The Album Review Club - Week #147 - (page 1942) - Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan

I said one album, not the album…

We are back again in the dim and distant past.

It’s the summer of 1970 and me, a lad born and raised just off Parkside Road within site of City’s floodlights has become obsessed with the music of another Mancunian, a City fan, born in Rusholme, and starting to make a name for himself.

I have all three albums released so far but this, his fourth, achieves relative success for him reaching 20 in the album charts. He used to perform a lot locally and a few of us followed him from the Magic Village, The Free Trade Hall, the Lesser Free Trade Hall to Manchester University, the Poly or the Houldsworth Hall on Deansgate where he performed with Ralph McTell and the bizarre Ron Geesin.

It is an album that has been played regularly in every decade since in this household.

It is “Flat, Baroque and Berserk” by Roy Harper.

Harper himself said of this album;

“Flat Baroque and Berserk' was the first record of mine to go into the charts. For the first time in my recording career, proper care and attention was paid to the presentation of the songs. Peter Jenner was assigned by EMI Records to produce the recording. Peter and I got on really well and he was a better overseer of my work than anyone I have been involved with before or since. I had also had a Studio upgrade. EMI Studios, Abbey Road was at that time the most advanced studio in Europe, and over the next ten years I was to record in near-perfect conditions.
It was a creative hotbed where the technical staff, headed by Ken Townsend, were second to none.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I was very pleased with my first record made in such elevated surroundings. The song that I was best known for in those days, 'I Hate the White Man,' was recorded live for this album, and still stands as a testament to my lifelong devotion to espousing equal rights for all humans. I have long since wondered about the wisdom of stating that you have more than the capacity to hate your own race for it's misdemeanours, but as a polemic it has been both an effective tool and somewhere of a place to stand.
Much of the rest of the record is on a gentler level, although 'Hells Angels,' recorded with 'The Nice,' is just as raw and was very eventful.
'Another Day' is one of the best love songs I ever wrote and the overall balance of the record is very good.”
The track list is;
Don’t You Grieve
I Hate the White Man
Feeling All the Saturday
How Does it Feel?
Goodbye
Another Day
Davey
East of the Sun
Tom Tiddler’s Ground
Francesca
Song of the Ages
Hell’s Angels
An album of largely guitar based folk songs, songs of love, loss, family and sadness. Stand out tracks are the plaintiff love song “Another Day” and the notorious “I Hate the White Man”. The final track “Hell’s Angels” breaks the mood, it sees Harper exercising his famed guitar skills accompanied by The Nice in a a much heavier song.
How Does it Feel was used at the end of episode three of season three of The Handmaid’s Tale.

For me this album was the first of a very strong run of material from Harper. It isn’t his best. That accolade goes to his next album “Stormcock” followed by the later “HQ” but it’s short, introspective songs with Harper’s strong lyricism still sound good to me 52 years later and when it lands on my turntable I am no longer 70, but 18 again, sitting on a grubby floor of a nondescript hall in Manchester with my mates looking up transfixed at this long haired guy on stage making magic music with his guitar and lyrics. I was lucky to keep seeing his concerts for the next 50 years whenever he came to Manchester until covid stopped it all. Now he is 82 and finding it very painful to play his guitar I may never see him tour again. However his influence on other musicians is legendary. I won’t bore you with the list, it’s out there if you want to see it.

Have a listen. It’s on Spotify.
 
denislawsbackheel said:
I said one album, not the album…

We are back again in the dim and distant past.

It’s the summer of 1970 and me, a lad born and raised just off Parkside Road within site of City’s floodlights has become obsessed with the music of another Mancunian, a City fan, born in Rusholme, and starting to make a name for himself.

I have all three albums released so far but this, his fourth, achieves relative success for him reaching 20 in the album charts. He used to perform a lot locally and a few of us followed him from the Magic Village, The Free Trade Hall, the Lesser Free Trade Hall to Manchester University, the Poly or the Houldsworth Hall on Deansgate where he performed with Ralph McTell and the bizarre Ron Geesin.

It is an album that has been played regularly in every decade since in this household.

It is “Flat, Baroque and Berserk” by Roy Harper.

