The Incredible String Band

La Incredible String Band (spesso abbreviata in ISB) è una band acustica scozzese che, nel tempo, ha raccolto intorno a sé un vasto stuolo di appassionati nel contesto della controcultura britannica. La band ha proposto, nell'arco della carriera, una rivisitazione estremamente libera delle tradizioni folk britanniche, mescolandole a tradizioni nord africane e dell'Estremo Oriente. Soprattutto il virtuosismo e il polistrumentismo, accoppiati ad una certa indolenza nelle esecuzioni, ha determinato la definizione di un marchio assolutamente sui generis, anche se non mancano proposte più filologiche. La partecipazione al Festival di Woodstock, anche con il concorso della pioggia, non è stata di grande aiuto alla diffusione della fama del gruppo. L'adesione a Scientology dei suoi membri ha poi significato una presa di distanza da parte dell'audience, per via di una eccessiva rarefazione compositiva e di uno spiritualismo che ormai cozzava con l'incombente avvento di un'era apparentemente più votata alla materialità dell'esistenza. Il gruppo ha, in ogni caso, espresso una originalissima fusione di folk e psichedelia che li fa dei pionieri musicali di indiscutibile qualità. Dopo un lungo periodo di silenzio, in cui soprattutto Williamson si è concentrato in una densa attività solistica, la band si è riunita intorno al 1999 e ha continuato ad esibirsi almeno fino al 2006.

Storia

Formazione del gruppo come trio (1965-1966)

La band si forma nel 1965. Clive Palmer, nativo di Londra, è attratto dal movimento folk di Edimburgo e vi incontra Robin Williamson, il quale, fin dal 1961, ha frequentato assiduamente i bar della città, condividendo esperienze con diverse importanti figure della scena locale (Archie Fischer, Jill Doyle, Owen Hand, Hamisch Imlach, Bert Jansch). Centro di questo movimento è The howff, locale aperto nei primissimi anni '60 da Roy Guest. In breve, Williamson e Palmer mettono su un duo che esegue bluegrass e folk scozzese. Mike Heron, lungo tutti i primi anni sessanta, ha invece suonato in diversi gruppi rock britannici, come ad esempio i Saracens (imitazione degli Hollies, secondo lo stesso Heron) e gli Abstracts (band di R&B che si ispirava ai Rolling Stones). Invitato ad unirsi al duo, a Heron è affidato il compito di suonare la chitarra ritmica, mentre gli altri due avrebbero dovuto dedicarsi all'esecuzione di mirabolanti standard folk tanto americani quanto britannici. In realtà, l'apporto di Heron si rivelerà subito assai più significativo, con il risultato che, nel primo disco, di una sola canzone, peraltro bellissima, la composizione è affidata a Palmer (Empty Pocket Blues). È Joe Boyd che dà loro, per la prima volta, la possibilità di incidere. La Elektra Records, etichetta sensibile al folk revival che in quegli anni sta esplodendo in Gran Bretagna, soprattutto per merito dell'opera instancabile di Ewan McColl, ha aperto una "ala" inglese con a capo Boyd, che li nota durante un'esibizione al Clive's Incredible Folk Club, locale aperto dalla band a Glasgow (il cui nome è stato forse motivo di ispirazione per quello della band). Il locale di Palmer dura sei mesi prima di essere chiuso dalla polizia. Il gruppo ha modo di consegnare a Boyd una demo contenente diversi standard e un numero sparuto di composizioni originali che impressionano il produttore ben più degli stessi traditional.
Nel 1966, esce The Incredible String Band. Pubblicato in Gran Bretagna e negli Stati Uniti d'America, consiste di esecuzioni in trio, in duo e a solo, con una vasta strumentazione tradizionale: violino fiddle, mandolino, piffero, kazoo e banjo. Nel 1968, in un'intervista al periodico Sing Out!, Bob Dylan dichiara che October Song (di Williamson) è una delle sue canzoni preferite del periodo. Tutto il disco risulta estremamente interessante, soprattutto perché a qualche composizione tradizionale si accompagna una mole non indifferente di musica originale dotata in modo incredibilmente vivace della levigatezza dei classici. Il sodalizio si spezza, però, subito. Palmer va in Afghanistan e Williamson in Marocco, a studiare musica. Da qui riporterà un gimbri (strumento marocchino in qualche modo simile a una chitarra ma con il piano armonico rettangolare) che verrà, però, divorato dai topi.

