53 and imploding Kindle/Paperback – another extract

Posted on by Opher

Here’s another short extract from my antinovel:

The first rule is that whatever starts off in idealism usually ends up bogged down in practicality.

That is the way it is planned.

            We have rich social lives – all those friends, all weaving their strands into that tapestry, changing and going their own ways. We have shared many seconds, many values and much fun. It would be so fine to go back and be there again. These memories are so flawed. I would like a taste of the real thing to savour one more time.

Events seen from different perspectives can seem incredibly dissimilar. Taken together could they possibly reveal a greater view of those seconds of reality? Would anything alter your own subjective experience? I hope not!

The first thing you have to understand is that there are no rules.

You just read that. It did not cause you to drop to the floor in horror.

It should do.

There are no rules. You can do whatever you want.

Apart from the physical laws of nature that permeate the whole of this universe there are no rules. You can make them up. There is no morality. There are no rights and wrongs. There is no evil. There is no good.

We made them up. That is good. We have both compassion and intelligence.

There are no rules.

You can live your life exactly how you want. There was no God handing down a structure or a blueprint on how to live your life. We made all that up.

There is no ultimate reason why you shouldn’t fuck your children and then eat them. There are no reasons not to be cruel.

We can decide.

Why not give this unique book a go? You will find it shocking.

53 and imploding eBook : goodwin, opher: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

A few Reviews to cheer me up!

Posted on by Opher

Thank you so much for your kindness in going to the trouble of leaving a review!!

Writing is hard – long hours and loneliness. A book will take around a thousand hours in the gestation! That’s a lot of one’s life to invest. I’ve been writing for some fifty-five years during which time I have created over a hundred book on a great range of subjects – fiction and non-fiction. I enjoy writing but sometimes it does become intrusive and often I wonder whether I should be spending my time in some other way. When I get those moments and feel it’s all pointless I just have to read your reviews and it raises my spirits. Thank you for keeping me insane!

Roy Harper

5.0 out of 5 stars A GREAT READ ABOUT A WONDERFUL ARTIST

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 August 2021

Verified Purchase

I have had a most enjoyable week reading Opher Goodwins’ book about Roy Harper’s songs while relistening to my own albums or streaming those not yet acquired via my favourite service. The book gives new insights into familiar tunes and lyrics, brings knowledge about recently heard gems and adds a greater depth to our collective knowledge about one of the most loved singer/songwriters of his generation.
The author’s easy, readable style and deep knowledge, based of hundreds of attended gigs and an almost life-long friendship with Roy, helps take the reader through each album track chronologically, including any associated singles and B-sides.
I came to Roy’s music via 1970’s Flat Baroque and Berserk’s ‘I Hate The White Man’, a fiery, almost contemporary, song, condemning those too rich or powerful to care. I’ve been lucky enough to see several equally emotional gigs. The associated paragraph’s detailed description of the song, the background to its live recording at the then home of English folk music, Les Cousins and the discussion about Roy’s desire to preamble the song, has given a greater depth to my understanding. This skill, to inform, educate and entertain, and in a lively way, is one of the strong points of the book, and will have the reader, leaning into its pages time after time when exploring one of Roy’s twenty-four described albums.
As an added bonus – as such – the author details many of Roy’s live recordings and radio sessions, compilations unreleased tracks, guest appearances and rarities as well. The book contains a fine selection of carefully chosen colour and B&W photographs of Roy in performance, socializing, his album covers and other memorabilia.
This book is a great read and a credit to a wonderful artist.

Phil Ochs

5.0 out of 5 stars An Amazing Book

Reviewed in the United States on 19 December 2024

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Phil Ochs was a contemporary of Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton, Judy Collins, Joan Baez and other well known denizens of the folk scene in Greenwich Village in the 1960s and 1970s. Ochs was a singer-songwriter who, unlike Dylan, remained true to his political beliefs throughout his career. From melodic renditions of poems by Alfred Noyes and Edgar Allen Poe to classic social justice songs like I Ain’t Marching Anymore and There But for Fortune, Ochs was a lesser known giant in the folk music scene.
Opher Goodwin has written the definitive book about Ochs’ songs. For those new to his subject, it is a wonderful introduction to the breadth of what Ochs achieved and longtime fans will find new dimensions to familiar lyrics. Opher writes with clarity, insight and ultimately, a love of Ochs that shines through, without fawning. I recommend it without hesitation.

