Volume Two (The Soft Machine album)
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| Studio album by The Soft Machine | ||||
| Released | September 1969 | |||
| Recorded | February–March 1969 at Olympic Studios, London | |||
| Genre | Progressive rock,Canterbury Scene | |||
| Length | 33:20 | |||
| Label | Probe SPB 1002 (UK); CPLP-4505 (US) | |||
| Producer | The Soft Machine | |||
| The Soft Machine chronology | ||||
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| Allmusic |   |
Volume Two is the second LP album by The Soft Machine, released in 1969. A jazz influence is added to the humour, dadaism, and psychedelia of their first LP The Soft Machine (1968).
The album was inspired by The Mothers Of Invention's Absolutely Free and consists of two suites – "Rivmic Melodies " and "Esther's Nose Job" – with "As Long as He Lies Perfectly Still" and "Dedicated to You" serving as interludes. Acting on a recommendation from Zappa, the band split the main tracks into smaller pieces to increase the band's income from the album.
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 Jimi's opening band they were exposed to large crowds for the first time. The title of this song is a play on the soulful plaint in the 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 Side 2, "Esther's Nose Job", is derived from a chapter in Thomas Pynchon's novel, V.
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