The Soft Machine, as reissue also titled "Volume One", is the debut album by the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 psychedelic rock

Psychedelic rock

Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...

 band Soft Machine

Soft Machine

Soft Machine were an English rock band from Canterbury, named after the book The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs. They were one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene, and helped pioneer the progressive rock genre...

, one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene

Canterbury Scene

The Canterbury scene is a term used to loosely describe the group of progressive rock, avant-garde and jazz musicians, many of whom were based around the city of Canterbury, Kent, England during the late 1960s and early 1970s...

.
The band, founded in 1966, recorded and released this studio album during their 1968 tour of the USA

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It was produced by Chas Chandler

Chas Chandler

Bryan James "Chas" Chandler was an English musician, record producer and manager of several successful music acts....

 and Tom Wilson.

The song "Joy Of A Toy" is one of the first compositions to feature a bass guitar melody played through a Wah-wah pedal

Wah-wah pedal

A wah-wah pedal is a type of guitar effects pedal that alters the tone of the signal to create a distinctive effect, mimicking the human voice...

.

Side one

1. "Hope for Happiness" (Brian Hopper
   Brian Hopper
   Brian Hopper is a British guitarist and saxophonist, and older brother of the late bassist Hugh Hopper. With Hugh, he was a member in the early Canterbury scene band Wilde Flowers. He also played saxophone on Soft Machine's album Volume Two...
   
   , arr. Robert Wyatt
   Robert Wyatt
   Robert Wyatt is an English musician, and founding member of the influential Canterbury scene band Soft Machine, with a long and distinguished solo career...
   
    / Mike Ratledge
   Mike Ratledge
   Michael Roland "Mike" Ratledge is a British musician. Ratledge was part of the Canterbury scene and a long-time member of Soft Machine.-Biography and career:...
   
    / Kevin Ayers
   Kevin Ayers
   Kevin Ayers is an English singer-songwriter and was a major influential force in the English psychedelic movement...
   
   ) – 4:21
2. "Joy of a Toy
   Joy of a Toy (song)
   "Joy of a Toy" was the first USA single released by the Psychedelic rock group Soft Machine. It was issued to promote the band’s debut album The Soft Machine. The single features edited versions of both songs, in addition to featuring the only known mono-mixes from their debut...
   
   " (Ayers / Ratledge) – 2:49
3. "Hope for Happiness (reprise)" (B. Hopper, arr. Wyatt / Ratledge / Ayers) – 1:38
4. "Why Am I So Short?" (Hugh Hopper
   Hugh Hopper
   Hugh Colin Hopper was a progressive rock and jazz fusion bass guitarist. He was a prominent member of the Canterbury scene, as a member of Soft Machine and various other related bands.-Early career:...
   
    / Wyatt) – 1:39
5. "So Boot If At All" (Ratlege / Ayers / Wyatt) – 7:25
6. "A Certain Kind" (H. Hopper) – 4:11

Side two

1. "Save Yourself" (Wyatt) – 2:26
2. "Priscilla" (Ayers / Ratledge / Wyatt) – 1:03
3. "Lullabye Letter" (Ayers) – 4:32
4. "We Did It Again" (Ayers) – 3:46
5. "Plus Belle qu'une Poubelle" (Ayers) – 1:03
6. "Why Are We Sleeping?" (Ayers / Ratledge / Wyatt) – 5:30
7. "Box 25/4 Lid" (Ratledge / H. Hopper) – 0:49

Live performances of We Did It Again were sometimes as long as 45 minutes.

Personnel

• Robert Wyatt
  Robert Wyatt
  Robert Wyatt is an English musician, and founding member of the influential Canterbury scene band Soft Machine, with a long and distinguished solo career...
  
   – drums, lead vocals
• Mike Ratledge
  Mike Ratledge
  Michael Roland "Mike" Ratledge is a British musician. Ratledge was part of the Canterbury scene and a long-time member of Soft Machine.-Biography and career:...
  
   – Lowrey
  Lowrey organ
  The Lowrey organ is an electronic organ named after Chicago industrialist Frederick Lowrey.During the 1960s and 1970s, Lowrey was the largest manufacturer of electronic organs in the world. In 1989, the Lowrey Organ Company produced its 1,000,000th organ....
  
   Holiday De Luxe organ, piano (on 2.7)
• Kevin Ayers
  Kevin Ayers
  Kevin Ayers is an English singer-songwriter and was a major influential force in the English psychedelic movement...
  
   – bass, lead vocals (on 2.4 and 2.5), backing vocals (on 2.1 and 2.3), piano (on 1.5)

with

• Hugh Hopper
  Hugh Hopper
  Hugh Colin Hopper was a progressive rock and jazz fusion bass guitarist. He was a prominent member of the Canterbury scene, as a member of Soft Machine and various other related bands.-Early career:...
  
   – bass (on 2.7)
• The Cake
  The Cake
  The Cake are a 1960s girl group made up of Jeanette Jacobs, Barbara Morillo and Eleanor Barooshian. They were managed and produced by Greene & Stone, two Sunset Strip impresarios who also managed Sonny & Cher, Buffalo Springfield and Iron Butterfly.-History:...
  
   – backing vocals (on 2.6)

Sales chart performance

Year	Chart	Position
1969	Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...	160