Among the great obdurates of English vernacular music, ROY HARPER has been fighting his corner since performances at Les Cousins folk venue in 1965 and a first album release in 1966. A decade before Malcolm McLaren took his chances, Roy Harper was pissing off major labels and dumping corporate advice like a man with a mind and a talent of his own. In my pantheon, he's up there with Robert Wyatt and Syd Barrett – someone admired and cited by the regular heroes who might not have always been as brave and uncompromising as he was. or so bloody awkward, perhaps. It's worth noting that Led Zeppelin recorded a "Hat's Off To (Roy) Harper" for their second album.
I have him cast as a raging voice in a wilderness of madness, thrashing a big acoustic guitar like a wilder Richie Havens, putting up two fingers and a bare arse to Corporate Music Inc. And here he is, in a seventieth year (or thereabouts), painstakingly documenting his own repertoire and sequencing a magnificent double album of lyrical and beautifully performed love songs. As he writes himself: "My love songs are often hidden behind the more epic things I attempt. It's been a long time ambition of mine to gather a dynamic mix of them together in just their own context. It was a rewarding labour of love for me. Hope you enjoy it."
The plain truth is that the collection succeeds beyond any sensible expectation. It presents major works like "Waiting For Godot (Part Zed)" from "Death Or Glory" and near-fragments like "Francesca" from "Come Out Fighting Genghis Smith" and sets them together in a unified sequence with no need to honour chronology or other arbitrary facet. Sprinkled where they fit best, there are four songs from the 60s, 13 from the 70s, 1 from the 80s and 5 from the 90s. They run on from one to next as they might in a well-made concert of two halves. Each CD has its crescendo, with a closing song to finish. CD 2 seems the more powerful, ensuring that the full one and a half hours of music can be listened to with one short break – just like one of those live concerts. The instrumentation and level of complexity changes from track to track but Harper's characteristic amalgam of voice, guitar, tune and lyric holds the listeners attention firmly.
If you didn't already knew the songs, you might guess at their original decades and get many right, but none of them on the grounds of diminished emotional impact, musical proficiency or lyrical subtlety. At moments you will hear affinity with the guitar styles of Davy Graham and Bert Jansch, or lyrical connections with Dylan and the great English poets. But in general Harper has his own strong mind and physical presence all over every track.
The love and loss tags are generously understood and tenderly offered with a wide range of themes. Warmth, yearning, immediacy, nostalgia, anxiety and shyness are well represented. "I'll See You Again" from 1974's "Valentines" album is outstanding. A guitar duet opens out a long thread of conversational poetry with strong simple melody. A generous orchestral supplement is well done and Harper lets his voice perceptibly crack at the crescendos, as if to make sure that he doesn't disappear into smoothness. He also presents us, in the the immediately following track, with the much more upbeat glee of "Naked Flame"' This has big, layered, country-sounding guitars and an enthusiastic re-working of something like the well-known Lord Franklin tune (and a phrase or two of its lyric).
"Commune", also from "Valentines", uses the strings in a very different, more intimate way. The pastoral idyll is something that Donovan might have wished he had written. Harper is in his vocal prime, simple and soothing: "love is no torment, for we give when we can, and we live in the moment when she is my woman and I am her man". The moments are given the authority of Harper having actually been there. You can hear it in the voice, in the lack of bravado, and in the gentle intimacy.
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"One More Tomorrow" and "One Summer Day" from "Death Or Glory" are large songs written in reflective and mature mood. Tony Franklin's prominent caressing fretless bass is a perfect encouragement to their voluptuous lines. Harper's voice is seductive perfection. "Hallucinating Light" (1975) is the one that set me thinking of Robert Wyatt and Syd Barratt. It is six minutes of close mic'd soliloquy, marching slowly to some of the best loping rock and roll tropes. It sounds as fresh and spontaneous as the day it was cut. "We'll walk such a long way, a long way together", he sings, with a long, long pause before the "together".
"Sleeping At The Wheel", among so many of equal strength, haunts me long after each hearing. It demands instant replay. The tempo shifts, the touch goes from gentle to strong, Franklin's bass and Harper's guitars lift the emotions like delicate fabrics. The lyrics swirl through dreaming and half-conscious awareness, with pleasures and tenderness. It's a perfect thing. Here, even more than everywhere else, Harper shows off his ear for exquisite guitar tones and textures. Not one chord, line or note is carelessly made. I can think of many current favourites who would do well to spend a couple of years listening to the range of guitar sounds deployed across this collection – or perhaps a couple of months on just this one song.
At some point we have to confront the ode to death in the chilling masterpiece of "Waiting For Godot (Part Zed)". "Let us be gentle, especially with us" because "it won't be long now before all the skies come circling overhead waiting for Godot with ravenous cries". Here we have love as the physical and emotional necessity in the face of certain death.
In summary, this is a collection with integrity and strength at every level. Harper took risks with a lot of the songs when they were first made, and their enduring success is an impressive testament to his earlier wisdom. Looking back to the night when I first saw Harper, in Birmingham Town Hall in 1969 and then hearing this stuff all fresh and new in 2011 my enthusiasm and pleasure is greater than ever. I commend it without reservation to anyone with a heart that might aspire to be loved or tremble to confront love's loss.
Available now.
http://www.royharper.co.uk
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