Goodwin Roy Harper

Every Album, Every Song
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-78952-454-3
Verlag: Sonicbond Publishing
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 160 Seiten

Reihe: On Track

Roy Harper must be one of Britain's most undervalued rock musicians and songwriters. For over fifty years, he has produced a series of innovative albums of consistently outstanding quality, putting poetry and social commentary to music in a way that extends the boundaries of rock music. His 22 studio albums and 16 live albums, made up of 250 songs, have created a unique body of work.
Roy is a musician's musician. He is lauded by the likes of Dave Gilmour, Ian Anderson, Jimmy Page, Pete Townsend, Joanna Newsom, Fleet Foxes and Kate Bush. Who else could boast that he has had Keith Moon, Jimmy Page, Dave Gilmour, John Paul Jones, Ronnie Lane, Chris Spedding, Bill Bruford and Steve Broughton in his backing band? Notable albums include Stormcock, HQ and Bullinamingvase.
Opher Goodwin, Roy's friend and a fan, guides the reader through every album and song, providing insight into the recording of the songs as well the times in which they were recorded. As his loyal and often fanatical fans will attest, Roy has produced a series of epic songs and he remains a raging, uncompromising individual.

Opher Goodwin is the author of many books on rock music and science fiction. He taught the first 'History of Rock Music' classes in the UK. Opher was fortunate to spend the sixties in London, the epicenter for the underground explosion of rock music and culture, where he was able to see everyone from Pink Floyd, Hendrix and Cream to the Doors, Captain Beefheart and, of course, Roy Harper. He befriended Roy in 1967 and has not only attended hundreds of gigs but was a privileged guest In Abbey Road studios for the recording of some of Roy's seminal albums. He lives in East Yorkshire, UK.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Goodwin, Opher

Leseproben

Chapter 2

Come Out Fighting Ghengis Smith (1967)

First released on the CBS label in 1967

Personnel:

Shel Talmy: producer

Roy Harper: guitar and various instruments. Writer of all the songs Laurie Allan: drums

Keith Mansfield: strings

Bert Jansch: liner notes

Lippa Pearce: cover design

A second album is often difficult. Musicians perfect the songs they use in their live act and select the best for their first album. When it comes to the second, they are often short of good material. However, that was not the case for Roy. Far from running short of ideas, his second album teems with new concepts and strong songs. It even features Roy’s first long epic: ‘Circle’.

Perhaps CBS had heard something in Roy’s Strike recordings and heard about his live performances, or perhaps his manager – Joe Lustig – just talked a good talk. Either way, they decided that Roy was worth taking a punt on. Hoping that he would come up with chart material, they brought in American producer Shel Talmy, who had previously worked with The Who and The Kinks, amongst others, and was really an expert at creating singles. Singles were not what Roy was about: he was an album singer-songwriter who mainly worked acoustically. Roy and Shel were not the ideal combination. In an interview with the magazine, Musoscribe, Shel described working with Roy: ‘Roy Harper was difficult. The word that comes to mind is … truculent’. Talmy didn’t deny Harper’s talent, but the two men’s approaches were at odds: ‘Whenever I record anybody, I generally have a little chat: ‘Do you guys want to sell records, or do you just want to sit there and wank in the dark or something?’. Talmy said that he liked making records that would sell and that when making Come Out Fighting Ghengis Smith, Harper ‘probably wasn’t particularly interested (in that), and we battled. But we got ‘round to it’.

I can well imagine. Roy does not do compromise. He knows what he wants, and it’s all about artistic integrity. He’s not interested in producing hit singles and wants to produce good music. Even so, somehow, the pair formed a working relationship that resulted in a superb album. Come Out Fighting Ghengis Smith was released in 1967, along with two singles, neither of which had The Beatles at all worried.

In 1991, the album was re-released on Andy Ware’s Awareness Records, in an expanded form containing a strange assortment of bonus tracks, all of which will be reviewed later with the appropriate albums. These were ‘Zaney Janey’: an outtake from Folkjokeopus, that appeared on the American album along with ‘Ballad Of Songwriter’, in place of the instrumental, ‘One For All’; the single, ‘Midspring Dithering’, and its B-side ‘Zengem’; the outtake from Flat Baroque and Berserk, ‘It’s Tomorrow And Today Is Yesterday’; and two songs from the BBC radio show, Top Gear, in 1969: ‘Francesca’ and ‘She’s The One’.

Come Out Fighting Ghengis Smith, whilst perhaps being no better an album than its predecessor, is certainly a step forward musically. It’s experimental, adventurous and avant-garde. There are spoken-word sections and a poem: not the usual thing for a rock/folk album. No wonder Shel Talmy found working with Roy difficult. CBS also found the experience mind-blowing. It was not quite the chart-friendly album they had envisaged. Roy said they did not know what to make of it.

