Incredible String Poll: Wee Tam & The Big Huge

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed

http://www.progreviews.com/reviews/images/tISB-WT.jpg

Poll Results

OptionVotes
Job's Tears 2
Maya 2
The Circle Is Unbroken 1
The Yellow Snake 1
Douglas Traherne Harding 0
The Iron Stone 0
Cousin Caterpillar 0
The Mountain of God 0
Lordly Nightshade 0
The Son of Noah's Brother 0
Greatest Friend 0
Puppies 0
Ducks on a Pond 0
Air 0
The Half-Remarkable Question 0
You Get Brighter 0
Log Cabin Home in the Sky 0
Beyond the See 0


macaulay culkin's bukkake shocker (bug), Monday, 27 April 2009 19:56 (seventeen years ago)

Yellow Snake -- I keep meaning to learn how to play that on guitar. Such a lovely, weird tune.

tylerw, Monday, 27 April 2009 20:06 (seventeen years ago)

It's hard for me to consider this one album due to it being split into two separate records for the US. Some really great songs, I think Williamson's contributions overshadow Heron's on this one (and on most ISB records, I suppose). Voted Job's Tears.

Trip Maker, Monday, 27 April 2009 20:07 (seventeen years ago)

i voted job's tears too. it's a weirdly christian record, especially given their previous pagan-ish mystical leanings, and their subsequent embrace of scientology. mike has some great songs on here, though; "log cabin home in the sky" is one of my favorite isb songs.

macaulay culkin's bukkake shocker (bug), Monday, 27 April 2009 20:13 (seventeen years ago)

Yeah, I do love that song. Maybe I'm being unfair to Heron.
I think that I used to favor his songs and now I'm going through a backlash period.

Trip Maker, Monday, 27 April 2009 20:17 (seventeen years ago)

i agree with you that, throughout their whole catalogue, robin has a definite edge. for me, anyway. but mike did write some great stuff. i mean, "a very cellular song" ffs!

macaulay culkin's bukkake shocker (bug), Monday, 27 April 2009 20:23 (seventeen years ago)

"Maya"

Sacco, Vanzetti, Passantino... (Tom D.), Tuesday, 28 April 2009 09:22 (seventeen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Wednesday, 29 April 2009 23:01 (seventeen years ago)

Too bad there wasn't a way to put a "MayPOLL" pun into the thread title.

I wish he hadn't adapted my critique of his "ilxor" moniker (Myonga Vön Bontee), Thursday, 30 April 2009 07:16 (seventeen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Thursday, 30 April 2009 23:01 (seventeen years ago)

six months pass...

wee tam is so much better than the big huge.
as a matter of fact, along with hangman's, it's their best record.

Zeno, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 21:06 (sixteen years ago)

It was the first one that I heard and yeah, I love it a lot.
I gave mine to a very dear friend years ago, still haven't replaced it.
Never owned a copy of the Big Huge, but I really like the song "The Iron Stone."

Trip Maker, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 21:10 (sixteen years ago)

I remember when Papa Crazee was still in Oneida (now he does Oakley Hall) and he joked about them doing a ten minute cover of "You Get Brighter."

Trip Maker, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 21:12 (sixteen years ago)

yeah The Iron Stone and Maya saves Big Huge from mediocrecy imo

Zeno, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 21:13 (sixteen years ago)

Puppies is an awesome song.

Trip Maker, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 21:14 (sixteen years ago)

weird,i don't like sitar except in ISB songs - (listening to the half remarkble question now).

they were ahead of their times, or more exactly - they were/are at a time and space of their own.

Zeno, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 21:24 (sixteen years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xEaEALzyJo

Zeno, Tuesday, 24 November 2009 21:30 (sixteen years ago)

Damn, this happened during my ilx hiatus. Would have voted Ducks On A Pond.

make love to a c.h.u.d. in the club (Jon Lewis), Tuesday, 24 November 2009 23:57 (sixteen years ago)

^ did a cover version of that song live once *red face*

I Poxy the Fule (Tom D.), Thursday, 26 November 2009 10:58 (sixteen years ago)

The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion (Elektra, July 1967)
The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter (Elektra, March 1968)
Wee Tam and the Big Huge (Elektra, November 1968)

- rare example of an act recording a relatively large amount (3) of legendary awesome records in the shortest period of time(15 months)

Zeno, Thursday, 26 November 2009 12:18 (sixteen years ago)

i was always really underwhelmed by these. like i bought them quite excitedly after listening to 'hangman' non stop for a week, and there was just a lack of anything that was interesting in that record to them. none of the arrangements; no sense of the whimsy having been chipped away at until it actually reached some kind of workable set of songs, just whimsically half-written stuff in a heap.

thomp, Thursday, 26 November 2009 12:26 (sixteen years ago)

i expected an "until i discovered it's a masterpiece" ending...

Zeno, Thursday, 26 November 2009 12:34 (sixteen years ago)

sorry dude :|

thomp, Thursday, 26 November 2009 12:36 (sixteen years ago)

Not as inventive as Hangman's or as consistent as 5000 Spirits but still pretty good!

