THE INCREDIBLE STRNG BAND-CHANGING HORSES.

dereksmusicblog ♦ January 16, 2018 ♦ Leave a comment

The Incredible String Band-Changing Horses.

Label: BGO Records.

When The Incredible String Band released their fifth album, Changing Horses in November 1969, much had changed within the group that had formed in Edinburgh, Scotland, six years earlier in 1963. The Incredible String Band was one of the biggest, and most successful folk bands in the world, and regularly played at some of the biggest and most prestigious venues in Britain and America. This included London’s Royal Albert Hall, the Filmore East in New York and the Filmore West in San Francisco. More recently, The Incredible String Band had played a starring role at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair on Saturday the ‘15th’ of August 1969. Buoyed by this success, The Incredible String Band returned home for the release of Changing Horses which was recently rereleased by BGO Records. It marked the start of a new era for The Incredible String Band.

By the time Changing Horses was released, Robin Williamson and Mike Heron had some announcements to make. This included that The Incredible String Band was now a quartet, with Christina ‘Licorice’ McKechnie and Rose Simpson joining The Incredible String Band as full-time members. Both had worked with the band live and in the studio for some time. Christina ‘Licorice’ McKechnie first featured on The 5000 Spirits Or the Layers Of The Onion, which was released in July 1967, while Rose Simpson played on Wee Tam and The Big Huge which was released in November 1968. However, this wasn’t the only announcement that The Incredible String Band were about to make.

They explained that they had decided to no longer take drugs, which had been part of their life for the last few years. The other announcement was that The Incredible String Band had joined the secretive and cult-like Church of Scientology came as a shock to critics and fans. Things seemed to be changing within The Incredible String Band, and this would include the music on Changing Horses, which was very different to the music they made in the early days of the band. 

Only six years had passed since Robin Williamson and Clive Palmer first played together at the Crown Bar, Edinburgh, in 1963. That was where Archie Fisher hosted a weekly folk night, and where two years later, in 1965, Joe Boyd, who was then working as an A&R man for Elektra Records first saw the Incredible String Band. Joe Boyd would later play an important part in the Incredible String Band story. Before that, two became three.

Later in 1965, Robin Williamson and Clive Palmer decided that The Incredible String Band should become a trio. They decided that they needed someone to fill out their sound, and started looking for a rhythm guitarist. Before long, Robin Williamson and Clive Palmer were joined by Mike Heron, and the as unnamed band donned the moniker The Incredible String Band. This was the final piece of the jigsaw, and was the lineup of The Incredible String Band that Joe Boyd saw when he reentered the band’s world a year later.

By 1966, The Incredible String Band were the house band at Clive’s Incredible Folk Club, which was based on the fourth floor of a building on Sauchiehall Street, in Glasgow, Scotland’s musical capital. One night, Joe Boyd made his way to Clive’s Incredible Folk Club. He was a man with a mission and was determined to sign The Incredible String Band. 

Elektra Records had heard about The Incredible String Band, and wanted to sign them. They were, after all, predominately, a folk label and it made sense to sign The Incredible String Band to their roster. There was only one problem though, another label was interested in the Incredible String Band, Transatlantic Records. However, Joe Boyd managed to sign the Incredible String Band and took them into the studio in May 1966.

The Incredible String Band.

To record their eponymous debut album, Joe Boyd took the Incredible String Band into the Sound Techniques’ studio in London. Joe Boyd would produce The Incredible String Band which  featured a total of sixteen songs. They were a mixture of original and traditional songs. On these songs, the Incredible String Band deployed an eclectic selection of instruments. Guitars, fiddles, a mandolin, kazoo, violin and tin whistle featured on The Incredible String Band, which was completed in June 1966.

On its release, on ‘20th’ July 1966, The Incredible String Band was well received by critics. It featured a much more traditional sound than later Incredible String Band albums. There was no sign of the psychedelic sound that featured on later albums. That was still to come. In 1966, the Incredible String Band were still a traditional folk group and a popular one at that.

The Incredible String Band reached number thirty-four in the UK charts, where it spent three weeks. Considering it was The Incredible String Band’s debut album for Elektra Records this was seen as a success, and something to build on. However, just when things seemed to be going to plan for The Incredible String Band, sadly, things went awry.

