ROY HARPER

But this 'magnum opus' is what we are here to 'discuss'. I now have his full catalogue bar two or three 90's onwards things and back in the day, amongst friends who generously passed albums round for the taping/borrowing, this was one I didn't have and went out and found my own copy of. It isn't often I build a review on others but , even though it was before my time of being in to music, there does seem to be an absence of 'time and place' in those that diss this as '4 simple folk tunes stretched out to fill the grooves'. It was 1971 maaaan. Unless you were pure Bert Jansch (who had been know to extend a song) or even Davey Graham, ten 3.5 min tracks was so passé. Ok, I agree, if no supplements of choice were fogging the studio, if you are going to stretch out at least make it interesting and have some variations...but most of this works and works sublimely well ...especially with the aforementioned supps. of choice. Harper wasn't blessed with anything other than his tremulous voice and no matter how much he throws the polemic into the mix, it will still be a timbre at odds with what might have worked a bit better.... although Tim Buckley managed it. But if you are the singer/guitarist/songwriter what other options do you have? Again he wasn't quite 'the poet' his lyrics aimed at portraying but 'folk' is about story telling and he usually tells a good un'. Me and My Woman, even with slightly over lush Bedford orchestration, is my standout...but maybe because have seen him perform a more compact and solo version more times than you could shake a spliff at....eh Captain Kirk? The other 3 tracks rise and fall as any album you have owned for 45+ years that gets very regular spins will do. They all have their charms and any of the above mentioned 'drawbacks' you wish to include.

Anyhow it is prog/folk, without being Tull or Comus, and I did mention the transatlantic touchstone of Tim Buckley as a more apt comparison, even with this album being cloaked in its quintessential 'Britishness'. Yes am always going to have an affinity with albums/artists I saw/grew up on my musical journey with but a fair few I might struggle to give 3 stars and upwards to these days. This would have been a nailed on 5 for many many years but in all honesty it is 4.5 at best so will have to drop it to four. But those days of yore and this a perfect soundtrack to them will always be there for me. Cheers Roy.

All the same, the songs are not bad and "One Man Rock And Roll Band" is performed and recorded for the first time with two guitarists and it does seem to lift Roy into the moment. However, the dual acoustic playing on "Miles Remains" (form the incredible Death Or Glory? album), with its endless build up and repetitions, conjures up the opposite reaction to both Roy and this listener. The song working better as a meditative album cut on it's bombastic studio album.

The DVD performances are punctuated with different illustrations and animations that don't always seem to connect to the songs they accompany, but are neither helpful nor harmful. They are just there. This is a fan's only item as there are better live Roy concerts on both CD and Video. (Live In Concert At Metropolis Studios being the best.) 3 stars.

A solo rendition of "One Of Those Days In England (Parts 2-5)" starts off the album and the song is all the better because of it. This song allows Roy to show off his incredible vocal range without fighting a full band accompaniment. This is followed by full band versions of "Short And Sweet", "Referendum", "Highway Blues" and "True Story", all featuring the incredible Jimmy Page, who amps up not only the rest of band and Harper, but the appreciative crowd as well. Excellently recorded, this live album is an absolute must have for Harper fans, as well as anyone who appreciates well played hard rock. "The Game" from the IQ album is acoustic with just Roy accompanied by his talented son Nick on acoustic lead and is quite good. A manic version of "One Man Rock And Roll Band" with just Roy on acoustic guitar meanders a lot and is less successful, but is still a good song to end the album with. Sound quality is very good, if not pristine. 4 stars.

"Drawn To the Flames" starts album in a really glorious way! It grows slowly and there is really strong singing from Roy. It´s maybe the most positive piece of him. Same direction continues in "Jack Of Hearts". It´s almost wholly acoustic, only short synth periods in it. There is very same kind of demoversion in "Born In Captivity" under name "No Woman Is Safe". "I am a Child" is a bright pop piece with really great melody. If things had gone different way, I believe we would hear this song still in the eighties radio channels. "Woman" is a little bit darker than first three, but again it has very good melody! Also this could have become a radio hit. The ending of A-side "I Still Care" is full of hope and light. Really a beautiful piece and again very strong vocals from Roy! But the greatest comes in the B-side, the whole side long title piece, which I think is one of the forgotten Roy´s epic! As all of his epics, the main role is in his poetic acoustic guitar playing & vocals. I think it´s as great as "The Lord´s Prayer" or "One Of These Days In England" from the seventies! And if eighties drumsounds, synths and handclappings disturbs you, then listen the whole acoustic version from "Born In Captivity", it´s under name "No One Ever Gets Alive" (later "Work Of Heart").

