Paul Norbury — Smiling Men With Bad Reputations: The Story of the

Smiling Men With Bad Reputations is an attempt to be a give a  balanced & even- handed listeners guide to the work of one of the most creative bands of the 1960 ’s, and their two main songwriters.  I’ve been a  fan of The Incredible String Band, for around ten plus years now, and heard all of their output, but never really ventured very far into either Williamson's or Heron’s work- so when I saw this book was out it seemed a very appealing proposition.

The book is 230-page A5 sized paperback- utilizing mainly black & white text layout, with each release cover reproduced in color. With the chapters broken up into years- so it runs between 1963 to 2006- covering all of the ISB releases(including live albums & comps), and of course all of Williamson & Heron's post ISB.

From the books outset & the introduction, it’s clear the book's author Paul Norbury, is long time,  highly-knowledgeable & devoted fan of both ISB & Williamson/ Heron solo work. And though-out, even in the ISB parts of the book, I gained new facts & some interesting insights on the history side of things, so I’m certainly grateful for those. So the history/ facts side of the book can’t be faulted.

The history/ fact side of the book is naturally interwoven with the main books main coverage i.e. the albums themselves.  And most of these write-ups/ critique focus into more towards the lyrical side of things, and less on the musical side of things. Sure I appreciate the importance of the lyrics, and with the ISB albums- it certainly made me look a new at some of my favorite tracks. The problem came when I moved into the latter part of the book, and the solo albums I’m not familiar with, and sadly this is where the book fell down for me- as I was looking for more sonic insights, instead of the mainly lyrical focus.

So, as a result, I came away from the book as a whole more than a little disappointed, and I’m sure if you’d never had heard any of the ISB albums- you’d be even more disappointed. The whole thing really needed to be more evenly balanced between musical & lyrical- so as it stands Smiling Men With Bad Reputations, is very much of a lopsided affair.

In conclusion, it’s always great to see new reissues & releases of ISB work on the market; but I’m afraid unless you're after a mix of facts & lyrical analyzing- you may also come away from this book feeling more than a little disappointed too.