Muse, Odalisque, Handmaiden

A Girl's Life in the Incredible String Band
By Rose Simpson. Strange Attractor Press. 2020.
264 pages. ISBN 978-1-90-7222672.

I liked the Incredible String Band in the late 1960s. I read this book because I was particularly interested in what part Scientology played in Rose Simpson's departure, and the women's role in the band. Muse, Odalisque, Handmaiden has all that and more. Even if you're not that into the ISB, it's interesting to read of her encounters with The Rolling Stones (minimal), Joan Baez (less than gracious), The Doors, Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell -- and especially Crosby, Stills and Nash, an encounter which she claims changed her life.

The book is well written. It doesn't follow the approach a journalist or a historian would use. It's more like a series of memories or stories, not strictly arranged in chronological order but well enough organized that you get a sense of how things unfolded. She's quite candid about certain things. For example, she tells us that although she was "part of" the band, and appeared on stage with them, she never felt like a musician. And she describes the elite groupies in the U.S., those that pursued the biggest bands, as "beautiful and intelligent", based on encounters in hotel elevators.

Personally, I found Simpson's account of commune life sad. Clearly she was in love with Mike Heron, but when it came to couples, monogamy was neither expected or followed, and "cottage doors remained open long after we ceased to be exclusively together." It's a life I could never lead. But then, this isn't my memoir. 

A passage I keep coming back to about her commune years: she tells us that in those days they wished for "peace, an end to war and the outrageous exploitations of capitalism." In those days (the late 1960s) capitalism wasn't exactly unbridled in the UK. I wonder what she thinks of British politics today.

I salute Simpson for her honesty, and for having the courage to walk away when her "freedom had been overruled by Scientology" and she decided "I wanted someone who would stay with me, a life to share."