{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}} {{Use British English|date=January 2013}} {{Infobox album | name = Third | type = studio | artist = Soft Machine | cover = Soft Machine Third.jpg | caption = | alt = | released = June 1970 | recorded = 4 and 11 January 1970 (side A)<br>April–May 1970 | studio = Croydon and Birmingham ("Facelift"); IBC, London | genre = {{hlist|Jazz rock<ref>{{cite web|last=Lynch|first=Dave|title=Soft Machine {{!}} Biography & History|url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/soft-machine-mn0000753685/biography|access-date=28 June 2021|publisher=AllMusic}}</ref><ref name= "Larkin 1999">{{cite book|first=Colin|last=Larkin|title=All-Time Top 1000 Albums|url=https://archive.org/details/alltimetop1000al0000lark_d7o0/page/179/mode/1up|archive-url=https://archive.org/details/alltimetop1000al0000lark_d7o0/mode/1up|date=1999|archive-date= October 8, 2021|publisher=Virgin Books|isbn=0-7535-0354-9|page=120}}</ref>|progressive rock<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/50-greatest-prog-rock-albums-of-all-time-78793/the-soft-machine-third-1970-35384/|title=50 Greatest Prog Rock Albums of All Time|date=17 June 2015|magazine=Rolling Stone|access-date=28 April 2019}}</ref>|electronic<ref name=am/>}} | length = 75:15 | label = CBS (UK), Columbia (USA) | producer = Soft Machine | prev_title = Volume Two | prev_year = 1969 | next_title = Fourth | next_year = 1971 }}
'''''Third''''' is the third studio album by the English rock band Soft Machine, released in June 1970 by CBS Records in the United Kingdom and Columbia Records in the United States. The album was recorded from January to May 1970, partially at IBC Studios, based in London, and was produced by the band themselves. It is a double album with a single composition on each of the four sides, and was the first of two albums recorded with a four-piece line-up of keyboardist Mike Ratledge, drummer and vocalist Robert Wyatt, saxophonist Elton Dean, and bass guitarist Hugh Hopper. Musically, ''Third'' marks a shift in the group's sound from their psychedelic origins towards jazz rock and electronic music.
"Facelift" is a live recording by the previous line-up of the band, a five-piece with Lyn Dobson on saxophone and flute alongside Ratledge, Wyatt, Hopper and Dean. The remaining tracks are studio recordings by the four-piece line-up, augmented by a few session musicians. Jimmy Hastings (brother of Pye Hastings from Caravan) makes substantial contributions on flute and clarinet on "Slightly All the Time", free-jazz violinist Rab Spall (then a bandmate of Wyatt's in the part-time ensemble Amazing Band) is heard on the coda to "Moon in June", and Nick Evans (who had been a member of Soft Machine during late 1969 when they spent a short time as a seven-piece band) makes brief appearances on trombone in "Slightly All the Time" and "Out-Bloody-Rageous".
Upon its release, the album was positively received by music critics, mainly for its instrumentation and sound. Commercially, it charted at number 18 on the UK Albums Chart, becoming their highest-charting album to date. It also peaked at number 5 on the Dutch Album Top 100. In 2007, the album was reissued with the live album ''Live at the Proms 1970'' as a bonus disc.
==Songs== The original release of ''Third'' had an unpolished sound quality, including tape hiss on the live recordings and abrupt editing.<ref name="aaj">{{cite journal|url=https://www.allaboutjazz.com/soft-machine-third-through-seven-remasters-by-john-kelman.php|title=Soft Machine: Third Through Seventh Remasters|first=John|last=Kelman|journal=All About Jazz|date=28 February 2007|access-date=27 October 2016}}</ref> "Slightly All the Time" and "Out-Bloody-Rageous" are the most straightforward tracks on the album, representing the jazz-rock sound that would be explored further on subsequent albums.<ref name="aaj" />
=== Sides A and B === "Facelift" was recorded live at the Fairfield Halls, Croydon, 4 January 1970 (Soft Machine's first gig of the 1970s and the first with the Ratledge/Wyatt/Hopper/Dean/Dobson line-up), with a brief section from the Mothers Club, Birmingham, 11 January 1970, and some recordings from the 1969 ''Spaced'' project.<ref name="aaj" /> While a large part of the finished product is essentially a live recording, parts involve tape collage and speeding up, slowing down, looping and backwards-playing of tapes. In the ending section, two different treatments of the same basic riff (one from the live concert, the other, at double speed, from ''Spaced'') are heard backwards simultaneously. At the time of the five-piece line-up, "Facelift" was typically expanded with solo improvisations and showcases by Lyn Dobson on flute, vocals and harmonica.