Captain Beefheart

5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic book !

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 November 2022

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This is such a brilliant book.I have been using this as a reference book to check which musician played on which album ! A lot of research has gone into it and the book is very informative ! The author loves the band,but isn’t afraid to speak out against something he doesn’t like (The Tragic band !)
It has me listening to the albums more intently now !
Nice to see some of the Captain’s lyrics about the state of our planet ! ( I wonder what he would think of mother earth in 2022!)
Highly recommended.

In Search of Captain Beefheart

5.0 out of 5 stars Quite a ride!

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We move from the rock of a 2004 White Stripes gig to the deep blues of Son House performing in 1968 in the very first paragraph, which gives some idea of the huge range of personal and musical experience covered in this always lively and thoroughly engaging personal testimony. We are taken on a freewheeling and cheerfully anarchic journey across time and space from the earliest days of rock’n’roll through the vibrant 60s and its many musical offshoots and current influences, with every anecdote giving ample evidence for the author’s central idea – that music transforms and inspires like nothing else, forging an organic link with our own lives and even the politics and beliefs we live by. There are sharp, vivid, honest and cheerfully scatological portraits of his musical heroes with warm praise and candid criticism providing the salty ring of truth. The book has wry down-to-earth humour, a breakneck momentum, mostly good musical taste, fascinating gossip, strong opinions, passionate loves and equally passionate hates – and there’s not a dull moment in it. Written with a warm and generous spirit, in the end it amounts to a radical critique of much more than music. It captures the modern zeitgeist with zest and courage. Recommended.

Neil Young

5.0 out of 5 stars Forensic Examination of Neil Young’s early career

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 April 2024

Another book in the fantastic On Track series from publishers Sonicbond.
Opher Goodwin’s book is indispensable to anyone who has an interest in Neil’s music or in 1960s music in general. This book deals with Neil’s formative years and has a very thorough 10 page introduction setting the scene before we even get to the first recordings. Neil’s life is described in detail and each LP track ( and single) is forensically described. Mr Goodwin obviously has a very deep love and understanding of his subject having been a fan since day 1. Neil Young is an enigma but Opher gets behind th rock star persona. He describes Neil’s early bands, The Mynah Birds, Buffalo Springfield, Crazy Horse and of course Crosby Stills Nash and Young. Thoroughly recommended.

Bob Dylan

5.0 out of 5 stars Detailed track by track analysis of Dylans formative years.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 August 2023

Verified Purchase

Dylan 1962 to 1970 is another book in the marvelous On Track series, published by Sonicbond.
It concentrates on Bob’s early career which is when he wrote most ( not all) of his best songs such as Like A Rolling Stone Blowing in the Wind, All I Really Want To Do, It Ain’t Me Babe etc. Opher Goodwin knows his subject inside out. He was around in the 60’s and saw many of the 60s legends.
This book goes from Dylan’s first album in 1962 up to New Morning in 1970. I can thoroughly recommend it to anyone interested in Dylan or 60s music in general.

Nick Harper

5.0 out of 5 stars Two old friends, one take newly told.

