Be Glad: An Incredible String Band Compendium

by Adrian Whittaker (Editor), Joe Boyd (Foreword)

The ISB pioneered "world music" on ’60s albums like The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter—Paul McCartney’s favorite album of 1967!—experimented with theater, film, and lifestyle; and inspired Led Zeppelin. Be Glad features interviews with all the ISB key players, as well as a wealth of background information, reminiscence, critical evaluations, and arcane trivia, this is a book that will delight any reader with more than a passing interest in the ISB.

Genres: Music

444 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2003

Reviews

[Paul Bryant · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the only book ever to contain any writing by yours truly. I contributed a couple of articles. It's all about my favourite group The Incredible String Band. Because of my love of this band I score very highly in the popular game Six Degrees of Separation, in which you try to connect yourself with various famous people in the fewest degrees. The reason for this is that the editor of this book, Adrian, was listening to Desert Island Discs once, and Rowan Williams, the then Archbishop of Canterbury was on, the one who is just retiring now,



and he picked a song by the ISB - so, before you could say Jack Robinson, Adrian wrote to the Archbish and asked him if he'd like to contribute an introduction to this book. And he said yes, because he is a big fan! So, when the book launch happened, one dark evening in a little club on Denmark Street, Soho, London, we went down and he did too (he could walk there from Lambeth Palace). So i met him there, and have got a photo to prove it. Therefore, I can construct degrees of separation like the following :

Paul Bryant - Archbishop of Canterbury - The Queen - Paul McCartney - Dennis Wilson - Charles Manson

or

Paul Bryant - Archbishop of Canterbury - The Queen - Winston Churchill - Stalin

or even

Paul Bryant - Archbishop - Queen - Margaret Thatcher - Gorbachev - Boris Yeltsin - Garry Kasparov - Vasiliy Smyslov - Manny Rayner

Pretty cool, I think. The last one would be better if I could figure out if Gorbachev met Kasparov, it's probable but I don't know.

I was so impressed with the Archbish and thought it was such a nice thing for him to have done, attending our little book launch when he had a few more pressing concerns on his mind, that in gratitude I sent off a String Band bootleg to Lambeth Palace. I hope he enjoyed it.

[Philip Dodd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found Be Glad: An Incredible String Band Compendium edited by Adrian Whittaker an absorbing, interesting, enjoyable book to read. That it is a collection of articles written by true fans of the Incredible String Band makes it more interesting than if it was their biography composed by one author. It was good to read the reviews of each of their albums by different writers. I found every article in the book to be fascinating. Now that I am sixty five, I find myself looking back on the songs and books that meant most to me in my life. Lately, I have been remembering with a warm smile watching the Incredible String Band in concert in the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool in the late 1960's.
I saw them there twice. In my mind, I can still see them clearly there on stage. Robin Williamson, Mike Heron, Rose Simpson and Licorice McKechnie, that is how they were then, when they were at their best, I think, having just released the double album which I think remains their masterpiece, Wee Tam and the Big Huge. The third and last time I saw them was at the Liverpool Stadium in 1970. Rose Simpson had left the band and Robin Williamson, Mike Heron and Licorice McKechnie were joined on stage by Malcolm Le Maistre. It was the interview with Rose Simpson in the book which moved me most. Looking back on her time as a member of the Incredible String Band her words made me understand the four people I saw on stage in concert when I was a teenager.
I learned a lot from the book that I did not know about the history of the Incredible String Band. Anyone who enjoys listening to their songs would find it absorbing, fascinating to read.

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book is amazing and the band even more so...