After recording The Incredible String Band, the band split-up. Clive Palmer decided to head off on the hippie trail to Afghanistan and India. Robin Williamson and his girlfriend also caught the travel bug and headed to Morocco. Only Mike Heron remained in Edinburgh, where he hooked up with Rock Bottom and The Deadbeats. With the Incredible String Band looking like history, it looked as if Mike Heron’s future lay with Rock Bottom and The Deadbeats. However, that wasn’t the case, when The Incredible String Band decided to reform.

Robin Williamson returned from Morocco after running out of money. However, he brought back an eclectic selection of musical Moroccan instruments which would feature on later Incredible String Band albums.

Clive Palmer and Robin Williamson decided that The Incredible String Band should reform, but only as a duo. This was essentially The Incredible String Band Mk II. 

They made their debut on a tour in November 1966, where The Incredible String Band, who were now a duo, supported Judy Collins and Tom Paxton. After the tour,  The Incredible String Band had an award to collect. 

Their debut album The Incredible String Band won the Folk Album Of The Year in Melody Maker’s 1966 annual poll. By then, The Incredible String Band was well-regarded among their musical peers. Bob Dylan referred to October Song as one of his favourite songs of the mid-sixties in an interview in Sing Out magazine. With the Incredible String Band reforming, this was spurred them on to greater heights. 

The 5000 Spirits Or The Layers Of The Onion.

Buoyed by winning the Folk Album Of The Year Award, and the praise of Bob Dylan ringing in their ears, the Incredible String Band set about writing and recording their sophomore album. Unlike many bands, the Incredible String Band didn’t write together. When they were apart, this was when they wrote their new songs. This was the case with their sophomore album The 5000 Spirits Or The Layers Of The Onion. Clive Palmer and Robin Williamson contributed seven songs each and they became The 5000 Spirits Or The Layers Of The Onion.

Reduced to a duo, The Incredible String Band brought onboard a number of guest musicians. This included Pentangle double bassist Danny Thompson, pianist Jon Hopkins and Soma, who played sitar and tamboura. Licorice McKechnie, who was Robin William’s girlfriend, made her Incredible String Band debut contributing percussion and adding vocals. Just like on The Incredible String Band, Joe Boyd took charge of production on The 5000 Spirits Or The Layers Of The Onion, which was completed early in 1967. When it was released, it marked a change in The Incredible String Band’s sound.

The 5000 Spirits Or The Layers Of The Onion marked the start of The Incredible String Band’s psychedelic folk era. However, mostly, The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion drew upon traditional British folk music. What was apparent was that Robin Williamson and Mike Heron had honed The Incredible String Band’s sound and matured and evolved as musicians. They were now talented multi-instrumentalists who could seamlessly switch between traditional and exotic instruments that played their part in the sound and success of The 5000 Spirits Or The Layers Of The Onion.

Critics on hearing The Incredible String Band’s sophomore album, realised that Robin Williamson and Mike Heron were both talented songwriters. Their songs were cerebral and full of imagery and mystery. There was also a psychedelic hue to The 5000 Spirits Or The Layers Of The Onion. This fusion of the traditional and psychedelic, found favour amongst critics and music lovers.

When The 5000 Spirits Or The Layers Of The Onion was released in July 1967, it seemed to typify the underlying counter-culture. It struck a nerve with critics and music lovers. Critics hailed The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion as an eclectic and innovative album that found The Incredible String Band picking up where the left with their eponymous debut album.

With its eclectic, genre-melting style The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion appealed to a wide range of record buyers, and soon, the album was climbing the UK charts. Eventually, it reached number twenty-five in the UK charts, where it spent five weeks. Gradually, the Incredible String Band’s popularity was growing, and it seemed as if the band was on the verge of greatness.

The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter

That proved to be the case.  1968 was the to be the biggest year of The Incredible String Band’s nascent career. They released two albums, including The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter, which was their first album of 1968.

For The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter, Robin Williamson wrote seven songs while Mike Heron penned just three songs. The Incredible String Band had decided that The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter wasn’t going to be sprawling album. Their two previous albums featured sixteen and fourteen songs. This time, only ten songs featured, and with Robin Williamson and Mike Heron concentrating on quality, this marked a coming of age for The Incredible String Band.