Verified Purchase

This is not just a book, it is a Labour of love. Other has known Nick for most of Nick’s life. He has a pride in him like a father, or at worst the best of teachers (though he will deny having taught Nick anything.) The book was intended as a companion to three L.P. Collection. It is more than that. Much more. It is the story of a songwriter, musician and maverick. It tells of a man who is committed to two things, his family and his musical integrity. The former should be the first consideration for any person with a family, the latter the method to support and provide for the former. Music is love. I have known Nick since 1984, but not as Opher does. I do not have bragging rights, but I know who he is. Looking back I realise he was enigmatic. I watched him over the years. I saw him to from passenger to team player to engine driver in his musical journey. Biscuits playing from very good to superb and peerless. His songs have taken a simi?at journey. His style has woven down many lanes, albeit closely linked. Through them all you hear Nick’s character.This story was familiar to me, like talking to an old friend. But there was more. The story is bigger than what I knew, the songs more complex, and intellectual.
If you know Nick Harper’s music, this book is essential. If you don’t, this is a guide to some of the most satisfying stuff you will hear this side of Killing Joke, classic 60s and 70s songwriters, modern day guitar wizzkids. A great read in easy style, with delightful interview responses from Nick himself to put flesh and blood to the story. Designed as a companion, but stands up by itself as a great little biography. Not just another chord in your song.

A few of my Roy Harper bootlegs

Posted on by Opher

I do enjoy listening to a classic Harper performance from the days gone by – just to remind myself and bask!

A rock music memoir – In Search of Captain Beefheart Hardcover/Paperback/Kindle

Posted on by Opher

Intro

The sixties raged. I was young, crazy, full of hormones and wanting to snatch life by the balls. There was a life out there for the grabbing and it had to be wrestled into submission. There was a society full of boring amoral crap and a life to be had in the face of the mind-numbing vision of slow death on offer.

Rock music vented all that passion.

This book is a memoir of a life spent immersed in Rock Music. I was born in 1949 and so lived through the whole gamut of Rock.

Rock music formed the background to momentous world events – the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War, Iraq war, Watergate, the miners’ strike and Thatcher years, CND, the Green Movement, Mao and the Cultural Revolution, Women’s Liberation and the Cold War.

I see this as the Rock Era.

I was immersed in Rock music. It was fused into my personality. It informed me, transformed me and inspired me. My heroes were musicians. I am who I am because of them.

Without Rock Music I would not have the same sensibilities, optimism or ideals. They woke me up!

This tells that story.

In Search of Captain Beefheart: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9798346131236: Books

All Right!

Posted on by Opher

All Right!

All right! Alright!

                I’ve been better!

All right! Alright!

                Water’s wetter!

Shazam!

                Magic word!

Sesame!

                Phoenix bird!

All life in a sunset.

All dreams in the night.

All possibility

In the spectrum of twilight.

Opher – 15.12.2014

I always find that an open fire or the glow of a sunset release the mind so that it can wander free. That’s magic.

It opens doors into thoughts and renews the spirit.

Fires and sunsets heal.

Your mind can wander through memories and thoughts, drift effortlessly, at peace.

That glow is magic.

Roy Harper – Flat Baroque and Berserk

Posted on by Opher

I was privileged, as one of Roy’s friends, to be invited down to Abbey Road Studios for the recording of this album. I’d toddle along to St John’s Wood on my old AJS motorcycle to quietly sit in the background in the control room as Roy recorded this gem of an album. He and Pete were meticulous and Roy was very hands-on, experimenting and learning how the mixing board worked. The quality of the sound matched the quality of the songs – and what a bunch of songs!

Going to the studios was an experience. I’d just park up and walk in. Often there was nobody on the front desk. When there was I’d just nod and walk through. Security was virtually non-existent. John Lennon, Syd Barrett and Paul McCartney were recording and wandering around. Pink Floyd were there. Sometimes the control room would fill up with rock luminaries. At one time I found myself sitting with Keith Moon, Jimmy Page and Dave Gilmour. At other times the Nice all piled in and Robert Plant. We bumped into Syd in the corridor for a chat. Roy was hot property. It was widely expected that he was going to explode onto the scene. All the major acts – the Who, Led Zep and Pink Floyd rated his songs. They recognised the huge talent. It felt like a matter of time and this album seemed as if it was going to be the breakthrough album. I sat in amongst this melting pot of talent and absorbed it. A camera would have been good. It felt as if I was at the very centre of a hurricane that was going to blow Roy into the stratosphere. I’d known him for a few years, from the tiny clubs and Cousins to the Royal Albert Hall and now poised on the brink of major stardom. Bewildering.