Harper himself said of this album;

“Flat Baroque and Berserk' was the first record of mine to go into the charts. For the first time in my recording career, proper care and attention was paid to the presentation of the songs. Peter Jenner was assigned by EMI Records to produce the recording. Peter and I got on really well and he was a better overseer of my work than anyone I have been involved with before or since. I had also had a Studio upgrade. EMI Studios, Abbey Road was at that time the most advanced studio in Europe, and over the next ten years I was to record in near-perfect conditions.
It was a creative hotbed where the technical staff, headed by Ken Townsend, were second to none.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I was very pleased with my first record made in such elevated surroundings. The song that I was best known for in those days, 'I Hate the White Man,' was recorded live for this album, and still stands as a testament to my lifelong devotion to espousing equal rights for all humans. I have long since wondered about the wisdom of stating that you have more than the capacity to hate your own race for it's misdemeanours, but as a polemic it has been both an effective tool and somewhere of a place to stand.
Much of the rest of the record is on a gentler level, although 'Hells Angels,' recorded with 'The Nice,' is just as raw and was very eventful.
'Another Day' is one of the best love songs I ever wrote and the overall balance of the record is very good.”
The track list is;
Don’t You Grieve
I Hate the White Man
Feeling All the Saturday
How Does it Feel?
Goodbye
Another Day
Davey
East of the Sun
Tom Tiddler’s Ground
Francesca
Song of the Ages
Hell’s Angels
An album of largely guitar based folk songs, songs of love, loss, family and sadness. Stand out tracks are the plaintiff love song “Another Day” and the notorious “I Hate the White Man”. The final track “Hell’s Angels” breaks the mood, it sees Harper exercising his famed guitar skills accompanied by The Nice in a a much heavier song.
How Does it Feel was used at the end of episode three of season three of The Handmaid’s Tale.

For me this album was the first of a very strong run of material from Harper. It isn’t his best. That accolade goes to his next album “Stormcock” followed by the later “HQ” but it’s short, introspective songs with Harper’s strong lyricism still sound good to me 52 years later and when it lands on my turntable I am no longer 70, but 18 again, sitting on a grubby floor of a nondescript hall in Manchester with my mates looking up transfixed at this long haired guy on stage making magic music with his guitar and lyrics. I was lucky to keep seeing his concerts for the next 50 years whenever he came to Manchester until covid stopped it all. Now he is 82 and finding it very painful to play his guitar I may never see him tour again. However his influence on other musicians is legendary. I won’t bore you with the list, it’s out there if you want to see it.

Have a listen. It’s on Spotify.
Click to expand...
Absolutely lovely write-up! Looking forward to hearing this -- despite his influence he never caught on in America I guess -- I'd heard his name (really from following City) but know very little about him. Now I read he sang lead on "Have A Cigar"!
 
denislawsbackheel said:
I said one album, not the album…

We are back again in the dim and distant past.

It’s the summer of 1970 and me, a lad born and raised just off Parkside Road within site of City’s floodlights has become obsessed with the music of another Mancunian, a City fan, born in Rusholme, and starting to make a name for himself.

I have all three albums released so far but this, his fourth, achieves relative success for him reaching 20 in the album charts. He used to perform a lot locally and a few of us followed him from the Magic Village, The Free Trade Hall, the Lesser Free Trade Hall to Manchester University, the Poly or the Houldsworth Hall on Deansgate where he performed with Ralph McTell and the bizarre Ron Geesin.

It is an album that has been played regularly in every decade since in this household.

It is “Flat, Baroque and Berserk” by Roy Harper.

Harper himself said of this album;

“Flat Baroque and Berserk' was the first record of mine to go into the charts. For the first time in my recording career, proper care and attention was paid to the presentation of the songs. Peter Jenner was assigned by EMI Records to produce the recording. Peter and I got on really well and he was a better overseer of my work than anyone I have been involved with before or since. I had also had a Studio upgrade. EMI Studios, Abbey Road was at that time the most advanced studio in Europe, and over the next ten years I was to record in near-perfect conditions.
It was a creative hotbed where the technical staff, headed by Ken Townsend, were second to none.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I was very pleased with my first record made in such elevated surroundings. The song that I was best known for in those days, 'I Hate the White Man,' was recorded live for this album, and still stands as a testament to my lifelong devotion to espousing equal rights for all humans. I have long since wondered about the wisdom of stating that you have more than the capacity to hate your own race for it's misdemeanours, but as a polemic it has been both an effective tool and somewhere of a place to stand.
Much of the rest of the record is on a gentler level, although 'Hells Angels,' recorded with 'The Nice,' is just as raw and was very eventful.
'Another Day' is one of the best love songs I ever wrote and the overall balance of the record is very good.”
The track list is;
Don’t You Grieve
I Hate the White Man
Feeling All the Saturday
How Does it Feel?
Goodbye
Another Day
Davey
East of the Sun
Tom Tiddler’s Ground
Francesca
Song of the Ages
Hell’s Angels
An album of largely guitar based folk songs, songs of love, loss, family and sadness. Stand out tracks are the plaintiff love song “Another Day” and the notorious “I Hate the White Man”. The final track “Hell’s Angels” breaks the mood, it sees Harper exercising his famed guitar skills accompanied by The Nice in a a much heavier song.
How Does it Feel was used at the end of episode three of season three of The Handmaid’s Tale.

