Wednesday, April 14, 2010

"Hats Off to (Roy) Harper"

British songwriter Roy Harper is difficult to box into a neat descriptive package. At times brilliant, rebellious, confusing, anachronistic, sad, crazy, strange or fun- Harper's well known for his excellent guitar work, but is perhaps most famous for being named in tribute on the closing track of Led Zeppelin III; "Hats off to (Roy) Harper". Needless to say, Page and Plant were big fans. In fact, Page plays on Harper's 1971 album Stormcock under the pseudonym "S. Flavius Mercurius". Anyway, he's pretty great....




Here are his first 5 albums:
Download: Sophisticated Beggar (1967) Listen: "Legend" & "October 12th"

Download: Come Out Fighting Genghis Smith (1968) Listen: "Freak Street"

Download: Folkjokeopus (1969) Listen: "Folkjokeopus Medley"

Download: Flat Baroque & Berserk (1970) Listen: "Another Day/ Tom Tiddlers Ground", "Francesca" & "Davey"

Download: Stormcock (1971) Listen: "Hors d'Oeuvres"

3 comments:

SiamTwin said...

awesome stuff. thanks so much.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this rarity....appreciated!

-MoonBear

Elliot Knapp said...

Now that's a Harper feast for the ears...if you're new to the man, I'd probably not start in chronological order (and definitely not with COME OUT FIGHTING). Reviewed FB&B on my blog here.