I could only imagine what Roy was actually feeling at the time. He knew his songs were good. By this time he’d produced epics like McGoohan’s Blues and I Hate The Whiteman and was being courted by the biggest label in the world and all the top rock musicians of the age. He was riding the wave. This album was going to do it. Each song was being honed to perfection. The quality was obvious.

To be sitting in a control room with the top hierarchy of the rock world was incredible for me, but heaven knows what emotional impact it was having on Roy.

From: Roy Harper: Every Album, Every Song (On Track) Paperback – Flat Baroque and Berserk – 1970

Harvest Label  1970

Recorded at Abbey Road Studio

Roy Harper: vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar on Hell’s Angels and all song writing

Pete Jenner: producer

David Bedford: strings

Skaila Kanga: harp on ‘Song Of The Ages’

Tony Visconti: recorder on ‘Tom Tiddler’s Ground’

Keith Emerson: keyboards on ‘Hell’s Angels’

Lee Jackson: bass guitar on ‘Hell’s Angels’

Brian Davison: drums on ‘Hell’s Angels’

Lon Goddard: gatefold cover design

John McKenzie: photography

EMI had become aware of the burgeoning underground scene that was emerging in the late sixties. They had a few fingers in that pie, with Pink Floyd, but wanted an opportunity to delve deeper into this potential market. Their answer, in 1969, was to set up a subsidiary label which was to specialise in music from the underground scene. That was the Harvest label. They signed up Deep Purple, The Battered Ornaments, Syd Barrett, Robert Wyatt, Pink Floyd, Edgar Broughton and others.

   By 1969 Roy was making quite a name for himself. He was recommended to EMI by Pete Jenner who managed the early Pink Floyd. Pete had been impressed with Roy’s Hyde Park performances at the free festivals and after hearing his recorded material he thought that Roy had the ability to do more. So Roy became one of their first signings on the Harvest label.

   The beauty of the deal was that, for the first time, Roy had access to top quality recording facilities (the Abbey Road studios where the Beatles recorded), unlimited studio time, a quality producer in Pete Jenner (they became good friends and cannabis buddies), and brilliant sound engineers in Phil McDonald and Neil Richmond.

   Roy had been prolific on the song writing front and in 1969 he entered the studio with a batch of songs surpassing anything he had created previously.

   With a bunch of friends to egg him on, a producer who was happy to work in collaboration on the whole process, all manner of rock cognoscenti dropping in to listen, comment and contribute, Roy was all set for a ground-breaking album and that is what we were treated to with the magnificent Flat Baroque And Berserk.

   Even the gatefold album cover is brilliant. Designed by old friend Lon Goddard with a photograph from John McKenzie, Roy looks resplendent in psychedelic shirt and flat cap. Eyes shut, cig in mouth, he is reclining on a chaise longue with a background of flock wallpaper and a tiger growling into his face!

Roy Harper: Every Album, Every Song (On Track): Amazon.co.uk: Opher Goodwin: 9781789521306: Books

The life of a writer.

Posted on by Opher

Firstly, you have to have lived a life full of experiences. That’s the grist for the mill. You have to know and have lived what you write about.

I only write about the things I love.

Next, you have to have an imagination that enables you to think up plots, story-lines, characters, settings and stories. You need a wealth of pressing ideas. I’ve always had so many thoughts buzzing round my head that I don’t need a net to catch them; I just need the time and energy to write them down. They generate the obsessive enthusiasm.

Thirdly, you have to have an ability to string words into interesting patterns. That is not merely grammar, spelling and mechanics; it’s a magic that causes words to come together in a synergetic pattern that illuminates wonder. Some call it style. It comes out of nowhere. A lifetime of writing. Some just have it. Others have to work for decades and put in thousands of hours before it comes together.