For me this album was the first of a very strong run of material from Harper. It isn’t his best. That accolade goes to his next album “Stormcock” followed by the later “HQ” but it’s short, introspective songs with Harper’s strong lyricism still sound good to me 52 years later and when it lands on my turntable I am no longer 70, but 18 again, sitting on a grubby floor of a nondescript hall in Manchester with my mates looking up transfixed at this long haired guy on stage making magic music with his guitar and lyrics. I was lucky to keep seeing his concerts for the next 50 years whenever he came to Manchester until covid stopped it all. Now he is 82 and finding it very painful to play his guitar I may never see him tour again. However his influence on other musicians is legendary. I won’t bore you with the list, it’s out there if you want to see it.

Have a listen. It’s on Spotify.
Click to expand...

I envy you that history of seeing him perform live throughout the years. There are some parts of Harper's world view that directly challenge my own and, if anything, that has helped me appreciate his skills as a songwriter and performer even more. You get the impression that he could be a bit of a knob at times, but then can't we all and it's probably that side of him that has allowed him to stay true to himself over the years.

Despite his impact on other musicians, he's arguably one of this country's most underappreciated artists. This album has got some classic songs on it; looking forward to thinking about it in a bit more depth, though it's hard not to think anyway when you play his music. It's great choice, be really surprised if this didn't up your average!

Btw - the use of How Does it Feel? on Handmaids Tale was totally inspired.
 
Name I’m familiar with but pretty sure have never heard

Had a brief read on Wiki, wow what a huge influence for the great bands in our time including Led Zep and like his style in terms of not pandering to the commercial structure for labels

This should be interesting
 
denislawsbackheel said:
I said one album, not the album…

We are back again in the dim and distant past.

It’s the summer of 1970 and me, a lad born and raised just off Parkside Road within site of City’s floodlights has become obsessed with the music of another Mancunian, a City fan, born in Rusholme, and starting to make a name for himself.

I have all three albums released so far but this, his fourth, achieves relative success for him reaching 20 in the album charts. He used to perform a lot locally and a few of us followed him from the Magic Village, The Free Trade Hall, the Lesser Free Trade Hall to Manchester University, the Poly or the Houldsworth Hall on Deansgate where he performed with Ralph McTell and the bizarre Ron Geesin.

It is an album that has been played regularly in every decade since in this household.

It is “Flat, Baroque and Berserk” by Roy Harper.

Harper himself said of this album;

“Flat Baroque and Berserk' was the first record of mine to go into the charts. For the first time in my recording career, proper care and attention was paid to the presentation of the songs. Peter Jenner was assigned by EMI Records to produce the recording. Peter and I got on really well and he was a better overseer of my work than anyone I have been involved with before or since. I had also had a Studio upgrade. EMI Studios, Abbey Road was at that time the most advanced studio in Europe, and over the next ten years I was to record in near-perfect conditions.
It was a creative hotbed where the technical staff, headed by Ken Townsend, were second to none.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I was very pleased with my first record made in such elevated surroundings. The song that I was best known for in those days, 'I Hate the White Man,' was recorded live for this album, and still stands as a testament to my lifelong devotion to espousing equal rights for all humans. I have long since wondered about the wisdom of stating that you have more than the capacity to hate your own race for it's misdemeanours, but as a polemic it has been both an effective tool and somewhere of a place to stand.
Much of the rest of the record is on a gentler level, although 'Hells Angels,' recorded with 'The Nice,' is just as raw and was very eventful.
'Another Day' is one of the best love songs I ever wrote and the overall balance of the record is very good.”
The track list is;
Don’t You Grieve
I Hate the White Man
Feeling All the Saturday
How Does it Feel?
Goodbye
Another Day
Davey
East of the Sun
Tom Tiddler’s Ground
Francesca
Song of the Ages
Hell’s Angels
An album of largely guitar based folk songs, songs of love, loss, family and sadness. Stand out tracks are the plaintiff love song “Another Day” and the notorious “I Hate the White Man”. The final track “Hell’s Angels” breaks the mood, it sees Harper exercising his famed guitar skills accompanied by The Nice in a a much heavier song.
How Does it Feel was used at the end of episode three of season three of The Handmaid’s Tale.

For me this album was the first of a very strong run of material from Harper. It isn’t his best. That accolade goes to his next album “Stormcock” followed by the later “HQ” but it’s short, introspective songs with Harper’s strong lyricism still sound good to me 52 years later and when it lands on my turntable I am no longer 70, but 18 again, sitting on a grubby floor of a nondescript hall in Manchester with my mates looking up transfixed at this long haired guy on stage making magic music with his guitar and lyrics. I was lucky to keep seeing his concerts for the next 50 years whenever he came to Manchester until covid stopped it all. Now he is 82 and finding it very painful to play his guitar I may never see him tour again. However his influence on other musicians is legendary. I won’t bore you with the list, it’s out there if you want to see it.