The album is highly original and personal, with the epic, ‘Circle’, focussing on Roy’s childhood. But the fact that the album didn’t easily slot into any particular genre is a dilemma that has constantly hounded Roy. The use of strings, a low-key backing and Roy’s acoustic guitar take it into new territory. It certainly isn’t folk or folk rock: it’s Roy Harper. Yet Roy did not like the album, calling it the skeleton in his cupboard, even though it was ground- breaking in so many novel and experimental ways. I cannot think of another album from that period that has poems, spoken-word sections, or this type of poetic song. It was special, and different to the normal folk/blues or even Bob Dylan’s then-current contemporary style. The album is uniquely English in style and composition. Its orchestral and pastoral atmosphere brings to mind Nick Drake’s first two albums, though it predates them by a few years. They all have a similar willowy feel.

Bert Jansch wrote the weird cover notes, along with two little poems of dubious relevance to either Roy or the album.

The idea was for the song titles to be read as a continuum instead of a list. It almost works.

‘Freak Street’

The opening track sets the tone for the album. The production is different from the debut. The addition of strings (unusual for that time) has a muting effect on the guitars, pushing them back in the mix. Laid-back snare drum creates a jazz feel that carries the track along. Although it makes for a muddy sound (much clearer on the remaster), I like the effect. The vocal is clear and melds well with the backing – Roy giving vent to his full vocal range.

The poem/lyric is complex, with much use of alliteration. It dictates the track’s tempo, which speeds up and slows down in keeping with the words, which at times come thick and fast (making them difficult to decipher), and at others, slower, and thus more easily understood. The result is a beautiful song, teeming with poetic descriptions and expressively delivered.

Greek Street is in the centre of London’s Soho – where the freaks and buskers hung out – and Roy renamed it Freak Street. An area that was once grand was now a place of dives, sex shows and cosmopolitan bohemia; a place where it all happened: dope, sex, caked-on make-up, Newcastle brown and music, in ‘a neon desert storm of tin can shabbiness’.

A powerful start to the album.

‘You Don’t Need Money’

This track represented the album on the CBS sampler The Rock Machine Turns You On – where it was retitled as ‘Nobody’s Got Any Money In The Summer’ – and was also the B-side of the single, ‘Life Goes By’. I’m not sure it was the wisest choice for the sampler. ‘Freak Street’ would have portrayed Roy in a more serious mode.

‘You Don’t Need Money’ is one of Roy’s ‘George Formby’s’ – a humorous song that always went down well at gigs: particularly the line about the ‘Chinese wrestler’s jockstrap cooked in chip fat’. The less lavish production suits it: Roy and his doubled-tracked guitar, with drums, work well.

It’s a simple tale of a poor starving busker whose student audience belted off for the summer months to go hitch-hiking around the world, leaving him destitute. But then, who needs money? ‘Except, of course, for scoring on a sunny day’.

‘Ageing Raver’

With the third track, we are back to the full band. Shel gave it an upbeat production, with guitars, tambourine, bass, drums and strings. He was really trying his best to create a commercial sound, and it pounds along with a very catchy chorus.

The lyric describes the life of a young London raver. Spliffed out of his head, he is lying about in the sun and busking to get by. Rich girls – beguiled by the decadence, acid and speed – dip into the scene of all-night partying. Life is one long party. But then, already, before he’s even grown up, is he getting too old for the part he is playing? At only 25, was Roy feeling his age?

‘In A Beautiful Rambling Mess’

A gentle song in which sweeping strings and harpsichord create a wistful, ethereal quality, augmenting Roy’s guitar.

The poem captures the moment of a sunset reverie. He describes himself sitting, watching the orange/red glow of the fires of the setting sun, and allowing it to set his mind adrift, roaming through memories, experiences and relationships, as time floats slowly past. ‘What a beautiful rambling mess we live’.

‘All You Need Is’

This gentle song starts with carefully picked guitar. The backing opens on a soft snare rhythm, with bass and keyboards in the background. The strings build and ebb, augmenting and emphasising the melody as Roy’s voice rises and falls, culminating in his full falsetto.

The song comprises two parts. I used to mistakenly think the long first section related to an acid trip, but Roy denied that acid was involved. It was just one of those very emotional, introspective conversations. Roy is in deep discussion with his girlfriend about the nature of womanhood, sexuality, and her despair at her unequal, empty-headed, subservient role. He tells her it doesn’t have to be that way: she can be free to live the life she wants.

The second section brings a change of mood, focussing on women in general, Roy delivering his comments in a direct and disdainful manner. The song then drifts into a repetition of ‘All you need is’, with a variety of emphasis. Is it a reaction to The Beatles’ ‘All You Need Is Love’, from around the same time?

‘What You Have’

Roy and acoustic guitars here create a haunting love song. The guitars interact in the background as Roy sings...