"Slightly All the Time" is a medley of different instrumental pieces, including Ratledge's "Backwards" and Hopper's "Noisette".<ref name="aaj" /> "Backwards" later appeared on fellow Canterbury Scene band Caravan's 1973 album ''For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night'', as part of the "A-Hunting We Shall Go" medley.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/for-girls-who-grow-plump-in-the-night-mw0000535169|title=Caravan – ''For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night'' (1973) review by Lindsay Planer|publisher=AllMusic|access-date=27 October 2016}}</ref>
=== Sides C and D === "Moon in June" is the last song with lyrics that Soft Machine recorded, and their last look back to their progressive rock, pre-jazz sound. The song is in three parts. The first is a pastiche of vocal themes delivered in a stream of consciousness which varied in live performances. Wyatt plays all the instruments in this section.<ref name="aaj" /> The lyrics borrow from Soft Machine's earlier "That's How Much I Need You Now" and "You Don't Remember",<ref>Soft Machine – "Jet Propelled Photograph" LP</ref> but largely from new vignettes recorded in a demo by Wyatt in October 1968 while on holiday in New York state. An excerpt from a different demo of Part 1, recorded in November 1968, was included on Robert Wyatt's 2001 ''Flotsam Jetsam'' archive compilation.<ref>Robert Wyatt, ''Flotsam & Jetsam'', Rough Trade Records, #3112, 1994</ref> The second part features the whole band, and is an instrumental similar to other jazz-rock pieces on the album.<ref name="aaj" /> [[File:Terry Riley 85 (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|upright|The tape loops on "Out-Bloody-Rageous" were inspired by Terry Riley]] The third is a drone featuring Wyatt and violinist Rab Spall; Spall's part was recorded separately and was sped up and slowed down to make the violin fit the beats of the music. This section also features Wyatt scat singing uncredited renditions of two Kevin Ayers songs: "Singing a Song in the Morning" and "Hat Song".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/3530822107858661762/|title=The Soft Machine – Moon in June Lyrics|website=SongMeanings}}</ref> A demo of the second and third parts was recorded in Spring 1969, which was spliced onto the October 1968 demo to be included on Soft Machine's 2002 ''Backwards'' archival release.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hulloder.nl/rw-main2.html|title=''The Ultimate Robert Wyatt Discography'' |access-date=18 May 2011|publisher=hulloder.nl}}</ref> A live recording from 24 May 1970 in London was released on ''Backwards'', containing a shortened version of parts 2 and 3. A pre-''Third'' performance that includes a shortened instrumental Part 1 was recorded live at the Fairfield Halls concert and appears on Soft Machine's 2000 ''Noisette'' archive release.