With Joe Boyd producing The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter, the Incredible String Band entered the studio in December 1967. This time round, Robin Williamson and Mike Heron played most of the instruments on The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter. They were joined by Licorice McKechnie, who was with the Incredible String Band until 1972. Other musicians were drafted in on an ad hoc basis. This included Fairport Convention’s Judy Dyble and Richard Thompson, who played piano on The Minotaur’s Song. During the recording sessions, The Incredible String Band made use of the new multi-track tape recorders, which meant they were able to layer instruments on top of each other. For the Incredible String Band, this was a departure from their “usual sound.” It worked though, and played its part in what was the Incredible String Band’s Magnus Opus.

Released in March 1968, The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter represented, promoted and epitomised the hippie ideal. This included Eastern mysticism, communal living and rational pantheism. The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter was a cerebral and beautiful album which featured songs that were dreamy, ethereal, cerebral and surreal. Especially The Minotaur’s Song, which is essentially a parodic song that is sung from the Minotaur’s perspective, and has been influenced by the British musical hall. Very different is A Very Cellular Song, which is a thirteen minute epic that is a reflective and thoughtful song that poses a series of big questions on life, love, and amoebas. Just like the rest of The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter, The Incredible String Band fuse disparate musical genres. Mostly though, their unique brand of progressive, psychedelic folk shines through. This found an audience on both sides of the Atlantic.

Released to widespread critical acclaim, The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter reached number five in the UK, where it spent twenty-one weeks in the charts. This was The Incredible String Band’s most successful UK album. The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter became the Incredible String Band’s first album to chart in the US. It reached number 161 in the US Billboard 200. Having spent nine weeks in the US Billboard 200, The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter the Incredible String Band was nominated for a Grammy Award. It seemed  the Incredible String Band was going places.

Wee Tam and The Big Huge.

Having just released the most successful album of their career, The Incredible String Band were one of the most successful British groups of the late-sixties. They were capable of filling the biggest venues in Britain, and were just as popular across the Atlantic in America. The Incredible String Band was capable of selling out both the Filmore East in New York and the Filmore West in San Francisco. This was something only a small number of British bands could do. However, The Incredible String Band’s star was in the ascendancy and they were a popular draw after the released of their third album The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter. It was a game-changer, and broke The Incredible String Band in America. Later, in 1968, they tried to do the same with Wee Tam and The Big Huge.

Wee Tam and The Big Huge was without doubt, the most ambitious album of The Incredible String Band’s career. It was released as a double-album in the UK and as two individual albums, Wee Tam and The Big Huge, in America. This meant that Robin Williamson and Mike Heron had been busy.

On their return from the latest gruelling tour, members of The Incredible String Band and their entourages lived together in Newport, in  eight cottages that cottages that had been joined together. This communal living was typical of the time, and was where the eighteen tracks that became Wee Tam and The Big Huge were written. Robin Williamson penned ten songs and Mike Heron the other eight tracks. When Wee Tam and The Big Huge was recorded at Sound Techniques studio, in Chelsea it would be with their usual eclectic selection of instruments and their two girlfriends Licorice McKechnie and Rose Simpson.

Joe Boyd, who had produced the Incredible String Band’s three previous albums would produce Wee Tam and The Big Huge. This time, Joe Body decided that The Incredible String Band should be recorded as a group, rather than overdubbing parts later. Given time was short, for The Incredible String Band this seemed a risky decision as recording of Wee Tam and The Big Huge began in April 1968. It could’ve backfired, but Joe Boyd wanted to capture the essence of the Incredible String Band live.

Given the variety of instruments Robin Williamson and Mike Heron played on Wee Tam and The Big Huge, some overdubbing was necessary. Unlike previous albums, no guest artists featured on Wee Tam and The Big Huge. Instead, only Licorice McKechnie and Rose Simpson, Robin Williamson and Mike Hero’s respective girlfriends featured on Wee Tam and The Big Huge. Rose Simpson’s voice was used to balance out the role of Licorice McKechnie, ion an album that saw The Incredible String Band combine elements of British and American influences. By August 1968, The Incredible String Band had completed recording of  Wee Tam and The Big Huge, such was released later in 1968.

November 1968 saw the release of Wee Tam and The Big Huge which was the much-anticipated followup to The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter. However, The Incredible String Band knew that The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter was a hard act to follow. It was the greatest album of their career, so rather record The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter Mk. II, Wee Tam and The Big Huge was a very different album. 

