It would be great if we were to share our best albums. So if everyone put forward a view of what they love. I’ll put them up here for everyone to share. I’ll have a page of recommended albums (with connections to You Tube where possible).
Now it just so happens that I’ve already done this with my book 537 Essential albums. It was also a bit of synchronicity that Andrew suggested Stormcock as Stormcock is also my number one album of all time.
So that is a good place to start (This is an extract from my book 537 Essential Albums). This is my number one recommended album.
Roy Harper – Stormcock
Roy Harper is the greatest British song-writer and poet. There is no one who even gets close. His acerbic lyrics and social commentary are unsurpassed. He rivals Bob Dylan as the greatest songwriter of all time and is greatly undervalued. This is not surprising as he has constantly shot himself in the foot and sabotaged his own career. He remains the foremost British dissident and commentator on the human condition. His epic songs are legendary and the music sublime.
Stormcock is arguably his best album but is strongly pushed by both HQ and Lifemask. I would place at least ten of Roy’s albums in my top 400 albums. He’s that important to me.
The Stormcock album features only four tracks but the album is one of his masterpieces. It consists of brilliant songs with poetic imagery and wide canvasses that challenge your imagination. The music and musicianship was innovative and of an excellence that puts this album top of my top ten thousand. It is one of four Harper albums that would make it into my top ten albums of all time. I have a penchant for great meaningful lyrics put to brilliant music and this hits the spot. I never tire of hearing these songs and simply cannot understand why Roy has not been lauded from on high. I love the depth and insight he brings to bear and the risks he takes in developing his ideas through epic songs. Few people can match it. Roy’s shorter songs are also great but these four songs show how Roy has matured and taken his art to another level. ‘Me and my woman’ is one of the very best tracks ever recorded. The scope is immense and Roy was at the top of his game. I am fully aware that not everybody shares my opinion. I can see that it is never going to be commercial. Roy’s work is thought-provoking, intelligent and musically intricate. You have to concentrate. It’s not your catchy pop song – fortunately! But it is well worth the effort. For me Roy is the James Joyce of music as opposed to Simon Cowell’s Barbara Cartland.
OK – Now it’s your turn. I’ll put out some more of these. But I want to hear from you with your favourite albums, a reason why and if possible a You Tube connection.
That will be fun and interesting – Looking forward to hearing from you!
We have to go back a little further to see what else induced this full-throttle burst into rock, back to where The Beatles burst onto the scene, revitalising rock, reawakening it and bringing it back from the dead.
The Beatles had taken the UK by storm in 1963. ‘Love Me Do’ was released on 5 October 1962 and reached a modest number 17. However, ‘Please Please Me’, released on 11 January 1963, then ‘From Me To You’, followed by ‘She Loves You’, all raced to the top of the charts. A sold-out tour sent the young girls screaming hysterically, and by October 1963, Beatlemania had been born in the UK, a phenomenon that was unlike anything witnessed before.
The United States was a little slower to catch on. Those early Beatles singles were not released in the States. The Americans were blasé. The US was the seat of all genres of popular music. Hardly anything of worth had come from outside the States. The hysteria of Beatlemania was viewed with amusement from afar.
Then, the dry tinder caught. The vacuum in rock music created by the payola scandal of the late fifties, with its subsequent clampdown on rock ‘n’ roll, had left an empty gap. Rock had become soft. It was all soft rock and pop with clean-cut pop idols. It had lost its rebellious edge. With the release of ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ on 26December 1963, The Beatles shot to number one and that gap was filled. Their subsequent tour started on 7February 1964. It featured an incendiary slot on the highly influential Ed Sullivan Show, which helped to shoot them to the very top. All across the country, families tuned in to see what the fuss was all about. The kids were instantly smitten. Beatlemania took off in the States with a vengeance, with radio stations playing non-stop Beatles tracks and The Beatles dominating the American charts. The British invasion had begun.
Just before they were due to perform at their first professional gig they split up. Jim left for New York with his mind set on becoming a professional folk singer. Phil stayed on and continued playing and writing songs. In 1961, just three months before graduating, in a fit of pique at being passed over as the editor of the college magazine (not really surprising given the radical nature of his writing), Phil left the course. He returned to stay with his parents in Columbus, Cleveland but continued singing solo in the folk clubs. He’d basically sing anywhere that would have him. Pam Raver, a performer in Columbus has an amusing anecdote from this period: it centers on one of Phil’s early solo shows.
‘One of his first public performances as a solo artist was at the First Unitarian Universalist Church on Weisheimer Road, where he performed for a ladies luncheon,’ she said with a laugh. ‘I found that astounding because you think of him doing more radical, anti-establishment songs. God only knows the songs he performed there.’
While singing in Farragher’s Backroom folk club in Ohio as an opener for established acts he met the folk singer Bob Gibson. Bob had an impact on his songwriting.
The gestation period was over. In 1962 Phil followed his mentor Jim Glover to New York City and, like Bob Dylan the year before, inserted himself into the burgeoning Greenwich Village folk scene.
A more unusual radical left-wing, anti-war folk singer would be hard to imagine. Phil’s background as a middle-class, Jewish, country and western loving, rock ‘n’ roll loving, devotee of Elvis, Jonny Cash and the all-American hero John Wayne was hardly the stuff of rebellious, intellectual folk music. But then converts are often the biggest zealots.
