Will the Real Roy Harper Please Stand Up

by Mick Skidmore • November 5, 2008

When you mention the name Roy Harper to even the most informed US music aficionado, the extent of recognition is usually a response that’s some mixture of “oh yeah, ‘Hats Off to Harper’, that Led Zeppelin song" (which was a tribute), or “he sang lead on Pink Floyd’s ‘Have a Cigar.’” If you look him up in any historical book or biography, critics use all manner of adjectives to describe him: Influential, controversial, idiosyncratic, eccentric, intelligent, poetic, and so on. It makes me want to scream, “Will the real Roy Harper please stand up and be appreciated?!”

In truth, all the aforementioned are certainly true, but more importantly, Harper, born in a Manchester suburb in 1941 and later raised in the Northern seaside town of Blackpool, is one of the most prolific, original, and important singer-songwriters to have emerged from the British Isles during the last four decades. And while enjoying reasonable commercial success in his homeland, sadly, not enough people in the US know these simple facts about him.

On top of his immensely sophisticated songwriting skills, he is an incredibly adept and versatile guitarist with unique styling and technique. During his career he’s released over 40 albums, including compilations and collaborations, many of which have never been domestically available in the US. None are tainted by record company influence or marred by current fads and trends. His unusual melding of folk, blues, rock, poetry, and lushly orchestrated epics always challenge the listener on both an intellectual and musical level. Harper is an original talent and one that’s always stayed true to his own ideals.

Thanks to a recent distribution deal with Koch Entertainment, many of his albums will now be available in the US in newly restored and repackaged editions for the first time. The initial batch of releases are Stormcock (1971), Jugula (1985), Flat Baroque and Berserk (1970), and the two-disc compilation Counter Culture from 2005.

Totally separate from this reissue program is, coincidentally, a tribute album in the works entitled All You Need Is What You Have, which is being curated by long-time Harper fan Jonathan Wilson and will include contributions from a diverse array of Harper admirers, including Gary Louris (the Jayhawks), Chris Robinson (the Black Crowes), Benji Hughes, Johnathan Rice, and more.

Harper recently explained to Crawdaddy! how this reissue program came about: “Some of the CDs have been available in the states before as imports years ago, but with the way the dollar is now and the way it has been for the last few years as well, nobody has wanted to buy them over there. The cost of manufacture here [UK/Ireland] prohibits sale over there. The cost of the manufacturing here was equal, more of less, to what the distribution charge was in the USA, so there was absolutely no profit for anyone at all. Koch came in with a deal, which seems fair enough to me. It gives us a couple of quid, so why not.” Of course, in this day and age, with independent retailers disappearing and the reluctance of chain stores to carry more esoteric music, I pointed out that it’s a hard time for anyone to sell CDs. Harper’s take on this was even broader in scope: “It’s incredibly difficult because the young people, of course, think that music is free, and once you have a whole society thinking that, it becomes incredibly difficult to sell anything.”

Regardless of the perceived difficulty in selling product, it’s a bold and admirable move on the part of Koch to make this seminal music available again. The most obvious album to spark interest is Counter Culture, as it is not simply a record company “best of,” but a hand-selected collection by the man himself. As he explains, “It took me six months to do that because there’s so much material to choose from and so many different directions that I could have gone in. It was actually a very difficult thing to do. I didn’t think it would be, but it was in the end.” When I mentioned to Harper that the set works incredibly well, he responded, “Yes, it does work. I made sure it worked, but there were various stages where it didn’t work because choosing a track off of virtually every record is not an easy thing to do. You get things that don’t work dynamically and key-wise.” Speaking more on the compilation album, Harper said, “I think it’s a good record. I think there are a lot of young people at the moment finding me. I get responses saying, ‘Where has all this been going on?’ and ‘How come we didn’t know about this?’ which is a good thing. I don’t get the same kind of media exposure that I used to get. It’s gone elsewhere, but that doesn’t stop the material from being good. So, regardless of how much media attention an album gets, it still has the same value that it always had. So introducing it to a new generation is sometimes a shock for them.”

The Counter Culture compilation album is a gem that offers more than a fleeting glance into the cinematic music of Harper, begging one to explore more of his work. The 25 tracks span Harper’s career from his early days as hipster folkie with “Sophisticated Beggar” and the acerbic socio-political “I Hate the White Man.” It then takes the listener on a majestic trip as the music expands the folk idiom with more textures and nuances, like the brooding, almost modal qualities of “South Africa”, with its delicate guitar work and layered harmonies, and then through orchestral pieces such as “I’ll See You Again” and “Twelve Hours of Sunset.” Also notable in this respect is the epic and elaborate 19-minute “One of these Days in England (Parts 2-10)”, and, of course, his most successful song, “When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease.” There’s also more rock-oriented pieces like “Cherishing the Lonesome” with the late Faces bass player, Ronnie Lane, and guitarists Henry McCullough and Andy Roberts, the ethereal “You” with Kate Bush and David Gilmour as guests, and the moody echoplex explorations of “Miles Remains.” All in all, this set offers a wonderful introduction to the kaleidoscopic music of Harper.