Roy Harper Folkjokeopus VG++ 1969 World Pacific RARE Orig Shel Talmy Led Zep
$
35
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Description
Vinyl: VG++ Play Tested. Sounds Great! Labels are Clean. This is the Original 1969 Pressing. Shel Talmy Produced! This is the LP released just previous to (and, thus directly influencing) Led Zeppelin III's homage to Harper: "Hats Off To (Roy) Harper".
Cover: VG+ (see photos)
Goldmine Standards. See History/Review Below!
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History
The album is notable for the lengthy track "McGoohan's Blues", which Harper states was "inspired by actor Patrick McGoohan's depiction of the establishment rebel in his TV series, The Prisoner".[1] An extended, Dylanesque strophic form accompanied only by Harper's guitar ("how the sea she roars with laughter/And howls with the dancing wind/To see my two feet standing here/questioning") suddenly segues, after over ten minutes, first into a brief, new and quieter theme and then into a full-band coda.
The searing falsetto of "She's the One" makes for one of Harper's most intense and moving recordings[citation needed] as manic guitar-strumming accompanies his scornful upbraiding of an acquaintance for his self-pitying insensitivity to a "wonderful wife" whom the singer sees and apparently loves as "a very beautiful young woman". Like "McGoohan's Blues", this track seems to butt-join two related but distinct songs.
"One For All" was dedicated to tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler, whom Harper had known in Copenhagen.[1] It includes a lengthy acoustic guitar solo. "Exercising Some Control" and "Manana" may be numbered among Harper's light-hearted crowd-pleasing songs, while "In The Time Of Water" and the Incredible String Bandish "Composer Of Life" are more experimental, the former featuring the sound of water and Harper's sitar. The opening "Sergeant Sunshine" features the voice of Jane Scrivener[2] while other contributing musicians include Nicky Hopkins, Ron Geesin, "Russ" on bass guitar and drummer Clem Cattini. The American release included two extra tracks, "Zaney Janey" and "Ballad of a Songwriter".[3]
The album title was borrowed to provide the name of a Minneapolis record store, Oar Folkjokeopus.
Review by Richie Unterberger
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 on for too long, with an obscurity that verges on maddening. Some pretty, melodic passages here and there, with adequate folk singing that cracks when he even approaches the upper register. The acoustic guitar work is uniformly excellent, making this confused late-'60s timepiece sound rather more impressive than it should.
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