Innovazioni e successo come duo (1966-1968)

Nel 1967, Heron e Williamson tornano insieme come duo (sarà questa coppia a risultare il nocciolo duro del gruppo). Nello stesso anno esce il loro secondo album The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion, che dimostra un sensibile cambio di rotta verso il formato classico della produzione ISB. Accompagnati da Danny Thompson dei Pentangle, il duo mostra una straordinaria competenza chitarristica, condensata in ballate stravaganti e intense. Nell'album spiccano Chinese White, Painting Box e You Know What You Could Be di Heron e tre composizioni assolutamente superlative di Williamson: No Sleep Blues, The Mad Hatter's Song (che con la sua miscela di stili apre la via a quella sensibilità psichedelica che caratterizzerà in futuro l'arte della ISB) e, soprattutto, l'indimenticabile First Girl I Loved (più in là ripresa da Judy Collins, Jackson Browne e Don Partridge). Il disco porta violentemente alla ribalta il duo: recensioni entusiastiche dei critici specializzati, apparizioni all'UFO Club di Londra e al Saville Theatre e la possibilità di suonare per lo show radiofonico John Peel's Perfumed Garden per la Wonderful Radio London. The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion giunge al primo posto nelle classifiche britanniche di folk e viene indicato da Paul McCartney come uno dei suoi dischi preferiti dell'anno.
Ma è il 1968 l'annus mirabilis della band, che pubblica due dei suoi più celebrati dischi: The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter e il doppio-LP Wee Tam and the Big Huge. Il primo raggiunge la "top 5" delle classifiche britanniche e ottiene una nomination per il Grammy americano. Robert Plant ha affermato che i Led Zeppelin hanno trovato la loro via ascoltando The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter e "seguendo le istruzioni". L'album rappresenta una ulteriore evoluzione sul piano della produzione, anche attraverso un uso immaginativo delle tecniche di registrazione in multi-track. Significative risultano le composizioni sognanti di Williamson, come nel caso di Nightfall, The Water Song o di The Minotaur's Song, surreale parodia del music hall cantata dal punto di vista della mitica bestia. Perno dell'album è, però, A Very Cellular Song di Heron, riflessione di più di 12 minuti sulla vita, l'amore e le amebe: la sua complessa struttura include uno spiritual delle Bahamas (I Bid You Goodnight) ed un adattamento dell'inno Sikh "Possa la purezza brillare dentro te". Significativa è la presenza di Dolly Collins (sorella di Shirley). È, inoltre, a partire da The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter che Williamson e Heron ricorrono all'aiuto delle fidanzate Rose Simpson e Christina McKechnie (detta Licorice), che contribuiscono con il canto, l'organo, la chitarra e svariate percussioni. A dispetto della loro inizialmente rudimentale competenza musicale, la Simpson diviene rapidamente una discreta bassista, mentre alcune canzoni della McKechnie vengono incise dalla band.
Wee Tam e The Big Huge erano stati concepiti inizialmente come due capitoli di un unico doppio album. La Elektra decide invece di pubblicare i due dischi anche separatamente (il primo nel 1968 e il secondo nel 1969). Il fatto che questo "doppio" sia stato pubblicato simultaneamente in capitoli separati sembra abbia attenuato l'impatto nelle classifiche. Pure, questo rimane invariabilmente il materiale favorito dei fan più accaniti interrogati nei sondaggi. In Wee Tam, spiccano Puppies e Log Cabin Home in the Sky di Heron, mentre di Williamson sono The Half-Remarkable Question e la lunga e delicatissima suite di Ducks on a Pond, che chiude l'album. A Wee Tam segue Changing Horses, da molti ritenuto uno dei momenti più bui della produzione del gruppo, ma che pure tiene vivo l'interesse per il gruppo, soprattutto a motivo di una caratteristica distintiva che sempre più si impone a connotarlo: a dispetto della impressionante competenza tecnica dei due chitarristi, sembra che l'ingresso nella band della Simpson e della McKechnie ispiri al quartetto una condotta più bislacca, una cura decisamente più sorniona per la produzione e, in genere, un fare musicale grottescamente sciatto e arreso. È, poi, di questo periodo l'avvicinamento dei quattro alla chiesa di Scientology, che tanta parte avrà nella storia del gruppo. Tanto Changing Horses che The Big Huge hanno una tale omogeneità che nessuna canzone spicca sulla altre in modo particolare (forse, in The Big Huge, le sole Cousin Caterpillar e The Iron Stone).
Se, da un lato, il doppio album Wee Tam/The Big Huge risulta meno sperimentale e ispirato della precedente produzione del gruppo, d'altro canto è concettualmente più avant-garde, affrontando di petto temi quali la mitologia, la religione, l'autocoscienza e l'identità. Così come in passato, le visionarie e ultraterrene canzoni e visioni di Williamson dominano l'album, per quanto i pezzi più terreni di Heron producono una interessante dialettica tra i due: da un lato, una sensuale esperienza della vita e, dall'altro, un'ansia insaziabile per una risposta metafisica.