"Out-Bloody-Rageous" is an instrumental composed by Ratledge, with sections featuring repetitive multi-tracked electric piano parts, in a style inspired by the work of Terry Riley.<ref name=aaj/> Its name inspired the names of the 2005 Soft Machine biography ''Soft Machine: Out-Bloody-Rageous'',<ref>{{cite book|title=Soft Machine: Out-Bloody-Rageous |date=1 October 2005 |isbn=0946719845 |last=Bennett |first=Graham }}</ref> and a 2-CD anthology from 2005 entitled ''Out-Bloody-Rageous An Anthology 1967–1973''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.amazon.com/Out-Bloody-Rageous-Anthology-Soft-Machine/dp/B0009F2BX0 |title=Out-Bloody-Rageous An Anthology 1967–1973 |website=Amazon |access-date=13 May 2015}}</ref>
==Reception== {{Album ratings | rev1 = AllMusic | rev1Score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref name=am>{{cite web|last=Kurtz|first=Peter|title=Third – Soft Machine|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/third-mw0000675031|access-date=27 October 2016|publisher=AllMusic}}</ref> |rev2 = ''Christgau's Record Guide'' |rev2Score = B<ref name="CG">{{cite book|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|year=1981|title=Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies|publisher=Ticknor & Fields|isbn=089919026X|chapter=Consumer Guide '70s: S|chapter-url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_chap.php?k=S&bk=70|access-date=12 March 2019|via=robertchristgau.com}}</ref> | rev3 = ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music'' | rev3Score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Larkin|first=Colin|author-link=Colin Larkin|title=Encyclopedia of Popular Music|year=2007|publisher=Omnibus Press|edition=5th|isbn=978-0857125958|title-link=Encyclopedia of Popular Music}}</ref> }}
''Third'' was released in June 1970 and became the band's first and highest charting album, peaking at No. 18 on the UK Albums Chart.<ref name=ukchart/> It also peaked at number 5 on the Dutch Album Top 100 in the Netherlands. According to Paul Stump's ''The Music's All that Matters: A History of Progressive Rock'', ''Third'' was "unanimously acclaimed as the band's zenith."<ref>{{cite book |last=Stump |first=Paul |title=The Music's All that Matters: A History of Progressive Rock |date=1997 |publisher=Quartet Books Limited |isbn=0-7043-8036-6 |page=34}}</ref> A retrospective review in ''Allmusic'' praised the exotic instrumentation and fusion of genres, and concluded, "Not exactly rock, ''Third'' nonetheless pushed the boundaries of rock into areas previously unexplored, and it managed to do so without sounding self-indulgent. A better introduction to the group is either of the first two records, but once introduced, this is the place to go."<ref name=am/> In the Q & Mojo Classic Special Edition ''Pink Floyd & The Story of Prog Rock'' (2005), the album came #20 in its list of "40 Cosmic Rock Albums".<ref>''Q Classic: Pink Floyd & The Story of Prog Rock'', 2005.</ref>
==Reissues== In 2007, the album was re-issued on CD by Sony BMG with a second disc comprising a complete live album, ''Live at the Proms 1970'', which had been previously released by a small independent company called Reckless Records in 1988. This album was recorded at The BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall<ref name="BBC Proms archive">{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ejbj5v|title=Prom 26|website=Bbc.co.uk|access-date=20 November 2025}}</ref> on 13 August 1970.<ref name=BBCsmith>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/release/dw8c/ |title=''Classic Pop/Rock Review – Soft Machine, Third / Fourth / Fifth / Six / Seven'' |access-date=5 August 2008 |last=Smith |first=Sid|date=26 February 2007|publisher=BBC}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hulloder.nl/sm-new.html|title=''Soft Releases 2007'' |access-date=5 August 2008|date=23 March 2007|publisher=hulloder.nl}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.babyblaue-seiten.de/index.php?albumId=6223&content=review|title=''Soft Machine: Live at the Proms 1970: Review'' |access-date=5 August 2008 |last=Breiling |first=Achim|publisher=Babyblaue Seiten}}</ref> The band's performance, in the second half, following the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the first,<ref name="BBC Proms archive"/> marked the first time that a popular-music band played at the classical festival.<ref name=BBCsmith/> The disparity of Soft Machine's concert as compared to the hall's usual fare is explained by Robert Wyatt on the Reckless album's liner notes:
<blockquote> We was invited by Tim Souster, who had an evening using the hall to do what he liked with. I believe he'd heard our second LP, asked us on the strength of that. He discovered us on the way to discovering Motown. Via the Who, I think. Anyway it was brave of him to invite us despite the withering contempt of the posh music establishment. Before our bit, I went out the back for a quick fag and then the doorman didn't want to let me back in. "I've got to play in there", I said. "You must be kidding, son", he said, "they only have proper music in there". Not that night they didn't. :''Robert Wyatt, album liner notes'' </blockquote>
"Esther's Nose Job" on the bonus disc originally appeared on ''Volume Two'', and no longer includes its cacophonous introduction "Fire Engine Passing with Bells Clanging", but adds a new section, "Pigling Bland", which appeared as a track on its own on the group's ''Fifth'' album a few years later. This version does not contain the lyrics found in the original, but it does include some scat singing from Wyatt. All three pieces on the bonus disc are performed as one continuous suite. (The original vinyl edition of ''Live at the Proms 1970'' had a fade-out and fade-in of the drum solo connecting the second and third pieces, as was necessary for a two-sided LP.)
