Smiling Men With Bad Reputations: The Story of the Incredible String Band, Robin Williamson and Mike Heron and a Consumer's Guide to Their Music

Some fascinating research!

Open this book and the first thing you are presented with is a run-on sentence peppered with dates and numbers that takes up fully one third of the page. The other thing that immediately becomes obvious is the writer's premise: that Mike Heron and Robin Williamson have "fallen from grace."This is both absurd and an incredible (to borrow an adjective) disservice to the book's subjects, who, it must be remembered, practically singlehandedly gave birth to a distinct genre of music and stage art. The simple fact that they did so half a century ago does not in any way lessen the achievement.Nor, as this book, in its heavy-handed and tacit way, seeks to imply, is the Incredible String Band's achievement in any way dated. The book damns with faint praise, and is itself a painful read, with awkward prose that does not flow, presents not so much fact as the author's pre- and ill-conceived conclusions, and a textual and typographic presentation badly in need of several passes by a good copyeditor. No editor worth an editor's salt should be content with using hyphens as dashes, with letting slip such egregious errors as saying that Heron and Williamson "comprised the core duo at the heart of the Incredible String Band" (anyone can look this up; the meaning presented here is backwards, the common mistake of substituting "comprise" to convey the meaning and sense of "compose" — "comprise" referring to the whole that makes up (embraces) the separate parts, not the other way around; it was the Incredible String Band that comprised the players, and any responsible editor — or writer — should know this) and using two-word constructions in place of terms that have long since passed into single-word usage. But this book, it is clear, never saw the eyes of an editor, for either copy or content.There is historical content here, and that alone may be enough to make a devotee want to suffer through it — keeping in mind that the lack of professionalism and taste present elsewhere throughout is enough to throw its factual content into question. Page three makes the claim that the aim of the book is to prompt a reevaluation of the subjects' collective and separate bodies of work — but it does so from the starting premise of a "fall from grace" — a particularly graceless and unjournalistic way to craft a tribute. It is an insult, both to the publisher's art and to its subjects.

Thorough, current (2017) and well-written. Enlightened my understanding and increased my appreciation for the Incredible String Band. Also includes the music made after the ISB was no more. If you appreciate the ISB this book is for you.

Although I had read several great books touching on the ISB like Jeanette Leech's 'Seasons they change', Joe Boyd's 'White bicycles', 'Be Glad: An Incredible String Band Compendium' and dug into several other sources I decided to purchase Norbury's 'Smiling men'. Especially the promise of going into the details of Robin and Mike's solo careers appealed to me.Norbury is quite meticulous as sources of quotes are diligently mentioned and in his acknowledgements he rightfully names and praises the people who've written on the subject in the past. For it is clear that although this is very much a work of his own he leans heavily on the work done by others.As always with this kind of book there's the tricky bit of appraising the recordings that are discussed, as everybody will have his or her own opinion about merit. On the whole I tend to agree with Norbury, although his 3 lists of personal favourites are superfluous and not really helpful. My own best-of-Robin list would've been quite different, for example.As welcome as this book is, its style does annoy me: in too many sentences we find long interjections in parentheses or between hyphens which makes reading rather cumbersome. And ending many sentences with a series of dots doesn't help either. To give you an idea here's a sentence taken from the book:"There are then demos of a further five songs that were considered for, but not incorporated into, 5000 Spirits, and later demos for what would become Wee Tam...'s The Iron Stone and God Dog, which Shirley and Dolly Collins - the latter of whom would also play on The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter - were to cover on their 1969 Anthems in Eden LP (Williamson and Heron would themselves similarly reciprocate this support by appearing on the sisters' 1968 LP The Power of the True Love Knot, where Robin contributed tin whistle, shanai, Japanese sticks and clapping, and Mike African drum, finger cymbals and clapping, to a number of its tracks)."Whew! You still there?In terms of content it's not all roses either. Despite filling in a lot of knowledge gaps (for me at least) we don't get to know Mike and Robin and associates as human beings as biographical information is practically non-existent. Janet Williamson, for example, who was once Robin's wife and sometime manager doesn't really get more lines than she does in this review. Even music-related information like sources of inspiration for the guys is sorely missing. And after a fairly good start dwelling on the ISB the descriptions of Robin and Mike's respective solo careers is not much more than a glorified album-by-album review.On the positive side, to his credit Norbury waits until the last chapter to level criticism at one of his heroes: Robin. At first Robin appeared willing to co-operate with Norbury but he changed his mind and tried to get Norbury to abandon the whole project. He even ordered Norbury to completely bury the existence of the absolutely wonderful and quite personal "Mirrorman's Sequences" (stories about his pre-ISB years). It's well-known that Williamson has slighted or even scoffed at his ISB past but this trying to obliterate the past suggests a deep level of trouble and it raises a lot of questions. But although Norbury, a devoted fan, is clearly hurt by Williamson's obstruction he manages to keep his composure and stay polite.So, a very useful and informative book by a lifelong fan and a good addition to the ISB canon, but not nearly comprehensive and sadly less readable than it could've been. 3 1/2 stars.