Gli anni settanta

Successivamente, la band si lascia alle spalle le proprie origini da folk club, esibendosi di fronte ad un pubblico più vasto, in concert hall come la Royal Albert Hall, in prestigiosi locali del rock (come gli auditorium Fillmore di San Francisco), molti locali di New York e in festival all'aperto.
Nel 1969, il gruppo si esibisce a Woodstock (più tardi di quanto previsto, essendosi rifiutato di affrontare la pioggia della serata d'apertura). È per questa ragione che essi non vengono immortalati nel documentario. Anche l'approccio con il pubblico non è dei più facili, sentendosi la folla più a suo agio con il più robusto rock blues di band come i Canned Heat, che precede la Incredible sul palco.
Le esibizioni della Incredible String Band avevano un carattere assai scenografico. Senza tenere conto della varietà di strumenti esotici presenti sul palco e dei coloratissimi costumi di scena, i loro concerti prevedevano talvolta reading di poesia, sketch surreali, ballerini. È nel 1970 che Williamson prova a fondere tutti questi elementi in uno spettacolo multimediale e chisciottesco alla Roundhouse di Londra. Lo spettacolo è intitolato U e viene concepito dall'autore come una "surreale parabola con musica e danza". Per molta critica il musical fu un fallimento commerciale, ed infatti non venne rappresentato a lungo, ma l'omonimo doppio album ebbe un certo successo e rimase, per molti fan, un disco di culto. Allo spettacolo partecipò la compagnia teatrale di Stone Monkey, la futura prima moglie di Williamson, Janet Shankman, e il ballerino e mimo Malcolm LeMaistre, proveniente dagli Exploding Galaxy, che successivamente entrò nella band, iniziando a suonare e a scrivere diversi pezzi interessanti.
Il disco successivo, Be Glad for the Song Has No Ending, fu a sua volta colonna sonora di un omonimo breve film nel quale, accanto ad alcune brevi interviste, compare una pantomima intitolata The Pirate and the Crystal Ball.
Rose Simpson abbandona il gruppo nel 1971 e l'anno dopo vi entra stabilmente Malcolm LeMaistre, che inizia cantando e suonando il basso, seguito nel 1973 da Gerard Dott, tastiere e fiati.
La produzione della band continua producendo diverse cose interessanti, anche se il pubblico, sempre numeroso, in parte rimpiange la prima produzione.
Earthspan, del 1973, contiene diverse cose pregevoli mentre il successivo No Ruinous Feud, troppo eclettico nei vari generi toccati, viene considerato il peggiore del gruppo, pur contenendo alcuni passaggi gradevoli ed anche interessanti.
Con il 1974 si chiude la prima fase della band, con Hard Rope & Silken Twine, disco non da sottovalutare, anche per la presenza, nella seconda facciata, della lunga suite di Heron Itkhos, che alterna momenti rock a ballate acustiche.
L'Incredible String Band risorgerà, con Clive Palmer ma senza LeMaistre (che però collaborerà alla redazione di un'antologia), per un breve periodo tra la fine dei anni novanta e l'inizio del terzo millennio della datazione convenzionale, con diversi concerti, CD di rarità, un CD in edizione limitata per il concerto di Londra del 2000 e l'ultimo del 2004, dal vivo, intitolato Nebulous Nearnesses. Robin Williamson e la moglie Bina, nel 2003, avevano lasciato "temporaneamente" il gruppo per i propri impegni solistici. Ma la storia "incredibile" del gruppo terminò nel 2006, lasciando i suoi componenti liberi di trovarsi insieme in diversi successivi concerti, fino ad oggi.

Collocazione culturale

Vi è, a riprova di una curiosa interconnessione tra la cultura hippie e la tradizionale spiritualità di una Britannia antica e sobria, un episodio della storia ecclesiastica inglese che ha a che fare da vicino con la ISB. Nell'autunno del 2003, l'arcivescovo di Canterbury Rowan Williams scrisse una prefazione al libro Be Glad: An Incredible String Band Compendium, dedicato interamente alla band.L'arcivescovo descrive la band come "sacra" (egli aveva già scelto la canzone The Hedgehog's Song come unico pezzo di musica popolare nella sua apparizione al programma radiofonico della BBC Desert Island Discs). Alcuni hanno visto in ciò la prova di una tarda dichiarazione del critico musicale Ian MacDonald, secondo il quale «molto di ciò che appariva profano nella cultura giovanile degli anni sessanta era anzi l'opposto».

