Log Cabin Home In The Sky

Mike Heron (1942– )

I just noticed Curtis Mayfield, Tandyn Almer, Paul McCartney and Mike Heron were all born in 1942. A year after Bob Dylan and four years after me. War Babies, they used to call them. Not me, I was a Depression Baby.

I loved the Incredible String Band. The Holy Modal Rounders got to open for them in an upstate New York show around 1971. I was really thrilled, but they tuned for over half an hour before finally playing. Really, I timed it. Oh, well, I still loved them. Mike Heron joined the band after being auditioned by the two original members, Clive Palmer and Robin Williamson. Palmer soon left the band and hit the hippy trail for Morocco.

ISB, as the band is generally known by its fans, was signed to Elektra Records by Joe Boyd, who became their manager and producer. I strongly suggest reading his book, White Bicycles, which is the best book on ‘60s pop and avant-pop music I’ve read. Interestingly, we both share the belief that the whole hippy thing started to go off the rails in August of 1967. In his book Boyd even says which week in August.

My favorite album by the ISB is their second, The Five Thousand Spirits, or, The Layers Of The Onion. It is the first pop album to introduce aspects of world music and non-western instruments. They suffered a major derail at the Woodstock Festival, where they were set to perform in the folk-oriented set, but declined out of fear of being caught in a bad lightning-heavy thunderstorm on a poorly protected stage. Melanie went on in their place and stole the show. ISB performed the next day instead in a hard rock set––way the wrong setting and audience––and didn’t go over well, and missed being filmed for the eventual Woodstock movie.