Both discs were re-mastered for the re-issue, improving the sound quality significantly.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.allaboutjazz.com/soft-machine-third-through-seven-remasters-by-john-kelman.php|title=''Soft Machine: Third through Seven Remasters''|access-date=7 November 2008|last=Kelman|first=John|date=28 February 2007|publisher=All About Jazz}}</ref>
==Track listing== {{Track listing | headline = Side A | title1 = Facelift | writer1 = Hugh Hopper | length1 = 18:45 }} {{Track listing | headline = Side B | title2 = Slightly All the Time | writer2 = {{Hlist|Mike Ratledge|Hopper}} | length2 = 18:12 | total_length = 36:57 }}
{{Track listing | headline = Side C | title3 = Moon in June | writer3 = Robert Wyatt | length3 = 19:08 }}
{{Track listing | headline = Side D | title4 = Out-Bloody-Rageous | writer4 = Ratledge | length4 = 19:10 | total_length = 38:18 }}
{{Track listing | headline = Bonus disc from 2007 CD re-issue | title5 = Out-Bloody-Rageous | writer5 = Ratledge | length5 = 11:54 | title6 = Facelift | writer6 = Hopper | length6 = 11:22 | title7 = Esther's Nose Job | note7 = <small>including "Pig", "Orange Skin Food", "A Door Opens and Closes", "Pigling Bland" and "10:30 Returns to the Bedroom"</small> | writer7 = {{Hlist|Ratledge|Hopper|Wyatt}} | length7 = 15:39 | total_length = }}
== Personnel == ;Soft Machine * Elton Dean – alto saxophone, saxello (all but 3) * Mike Ratledge – Hohner Pianet, Lowrey organ, piano, Hammond organ (2) * Hugh Hopper – bass guitar * Robert Wyatt – drums, vocals (3), plus on 3 (uncredited): Hammond organ, Mellotron, Hohner Pianet, piano, bass ;Additional personnel * Lyn Dobson – flute, soprano saxophone (1) * Jimmy Hastings – flute, bass clarinet (2, 4) * Nick Evans – trombone (2, 4) * Rab Spall – violin (3)
== Charts == {| class="wikitable" |+ !Chart (1970) !Peak position |- |UK Albums (OCC) |18<ref name=ukchart>{{Cite web |date=1970-07-04 |title=SOFT MACHINE |url=https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/2704/soft-machine/ |access-date=2023-11-11 |website=Official Charts |language=en}}</ref> |- |Dutch Album Top 100 |5<ref>{{cite web |title=Soft Machine |url=https://dutchcharts.nl/search.asp?search=Soft%20Machine&cat=a |website=Dutchcharts.nl|access-date=16 September 2024 |language=Dutch |date=1970-07-18}}</ref> |}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [https://www.discogs.com/Soft-Machine-Third/release/3409405 Soft Machine – ''Third'' (1970) album releases & credits] at Discogs * [https://open.spotify.com/album/111J9nxmdhyHSLNHeAL1jO Soft Machine – ''Third'' (1970) album to be listened] on Spotify * [https://web.archive.org/web/20120407005611/http://www.radio3net.ro/dbartists/supersearch/U29mdCBNYWNoaW5l/Soft%20Machine Album online] on Radio3Net a radio channel of Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company
{{Soft Machine|state=uncollapsed}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Third (Soft Machine Album)}} Category:Soft Machine albums Category:1970 albums Category:Albums recorded at IBC Studios Category:Columbia Records albums