Membri della formazione

Robin Williamson (1965-74, 1999-2003)
Mike Heron (1965-74, 1999-2006)
Clive Palmer (1965-66, 1999-2006)
Christina "Licorice" McKechnie (1968-72)
Rose Simpson (1968-71)
Malcolm Le Maistre (1971-74)
Gerard Dott (1972-73)
Stan Schnier (aka "Stan Lee") (1972-74)
Jack Ingram (1972-74)
Graham Forbes (1973-74)
John Gilston (1974)
Bina Williamson (1999-2003)
Lawson Dando (1999-2006)
Claire "Fluff" Smith (2003-06)

Discografia

1966 The Incredible String Band
1967 The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion
1968 The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter
1968 Wee Tam and the Big Huge
1969 Changing Horses
1970 I Looked Up
1970 U
1970 Be Glad for the Song Has No Ending (colonna sonora)
1971 Relics of The Incredible String Band (raccolta)
1971 Liquid Acrobat as Regards the Air
1972 Earthspan
1973 No Ruinous Feud
1974 Hard Rope & Silken Twine
1976 Seasons They Change (raccolta)
1992 BBC Radio 1 Live in Concert
1997 The Chelsea Sessions 1967
2004 Nebulous Nearnesses

Engelse popgroep Incredible Stringband in Amsterdam 25 september 1970

Bert Verhoeff / Anefo - Nationaal Archief

The Incredible String Band (sometimes abbreviated as ISB) were a psychedelic folk band formed by Clive Palmer, Robin Williamson and Mike Heron in Scotland in 1966. The band built a considerable following, especially within the British counterculture, notably with their albums The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion, The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter, and Wee Tam and the Big Huge. They became pioneers in psychedelic folk and, through integrating a wide variety of traditional music forms and instruments, in the development of world music.
Following Palmer's early departure, Williamson and Heron performed as a duo, later augmented by other musicians. The band split up in 1974. They reformed in 1999 and continued to perform with changing lineups until 2006.

History

Formation as a trio: 1965–66

In 1963, acoustic musicians Robin Williamson and Clive Palmer began performing together as a traditional folk duo in Edinburgh, particularly at a weekly club run by Archie Fisher in the Crown Bar which also regularly featured Bert Jansch. There they were seen in August 1965 by Joe Boyd, then working as a talent scout for the influential folk-based label Elektra Records. Later in the year, the duo decided to fill out their sound by adding a third member, initially to play rhythm guitar. After an audition, local rock musician Mike Heron won the slot. The trio took the name "the Incredible String Band". Early in 1966 Palmer began running an all-night folk club, Clive's Incredible Folk Club, on the fourth floor of a building in Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow, where they became the house band. When Boyd returned in his new role as head of Elektra's London office, he signed them up for an album, beating off a rival bid from Transatlantic Records.
They recorded their first album, entitled The Incredible String Band, at the Sound Techniques studio in London in May 1966. It was released in Britain and the United States and consisted mostly of self-penned material in solo, duo and trio formats, showcasing their playing on a variety of instruments. It won the title of "Folk Album of the Year" in Melody Maker's annual poll, and in a 1968 Sing Out! magazine interview Bob Dylan praised the album's "October Song" as one of his favourite songs of that period, stating it was "quite good".
The trio broke up after recording the album. Palmer left via the hippie trail for Afghanistan and India, and Williamson and his girlfriend Licorice McKechnie went to Morocco with no firm plans to return. Heron stayed in Edinburgh, playing with a band called Rock Bottom and the Deadbeats. However, when Williamson returned after running out of money, laden with Moroccan instruments (including a gimbri, which was much later eaten by rats), he and Heron reformed the band as a duo.