Eclectic describes Wee Tam and The Big Huge which is an album of disparate influences. Similarly, a verity of different instruments were used, and even the arrangements differ from previous albums. By then, Robin Williamson and Mike Heron were influencing the arrangements to  each other’s songs. This was a new development, but by then, the internal politics of the group and its dynamics had changed. Despite this, Wee Tam and The Big Huge was another ambitious and cerebral album from The Incredible String Band. The themes included mythology, religion, awareness and identity, on what was the first album from The Incredible String Band as a four piece band.

Critics appreciated this change of direction from the new lineup of The Incredible String Band, and recognised that Wee Tam and The Big Huge was another ambitious release. The addition of Rose Simpson had given The Incredible String Band a much more balanced sound on Wee Tam and The Big Huge. It was an album that The Incredible String Band should be able to replicate live critics noted. However, the only problem was that Wee Tam and The Big Huge didn’t fare well commercially.

Wee Tam and The Big Huge was released as a double album in Britain in November 1968, but incredibly failed to chart. This was a huge surprise for The Incredible String Band, producer Joe Boyd and executives at Elektra Records. They could only hope that Wee Tam and The Big Huge would fare better upon their released in America.

Four months later, Wee Tam and The Big Huge were released as separate albums in March 1969. Wee Tam reached number 174 in the US Billboard 200 and The Big Huge stalled at just number 180 in the US Billboard 200. After spending just three weeks in the charts, both albums disappeared. This was yet another disappointment for the members of The Incredible String Band, producer Joe Boyd and executives at Elektra Records.

Despite its lack of commercial success, Wee Tam and The Big Huge is nowadays regarded as one  of the best albums that The Incredible String Band released. However, for The Incredible String Band Wee Tam and The Big Huge was regarded as the album that got away. It should’ve been a commercial success, but slipped under the musical radar. This was a disappointment for The Incredible String Band who wouldn’t release another album until November 1969.

In 1969, the Incredible String Band hit the road, and embarked upon what was a gruelling touring schedule. During this period, the Incredible String Band continued to live communally in a farmhouse in Newport, Pembrokeshire. It was also during this time, that The Incredible String Band became interested in mixed media, which was something that would later influence their music. However, in 1969, touring was what kept them busy. 

The Woodstock Music and Art Fair.

The Incredible String Band’s most high-profile performance took place at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair which took place between the ‘15th’ and ‘17th’ of August 1969. By then, The Incredible String Band were one of the biggest and most successful folk bands in the world. That’s why they were booked to play at Woodstock in 1969.

Rain delayed the Incredible String Band’s performance at Woodstock. They were due to play at 10.50pm on Friday ‘15th’ August 1969. This was when all the other folk acts were due to play. The Incredible String Band were due to follow Ravi Shankar, However, as Ravi Shankar played, the heavens opened. This presented a problem for The Incredible String Band, who refused to take to the stage. Realising that The Incredible String Band were one of the biggest folk bands of the day, their performance was rescheduled. Melanie was called in as a last-minute replacement for The Incredible String Band and they took to the stage the following day. 

Between 6.00-6.30pm on Saturday the ‘15th’ August 1969, the Incredible String Band took to the stage, following Keef Hartley. From the moment that The Incredible String Band took to the stage, they played a starring role in the Woodstock Festival. They had the audience in the palm of their hands. Following their appearance at the Woodstock Festival, The Incredible String Band kept on touring. 

Two weeks after playing a starring role at the Woodstock Festival, The Incredible String Band found themselves in Texas for the Labor Day Weekend. That was when the Texas International Pop Festival was held at the Dallas International Motor Speedway. The Incredible String Band played on Sunday the ‘30th’ August 1969. However, their performance didn’t match their appearance at the Woodstock  Festival which disappointed the members of The Incredible String Band. However, they had to put this behind them, as they an album to release in three months time, Changing Horses.

Changing Horses.

In November 1969, The Incredible String Band were preparing to release their fifth album Changing Horses. By then, much had changed over the last few months for The Incredible String Band and especially Robin Williamson and Mike Heron.

Robin Williamson and Mike Heron had split from their respective girlfriends and moved from Newport to Innerleithen, in Peeblesshire, Scotland. This became the new headquarters for The Incredible String Band.

