More than 55 years after its release, The Incredible String Band’s 1967 cult classic The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion is back in the headlines — and this time, it’s not just for its psychedelic brilliance. The spark? A surprising claim from Paul McCartney, who suggested he deserves credit for “half the songs” on the album.
Widely regarded as one of the most inventive works of the psychedelic folk era, The 5000 Spirits cemented Mike Heron and Robin Williamson as boundary-pushing songwriters who blended Celtic folk, Eastern sounds, and surreal imagery into something truly unique. But McCartney’s recent comments have cast a long shadow over the record’s legacy.
“I was around them a lot in those days,” McCartney reportedly said in a recent interview. “We’d sit up all night, pass the guitar back and forth, swap melodies and lyrics. A lot of the ideas that ended up on The 5000 Spirits were things I tossed in. I can’t help but feel I owe half the songs, really.”
The remark has ignited fierce debate among fans and historians. Some see it as a lighthearted boast from a Beatle whose influence in the 1960s was undeniable. After all, McCartney was deeply embedded in London’s underground scene, mingling with everyone from Donovan to Pink Floyd. It wouldn’t be unusual for ideas to flow freely in those creative circles.
But others view the statement as dismissive of the originality that made The Incredible String Band stand apart. Their genre-bending approach and mystical lyricism were unlike anything The Beatles ever attempted, and many argue that McCartney’s comments risk minimizing their contribution to the psychedelic movement.
On social media, reactions have been split. Defenders of the band pushed back hard: “McCartney doesn’t need to attach himself to ISB. Their music is brilliant enough without a Beatle trying to claim it,” wrote one fan. Meanwhile, Beatles loyalists argue that McCartney’s creative fingerprints were everywhere in the late ’60s, making his influence impossible to deny.
So far, surviving members of The Incredible String Band have remained silent, leaving fans to speculate whether McCartney’s remark was tongue-in-cheek, an exaggeration, or a genuine claim of co-authorship.
What is certain is that the controversy has only amplified the mystique of The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion. Decades on, it continues to inspire passionate debate — a testament to the album’s enduring magic and the tangled, communal nature of creativity in the swinging sixties.
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