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Roy Harper (singer)

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For the comic book character, see Roy Harper (comics)

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Roy Harper (born June 12, 1941), is an English rock / folk singer-songwriter / guitarist. Harper is also known for his longtime associations with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, both members of the 1970s band Led Zeppelin, and for his guest lead vocals on Pink Floyd's song "Have a Cigar".

Early life

Harper was born in 1941 in the Manchester suburb of Rusholme, England. After the death of his mother (Muriel) during childbirth, he was raised in Blackpool by his father and stepmother, whom he did not get along with because of her Jehovah's Witness beliefs. Harper's anti-religious views would later become a familiar theme within his music.

At the age of 10, he began playing skiffle music with his older brother David, ("Davey" on the album Flat Baroque and Berserk), as well as becoming influenced by blues music. Harper left school at the age of 15 and joined the Royal Air Force. This resulted in his rejecting the rigid discipline, feigning madness in order to obtain a military discharge and receiving Electroconvulsive therapy as a result. Upon his eventual discharge, he busked around Europe until 1964 when he returned to England, gaining a residency at London's famous Soho folk club, Les Cousins.

The 1960s

Harper's first album, The Sophisticated Beggar, was recorded in 1966 after he was spotted at London's premier Soho folk club, Les Cousins, and signed to Peter Richard's Strike Records. The album consisted of Harper's poetry backed by acoustic guitar and recorded with a Revox tape machine. CBS Records recognised Harper's potential and hired producer Shel Talmy to arrange Harper's second album, Come out Fighting Genghis Smith, released in 1968. The 11 minute track "Circle", was notable for marking a widening of Harper's musical style away from the more traditional folk music heard at the time.

1969's Folkjokeopus (Harper's third album) was in a similar vein to his previous album and included a 17-minute long track called "McGoohan's Blues", which Harper referred to as the "main statement" within the album. The track's title referred to actor Patrick McGoohan, who was at the time starring in the UK TV series The Prisoner. In May 1968, Harper began to make regular appearances at free concerts in London's Hyde Park attracting a cult following of fans from the underground music scene. Harper's first tour of the United States followed the release of his fourth studio album, Flat Baroque and Berserk, in 1970. The album also featured The Nice on the track "Hell's Angels". Its ethereal sound was achieved by a wah-wah pedal attached to Harper's acoustic guitar. This album also marked the beginning of Harper's long and sometimes confrontational association with EMI, whose subsidiary Harvest Records he was signed to.

The 1970s

After the Bath Festival of 1970, Led Zeppelin paid tribute to Harper with their version of the traditional song, "Shake 'Em On Down", originally written by the blues artist Bukka White. "Hats Off to Harper" (titled "Hats Off to (Roy) Harper"), appeared on the album Led Zeppelin III. According to Jimmy Page, the band admired the way Harper stood by his principles and did not sell out to commercial pressures. In mutual appreciation of their work, Harper would often attend live performances by Led Zeppelin over the subsequent decade as well as contribute sleeve photography to the album Physical Graffiti and appear, albeit uncredited, in the 1976 film, The Song Remains the Same.

Harper's 1971 critically acclaimed album was a four song epic, Stormcock. The album featured Jimmy Page on guitar (credited as "S. Flavius Mercurius") and David Bedford's orchestral arrangements (Bedford would also collaborate on future releases). Johnny Marr, The Smiths' guitarist, said that Stormcock was "intense and beautiful and clever" [1]. In 1972, Harper made his acting debut playing Mike Preston alongside Carol White in the John Mackenzie film Made. The soundtrack for this film appeared in the following year as the album Lifemask. His next album Valentine, was released on Valentine's Day, 14 February, 1974 and featured contributions from guitarist Jimmy Page. A concert to mark its release was held at London's Rainbow Theatre with Page, Bedford, John Bonham, Ronnie Lane on bass and Keith Moon on drums. The live album Flashes from the Archives of Oblivion soon followed.

