Fifth
The first album after Wyatt, with a different drummer on each side.
Soft Machine, 1972
- Released
- June 1972
- Recorded
- November 1971-February 1972
- Studio
- Advision Studios, London
- Label
- CBS
- Producer
- Soft Machine
Phil Howard played drums on the 1971 sessions that make up side one, after which he left and John Marshall took over for the 1972 sessions on side two. Roy Babbington played double bass on all of side two. The album continued the band's move from psychedelic and progressive rock toward jazz fusion.
Pigling Bland takes its title from Beatrix Potter's children's story The Tale of Pigling Bland, and a section called Pigling Bland had already appeared inside Esther's Nose Job on the 1970 Proms recording. The track Bone is uncredited on the original release. The BBC's Sid Smith described the record as bleak and ambiguous, with Howard's free-jazz cymbals set against Marshall's crisp precision.
Track listing
- All White6:06
- Drop7:42
- M C5:57
- As If8:02
- L B O1:54
- Pigling Bland3:29
- Bone
Personnel
- Elton Dean alto saxophone, saxello, electric piano
- Mike Ratledge Fender Rhodes electric piano, Lowrey organ
- Hugh Hopper bass guitar
- Phil Howard drums on side one
- John Marshall drums on side two
- Roy Babbington double bass on side two
More from Soft Machine
The Soft Machine (1968), Volume Two (1969), Third (1970), Fourth (1971), Bundles (1975)
Sources
- Fifth (Soft Machine album), Wikipedia
- Soft Machine, Fifth (UK CBS S 64806), Discogs
- Review of Soft Machine: Third / Fourth / Fifth / Six / Seven, BBC Music (2007)