Roy Harper Appreciation thread

;)

SteveG wrote: Big Harper fan here both professionally and personally! Love his music but not Roy too much when he get's in a mood and gets on a soap box. I missed seeing him in his stoned days so I've only seen the eccentric, like the time he stopped playing in order to explain the next song and then went off on some 20 minute unrelated tangent! But that's Roy! Still love him though and a lot of his music should have been much more popular, no doubt about that.

 

Totally agree- he could (and did) go off on a stoned ramble many, many times and incur some major heckling in the years I saw him though I think he was more 'straight' (if there can be such a thing) the first few times I saw him at the very end of the 70's with a tighter band, trying a more commercial sound. Then I think he just went back to being a 'one man rock n roll band' and slipped back into old habits plus drinking a fair bit.. but the few times I actually met him he was very amiable and not the grumpy so & so I was led to believe he would be.

Kotro wrote: It's a funny thing. I've heard Stormcock years ago, and loved it - still do. It's an almost perfect album for me, and for that reason, I never felt compelled to hear more from Roy, out of fear of being disappointed.

 

I think for many its the quintessential RH lp; its certainly the most balanced in terms of composition.. but that was never Roy's way of working and so there were always going to be some elements and/or songs which shine out better than others. For instance 'Lifemask' is a phenomenal lp in terms of songs and composition let down by poor production and possibly by Roy's state of health/ being a bit too out of it. With an artist as mercurial as Roy, you've got to take the rough with the smooth

I'm of the opinion that the 3 greatest poets that have graced rock music over the years, and not just 5 of them, would have to be Bob Dylan, Roy Harper and Peter Hammill. 

I'm not exactly a Bob Dylan fan, but a lot of his wording sticks in your mind, and that is exactly what a poet and writer tries to do, although the style for Roy is more likely to be totally ad-lib and about the moment when he did his thing, and really, I loved it when he said no to going out with Pink Floyd, probably figuring that he was going to get only 5 minutes and the chair and the dark the rest of the time, and for that he would probably say a loud _______ to Roger, I bet! Or have a beer, sucker!

Over the years, Roy has put together incredibly satisfying albums, and it is a great compliment to his ability when someone says that they are/were afraid of hearing anything else because one album was so good ... many of the other albums stand out as well, just as much!

Special for me:

Lifemark

HQ (and that one fabulous piece ... "Playing the Game Pts 1-5")

BullinaMingVase (One of These Days in England)

The Unknown Soldier

Jugula +4

.... just for starters ... specially as so few rock bands can even get past themselves and two albums, if that!