Development as a duo: 1966–67

In November 1966 Heron and Williamson embarked on a short UK tour, supporting Tom Paxton and Judy Collins. In early 1967, they performed regularly at London clubs, including Les Cousins. Joe Boyd became the group's manager as well as producer and secured a place for them at the Newport Folk Festival, on a bill with Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen.
The duo were always credited as separate writers, maintaining their individual creative identities, rather than working as a writing partnership. Boyd wrote, "Mike and Robin were Clive's friends rather than each other's. Without him as a buffer, they developed a robust dislike for one another. Fortunately, the quality and quantity of their songwriting was roughly equal. Neither would agree to the inclusion of a new song by the other unless he could impose himself on it by arranging the instruments and working out all the harmonies."
In July, they released their second album, The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion, accompanied by Pentangle's Danny Thompson on double bass and Licorice on vocals and percussion. The album demonstrated considerable musical development and a more unified ISB sound. It displayed their abilities as multi-instrumentalists and singer-songwriters, and gained them much wider acclaim. The album included Heron's "The Hedgehog's Song", Williamson's "First Girl I Loved" (later recorded by Judy Collins, Jackson Browne, Don Partridge and Wizz Jones) and his "Mad Hatter's Song", which, with its mixture of musical styles, paved the way for the band's more extended forays into psychedelia. Enthusiastic reviews in the music press were accompanied by appearances at venues such as London's UFO Club (co-owned by Boyd), the Speakeasy Club, and Queen Elizabeth Hall. Their exposure on John Peel's Perfumed Garden radio show on the pirate ship Radio London and later on BBC's Top Gear made them favourites with the emerging UK underground audience. The album went to Number One in the UK folk chart, and was named by Paul McCartney as one of his favourite records of that year.

The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter and Wee Tam and the Big Huge: 1968

1968 was the band's annus mirabilis with the release of their two most-celebrated albums, The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter and the double LP Wee Tam and the Big Huge (issued as two separate albums in the US). Hangman's reached the top 5 in the UK album charts soon after its release in March 1968 and was nominated for a Grammy in the US. Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin said his group found their way by playing Hangman's and following the instructions. A departure from the band's previous albums, the set relied heavily on a more layered production, with imaginative use of the then new multitrack recording techniques. The album featured a series of vividly dreamlike Williamson songs, such as "The Minotaur's Song", a surreal music-hall parody told from the point of view of the mythical beast, and its centrepiece was Heron's "A Very Cellular Song", a 13-minute reflection on life, love and amoebas, its complex structure incorporating a Bahamian spiritual ("I Bid You Goodnight"). Williamson and Heron in this album had added their girlfriends, Licorice McKechnie and Rose Simpson, to the band to contribute additional vocals and various instruments, including organ, guitar and percussion. Despite their initially rudimentary skills, Simpson swiftly became a proficient bass guitarist, and some of McKechnie's songs were recorded by the band.
By early 1968 the group were capable of filling major venues in the UK. They left behind their folk club origins and embarked on a nationwide tour incorporating a critically acclaimed appearance at the London Royal Festival Hall. Later in the year they performed at the Royal Albert Hall, at open-air festivals, and at prestigious rock venues, such as the Fillmore auditoriums in San Francisco and New York. After their appearance at the Fillmore East in New York they were introduced to the practice of Scientology by David Simons (aka "Rex Rakish" and "Bruno Wolfe", once of Jim Kweskin's Jug Band). Joe Boyd, in his book White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s and elsewhere, described how he was inadvertently responsible for their "conversion" when he introduced the band to Simons, who, having become a Scientologist, persuaded them to enrol in his absence. The band's support for Scientology over the next few years was controversial among some fans and seemed to coincide with what many saw as the beginning of a decline in the quality of their work.^{[citation needed]} In an interview with Oz magazine in 1969 the band spoke enthusiastically of their involvement with it, although the question of its effect on their later albums has provoked much discussion ever since.^{[citation needed]}
Their November 1968 album Wee Tam and the Big Huge, recorded before the US trip, was musically less experimental and lush than Hangman's but conceptually even more avant-garde, a full-on engagement with the themes of mythology, religion, awareness and identity. Williamson's otherworldly songs and vision dominate the album, though Heron's more grounded tracks are also among his very best, and the contrast between the two perspectives gives the record its uniquely dynamic interplay between a sensual experience of life and a quest for metaphysical meaning.^{[citation needed]} The record was released as a double album and also simultaneously as two separate LPs, a strategy which lessened its impact on the charts.