While The Incredible String Band had performed as a quartet on Wee Tam and The Big Huge, the only two full-time members of the band were Robin Williamson and Mike Heron. However, despite the breakup of their relationships, Robin Williamson and Mike Heron confirmed that Licorice McKechnie and Rose Simpson were now full-time members of The Incredible String Band. This wasn’t the only change that occurred. 

Recently, The Incredible String Band had fully embraced the controversial cult-like Church Of Scientology. They had been “believers” since the autumn of 1968, when they dined with producer Joe Boyd after a sellout show in New York. That night, Joe Boyd happened to mention that the manager of the restaurant they were dining in had turned his life around since he last seen him. This transformation the manager claimed was down to his recent  conversion to the Church Of Scientology. Having told the story, Joe Boyd finished his meal and then left the restaurant to head off on a business trip to California. Little did Joe Boyd realise the consequences of his story.

In Joe Boyd’s absence, The Incredible String Band approached the band’s US agent wanting the payments that they were owed for the mini tour of the East Coast. When the US agent phoned Joe Boyd before paying the money to The Incredible String Band, he decided to find out what the band wanted the money for? 

Joe Boyd struggled to contact any of the members of The Incredible String Band, who had checked out of the Chelsea Hotel. By then, Joe Boyd was wondering why The Incredible String Band needed any money as he had given the band an allowance before leaving for California. Eventually, though, Joe Boyd got through to Licorice McKechnie, who explained they needed the money to pay for some “courses” with the Church Of Scientology. This was just a day after Joe Boyd had mentioned the Church Of Scientology. Had they working quickly on their latest potential converts, who just so happened to be high-profile and relatively wealthy musicians?

When Joe Boyd returned the next day, he was met by the four members of The Incredible String Band who were determined that he should write them a cheque for the “courses.” After questioning the group, it turned out that after Joe Boyd left the restaurant, the manager began his pitch on how the Church Of Scientology had transformed his life. The next day, the same restaurant  manager invited the four members of The Incredible String Band to its New York “celebrity centre.” By the end of the evening, Robin Williamson and Licorice McKechnie had been converted.

Joe Boyd was reluctant to write the cheques there and then, and managed to convince Mike Heron and Rose Simpson to think things over. They agreed and headed home to Britain, but before long they too had been caught in the Church Of Scientology’s thrall.

Mike Heron’s account differs slightly, and claims that his conversion to the Church Of Scientology came after reading a book on self-improvement. After reading the book, he decided to embrace the Church Of Scientology “philosophies.”

After embracing the controversial and secretive Church Of Scientology, The Incredible String Band’s concerts began to change. It’s claimed that the concerts took on a much more communal and friendlier than before their “conversion.” That wasn’t the only change.

The other thing that changed was The Incredible String Band’s attitude to money. After joining the Church Of Scientology the band began to have weekly meetings to discuss their finances. Despite their newfound spirituality. money began to play an increasingly important role in The Incredible String Band’s lives. Already the members of The Incredible String Band were changing due to their dalliance with the Church Of Scientology, and this would affect their music and lifestyle.

After Robin Williamson and Mike Heron’s conversion to the Church Of Scientology the pair gave up drugs, which previously had been part of their lives. Mike Heron alludes to their decision in White Bird, which was one of two tracks he contributed to Changing Horses. The other was Sleepers Awake!, while Mike Heron and Robin Williamson wrote Dust Be Diamonds. Robin Williamson’s contributions to Changing Horses were Big Ted, Mr. and Mrs and Creation. These six tracks would become Changing Horses, The Incredible String Band’s fifth album.

Recording of Changing Horses had to fit round The Incredible String Band’s touring schedule, but much of recording took place over the summer of 1969, at Sound Techniques studio in London, and at Elektra Records studio in New York. By then, the members of The Incredible String Band were different people from. They now spent time studying spirituality and philosophy, and self-analysing as part of their conversion to conversion to the Church Of Scientology. Their newfound religious belief meant that drugs were a thing of the past for The Incredible String Band during the recording of Changing Horses which marked a series of changes.