Fourthly, you need to be obstinate and able to endure the tedium and exhaustion, to become a completer finisher. A book can take a couple of thousand hours of work. You work alone, late into the night, and press on even when all the enthusiasm has dissipated. Then you start editing.

Fifthly, you have to have a thick skin to put up with the indifference, knock-backs, petty nit-picking and rude put-downs.

I have written some hundred and twenty books. I dread to think the number of hours. Fortunately I enjoy writing more than reading. It’s been worthwhile. The cost has been the time not spent with friends, family and other pursuits.

That’s the life of a writer.

Allow me to introduce myself….

Posted on by Opher

I was introduced into the suburbs of post-war London in 1949. My father a returning dispatch rider stationed in Naples, my mother worked in the War Office in Churchill’s bunker.

As a child I ran free in the countryside, in the midst of nature, with pet crows, snakes, guinea pigs, rabbits, mice and rats. As a sun-bronzed hyperactive ragamuffin I spent my life up trees, building camps, in ditches and ponds and hunting lizards. Idyllic and free.

As a pre-teenager I discovered rock ‘n’ roll, then blues, girls and excitement. I found myself booted out of cubs, scouts, cadets and seemed to annoy certain people in authority by not wanting to behave or look like they wanted me to look. I was scruffy and wild.

As a teenager I grew hair, was constantly being sent home, had numerous girlfriends, was mad about the Beatles, Who, Pretty Things, Small Faces, Kinks, Yardbirds, Stones and Bob Dylan and started going to live gigs (the Birds, Them and Downliners Sect) and was reading Sci-fi.

By the mid-sixties to late-sixties I was reading Kerouac, Ginsberg and Henry Miller. I’d scraped into college to do a Zoology degree and was firmly entrenched in the London Underground scene – Middle Earth, UFO, Marquis, Les Cousins, Roundhouse. Three gigs a week. I saw almost everyone. Now the likes of Captain Beefheart, Roy Harper, Frank Zappa, Hendrix, Cream, Son House, Jackson C Frank, Country Joe and the Fish, Neil Young, Incredible String Band, Phil Ochs, Velvet Underground and Joni Mitchell joined the fray. Words were my thing. I was a sucker for good lyrics, poetry and clever wordsmiths. I was frequenting Abbey Road studios as a friend of Roy Harper with hair down to my arse, a motor-bike and a head swirling with idealism and wild dreams. I met and set up home with my life-long sweetheart.

For four or five years I was in the centre of the storm. It swirled around me and through me. My evenings spent with friends, sharing, toking, arguing, discussing and listening to music I a mad whirl of interaction and revelation. The music was central. I started writing.

By the mid-seventies the sixties dream had long died and reality hit home. Then Punk hit and I was surging on the tsunami of Sex pistols, Ian Dury, Elvis Costello Stiff Little Fingers and Gang of Four. We had four great kids and I needed an income. I spent thirty-six years in teaching and had a great life opening young minds and expanding horizons. Teaching was a joy. I became a Head Teacher in a Comprehensive Secondary School. The energy and idealism of the young kids gave me nourishment. I kept writing.

We travelled the world, kept gigging and discovering and I started publishing my books.

Now I am here.

27.12.2024

Everything?

Posted on by Opher

Everything?

Everything?

                Five senses.

                                Something.

Everything?

                The spectrum.

                                Part.

Everything?

                The universe.

                                One planet.

Everything?

                Life.

                                Short.

Everything?

                Understand.

                                Nothing.

Opher – 10.12.2024

Here we are – tiny microbes in an infinite universe totally beyond our comprehension.

We see next to nothing.

We experience next to nothing.

We live a miniscule span.

We understand so little.

Yet we think we know it all.

We believe that what we do see is somehow all there is. We do not comprehend that we perceive a tiny portion of the spectrum. Reality is so much more.

They made Fairness and Justice dirty words!

Posted on by Opher

It’s in the interests of billionaires and millionaires to make socialism seem like a conspiracy. That’s why they ensure it never works. They rob it of money if they can.

Capitalism only works for the wealthy!