Woodstock and multimedia: 1969–70

At this time most of the group lived communally at a farmhouse near Newport, in Pembrokeshire, Wales, where they developed ideas for mixed media experiments with Malcolm Le Maistre and other members of David Medalla's Exploding Galaxy troupe and the Leonard Halliwell Quartet. There, a film was made about the ISB, Be Glad For the Song Has No Ending. Originally planned for BBC TV's arts programme Omnibus, it featured documentary footage and a fantasy sequence, 'The Pirate and the Crystal Ball', illustrating their attempt at an idyllic communal lifestyle. It made little impact at the time, but reissues on video and DVD have contributed to the recent revival of interest in the band.
The band toured for much of 1969, in the US and the UK. In July they played at the Albert Hall on the fourth night of the "Pop Proms".^{[citation needed]} They were introduced by John Peel and talked about their first brush with Scientology.^{[citation needed]} Other acts in the week were Led Zeppelin and The Who.^{[citation needed]} On 28 May 1969 the band received a phone call from Michael Lang, the producer of the momentous Woodstock Festival, asking the band to perform at the festival for a payment of $4,500. In August, they were slotted to play on Friday when all the folk-orientated and acoustic acts were expected to perform. However, the band refused to perform in the pouring rain, so stage manager John Morris rescheduled their performance for the following day. Their open slot was taken by Melanie, whose showing inspired her song, "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)". The following day, 16 August 1969, at approximately 6:30 p.m., the band played in between the Keef Hartley Band and Canned Heat. The crowd was not anticipating the band's performance on a day that featured mainly hard rock acts. For that reason, the group was generally disfavoured and, perhaps more importantly, were not included in the filming of the festival. Over the Labor Day weekend in 1969, they appeared at the Texas International Pop Festival, in Lewisville, Texas. In November, they released the album Changing Horses, which was generally seen as a disappointment after their earlier work. By late 1969, they had established a communal base at Glen Row near Innerleithen, and the relationships between Mike and Rose and between Robin and Licorice had ended. In April 1970 they released the album I Looked Up.
The ISB's performances were more theatrical than those of most of their contemporaries. In addition to the spectacle of their exotic instruments and colourful stage costumes, their concerts sometimes featured poems, surreal sketches and dancers, all in the homegrown, non-showbiz style characteristic of the hippie era. In 1970, Robin Williamson (with little input from Heron) attempted to fuse the music with his theatrical fantasies in a quixotic multimedia spectacular at London's Roundhouse called "U", which he envisaged as "a surreal parable in dance and song". It combined the band's music with dancing by the Stone Monkey troupe (which had evolved out of Exploding Galaxy), the letter U representing a transition from a high level of spiritual awareness to a low, then returning to a final peak of awareness and communication. Although the performance was ambitious, critical response was mixed, with some harsh reviews from critics who had in some cases acclaimed their earlier work. It fared little better in New York, and a planned US tour of "U" had to be cancelled after a few performances at the Fillmore East. Joe Boyd described the show as "a disaster".

Diminishing returns: 1971–74

After that the group lasted another four years, although there was a gradual decline in their status and commercial success after 1970. Joe Boyd, whose skillful handling of the band had contributed much to their international success, stopped managing them and returned to the US. The group left Elektra Records and signed with Island, for whom they recorded five albums. The first was a soundtrack to the "Be Glad..." film, and this was followed by the eclectic Liquid Acrobat as Regards the Air, regarded as their best album for some time.
The band continued to tour and record. Rose Simpson left in 1971 and was replaced by Malcolm Le Maistre, formerly of the Stone Monkey troupe. Mike Heron took time out to record a well-received solo album, Smiling Men with Bad Reputations, which, in contrast to the ISB's self-contained productions, featured a host of session guests, among them Pete Townshend, Ronnie Lane, Keith Moon, John Cale and Richard Thompson. The following year, Licorice left, and was replaced by Gerard Dott, an Edinburgh jazz musician and friend of both Heron and Williamson who had contributed to Smiling Men. Williamson also recorded a solo album, Myrrh, which featured some of his most extraordinary vocal performances.
The group's changing lineup, adding Stan Schnier (aka "Stan Lee") on bass, Jack Ingram on drums, and Graham Forbes on electric guitar reflected moves toward a more conventional amplified rock group. Their final albums for Island were received disappointingly, and the label dropped them in 1974. By then, disagreements between Williamson and Heron about musical policy had become irreconcilable, and they split up in October 1974.

Solo careers: 1974–2014

Williamson soon formed Robin Williamson and His Merry Band, which toured and released three albums of eclectic music with a Celtic emphasis. Within a few years, he went on to a solo career, moving between traditional Celtic styles and more avant-garde material. He also produced several recordings of humorous stories. In all, Williamson released over forty albums post-ISB. Notable in this output are the Grammy-nominated Wheel of Fortune (1995, with John Renbourn) and four records on the jazz/classical/avant-garde ECM label: The Seed-at-Zero (2000), Skirting the River Road (2002), The Iron Stone (2006), and Trusting in the Rising Light (2014). Heron formed a rock group with Malcolm Le Maistre, called first Mike Heron's Reputation, then just Heron, and later released occasional solo albums. Malcolm Le Maistre continued teaching in schools and performing theatre and music, and he released two albums.

