The Incredible String Band - Changing Horses

People say this isn't a very good album, and maybe they're right, but for a long time it was a permanent fixture in my top 3 albums (along with WWDOOH and IO4AM). I still like it a lot, even though Wee Tam is probably a much better and more coherent collection. Joe Boyd reckons this is where they started to go downhill, with their increasing interest in Scientology and the incorporation of their girlfriends into the band. I dunno - although I still haven't really got into "I Looked Up" I'm extremely fond of "U".

Anyway this was one of three ISB albums that the music teacher at Highgate School (where my mum worked, see here) lent me (the others were Wee Tam and the first album). The fact that he was a music teacher lent this some extra credibility I guess and, although I liked the other two a lot, this was the one that made the real impact. I don't know whether the fact that everybody else (friends and family) hated it had an influence. I don't know what my mum made of "Creation" but she should have been glad it wasn't "Pictures In A Mirror". I got Robin Williamson's book "Home Thoughts From Abroad" for Xmas 1972 and in the 30 years since then I doubt if I've read more than a few of the poems in it. When I was 16 I thought it was because they were too deep and profound (same thing, ace hole) but now I'm - a bit older - I can see it's because they are pretentious gobbledegook.

I bought the CD a few years ago and yes, I do still like this album. And I even like "I Looked Up". There was nothing else quite like the ISB and their 2nd, 3rd and 4th albums are real groundbreakers - everyone from the Beatles to the Dead were fans. I saw them in concert several times, but only once before they moved to Island, went electric, and became 50% shite.