October Song

Robin Williamson wrote "October Song" and sang it with guitar, the second track of the Incredible String Band's debut, 4:09 (a track listing in search says 4:08), recorded on May 22, 1966 at Sound Techniques with Joe Boyd producing. In a 1968 Sing Out! interview Bob Dylan reportedly praised it as one of his favorite songs of that period; we saw this only secondhand, via Wikipedia and an editor's introduction. We found no statement from Williamson on its meaning; he has said many of his lyrics are intentionally ambiguous.

A live version of about ten minutes from the Fillmore in 1968 was released in 2013, and Bloomsbury (1997) with Heron has an October Song and Maya medley. Setlist.fm lists 42 Williamson sets from April 1995 to September 2026, though we could not confirm this song in any. Mainly Norfolk lists covers by Tom Gilfellon (1972), Maggie Boyle (1987), Dick Gaughan (1998), Roger Wilson and the House Band (1998, as the title track of October Song), Brian Peters (1998), the Rheingans Sisters (2013), Lori Watson (2017), Jon Wilks, Mike Wilson (2019) and Martin Simpson (2020). Amy Winehouse's song of the same name is unrelated.