"THE INCREDIBLE STRING BAND: BE GLAD FOR THE SONG HAS NO ENDING"
Wienerworld
I can remember a time only a few years ago when professing an interest
in The Incredible String Band or any of their 1960's British psych-folk
contemporaries would immediately get one branded a clueless hippie
burnout. Now, following the band's recent reunion and some well-timed
reissues of their back catalog, The Incredible String Band are once
again being accepted back into the fold as the creators of an
impressive musical zeitgeist, idiosyncratic and highly influential.
Matmos have acknowledged the Incredibles as a big influence on their
newest album, and Current 93 have virtually mimicked them (down to a
replica of ISB's album cover) on Earth Covers Earth.
On the eve of Mike Heron and Robin Williamson's reunion concert in
London, playing alongside the likes of Acid Mothers Temple, Gong and
Damo Suzuki of Can, Wienerworld Video unveils a lost artifact from
their zenith creative period, the 50-minute film Be Glad for the Song Has No Ending.
This DVD contains the entire original film, which was produced for the
BBC but never aired, deemed far too odd and abstract for a television
audience. The DVD also contains a brief interview with director Peter
Neil, who takes pains to give the Incredibles full credit for the shape
and tone of the film. Be Glad is nothing like a typical
rockumentary. There are very few interviews with Heron and Williamson,
and when they do talk it's usually in philosophical aphorisms and
poetic reverie. Robin Williamson's glassy-eyed, beatific revelations
that "we are involved in the act of creation" really drives home the
peculiar mix of pagan and Gnostic ideas that inform his lyrics. Be Glad
tries to accomplish on film what the Incredibles do on record - a
whimsical, psychedelic journey through their eclectic music, their
communal lifestyle and their pastoral "Wicker Man" mysticism. The film
contains concert footage, including Williamson's hushed recitation of
his poem-manifesto "Head." There are terrific live-in-studio renditions
of classics such as "The Iron Stone" and "All Writ Down." At one point,
a road manager reads a list of all of the instruments used by the
Incredibles in a typical performance, and the sheer number of stringed
and percussive instruments needed to achieve their sublime ethno-folk
sound is absurdly comical. The last twenty minutes of the film is taken
up with a mystical passion play called "The Pirate and the Crystal
Ball," an allegorical tale set to an original ISB soundtrack, every bit
as surreal and outlandish as Kenneth Anger's Magick Lantern Cycle
films. It's clear that a lot of thought went into this film, and the
original music on the soundtrack is some of the Incredibles' finest and
most adventurous. Be Glad For the Song Has No Ending is an
indispensable document, capturing on film that strange spell that The
Incredible String Band were capable of weaving at the height of their
power.
I can remember a time only a few years ago when professing an interest
in The Incredible String Band or any of their 1960's British psych-folk
contemporaries would immediately get one branded a clueless hippie
burnout. Now, following the band's recent reunion and some well-timed
reissues of their back catalog, The Incredible String Band are once
again being accepted back into the fold as the creators of an
impressive musical zeitgeist, idiosyncratic and highly influential.
Matmos have acknowledged the Incredibles as a big influence on their
newest album, and Current 93 have virtually mimicked them (down to a
replica of ISB's album cover) on Earth Covers Earth.
On the eve of Mike Heron and Robin Williamson's reunion concert in
London, playing alongside the likes of Acid Mothers Temple, Gong and
Damo Suzuki of Can, Wienerworld Video unveils a lost artifact from
their zenith creative period, the 50-minute film Be Glad for the Song Has No Ending.
This DVD contains the entire original film, which was produced for the
BBC but never aired, deemed far too odd and abstract for a television
audience. The DVD also contains a brief interview with director Peter
Neil, who takes pains to give the Incredibles full credit for the shape
and tone of the film. Be Glad is nothing like a typical
rockumentary. There are very few interviews with Heron and Williamson,
and when they do talk it's usually in philosophical aphorisms and
poetic reverie. Robin Williamson's glassy-eyed, beatific revelations
that "we are involved in the act of creation" really drives home the
peculiar mix of pagan and Gnostic ideas that inform his lyrics. Be Glad
tries to accomplish on film what the Incredibles do on record - a
whimsical, psychedelic journey through their eclectic music, their
communal lifestyle and their pastoral "Wicker Man" mysticism. The film
contains concert footage, including Williamson's hushed recitation of
his poem-manifesto "Head." There are terrific live-in-studio renditions
of classics such as "The Iron Stone" and "All Writ Down." At one point,
a road manager reads a list of all of the instruments used by the
Incredibles in a typical performance, and the sheer number of stringed
and percussive instruments needed to achieve their sublime ethno-folk
sound is absurdly comical. The last twenty minutes of the film is taken
up with a mystical passion play called "The Pirate and the Crystal
Ball," an allegorical tale set to an original ISB soundtrack, every bit
as surreal and outlandish as Kenneth Anger's Magick Lantern Cycle
films. It's clear that a lot of thought went into this film, and the
original music on the soundtrack is some of the Incredibles' finest and
most adventurous. Be Glad For the Song Has No Ending is an
indispensable document, capturing on film that strange spell that The
Incredible String Band were capable of weaving at the height of their
power.