Reunion and final separation: 1999–2006

In 1997, Williamson and Heron got back together for two concerts, which were warmly received. This was followed by a full reunion of the original three members plus Williamson's wife, Bina, and Lawson Dando in 1999. However, they did not recapture the high reputation of the original ISB, playing mostly small venues to mixed critical and audience responses. In March 2003 it was announced that Robin and Bina Williamson had "temporarily" left to pursue other projects and their solo careers. Rumours circulated of an acrimonious split. A long-standing agreement between Williamson and Heron that neither would use the name 'Incredible String Band' without the other's involvement was bypassed by a temporary re-branding as 'incrediblestringband2003'. Heron, Palmer and Dando, and new member Claire "Fluff" Smith, continued to tour regularly around the United Kingdom and internationally. Heron, Dando and Palmer toured the US in 2004. Another live album was released in 2005. Their last concert together was at the Moseley Folk Festival, Birmingham, UK, in September 2006.

Barbican: 2009

In 2009, Heron and Palmer announced a concert entitled "Very Cellular Songs: The Music of the Incredible String Band" at The Barbican, featuring Richard Thompson, Danny Thompson, Robyn Hitchcock, Alasdair Roberts, Trembling Bells, Green Gartside, Dr Strangely Strange & more.

Musical style

Stylistically the ISB were centred around the idioms of conventional folk and pop, but their notable experimentation with musical form, instrumentation and styles (e.g. Indian and Moroccan) led them to innovative, often eclectic, compositions. In 1967–68 they were described as part of pop music's "avant-garde",^{[citation needed]} and were compared to The Beatles.^{[citation needed]} Williamson claimed that, as both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones saw them play before Sgt. Pepper and Their Satanic Majesties Request were recorded, the ISB were an influence on those albums. One of Bob Dylan's favourite songs was 'October Song' from ISB's debut album.^{[citation needed]} Robert Plant claimed that Led Zeppelin found their way by playing 'The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter' (see above). Following in the footsteps of ISB, Led Zeppelin later successfully incorporated Moroccan rhythms (e.g. on 'Dancing Days').
Both Mike Heron and Robin Williamson would insert seemingly unrelated sections in their songs in a way that has been described as "always surprising, laughably inventive, lyrically prodigious".

Legacy

In 1994 Rose Simpson, a former member of the band, became Lady Mayoress of Aberystwyth. In 2003 the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, who had previously chosen "The Hedgehog's Song" when he appeared on Desert Island Discs, wrote a foreword for a full-length book about the band, describing them as "holy". Licorice McKechnie was last seen in 1987, and may be deceased.

Personnel

Members

Mike Heron (1965-1974, 1999-2006)
Robin Williamson (1965-1974, 1999-2003)
Clive Palmer (1965-1966, 1999-2006; died 2014)
Christina "Licorice" McKechnie (1968-1972)
Rose Simpson (1968-1971)
Malcolm Le Maistre (1971-1974)
Stan Schnier (1972-1974)

Jack Ingram (1972-1974)
Gerard Dott (1972-1973)
Graham Forbes (1973-1974)
John Gilston (1974)
Lawson Dando (1999-2006)
Bina Williamson (1999-2003)
Claire "Fluff" Smith (2003-2006)

The Incredible String Band - The Hedgehog's Song - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bogz2xZy-bo

Testo

I'm not the kind to complain
That I never had a girl to love.
Many a fine girl I tried hard to know,
But I think I never tried enough.

Sitting one day by myself,
And I'm thinking, "What could be wrong?"
When this funny little Hedgehog comes running up to me,
And it starts up to sing me this song.

Oh, you know all the words, and you sung all the notes,
But you never quite learned the song, she sang.
I can tell by the sadness in your eyes,
That you never quite learned the song.

Every day when the sun go down,
And the evening is so very still,
Many a fine girl I've held in my arms,
And I hope there's many more that I will,
But just when everything is going fine,
And absolutely nothing is wrong,
This funny little Hedgehog's always around
And every time he wants to sing me this song.

Oh, you know all the words, and you sung all the notes,
But you never quite learned the song, she sang.
I can tell by the sadness in your eyes,
That you never quite learned the song.

One day when the moon was full I thought I might settle down,
Found myself a pretty little girl,
And I stopped all my running around;
But just when the preacher come along,
And he's just gonna pop on the ring,
This funny little Hedgehog comes
Running down the aisle,
And I don't have to tell you what he did sing.

