Soft Machine - Soft Machine's Little Red Records (1970)

After touring the first half of 1972, Soft Machine got back together in CBS Studios around the summertime to record their next album. With Robert Fripp at the production helm, the album was conceived as a "musical adaptation of The Little Red Book". Originally the double album was set to be titled 'Soft Machine's Little Red Records' with an accompanying cover parodying a piece of Chinese propaganda artwork. The title and artwork, however, was turned down by Harvest, who feared the potential controversy. "I honestly don’t blame 'em", said Kevin Ayers, "I doubt our original cover would have done us any favours in the US, what with the Cold War and Red Terror and all that. Personally I never really cared that much for Rob's politics either way, so I was sort of unphased by it." The album was then retitled after one of Ayers' songs, 'Stranger in Blue Suede Shoes', and was preceded by the single 'Stranger in Blue Suede Shoes' / 'God Song', which failed to reach the top 40 everywhere except New Zealand. While the album was critically acclaimed, it failed to make a significant commercial impact, reaching only #80 in the US and #16 in the UK. "I think that album, in particular, was very contrasting terms of our songwriting", said Robert Wyatt, "yet that made it work so well. They oddly balance each other a bit, mine being more political nonsense, and Kevin’s being somewhat bohemian and carefree. It almost forms this narrative of sorts, contrasting the complicated matters of politics with the simple pleasures of life." 

I actually preferred the original title and sleeve, so have reinstated them for this pared-down version of the original double album. I omitted 'Nan's True Hole' as a version of that had already appeared on my previous Hatfield And The North post, and I felt a couple of Ayers' songs sounded a bit out of place, so left them off as well, although he is still very well-represented on here. I've also used an alternate, extended take of 'Flora Fidget', and cross-faded and edited where I thought it would improve the flow. The result is a great 50-minute album, so enjoy this new Soft Machine record from an alternate universe where the band never broke up.

  

Track listing

01 Starting in the Middle of the Day We Can Drink Our Politics Away 
02 Marchides
03 Butterfly Dance
04 Righteous Rhumba 
05 Brandy as in Benj 
06 Song From The Bottom Of A Well 
07 God Song
08 Smoke Signal

09 Stranger In Blue Suede Shoes
10 Flora Fidget
11 Hymn

Enormous thanks to The Soft Machine Rigmarole for their notes, and for putting together the original double album from which this abbreviated version is taken. Hope they don't mind me posting this, but I love their site and want to publicise it as much as I can.