The Postman’s Stubbly Chin

We finish our brief hippy trip with one of my all time favourite bands, the Incredible String Band. I was too young to see them in their prime, but was lucky enough to attend a couple of reunion concerts in London in 1997 and 2000. There were a lot of celebrity fans at the first one, including Robert Plant. My friend Conical stood next to him in the urinals and was too intimidated to pee.

I have also been to numerous Robin Williamson solo shows over the years and he never fails to charm, even on the occasion he was double-booked with a bad new wave band in the Sir George Robey (a now defunct grubby pub venue in north London). Today’s selection is one of Robin’s songs from “The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter” – “Koeeoaddi There”, about his childhood in Edinburgh.

http://www.box.net/shared/h2qrs29ut1

This song also helped to inspire another great song. Paul Siebel heard “The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter”, and was so entranced by it that he wrote a song about a “mystic band” who “swirl me in a magic all their own”. The song was “Then Came The Children”, and here it is. If you listen to this after “Koeeoaddi There” you’ll recognise the reference to the postman’s chin. There is also a reference to "Witches Hat", one of the other songs on the album.

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We’ll end with a clip of the String Band from the “Be Glad For The Song Has No Ending” DVD. Here they are doing “All Writ Down”.