Why Do I Write??

Posted on by Opher

Why do I write? That is a question a lot of people ask me and it is one I often ask myself. 

Writing is a lonely, sedentary task. It is time consuming, frustrating and unrewarding in many ways.It was Paul Simon who wrote ‘All my words come back to me – in shades of mediocrity – like emptiness in harmony’.  That about sums it up. I am not the next John Fowles.

I did not study English Literature. Why do I think I can write? 

I write because I know I can articulate the contents of my mind into words that will resonate with my readers. I know I can and sometimes I do. I write because I have a head that is full of passions, ideas, thoughts, opinions and stories and I have a burning need to write them down.

I enjoy writing as much as I do reading – and I love reading. 

I am not religious. I do not believe in any god or afterlife; I do not believe there is an ultimate purpose. I believe we have to give life a purpose. We have to strive to make the world a better place. Writing does that for me. 

I love nature and am destroyed by what we are doing to the planet. It eats me up.

I write about the things that mean something to me. I am a communicator who is an idealist; I believe we can make things better. 

I write because I believe in creativity. Creating something beautiful or passionate gives purpose and fulfilment. My books contain the wonder in my head. 

I write because it is difficult. Writing a novel is like climbing Everest. It is so hard that it leaves you with a sense of fulfilment when you’ve achieved it. I’ve climbed a lot of mountains. 

I write because I am a rebel who wants to change the system. I want to change it because it stinks. I think we can do better. 

I write about my passions. 

There are no rules. I like to push the limits in every way going. My books are different. They are sometimes extreme. 

I write for fun. 

I have written 100 books and published eighty four. Eighty two are available on Amazon. They are my babies. They will live longer than me. 

I dread to think how many hours I have sat in the dark typing on an old type-writer or pounding the keyboard on my various computers. How much of my life? How many tens of thousands of hours?

A book would take me a couple of thousand hours.

I have carried out rewrite after rewrite. 

So far I have earned maybe around £2000 for all those efforts. I make about a dollar a book. It’s not a great return. If it was about the money I could have worked in a filling-station and bought a house! 

It’s not even about the recognition. You write into a relentless vacuum. Very few people take the trouble to leave a review or a comment. We feed off the scraps.

Writing. It is sometimes the most discouraging, pointless, lonely task in the world. Sometimes I read what I have written and despair. 

But I’m still writing!

Copilot on Opher Goodwin

Posted on by Opher

Opher Goodwin, a multifaceted author, has delved into various genres, including rock music, science fiction, and more. Let’s explore some of his notable works:

  1. “Roy Harper: every album, every song”: This book provides insights into the music of the legendary folk-rock artist Roy Harper 1.
  2. “In Search of Captain Beefheart”: An exploration of the enigmatic musician Captain Beefheart 1.
  3. “Antitheist’s Dictionary”: A thought-provoking work that delves into atheism and skepticism 1.
  4. “Nick Harper: The Wilderness Years”: A fascinating account related to Nick Harper, a singer-songwriter and son of Roy Harper 1.
  5. “Anthropocene Apocalypse”: A gripping exploration of the Anthropocene era 1.

While Opher Goodwin’s primary focus isn’t exclusively science fiction, his diverse interests and unique perspectives make his works intriguing for readers seeking unconventional narratives. If you’re a fan of rock music, Captain Beefheart, or thought-provoking themes, you might find his books captivating! 📚🎸🚀

DPRP Magazine Review – Bob Dylan – On Track every album every song

Posted on by Opher

8

Martin Burns

Another in the Sonicbond’s On Track series; this time looking at Bob Dylan’s work from his beginnings as a Woodie Guthrie acolyte, through the media-driven frenzy of the “Voice of a Generation” (an epithet that annoyed him enormously), onto the drug-fuelled, electric “Judas period”. We finish in the rehab of the reclusive family man and his temporary re-invention as a country singer.

Opher Goodwin, author of 2022’s On Track: Captain Beefheart book, has now tackled the thornier topic of Bob Dylan 1962 to 1970. He goes album-by-album through the eleven studio releases in that period, as well as covering additional tracks associated with those albums. He also has a chapter on the welter of bootlegs (official and unofficial) that has followed Dylan through his career.

Goodwin starts with an excellent, short introduction. Fleshing out the origins of the Dylan persona. A persona that is slippery and hard to pin-down fully. He is a character that evolved through a lot of self-mythologising. Goodwin tries hard with the unenviable task of trying ‘to unravel the man from the myth’ but it is near impossible to find a complete solution to this conundrum.

There is little connection between Dylan’s music and progressive rock, as his focus was and is on blues, r&b, folk, 1950s rock’n’roll and the American song book. However, arguably, there is a link between his masterful lyrical wordplay, and in his opening-out frol the three-minute straight-jacket of popular music.

