You Know What You Could Be: Tuning into the 1960s - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1784293008 ISBN 13: 9781784293000

Publisher: Quercus Publishing

Synopsis

You Know What You Could be

About this title

About the Author

Andrew Greig (Author) Andrew Greig is the author of six books of poetry, two mountaineering books; two non-fiction books and six novels. He has been shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize, and won the Saltire and the Scottish Book of the Year awards. He lives in Orkney and Edinburgh with his wife, the novelist Lesley Glaister. Mike Heron (Author) Praised by Paul McCartney and Robert Plant, Mike Heron, born in Edinburgh, was a founder member of the Incredible String Band. As a solo artist he has worked with John Cale, Pete Townshend and Keith Moon. He is still writing and performing music, touring regularly with a host of musicians including his daughter Georgia and Trembling Bells.

Review

Rich in smoky detail of the city . . . Rates as the most throbbingly exciting I've ever read in a music biography -- Aidan Smith * Scotsman * Heron's descriptions of life in 1950s and early 60s Edinburgh have a winningly dour Ivor Cutler-ish air . . . Greig has a knack for refracted memoir, viewing his own life through strange prisms and other lives . . . with elegaic wisdom. -- Peter Ross * Guardian * Charming and oddly moving . . . His account of growing up in Edinburgh in the late 1950s and 60s has all the excitement of a good rock biopic. We share in the thrills . . . Heartwarming, charismatic mix of self-effacing charm and wistful empathic engagement with the world. -- Matt Milton * Songlines * The Incredible String Band were one of the most influential groups on the planet . . . A warm, beautifully drawn evocation of formative years, hippie culture and key friendships -- Graeme Thomson * Mail on Sunday * From travelling in an open-sided military helicopter with terrified Ravi Shankar and catching Jimi Hendrix's closing set at Woodstock, this book is a must-read for anyone looking for an insider's view of the psychadelic sixties * M Magazine * Warm, meditative, evocative . . . Much more than a conventional music biography -- Graeme Thomson * Herald * Heron's turn of phrase and eye for detail extend...to every aspect of Edinburgh's mid-sixties beatnik life, realised in beguiling sensory images . . . Heron has to write a second volume, but at least this first instalment might help to secure the recognition the band so transparently deserve' -- Mark Ellen * New Statesman * With his characteristic modesty and self-deprecating humour, Mike Heron recalls the beginnings of the British folk revival and, though he would never admit as much, the part he played in bringing folk to a new audience. Funny, honest, and vividly evocative of its era, You Know What You Could Be is essential for music fans, whatever their tribal affinities. * John Burnside * Mike Heron's lyrics always sparkled with wit and warmth and his prose is a delightful continuation. The book evokes a smoky, unheated eccentric Edinburgh that was a crucible for so much creativity. * Joe Boyd, author of White Bicycles * Mike Heron, as part of the Incredible String Band, changed the way I looked at music. Read it! * Billy Connolly *

Edition details

• Publisher: Quercus Publishing
• ISBN 10: 1784293008
• ISBN 13: 9781784293000
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English