Volume Two (The Soft Machine album)

Volume Two is the second LP album by The Soft Machine, released in 1969. The album combined humour, dada, psychedelia and jazz.

Volume Two
Studio album by
The Soft Machine
ReleasedOctober 1969[1]
RecordedFebruary–March 1969 at Olympic Studios, London
Length33:20
LabelProbe SPB 1002 (UK); CPLP-4505 (US)
ProducerThe Soft Machine
The Soft Machine chronology
The Soft Machine
(1968)		 Volume Two
(1969)		 Third
(1970)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic [2]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music [3]

In 2000 it was voted number 715 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums.[4]

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" (Brian Hopper) and "George" (engineer George Chkiantz) in the next section, Pataphysical Introduction – Pt. 2, which also includes a quote of "These Foolish Things." The title of the closing 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
    1. "Pataphysical Introduction – Pt. 1" (Robert Wyatt) – 1:00
    2. "A Concise British Alphabet – Pt. 1" (Hugh Hopper, arr. Wyatt) – 0:10
    3. "Hibou, Anemone and Bear" (Mike Ratledge, Wyatt) – 5:58
    4. "A Concise British Alphabet – Pt. 2" (Hopper, arr. Wyatt) – 0:12
    5. "Hulloder" (Hopper, arr. Wyatt) – 0:52
    6. "Dada Was Here" (Hopper, arr. Wyatt) – 3:25
    7. "Thank You Pierrot Lunaire" (Hopper, arr. Wyatt) – 0:47
    8. "Have You Ever Bean Green?" (Hopper, arr. Wyatt) – 1:23
    9. "Pataphysical Introduction – Pt. 2" (Wyatt) – 0:50
    10. "Out of Tunes" (Ratledge, Hopper, Wyatt) – 2:30

Side 2
  1. "As Long as He Lies Perfectly Still" (Ratledge, Wyatt) – 2:30
  2. "Dedicated to You But You Weren't Listening" (Hopper) – 2:30
  3. "Esther's Nose Job" – 11:13
    1. "Fire Engine Passing with Bells Clanging" (Ratledge) – 1:50
    2. "Pig" (Ratledge) – 2:08
    3. "Orange Skin Food" (Ratledge) – 1:52
    4. "A Door Opens and Closes" (Ratledge) – 1:09
    5. "10:30 Returns to the Bedroom" (Ratledge, Hopper, Wyatt) – 4:14

Personnel
Soft Machine
Additional personnel

References
  1. "Album Reviews" (PDF). Melody Maker. 25 October 1969. p. 29. Retrieved 15 September 2021.
  2. Kurtz, Peter. "The Soft Machine - Volume Two (1969) album review, credits & releases | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 25 July 2011.
  3. Larkin, Colin (2007). Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0857125958.
  4. Larkin, Colin (2000). All Time Top 1000 Albums (3rd ed.). Virgin Books. p. 229. ISBN 0-7535-0493-6.
  5. "Hugh Hopper - 1962-1972". Hulloder.nl. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
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