The first was that The Incredible String Band started to move from psychedelic folk to a new British folk rock sound and even a hint of the progressive rock influences. Joe Boyd started to be more flexible when it came to the band’s creative process, and very rarely chose to intervene. This allowed The Incredible String Band to develop new ideas. By then Licorice McKechnie and Rose Simpson were playing a more active roles in the band. Licorice McKechnie played the guitar and organ on some tracks, while Rose Simpson’s Simpson’s bass featured on each track on Changing Horses. Just like on previous albums, Robin Williamson and Mike Heron played their usual mixture of traditional and exotic instruments and shared lead vocals. They were no longer as close as they once were, and there was a friction between them. However, by the end of the summer of 1969, the recording of Changing Horses was completed. However, two songs dominated the album, with White Bird and Creation taking up thirty of the fifty minutes on Changing Horses. This was a first for The Incredible String Band.

In October 1969, The Incredible String Band released an edited version of Big Ted as a single. However, it failed to chart, which was disappointment for The Incredible String Band. They had never been a singles band, and were known for the four albums they had released. Soon, four would become five. Before that, the critics had their say on Changing Horses.

Critics on hearing Changing Horses were surprised that The Incredible String Band had moved away from their trademark psychedelic folk sound. It was another eclectic album that marked the start of a new chapter in The Incredible String Band’s career.

Opening  was Big Ted, a tongue-in-cheek lament to a pig where The Incredible String Band become a jug band as they combine elements of country, doo wop, ragtime and vaudeville. White Bird is a fifteen minute epic that deals with the changing beliefs of The Incredible String Band. It’s  full of subtleties and nuances as this cerebral songs unfolds. Dust Be Diamonds is a quirky song penned by Robin Williamson and Mike Heron where The Incredible String Band combine riddles, religious ideology, excerpts of nursery rhymes, as they play everything  from electric guitars to kazoos.

The Incredible String Band roll back the years on Sleepers, Awake! as they sing unaccompanied. It’s a reminder to the early years of their career as they sung in Scottish folk clubs. Mr. and Mrs deals with the ups-and-downs and quirks of family life, and finds The Incredible String Band plugging-in and changing direction. They deploy electric guitars and an organ that accompanies Robin Williamson’s ironic, and sometimes mocking vocal. Closing Changing Horses is Creation, a sixteen minute epic which combined an Eastern raga motif with a soliloquy during this melodic and memorable retelling of the seven days of creation. It’s without doubt one of the highlights of Changing Horses, and ensures the album closes on a high.

On the release of Changing Horses in November 1969, it reached number thirty in the UK. However, after a week, Changing Horses disappeared from the charts. Over the Atlantic, Changing Horses stalled at just 166 in the US Billboard 200. Three weeks later, it disappeared from the charts. This was a disappointment for The Incredible String Band who had starred at the Woodstock Festival just three months earlier.

Having triumphed at Woodstock, The Incredible String Band must have been hoping that Changing Horses would see the band  build on their two critically acclaimed albums. However, record buyers didn’t seem to “get” Changing Horses which was an album that saw The Incredible String Band in a reflective mood as they mused on their newfound spirituality, retell the story of Creation  and deal with subjects like family life on Mr. and Mrs. Other times, the music was quirky and comedic as The Incredible String Band experimented and changed direction on what was a genre-melting album full of different musical textures.

They came courtesy of The Incredible String Band’s fusion of traditional, Moroccan and Eastern instruments, which were augmented by electric guitars and a Hammond organ on Changing Horses. It found The Incredible String Band move from their former psychedelic folk sound to their new British folk rock sound that hints at progressive rock. There’s also elements of country, doo wop, ragtime and vaudeville on Big Ted, while Creation is full of Eastern sounds. They’re part of what was an eclectic album from The Incredible String Band, which marked the end of their golden period.

It was also the end of The Incredible String Band as a duo, as Licorice McKechnie and Rose Simpson were now full-time members of the band. They would continue to record and play live as band rather than a duo. No longer was it just two friends playing the music that they loved. Instead, The Incredible String Band would spend the rest of their career trying to reach recreate the music they released between their 1966 eponymous debut album and Changing Horses in 1969. 

Sadly, never again would The Incredible String Band reach the same heights of creativity again. Never again, would their star shine as brightly as it had between The Incredible String Band and Changing Horses, which was recently reissued and remastered in high-definition by BGO Records. Changing Horses marked the end of a three-year period where The Incredible String Band released five albums and were one of the biggest and most successful folk bands in the world and were on their way to becoming musical royalty.

The Incredible String Band-Changing Horses.