Have a listen. It’s on Spotify.
Click to expand...
Good stuff and exactly the right kind of dewy-eyed nostalgia we want on this thread.

As BH said, heard of him but never heard his stuff, although as Foggy points out, he sang on Pink Floyd’s “Have a cigar”, which I do know.

Just reading his Wiki entry, this made me laugh:-

The owners of Watford Gap service station objected to criticism of their food – "Watford Gap, Watford Gap/A plate of grease and a load of crap..." – in the lyrics of the song "Watford Gap",
 
Last edited:
denislawsbackheel said:
I said one album, not the album…

We are back again in the dim and distant past.

It’s the summer of 1970 and me, a lad born and raised just off Parkside Road within site of City’s floodlights has become obsessed with the music of another Mancunian, a City fan, born in Rusholme, and starting to make a name for himself.

I have all three albums released so far but this, his fourth, achieves relative success for him reaching 20 in the album charts. He used to perform a lot locally and a few of us followed him from the Magic Village, The Free Trade Hall, the Lesser Free Trade Hall to Manchester University, the Poly or the Houldsworth Hall on Deansgate where he performed with Ralph McTell and the bizarre Ron Geesin.

It is an album that has been played regularly in every decade since in this household.

It is “Flat, Baroque and Berserk” by Roy Harper.

Harper himself said of this album;

“Flat Baroque and Berserk' was the first record of mine to go into the charts. For the first time in my recording career, proper care and attention was paid to the presentation of the songs. Peter Jenner was assigned by EMI Records to produce the recording. Peter and I got on really well and he was a better overseer of my work than anyone I have been involved with before or since. I had also had a Studio upgrade. EMI Studios, Abbey Road was at that time the most advanced studio in Europe, and over the next ten years I was to record in near-perfect conditions.
It was a creative hotbed where the technical staff, headed by Ken Townsend, were second to none.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I was very pleased with my first record made in such elevated surroundings. The song that I was best known for in those days, 'I Hate the White Man,' was recorded live for this album, and still stands as a testament to my lifelong devotion to espousing equal rights for all humans. I have long since wondered about the wisdom of stating that you have more than the capacity to hate your own race for it's misdemeanours, but as a polemic it has been both an effective tool and somewhere of a place to stand.
Much of the rest of the record is on a gentler level, although 'Hells Angels,' recorded with 'The Nice,' is just as raw and was very eventful.
'Another Day' is one of the best love songs I ever wrote and the overall balance of the record is very good.”
The track list is;
Don’t You Grieve
I Hate the White Man
Feeling All the Saturday
How Does it Feel?
Goodbye
Another Day
Davey
East of the Sun
Tom Tiddler’s Ground
Francesca
Song of the Ages
Hell’s Angels
An album of largely guitar based folk songs, songs of love, loss, family and sadness. Stand out tracks are the plaintiff love song “Another Day” and the notorious “I Hate the White Man”. The final track “Hell’s Angels” breaks the mood, it sees Harper exercising his famed guitar skills accompanied by The Nice in a a much heavier song.
How Does it Feel was used at the end of episode three of season three of The Handmaid’s Tale.

For me this album was the first of a very strong run of material from Harper. It isn’t his best. That accolade goes to his next album “Stormcock” followed by the later “HQ” but it’s short, introspective songs with Harper’s strong lyricism still sound good to me 52 years later and when it lands on my turntable I am no longer 70, but 18 again, sitting on a grubby floor of a nondescript hall in Manchester with my mates looking up transfixed at this long haired guy on stage making magic music with his guitar and lyrics. I was lucky to keep seeing his concerts for the next 50 years whenever he came to Manchester until covid stopped it all. Now he is 82 and finding it very painful to play his guitar I may never see him tour again. However his influence on other musicians is legendary. I won’t bore you with the list, it’s out there if you want to see it.

Have a listen. It’s on Spotify.
Click to expand...
That is a superb write up. I have listened to some of his music but not enough. I look forward to this.
 
Big fan of The Nice and early KE so this one will be an interesting listen as I haven't heard any of the tracks before.
 
I’ve been duped by Wikipedia!

See, let me explain how it works.

When the chord changes are JUICY AND HOOKY, and DRIVE THE SONG, and the voice floats a lovely melody verse to verse, it IS NOT FUCKING FOLK MUSIC.

It is ROCK AND ROLL, no matter the acoustic guitar sans accompaniment, and no matter the subject matter.

Just like “Never Goin’ Back Again” by Fleetwood Mac is. Just like “Never Talking To You Again” by Husker Du is.

Thank you for your attention.

Onto song 3. I hope the rest is as good as songs 1 and 2, cuz I loved them.
 
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