Between 1975 and 1978, Harper spent a considerable amount of time in the United States. Pink Floyd's 1975 release Wish You Were Here saw Harper sing lead vocals on the song "Have a Cigar" after bassist Roger Waters lost his voice while recording another song, "Shine On You Crazy Diamond". David Gilmour returned the favour by appearing on Harper's next album, HQ, along with Harper's occasional backing band called Trigger (Chris Spedding on guitar, Dave Cochran on bass guitar, and Bill Bruford on drums) and Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones. The single "When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease", taken from the album, is Harper's biggest selling and best known song to date. Harper also co-wrote the song, "Short and Sweet" with Gilmour for Gilmour's first solo record, released in 1978.

Controversy soon followed the release of 1977's Bullinamingvase. Watford Gap service station objected to the lyrics in the song "Watford Gap" criticising their food ("Watford Gap, Watford Gap / A plate of grease and a load of crap..."). Harper was forced to drop it from future UK copies of the album, though it reappeared on a later CD reissue and remained on the U.S. LP. The album also featured the song "One of Those Days in England", with backing vocals by Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney, an edited version of which became a Top 40 hit. In April 1978, Harper began writing lyrics for the next Led Zeppelin album with Jimmy Page, but the project was shelved when Robert Plant returned from a self-imposed sabbatical after the death of his five year old son Karac (from a stomach infection in 1977).

For much of the Seventies, Harper was managed and produced by British manager and record producer Peter Jenner.

The 1980s

Harper began the decade with the release of The Unknown Soldier which was to be his final Harvest release. The album contains a duet with Kate Bush on the track, "You". (Harper also sang backing vocals on the song "Breathing", on the Kate Bush album Never For Ever).

Harper's 1982 album, Work of Heart, marked the formation of Harper's own record label with Mark Thompson, (son of nuclear campaigner E.P. Thompson) entitled Public Records. The album itself was chosen by Derek Jewell of the The Sunday Times as "Album of the Year" in 1982. The original demo version of this album was later released (in 1984) on a limited edition (830 copies) vinyl release entitled Born in Captivity.

Contrarily (though perhaps more to do with Harper's financial situation at the time) of this period, Harper stated "There is no doubt in my own mind that the early eighties were the nadir of my life in music". [2].

Throughout 1984, Harper toured the United Kingdom with Jimmy Page, performing a predominantly acoustic set at folk festivals under various guises such as The MacGregors, and Themselves. In 1985, they released an album called Whatever Happened to Jugula?. This album caused a resurgence of interest in Harper and his music. (Tony Franklin, bass player in Harper's group at this time would later join Page in The Firm). In April 1984, Harper and Gilmour performed "Short and Sweet" (the song they co-wrote) during Gilmour's three night run at The Hammersmith Odeon. This version later appeared on the David Gilmour Live 1984 concert film.

Perhaps due to the popularity of Whatever Happened to Jugula?, Harper resigned to EMI and in 1986 released a live album, In Between Every Line, containing recordings from his performances at the Cambridge Folk Festival and in 1988 the studio album, Descendants of Smith. The relationship between Harper and EMI did not last and from 1985 more of his earlier albums became available on the Awareness Records label. 1988 also saw the release of Loony on the Bus, a collection of tracks intended for release in 1977 as Commercial Breaks but held back because of disputes between Harper and EMI.

The 1990s

The Nineties was a highly productive decade for Harper that saw the release of 4 studio albums: Once (1990), Death or Glory? (1992), Commercial Breaks (1994), The Dream Society (1998) and 8 live albums: Unhinged (1993), Live At Les Cousins (1996), and six individual CDs of concerts recorded by the BBC (1997).

In addition, Harper released a live video Once (1990), an EP Burn the World (1990), a CD single The Methane Zone (1992), a limited edition live cassette Born in Captivity II (1992), a compilation album An Introduction to ..... (1994), a collection of poetry and spoken word tracks Poems, Speeches, Thoughts and Doodles (1997), and a reissue of Descendants of Smith (his 1986 release) renamed Garden of Uranium (1999). In 1994 much of Harper's back catalogue became available on CD through his own record label Science Friction.

If Harper's public profile had been relatively low since 1986, 1990's Once was a tour-de-force, featuring contributions from David Gilmour, Kate Bush, Nigel Mazlyn Jones, and brought him more attention. In 1992 the spotlight was also on Harper after the end of his marriage to Jacqui. 1992's melancholy Death or Glory? contains a number of songs and spoken words that reference his loss and pain. On tour, Harper's emotional reactions to his loss were clearly, and very publicly, visible.

