From Robyn on Patreon in 2023
I made this song up directly onto a cassette recorder in the summer of 1987 on a cloudy afternoon on the Isle of Wight. When I finished I wound back the tape and transcribed the words and chords into my note book: there it was, complete, like the globe itself. It’s a swarming hymn to fertility, the pulse of existence and the goddess of all things. Mrs Watson was a teacher at my children’s school, and I pictured her at the centre of a green glass terrarium, surrounded by vibrant life forms. Of course, quite a few of them become unhinged - stability is not a given. Some of them are hybrids too, like the sphinx, the angel and the manticore; Mrs Watson is at the epicentre of possibility. The bleak reality ahead is plastic chairs and fossilised breakfasts, most likely - but, being a mad old hippie, I prefer to believe in an accelerated green explosion that will carpet this globe - and other globes like it - with pure Being. The tadpole army slithers on.

Too much to ask? Perhaps, but it’s worth asking; you never know who or what is listening to your prayers. Artificial Intelligence may be our legacy, our salvation, our downfall or merely another option; if it cannot die it will never live. Think you’re way out of that one, Huertbise.

Some reviewers said this song reminded them of The Incredible String Band - a neat observation; the ISB were much possessed by the magic of existence. I’d love to think that ‘Globe of Frogs’ is descended from ISB incantations like ‘Three Is A Green Crown’ and ‘A Very Cellular Song’. The version on the A&M album has some of their sound, definitely. With the Egyptians and Peter Buck I also recorded a rock version which was on the B-side of “Balloon Man” - I keep meaning to listen to it on YouTube.

Soon afterwards, my own personal globe began to crack and America seeped into my life - it had always been lying in wait, and indeed was already bankrolling me. My mythology changed to absorb cities, airports, hotels and highways, and a different kind of goddess. Rock’n’roll had come out of the USA anyway, along with The Green Lantern, Bob Dylan, TS Eliot, Captain Beefheart and William Burroughs; there was no way I could avoid all that, and by the end of the 1980s I was extremely fuelled by Uncle Sam.

These days I’m quite fond of my old British songs - but I think this might have been the last of them…