When I listened this album first time, those plastic eighties sounds disturbed me quite much. But in the second listening I knew what was coming so I just concentrated on music. It´s so shame Roy didn´t get success with this album! Really he had made eighties music masterpiece! I believe it just had to cause of the poor promotion, weak radio plays etc., because this album sounds just to music that was made those times although it´s lot better than many other! Really Roy would have deserved a charting more than for example Spandau Ballet, Survivor or Twisted Sister. I have to admit as a Roy´s acoustic stuff lover I love more "Born In Captivity" than this, but anyway it really is one of the best sides of eighties, when thinking typical music of that decade.

Harper started off this intimate 12 song concert with a somewhat subdued performance of his prog epic "One Man Rock And Roll Band" , from the vaulted Stormcock album, before relaxing and finding his voice with an emotional reading of "Twelve Hours Of Sunset" from the Lifemask album. Following quickly is an enthusiastic performance of "Don't You Grieve" before Roy clicks off an even more emotional and tender performance of the elegant and moving torch song "Another Day", both from his 1970 masterwork Flat, Baroque And Berserk. Even without David Bedford's strings found on the studio version, Roy's emotional delivery and heartfelt lyrics brought one bloke in the audience to tears. It is one of Harper's finest live moments ever recorded. Harper wisely breaks up his love songs with with an rousing version of "Highway Blues" before going back to singing with his heart firmly on his sleeves with the ever greens "Commune" "Hallucinating Light", "Frozen Moment" and a lush take on "The Green Man". The last song demonstrating Harper's mesmerizing fret work.

While his singing is excellent through out, with Roy hitting all of the prerequisite high notes. However, Harper's only flaw seems to be holding back on his renown vocal hijinks on most of the following songs, which is a bit puzzling until the album's penultimate cut "Me And My Women" from the Stormcock album. Harper ramps up both his guitar intensity and vocals to perform one of the best versions I've ever heard of this celebrated prog folk epic. If that wasn't enough, a majestic and heartfelt performance "When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease", from the HQ album as an encore, is the icing on a very marvelous cake. So, Harper was obviously saving his voice for the final blast off.

Roy stayed away from his angry protest songs like "I Hate The White Man", "Hangman" and "The Same Old Rock", but the mature and mellower Roy Harper works just fine without them. The video quality of the DVD is excellent as is the sound quality for both the DVD and CD. 4 stars.

While the melodies are uniformly excellent, it's Harper's lyrics that again take the cake. From slipping in and out of the characters of God, suicide bombers and what sounds like a George W. Bush imitation, Harper recounts the tale of an interventionist God who swears that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction and that his wrath is righteous. Up until he finds out that no WMDs were found, causing this vengeful God to fall out of Heaven and crash down to earth, to his doom. Harper believes that if one can imagine such a deity, then one can also imagine his demise. Simple. Good stuff, as usual from Roy. 4 stars.

Harper's fourth album, and certainly his most consistent up to that point, it was also his first release on what turned out to be a decade long and extremely fruitful association with the EMI Harvest label.

A largely solo acoustic guitar set (a harp accompaniment here, a small string ensemble there) Baroque is packed with strong songs and contains a number of bona fide classics in the Harper canon - the elegiac Another Day, the vitriolic I Hate The White Man.

White Man aside, the prevailing mood is reflective and introspective. There are short and sweet homages to former lovers and to Harper's brother Davey. Harper's best songs sound as though they demanded to be written and, in these sparse arrangements, the songs and his passionate delivery cut straight to the heart.

Baroque rounds off with the raucous Hell's Angels, which does rather shatter the carefully created contemplative mood, but it's a funky enough psychedelically tinged number and Roy, playing electric guitar and backed by the Nice no less, sounds like he's having a great time.

This record is as fresh as the day it was recorded. Roy Harper has written many excellent songs throughout his long career but, in retrospect, the 70s does seem like a golden era for him, producing a steady stream of ageless albums. This was the first of them.

The opener, a despicable pop song, coming from some prehistoric form of pop that doesn't dare to say its name, and no one wants even to remember. By charging this hedious thing with an adjective like "poor", one will be conceding too much.

But there are some shots hitting the target, anyway. Those will be the acoustic songs, where Roy's unique voice and phrasing really shine, like "I'm In Love With You", and some rocker in a Thin Lizzy vein, like "Ten Years Ago".

Even so, too uneven to be good.