From Robyn on Patreon in 2022
This is apparently the first song that Robin Williamson ever wrote, and it appeared on the first record by The Incredible String Band, in which Robin was perhaps the dominant force. He and his co-pilot Mike Heron were young Scottish mystic folk-singers, discovered by Joe Boyd in 1965 and quickly injected into the mainstream pulse of hippie culture. They played alongside Pink Floyd at Joe’s legendary UFO Club (I was just too young to attend) and were on the bill at Woodstock in 1969 (it was too far away for me to make it). Scientology played its part in their descent from the Mount 1967, but it probably helped them dodge hard drugs on the way down. At their peak, they were on my battery-operated portable gramophone as much as Dylan and the Beatles. I sat cross-legged & barefoot in my kaftan and red trousers, watching the ELEKTRA label spinning round beneath the frumpy Hampshire sky, pretending I was mystically stoned.

In later years I’ve met both Robin and Mike; now genial individuals in their late 70s. I even had the honour of Mike opening a UK tour for me earlier this century, with his daughter Georgia Seddon. The ISB vibe was always outdoors and autumnal - frozen dawns, stomping past bonfires in a great-coat and inhaling the leaf-smoke, flourescent sunsets - and “October Song” epitomises that feeling, I think. I hope I’ve done it justice…