		The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter
(1968) 		Wee Tam and the Big Huge
(1968)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Encyclopedia of Popular Music
[6]

The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter is the third album by Scottish psychedelic folk group the Incredible String Band (ISB), and was released in March 1968 on Elektra Records (see 1968 in music). It saw the band continuing its development of the elements of psychedelic folk and enlarging on past themes, a process they had begun on their previous album, The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion. Instrumentally, it was the ISB's most complex and experimental album to date, featuring a wide array of exotic instruments. In addition, the album captured the band utilising multi-tracks and overdubbing.[7]

Upon release, the album peaked at number five on the

Grammy nomination. It was considered their most ambitious work to date and had a large impact on the psychedelic folk genre.[10]

Background

In December 1967, the band completed their Hangman's Beautiful Daughter album at

esotericism becoming a consistent anchor in their recordings.[11]

The album features a series of vividly dreamlike

panpipes and kazoo
.

Artwork and title

The album's cover art – which on original LP issues was the back cover, as the front showed just Williamson and Heron – consists of a photograph taken on

Christmas Day 1967. It shows both musicians with band members Licorice McKechnie and Rose Simpson, friends Roger Marshall and Nicky Walton, several children of their friend Mary Stewart, and Robin's dog Leaf.[11]

Regarding the title, Mike Heron said at the time: "The hangman is death and the beautiful daughter is what comes after. Or you might say that the hangman is the past twenty years of our life and the beautiful daughter is now, what we are able to do after all these years. Or you can make up your own meaning – your interpretation is probably just as good as ours."[11]

Commercial performance

Owing largely to the band gaining much airplay from famous DJ

Grammy
in the folk music category.

Legacy and influence

The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter has been widely acclaimed by many critics. It was voted number 406 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000).[16] It appears at number 88 in Joe S. Harrington's Top 100 Albums[17] and was listed by Keenan in The Best Albums Ever...Honest.[18] In its entry in Robert Dimery's book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, Max Reinhardt describes the album as "a potent seed of the current 'world music' movement", adding: "[The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter] revealed a sustained grandeur of vision, lyrics, and musicality that the group were never to approach again … Each track is closer to a suite than a song, as Celtic folk, rock 'n' roll, gospel, plainsong harmonies, near qwaali moments, and North African and Indian sonics all drift effortlessly before the ears."[1] In the February 2016 edition of Uncut magazine it was placed 98th in the top 100 Albums of All Time.[citation needed]

The artwork has been referenced on the cover to David Keenan's book England's Hidden Reverse, Current 93's album cover to their LP Earth Covers Earth, Devendra Banhart's Cripple Crow LP,[19] and Feathers' eponymous debut.

Robert Plant credited The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter with influencing the direction of Led Zeppelin's first album.[20]

The amoeba section of "A Very Cellular Song" was covered by actor Nigel Planer, in character as "Neil the Hippy" from the UK television show The Young Ones, on his 1984 LP Neil's Heavy Concept Album.[21]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Robin Williamson except where noted.

Side A
No.TitleLength
1."Koeeoaddi There"4:49
2."The Minotaur's Song"3:22
3."Witches Hat"2:33
4."A Very Cellular Song" (Mike Heron)13:09
Side B
No.TitleLength
5."Mercy I Cry City" (Heron)2:46
6."Waltz of the New Moon"5:10
7."The Water Song"2:50
8."Three Is a Green Crown"7:46
9."Swift As the Wind" (Heron)4:53
10."Nightfall"2:33

Personnel

Chart positions

Chart Entry
date 		Peak
position
UK Albums Chart[8] 4 June 1968 5
US Billboard Top LP's[9] 20 July 1968 161

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-1-84403-699-8
    .
  2. ^ Thom Jurek. "The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter - The Incredible String Band | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 1 July 2017.
  3. ^ Andrew Gaerig (21 April 2010). "Incredible String Band: The Incredible String Band / The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion / The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter / Wee Tam and the Big Huge Album Review". Pitchfork.com. Retrieved 1 July 2017.
  4. ^ Pomeroy, James (14 September 1968). "Records". Rolling Stone. San Francisco.
  5. ISBN 0-86369-643-0
    .
  6. ISBN 978-0857125958
    .
  7. ^ Thom Jurek. "The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter – Review". AllMusic. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  8. ^ a b c "INCREDIBLE STRING BAND | Artist | Official Charts". www.theofficialcharts.com. Archived from the original on 2 August 2013. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
  9. ^
    ISBN 0898201179
  10. ^ "The Incredible String Band – The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter". thebeesknees.com. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  11. ^
    ISBN 1-900924-64-1
  12. ^ "The Bahamas: The Real Bahamas in Music and Song | Nonesuch Records - MP3 Downloads, Free Streaming Music, Lyrics". Nonesuch.com. 15 July 2003. Retrieved 1 July 2017.
  13. ^ "Waterson : Carthy :: Keeping it in the Family". Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 30 June 2014.
  14. ISBN 1-85242-910-0
  15. ^ "Robin Williamson interview". Furious.com. Retrieved 1 July 2017.
  16. ISBN 0-7535-0493-6
    .
  17. ^ "Blastitude 14: Joe S. Harrington's Top 25 Albums of All Time". Blastitude.com. Retrieved 1 July 2017.
  18. ^ "The Best Albums Ever... honest". Archived from the original on 20 September 2006. Retrieved 1 July 2017.
  19. ^ Jurek, Thom. "Devendra Banhart – Cripple Crow". AllMusic. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  20. ^ Jurek, Thom. "The Increduble String Band – The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter". AllMusic. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  21. ^ "The Incredible String Band – The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter". Making Time. December 1999. Retrieved 29 December 2010.
  22. ^ "Incredible String Band". Wolfgangrostek.de. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  23. ^ "The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter". Judy Dyble. Archived from the original on 3 August 2020. Retrieved 8 August 2023.

External links

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