Throughout the decade, Harper's musical influence began to be recognised by a younger generation of musicians some of whom covered his songs or invited him to make guest appearances on their albums. In 1995 Harper contributed spoken words on The Tea Party's 1995 album The Edges of Twilight. In 1996 Roy recited "Bad Speech" from the album Whatever Happened to Jugula? on the album Eternity by Anathema (the album also contains a cover version of "Hope" from the same album). The track "Time" from The Tea Party's 1996 multimedia CD, Alhambra, was sung and co-written by Harper.

Roy sang the Jethro Tull song "Up the 'Pool", on their 1996 tribute album, To Cry You A Song - A Collection Of Tull Tales, and in 1998, Jethro Tulls singer Ian Anderson contributed flute to the song, "These Fifty Years" on Harper's The Dream Society, a concept album based on Harper's life, particularly his youth.

Other artists who covered Harper's songs (or songs on his albums) throughout the decade include, Dean Carter, Ava Cherry & The Astronettes, Green Crown, The Kitchen Cynics, The Levellers, Roydan Styles and Pete Townshend [3].

The 2000s

In 2000, Harper released an almost entirely acoustic album, The Green Man, accompanied by The Tea Party's Jeff Martin on guitar, hurdy gurdy and numerous other instruments.

In June 2001, Harper celebrated his 60th birthday with a concert at London's Royal Festival Hall, featuring many guest artists. A recording of the concert Royal Festival Hall Live - June 10th 2001 was released as a double CD shortly afterwards.

In 2003, Harper published The Passions of Great Fortune, a large format book containing all the lyrics to his albums (and singles) to date, including a wealth of photographs and commentary on his songs.

In April 2005, he released a lengthy CD single, The Death of God. This 13 minute song, a critique of the 2003 Gulf War, features guest guitarist Matt Churchill, who has also joined Harper on-stage at his live performances. May 2005 saw the release of Harper's latest album Counter Culture, a double compilation album featuring songs from a 35 year songwriting period. Counter Culture received a five star review from UNCUT (magazine).

2005 also saw the release of a compilation CD to benefit the World Wide Fund For Nature and the Ulster Wildlife Trust. The Wildlife Album contains 18 tracks, one of which is a recital of "Jabberwocky" by Harper.

In 2006, Harper released his first DVD, Beyond the Door. The DVD is composed of live footage recorded in 2004 at Irish folk club "De Barra's" in Clonakilty, Cork. The package also includes an additional 10 track audio CD and received a 4 star review from both Mojo, UNCUT (magazine) and Classic Rock, who made it their DVD of the month.

In September 2007, Harper supported Joanna Newsom at her Royal Albert Hall performance. Newsom had been impressed by Harper's 1971 album Stormcock and it served as an inspiration for her second album, Ys. On the night, Harper played Stormcock in its entirety.

Harper has dedicated his past 5 years to collecting and compiling his life work in various formats. One of his future projects is likely to be the making of a documentary DVD to round off this process. [4]

Awards

HQ was awarded Record Of The Year in Portugal in 1975. That year Harper also received a similar award in Finland for the same record.

Work of Heart was awarded The Sunday Times Album of the Year in 1982.

After an influential, individualistic and uncompromising recording career spanning 40 years, Harper was awarded the Mojo Hero Award [5] by the staff of Mojo magazine on June 16th 2005 at the Porchester Hall, Central London. The award itself was presented by long time collaborator and friend, Jimmy Page.

Nick Harper

One of Roy's sons, Nick Harper, is a successful singer / songwriter in his own right. Nick occasionally tours and records with Roy, and has appeared (as guitarist) on a number of his albums since 1985.

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums

Compilations, remixes, etc.

Soundtracks

Collaborations

Singles / 12" Singles / EPs

Downloads

Videography

Filmography

References

  1. ^ Arts Guardian
  2. ^ Roy Harper Official Site
  3. ^ Roy Harper Fan Site
  4. ^ Roy Harper Official Site
  5. ^ Mojo Honours List 2005

External links

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