From the release of Like A Rolling Stone, a 6 minute 11 second single, the world of popular music rapidly began to blossom and become more complex. Witness the change in The Beatles, who, influenced by Dylan, moved from their rock’n’roll and pop to (four years or so later) releasing Strawberry Fields Forever and more.

Dylan’s lyrics may have had an influence on prog-rock in that I can’t imagine the flights of wordsmithery of Jon Anderson in Yes, nor the prose poems of Peter Hammill‘s solo and with Van Der Graaf Generator, without the freedom afforded by the general changes in popular music, helped in no small way by Dylan.

Goodwin gives a readable and concise take on Dylan’s music, not hiding his fandom, nor so blinkered that he can’t criticise the poor albums Dylan released in the last years of the 1960s. If you want to dip into Dylan, but don’t know where to start, then Opher Goodwin’s On Track…Bob Dylan 1962 to 1970 is a great roadmap to the commencement and growth of the Dylan enigma.

Bob Dylan 1962 to 1970 On Track (Decades) by Opher Goodwin (amazon.co.uk)

Thank You Martin!

Review by Mark Hughes for DPRP Mag – Opher Goodwin — Roy Harper: On Track… Every Album, Every Song book

Posted on by Opher

Thanks Mark!

I do enjoy reading the reviews for the book. Gives me a boost! Thank you to all who leave reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. Means a lot!!

Opher Goodwin — Roy Harper: On Track… Every Album, Every Song [Book (157 pages)]

country: UK

year: 2021

Opher Goodwin - Roy Harper: On Track... Every Album, Every Song

info:

 sonicbondpublishing.co.uk

Mark Hughes

Another title in the rapidly growing list of books published by SonicBond, this time featuring original maverick and friend to a guitar rock god or two, Roy Harper.

As a long-standing Harper fan I know that tackling his discography is not a task for the faint-hearted. With albums going in and out of print, reissues, alternative versions and limited editions, there is a lot to get to grips with. Thankfully Goodwin handles everything with aplomb, clarifying where extra tracks on various re-releases originally stemmed from and where they fit into Harper’s recording chronology. It makes it easy to disentangle the frequently messy and confusing slew of releases from a prolific writer.

Of course, it helps that Goodwin has been friends with Harper since 1967, just after the release of Harper’s surprising debut album Sophisticated Beggar; surprising in that it eschewed the folk and blues numbers that Harper had gained a reputation for from his busking and folk club performances and comprised all-original material. Perhaps more startling was that it also featured a full band in places, not what the folk crowd that had primarily been his audience up to that point had been expecting. These were the first signs that Harper would stick to his own plans and not be pushed into doing what others necessarily wanted or expected.

What will be alien to modern bands is the fact that Harper’s first two albums, released on different labels, were both commercial failures. Yet the musical environment of the time meant that it was the music that mattered and the lack of commercial appeal was not considered a black mark against the artist. He found a longer-lasting home on Harvest Records for his third album, Flat Baroque And Berserk, the first of seven essential albums he recorded for the label over the next decade.

Goodwin’s personal memories and analysis of the songs and albums adds a lot to the book and offer insights that keep things interesting, more than some other titles in the series in being a sterile list of songs. Harper was never an artist that was likely to trouble the singles chart but he did consistently release such items. Although a lot of the songs unique to the format, particularly from the earliest years, have been compiled and re-issued, his b-sides remain some of the hardest items to locate for the collector. In that respect this book is a valuable guide to what was released, and in some cases what has not been released, both of which can be quite frustrating for the searching completist!

I would have liked to have seen a bit more on the live Roy Harper as, despite the brilliance of the studio output, it was on stage that Harper excelled. As at least a couple of the official live albums were assembled from a multitude of recorded concerts, there is potentially a lot of recorded material that remains locked in the vaults. However, considering that recording details and locations were omitted from Inbetween Every Line as all the tapes were mixed up and it wasn’t deemed necessary to sort them out, it could be a major task sorting them out if, indeed, they still exist.

Despite his long recording career, there doesn’t appear to be much studio material left languishing in the vaults and it seems increasingly unlikely that Harper will return to the studio to record a new album, despite how well his last album, 2013’s Man And Myth was received. So it is from these putative live archives that any future releases will presumably be drawn.

As such, this volume can be assumed to be as complete a record of the musical legacy of one of Britain’s finest and most idiosyncratic singer-songwriters as you are likely to find. Written in a relaxed and enjoyable style, it is an easy-to-read volume that will introduce, and re-introduce, the reader to the delights of the Harper catalogue. I certainly dug out a few of his lesser-played albums from my collection and listened to them in a new light after reading the book. And if that is not recommendation enough, I don’t know what is.

Now, back to searching for the missing items. Anyone know where I can find Goodbye Ladybird?