I Poxy the Fule (Tom D.), Thursday, 26 November 2009 12:37 (sixteen years ago)

one year passes...

First three minutes of "Ducks on a Pond."

timellison, Tuesday, 5 July 2011 00:22 (fourteen years ago)

six months pass...

Indeed. Listened to "Wee Tam" on the way to work this morning, intros to the songs are often better than the rest of the songs! Prefer "Half Remarkable Question" to "Job's Tears" and "Puppies" to "You Get Brighter". Have come to the conclusion that I don't like "Log Cabin" (or, for that matter, Mike's similar attempts at folky fiddle-scrapin' knees-up material on other albums) but love the ramshackle mediaevalism of "Beyond the See". Definitely better than "The Big Huge".

Tom D (Tom D.), Thursday, 5 January 2012 13:30 (fourteen years ago)

eleven years pass...

"Down gallons of glandular corridors of the dark castle
The pompous old bellman is tolling one bell
At bathtime the hippies in chains they are crossing the hall
Where Hitler is making his new film about it all"

Odd that two of the first four songs on "The Big Huge" mention Hitler.

Foot Heads Arms Body (Tom D.), Saturday, 8 July 2023 19:16 (two years ago)

More than almost any other artist, I have to avoid being intimidated by the ISB and admit that, although I’d like to accept their albums as complete and organic works of untrammelled creative expression, even their best records are about 1/3 unlistenable.

Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 8 July 2023 19:44 (two years ago)

…and this one is not quite their best.

Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 8 July 2023 19:46 (two years ago)

(xp) Fair comment tbh, I can't think of an album of theirs that doesn't make me cringe at one point or another.

Foot Heads Arms Body (Tom D.), Saturday, 8 July 2023 20:16 (two years ago)

What’s strange about it is my inclination to treat these records as unified masterpieces, despite the fact that they were conceived and recorded quickly and fairly sloppily even by 60s standards.

Halfway there but for you, Sunday, 9 July 2023 14:40 (two years ago)

to like this band I guess you have to give up on perfection and embrace the sloppy or cringey or listless moments as a necessary part of the whole - either that or be on enough psychedelics that it all sounds just right anyway

your original display name is still visible (Left), Sunday, 9 July 2023 15:07 (two years ago)

I am fascinated by their impact on the much more professional sounding and more frequently canonised rock acts of the late 60s and even their brief chart success at the time - it's a vibe that seems so far from today's zeitgeist* where even the druggier stuff is much slicker and less aimless (*apart from a few weird pockets - I assume Joanna Newsom is familiar with them and her songwriting sometimes resembles theirs; Janelle Monáe is a fan but I don't hear much of them in her music, except maybe the eclecticism)

your original display name is still visible (Left), Sunday, 9 July 2023 15:22 (two years ago)

anyway I would have voted for job's tears

your original display name is still visible (Left), Sunday, 9 July 2023 15:30 (two years ago)

I've never heard The Big Huge (always just assumed people were referring to "U"), but on Wee Tam this is probably Half Remarkable Question for me, though You Get Brighter and Job's Tears very close.

il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR), Sunday, 9 July 2023 17:30 (two years ago)

This is 'Maya' all day long.

(picnic, lightning) very very frightening (Chinaski), Sunday, 9 July 2023 17:40 (two years ago)

two years pass...

Robin!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMNgtFUIvP4

timellison, Friday, 1 May 2026 04:06 (one month ago)

Great version from the auld fella!

Clarinet Cop (Tom D.), Friday, 1 May 2026 06:39 (one month ago)

Great performance- impressed that he could still hit those high notes.

"Big Huge" is great. I haven't heard "Wee Tam".

o. nate, Friday, 1 May 2026 13:25 (one month ago)

Wee Tam might be better.

Clarinet Cop (Tom D.), Friday, 1 May 2026 13:54 (one month ago)

Wee Tam is better

sookie stackhausen (Jon not Jon), Saturday, 2 May 2026 23:15 (one month ago)

I’m sure I would like it, I like most of the ISB stuff that I’ve heard.

o. nate, Sunday, 3 May 2026 21:36 (one month ago)

I really need to listen to this properly. I've owned it for years and years, but have never really paid it real attention.

Duke, Monday, 4 May 2026 14:32 (one month ago)

The first five minutes or so of "Ducks on a Pond" is maybe the most beautiful in all of recorded music. I've said a version of this before but the song like the albums is a mix of tragedy and farce, sacred and profane. Something I've also said before is that Wee Tam is more consistent to my ear, while Big Huge is more uneven but then again it's hard to beat the towering majesty of "Maya"

Cattedrale metropolitana di Santa Maria de Episcopio, Monday, 4 May 2026 15:37 (one month ago)

maybe tragedy's not exactly the right word, more like epic poetry or something

Cattedrale metropolitana di Santa Maria de Episcopio, Monday, 4 May 2026 15:38 (one month ago)


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.