The Incredible String Band Part 2: Inside Looking Out

*In this, the second of a two parter, we hear more of the crazy countercultural life and times of The Incredible String Band  - from the inside looking out  - with Rose Simpson

 

*Rose was one quarter of the band during what many regard as their creative and countercultural peak in the late 60s and early 70s.

 

•Her memoir 'Muse, Odalisque, Handmaiden' is an incredible story, relating how she rocketed (as a student without any particular interest in music or the counterculture), via an accidental meeting in a Scottish mountain cottage, to photoshoots in American Vogue and playing at Woodstock - and then came all the way back again.

 

*It's a fascinating tale, not just because the ISB were fascinating in themselves, but because it is beautifully told with a wealth of detail about a time that is usually dominated by mens' voices.

 

•She had many psychedelic adventures along the way, narrowly escaped getting involved in Scientology and then - and then left it all behind.

 

*And she knows where the sitars are buried...

 

*We dived into drugs, communal life, the ups and downs of free love, the catastrophe of the cult, making it up as you go along, the mysterious life and disappearance of Rose's bandmate Licorice, going full on and far out.

 

*Rose's memoir 'Muse, Odalisque, Handmaiden' (published by Strange Attractor) 

 

*Adrian Whittaker's compilation book Be Glad for the Song Has No Ending 

 

*Thanks to Peter Neal for the audio clips from his film Be Glad for the Song has No Ending

 

 

 

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