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The Incredible String Band - Wee Tam (1968)

Track listing:
  1. Job's Tears 6:49
  2. Puppies 5:24
  3. Beyond the See 2:21
  4. The Yellow Snake 2:09
  5. Log Cabin Home in the Sky 4:04
  6. You Get Brighter 5:49
  7. The Half-Remarkable Question 5:06
  8. Air 3:19
  9. Ducks on a Pond 9:11

Notes

Japan 24-Bit Remaster

Wee Tam and the Big Huge is the fourth album by the Incredible String Band, released in Europe as both a double LP and separate single LPs in November 1968. In the US, however, the two discs were released separately as Wee Tam and The Big Huge.

The album is considered by many to be, along with its predecessor The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter, the best work the band ever produced. Consisting of a very varied selection of songs by Robin Williamson and Mike Heron, with intriguing and poetic lyrics, the album is rich with eclectic and adept instrumentation and arrangements. Around 15 instruments are featured, played mainly by the two band members Williamson and Heron but also, in supporting roles, on a few tracks by Rose Simpson and Licorice McKechnie.

Williamson explained the title as follows:- "I saw a man with a huge big dog, [and] we knew somebody called Wee Tam, in Edinburgh. It seemed like it was a good idea in terms of one person looking up at the stars - Wee Tam and the Big Huge, just like the vastness of the universe."

The Incredible String Band were fairly busy in the latter half of 1968. With their popularity and reputation growing on both sides of the Atlantic, they began selling out large venues like the Fillmore and the Royal Albert Hall. In November 1968, Wee Tam and the Big Huge was released. It was the band's most ambitious album to date, conceived as a double LP. The album reflected an even wider variety of influences than the previous two releases and was packed to overflowing with classic songs. It was a first for the band in that it was recorded as an ensemble, i.e. with less overdubs than before and much more use of Rose Simpson and Licorice McKechnie, (girlfriends of the two respective songwriters at that time).