This Shel Talmy-produced album is as sprawling and unwieldy as its title. Always a determined eclectic, Harper tries to cover a lot of ground here, and while his effort is impressive, the result is unnervingly inconsistent. The influences of Bob Dylan, Bert Jansch, Donovan, and maybe even early Al Stewart hover over most of this folk-rock. Harper tries to cram too many musical and (especially) lyrical ideas together here, and several of his heart-on-the-sleeve narrative folktales ramble   [ read more ]

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Roy Harper achieved some acclaim with releases like his debut, Sophisticated Beggar, and Flat Baroque and Berserk, but 1971's Stormcock was his first effort that was a fully realized success. Even though all four long songs on the record were arguably superior in subsequent live versions, this is one of only a handful of Harper's albums that has no weak cuts. "Hors d'Oeuvres" had been previewed two years earlier in a faster incarnation, but this version is pleasingly lethargic in a way muc   [ read more ]

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Lifemask was an emotional if not musical rebirth for Roy Harper, who nearly lost his life in 1972 due to a rare congenital circulatory disorder. When the album was released in early 1973, it showed Harper refining the acoustic music he had perfected on 1971's Stormcock. Some of the songs on the album previously appeared in a motion picture entitled {#Made}, but the sound is nonetheless consistent throughout. "Highway Blues" and "South Africa" are the best-known songs on this set, and have    [ read more ]

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Valentine, released on that day in 1974, is a collection of tracks that Roy Harper recorded during the early '70s but did not include on either Stormcock or Lifemask. The fact that this album somehow gels is testimony to just how talented Harper was at this point in his career. All Harper albums have stellar cameos, and this one is no different. Jimmy Page adds devastating lead guitar to "Male Chauvinist Pig Blues," even though the acoustic version the duo released on {^Flashes From    [ read more ]

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Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page backs Harper up on this album and earns co-billing for his trouble. The guitar interplay turns out to be the highlight of the album. Harper displays a nihilistic attitude toward everything in general, and quite a few things in particular. He sings of things dire and hopeless in his thin tenor, while standard-issue folk and rock play behind him. Not that he doesn't have a sense of humor about it -- a sleeve note introduces the final song by saying, "The bes   [ read more ]

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Roy Harper's fourth album found him in an acoustic folkie mode more often than not, though as usual (for circa late-'60s Harper) there were detours into pretty rocky items on occasion. It's not much of either a progression or a slide from the lyrically convoluted, somewhat but not incredibly melodic path he had established with his prior work. "I Hate the White Man," however, is certainly one of his most notable (and notorious) compositions, a spew of lilting verbiage that's hard to peg. It c   [ read more ]

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Roy Harper was spurred into making one of his best albums only after his wife abruptly left him in 1992, thrusting him into a deep despair. The rawness of Death or Glory?, and the fact that it was conceived after the bitter dissolution of a decade-long relationship, makes it the emotional, if not artistic, heir of John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. The album shuns Harper's penchant for over-production in lieu of his more traditional acoustic sound. "The Tallest Tree" is a winning tribute to {%Chic   [ read more ]

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Harper's critically acclaimed masterwork, HQ, is essential for every rock music collection. Backed by his short-lived group Trigger, consisting of Bill Bruford (Yes/King Crimson), Chris Spedding (Sharks/Jack Bruce), and Dave Cochran (Albert King), Harper is at the peak of his lyrical and musical powers here. Considered his most integral "rock" record, the tight, consistent HQ is comprised of fewer acoustically oriented tracks than most of his other releases. The album    [ read more ]

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The Dream Society continued Roy Harper's winning streak with an impressively produced album of varied material. The opening "Songs of Love" is a striking duet with vocalist Musumi that also features some great acoustic guitar work from son Nick Harper. "Songs of Love, Pt. 2" quickly follows with a hard rock sound as convincing as any Harper has produced since HQ in 1975. While there are many styles on the album -- hard rock, folk-rock, and even country -- perhaps the acou   [ read more ]

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Harper followed HQ with another superb rock-oriented classic, the interestingly titled Bullinamingvase. The album will forever be remembered for its controversial track "Watford Gap," and with lyrics which supposedly defamed the town and service station of Watford Gap. Harper ran into legal problems when the town voiced their extreme distaste of the song, resulting in the record company's removal of the composition from the album. It was replaced with the light but solid "Breakfast With You."   [ read more ]

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Following the somewhat disappointing The Dream Society, the astounding British singer/songwriter delivers his best album since 1974's Stormcock and gets his muse back on track. Always an extraordinary guitarist, his songs are still developed out of the folk techniques of his early albums and his lyrics are still as sublimely poetic and soaring. His beautiful voice hasn't sounded so impassioned since his great trilogy of albums: Flat Baroque and Berserk, Come out Fighting Ghengis Smith, and   [ read more ]

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