Oh, you know all the words, and you sung all the notes,
But you never quite learned the song, she sang.
I can tell by the sadness in your eyes,
That you never quite learned the song.

I'm not the kind to complain
That I never had a girl to love;

Many fine girls I've tried hard to know,
But I think I never tried enough.
But now I'll be looking all my days,
And it isn't just me I got to please,
There's this funny little Hedgehog
Who's always around,
And the only words he ever sings to me are these.
Oh, you know all the words and you sung all the notes,
But you never quite learned the song, she sang.
I can tell by the sadness in your eyes,
That you never quite learned the song.

Compositori: Mike Heron

Testo di The Hedgehog's Song © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc

The Incredible String Band - Air - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXtKESEZQLg

1969

A celebration of hair.

Lyrics

Breathing, all creatures are
Brighter then than brightest star
You are by far
You come right inside of me
Close as you can be
You kiss my blood
And my blood kiss me

1968

Witches Hat - The Incredible String Band - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH-pt4fBeS4

lysergically good

Testo

Certainly, the children have seen them,
In quiet places where the moss grows green.
Colored, shells, jangle, together,
The wind is cold, the year is old
The trees whisper together,
and bend in the wind, they lean...

La la la la la, la la la, la la la...

Oh, next week a monkey is coming to stay,

Mmmm, mmm, mmm,

If I was a witches hat,
Sitting on her head like a paraffin stove,
I'd fly away and be a bat,
'Cross the air, I would rove

Step-ping like a tight-rope wal-ker
Put-ting one foot af-ter ano-ther
Wearing black cherries for rings

Compositori: Robin Williamson

Testo di Witches Hat © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc

Glen Row, 1971

1. Koeeoaddi there - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKSe3kTSAiQ

Fresh from Morroco, 1967

[verse 1]

The natural cards revolve ever changing
Seeded elsewhere planted in the garden fair grow trees, grow trees
Tongues of the sheer wind
Setting you foot where the sand is untrodden
The ocean that only begins
Listen a woman with a bulldozer built this house now
Carving away the mountain whose name is your childhood home
We were trying to buy it buy it buy it
Someone was found killed there all bones bones dry bones

[Chorus, sort of]
Earth water fire and air
Met together in a garden fair
Put in a basket bound with skin
If you answer this riddle
You'll never begin

[Verse 2]
Born in a house where the doors shut tight
Shadowy fingers on the curtains at night
Cherry tree blossom head high snow
A busy main road where I wasn't to go
I used to sit on the garden wall
Say hello to people going by so tall
Hallo to the postman's stubbly skin
Hallo to the baker's stubbly grin
Mrs thompson gave me a bear
Brigitte and some people lived upstairs

[Verse 3]
Skating on Happy Valley pond
Various ministers and guards stood around
The ice was nice hallo the invisible brethren
And there was a tent you played cards with the
Soldiers in, don't worry we won't send anyone
After you they screamed
But me and Licorice saw the last of them one
Misty twisty day
Across the mournful morning moor motoring away
Singing ladybird, ladybird what is your wish
Your wish is not granted unless it's a fish
Your wish is not granted unless it's a dish
A fish on a dish is that what you wish

[Chorus, sort of]
Earth water fire and air
Met together in a garden fair
Put in a basket bound with skin
If you answer this riddle
You'll never begin

Frank Zappa's Garden 1968

The Incredible String Band - First Girl I Loved - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdtnMzPWqIs

Testo

First girl I loved
Time has come I will sing the sad goodbye song
When I was seventeen, I used to know you
And I haven't seen you now in so many years
And the last time I saw you
You said you joined the Church of Jesus
But me I remember your long red hair
Falling in our faces as I kissed you

I just want you to know I just had to go
I just want you to know I just had to grow
And you're probably married now
With a house and car and all
And you turned into a grown-up female stranger
If I was lyin' by you now, I wouldn't be here at all

Well we parted so hard
Me rushing 'round New York with a guitar
Making love to people I didn't even like to see
And I still sometimes think of you
As I lay here in the six at morning
And in the lonely midnight
I've got to hold your face before me

I just want you to know I just had to go
I just want you to know I just had to grow
And you're probably married now
With kids and all
And you turned into a grown-up female stranger
If I was lyin' by you now, I'd just have to fall

And I never slept with you
Though we must have made love a thousand times
'Cause we were just young
Didn't have no place to go

I just want you to know I just had to go
I just want you to know I just had to grow
So its goodbye, first love
And I hope you're fine
I have a sweet woman
Maybe someday she`ll have babies by me
(She pretty)
She`s a true friend of mine

Compositori: Robin Williamson