Volume Two (The Soft Machine album)


Volume Two is the second LP album by The Soft Machine, released in 1969. A jazz influence is added to the humour, dada, and psychedelia of their first LP The Soft Machine.
In 2000 it was voted number 715 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums.

Overview

In the lyrics to "Have You Ever Bean Green?" Soft Machine thanks the Jimi Hendrix Experience, with whom they had just toured through the United States in 1968; as Hendrix's opening band they were exposed to large crowds for the first time. The title of this song is a play on the chorus lyric in the Hendrix song "Are You Experienced?", "Have you ever been experienced?". Wyatt thanks "Brian" and "George" in the next section, Pataphysical Introduction – Pt. 2, which also includes a quote of "These Foolish Things." The title of the side-two suite, "Esther's Nose Job", is derived from a chapter in Thomas Pynchon's novel V.

Track listing

Side 1

  1. "Rivmic Melodies" – 17:07
  2. #"Pataphysical Introduction – Pt. 1" – 1:00
  3. #"A Concise British Alphabet – Pt. 1" – 0:10
  4. #"Hibou, Anemone and Bear" – 5:58
  5. #"A Concise British Alphabet – Pt. 2" – 0:12
  6. #"Hulloder" – 0:52
  7. #"Dada Was Here" – 3:25
  8. #"Thank You Pierrot Lunaire" – 0:47
  9. #"Have You Ever Bean Green?" – 1:23
  10. #"Pataphysical Introduction – Pt. 2" – 0:50
  11. #"Out of Tunes" – 2:30

    Side 2

  12. "As Long as He Lies Perfectly Still" – 2:30
  13. "Dedicated to You But You Weren't Listening" – 2:30
  14. "Esther's Nose Job" – 11:13
  15. #"Fire Engine Passing with Bells Clanging" – 1:50
  16. #"Pig" – 2:08
  17. #"Orange Skin Food" – 1:52
  18. #"A Door Opens and Closes" – 1:09
  19. #"10:30 Returns to the Bedroom" – 4:14

    Personnel

;Additional personnel