I first heard the ISB in the late 60s, loved their songs, and have followed them ever since. The author of this book is evidently someone who also has a deep appreciation of the band, in their original incarnation and also as individual artists. He tells the story of the band's extraordinary rise to prominence and influence, their fall, and their subsequent restoration with knowledge and obvious affection.The breadth of the book's coverage is impressive - not only the ISB's albums but also Robin and Mike's solo output too, plus interesting extra material such as the rankings of his own personal favourite albums.If you like the ISB, you will enjoy this excellent book.

Although I had read several great books touching on the ISB like Jeanette Leech's 'Seasons they change', Joe Boyd's 'White bicycles', 'Be Glad: An Incredible String Band Compendium' and dug into several other sources I decided to purchase Norbury's 'Smiling men'. Especially the promise of going into the details of Robin and Mike's solo careers appealed to me.Norbury is quite meticulous as sources of quotes are diligently mentioned and in his acknowledgements he rightfully names and praises the people who've written on the subject in the past. For it is clear that although this is very much a work of his own he leans heavily on the work done by others.As always with this kind of book there's the tricky bit of appraising the recordings that are discussed, as everybody will have his or her own opinion about merit. On the whole I tend to agree with Norbury, although his 3 lists of personal favourites are superfluous and not really helpful. My own best-of-Robin list would've been quite different, for example.As welcome as this book is, its style does annoy me: in too many sentences we find long interjections in parentheses or between hyphens which makes reading rather cumbersome. And ending many sentences with a series of dots doesn't help either. To give you an idea here's a sentence taken from the book:"There are then demos of a further five songs that were considered for, but not incorporated into, 5000 Spirits, and later demos for what would become Wee Tam...'s The Iron Stone and God Dog, which Shirley and Dolly Collins - the latter of whom would also play on The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter - were to cover on their 1969 Anthems in Eden LP (Williamson and Heron would themselves similarly reciprocate this support by appearing on the sisters' 1968 LP The Power of the True Love Knot, where Robin contributed tin whistle, shanai, Japanese sticks and clapping, and Mike African drum, finger cymbals and clapping, to a number of its tracks)."Whew! You still there?In terms of content it's not all roses either. Despite filling in a lot of knowledge gaps (for me at least) we don't get to know Mike and Robin and associates as human beings as biographical information is practically non-existent. Janet Williamson, for example, who was once Robin's wife and sometime manager doesn't really get more lines than she does in this review. Even music-related information like sources of inspiration for the guys is sorely missing. And after a fairly good start dwelling on the ISB the descriptions of Robin and Mike's respective solo careers is not much more than a glorified album-by-album review.On the positive side, to his credit Norbury waits until the last chapter to level criticism at one of his heroes: Robin. At first Robin appeared willing to co-operate with Norbury but he changed his mind and tried to get Norbury to abandon the whole project. He even ordered Norbury to completely bury the existence of the absolutely wonderful and quite personal "Mirrorman's Sequences" (stories about his pre-ISB years). It's well-known that Williamson has slighted or even scoffed at his ISB past but this trying to obliterate the past suggests a deep level of trouble and it raises a lot of questions. But although Norbury, a devoted fan, is clearly hurt by Williamson's obstruction he manages to keep his composure and stay polite.So, a very useful and informative book by a lifelong fan and a good addition to the ISB canon, but not nearly comprehensive and sadly less readable than it could've been. 3 1/2 stars.

I'm genuinely torn as to what to say about this one. On the one hand, as perhaps the world's most devoted fan of The Incredible String Band, I relish any work that tells me more about them, which this book does. It's well-researched, features interviews with key players, collaborators and friends, and gives plenty of period background colour. On the other hand, towards the end I discover that my friend and IDB co-founder, Robin Williamson, withdrew his support for the book after reading the manuscript. I'm not sure why. Possibly just because Robin much prefers to work on current projects rather than dwell on the past. He has, after all, pursued an extremely successful solo career ever since the String Band split up in 1974, releasing a whole string of brilliant albums on his own and with various collaborators old and new, from original ISB member, Clive Palmer, to modern jazz groups.So, out of regard for Robin, a genuinely lovely man and a hugelky talented artist, I'll shut up at this point. Honestly, check out Robin's Pig's Whisker website, grab an album or two (I especially recommend 1995's 'Island of the Strong Door'), go and see the man's magical, genuinely entrancing live performances ... you won't regret it :-)

What a great book! It is all here - detailed analyses of past glories through to consideration of Robin's most obscure and recent releases. Delighted to see 'Changing Horses' celebrated as a great achievement. I have been waiting for this book for years. All we need now is a Williamson autobiography which I just know would be as remarkable as Bob's 'Chronicles'.

Excellent , well researched book on the Incredible String Band's entire career and later solo ventures . Compulsory for hard-core fans .

Pretty decent account but the not best book about the ISB. Useful for what they did after splitting up. I never knew Robin made so many albums!