PAINTING BOX

My dear dad would have been 82 years old today. Thinking about him this morning on his birthday, I've been wondering what the most suitable music track would be to play in his honour.

After some brief procrastination I've settled for 'Painting Box' by The Incredible String Band, written and recorded in 1967 from their album 'The 5000 Spirits Or The Layer Of The Onion', an Alice in Wonderland-style Scottish cousin to the Beatles' 'Sgt Pepper' from the very same year.

It was a song that he often used to sing to me at bedtime and I can still remember him affecting a slight Scottish accent to mimic the original recorded version sung by Robin Williamson and Mike Heron, the Edinburgh equivalent of Lennon and McCartney.

The lyrics say more in their childlike simplicity than I can possibly add to and reflect what I miss most about him which was his 'painting box' mind that had every colour contained within it.

I'm just glad I have a few colours of him left to remember him by.

For somewhere in my mind there is a painting box

I have every color there, it's true

Just lately when I look inside my painting box

I seem to pick the colours of you

Happy Birthday Dad! x

Digital Renegade

12th January, 2024