This new Phil Ochs had a thorough grounding in socialism and was now an evangelical radical. He had absorbed sufficient Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, honed his songwriting and would scour Newsweek for sources of content for what was shortly to become an impressive catalogue of hard-hitting topical songs. Ironically, given Dylan’s later put-down jibe, he called himself ‘A singing journalist’. The scene was set.
As with his excellent On Track book about Roy Harper, Opher Goodwin has immersed us in the world of a truly great, if enigmatic musician. Opher’s deep and personal knowledge of the times, the culture, man and his music create a provocative and fulfilling read. An introduction quickly puts the reader into the background and mindset of the Captain and his intriguing, often fractious, relationship with Frank Zappa from their initial mutual love for blues, R&B, and do-wop and the unfortunate pornography bust to their creative collaborations. Willie The Pimp from Zappa’s Hot Rats album is discussed as part of a Contemporary Recording section associated with various albums. A great touch. Opher’s insights are enhanced having witnessed the man perform on a number of occasions, comparing the live with the recorded. He takes us on a journey though each of the official albums, track by often painful track. Not all concerts or tracks are regarded as classic, Opher remains a critic throughout. What he does do is reveal the strengths and weaknesses of the Captain’s work, relationships and attitudes. He discusses not just the musicians involved and the Captain’s poetry but the background to its creation and the tensions that exist between the personnel. There’s an almost visceral description of the track Lick My Dacals Off, Baby managing references to Led Zeppelin and the Beatles, musical structure, ‘wild animal sex’ and the joys of ‘licking everywhere that’s pink’. All in two short paragraphs. His comments about the tracks Hair Pie Bake 1 & 2, leaves little to the imagination. But the Captain is more than lascivious tracks and Opher describes his love of nature, fear for the World and his support for feminism on such pieces as Nowadays A Woman’s Gotta Hit A Man and The Host The Ghost The Most Holy O. Opher uses the book to explore some of the multitude of bootlegs and rarity/outtake recordings available. This is ideal for the more adventurous or devoted collector. Those musicians closely associated with the Captain, ex-Magic Band members as such, are given a rightful space where their subsequent work is discussed. As with other On Track books, there is a generous number of images reprinted, in colour and B&W. These range from album covers and promo shots to concert photos and some of the author with band members. I always enjoyed Beefheart and his music and have fond memories of the parties where his music was played but it was this book that gave me a greater understanding of the man, his music and why he is still such an influential character. More importantly, it headed me back for a wiser listen.
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.
This is another book in the fabulous On Track series. Opher Goodwin has a forensic knowledge of Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band. Beefheart was active in the years 1964 to 1982 but his influence is still felt 40 years later. Mr Goodwin knows his subject inside out and each track from each album is described in great detail. The author goes into the background to the recordings and lists the musicians on each album. I can thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who!s interested in music of the 60s and 70s.
As a lifelong Beefheart fan, this is a gold mine of information. And for a personal bio see Opher’s “In search of Captain Beefheart” for an insight into a life of a muso growing up in the 60’s/70’s
Firstly, reader, I’ll tell you what this book is like: You know when you go into an art gallery or museum and have an accompanying guide book explaining a little about the art or artefacts? Well, this is very much like that. A companion piece for every track. The author has lovingly reviewed and described every song and it is also full of little facts and interesting information. If, like me, you are a Beefheart and The Magic Band aficionado (and I’m guessing that you are) then you’ll appreciate this book. We’ve all read John French’s definitive horse’s-mouth and meticulous account, Bill Harkleroad’s equally valid (but not so obsessively detailed) story and we’ve also read Mike Barnes’s fantastic and accurate outsider view. There are a couple of other tomes too but those three are the glorious triumvirate of Beefheartian history. This book isn’t trying to be that. What it does is makes you revisit the albums. Not with a different perspective – we all have our own, as does this, but with another incentive; to listen to the most original, influential, unique music in rock history. It’s a book for Beefheart lovers, nerds and obsessives. If you don’t agree with some of the author’s viewpoints on the music it really doesn’t matter. The purpose of the book is as a companion to this vast and broad decade of sheer creativity, originality and music-as-art from a genius/tyrant/eccentric and the supremely dedicated and unique musicians who helped to realise the vision, even taking a backseat to his ego for the sake of the art. I love it and so will you.
There are 2 kinds of people in the world, those who ‘get’ Beefheart, and those who don’t. Us Beefheart nuts in the first category have an evangelical mission to convert the rest of the world, hence this book. Opher’s Beefheart experiences closely mirror my own, except his journey began in 1967, I didn’t get the bug till 1970. The book gives Opher’s impressions and interpretations of every Beefheart track released, including many outakes, and unreleased material, with overviews and background info of the albums. He also covers the reformed Magic Band, and band members solo work. I can’t say I agree with every interpretation, (Beefheart fans will have their own take on the songs, which by their nature are open to many different views of what is meant, and what is going on musically, and Opher alludes to this point). I found it a very enjoyable read, learning about another fanatic’s journey, sometimes thinking to myself ‘Yes! Exactly!’, and other times ‘No, that’s not it’… Overall a very comprehensive overview, and a mostly successful attempt to put into words what it feels like to have your brain rewired by this completely unique artist.
I am a fan of this series of books and was delighted to see a book on Captain Beefheart’s albums and songs at last. I was very impressed with the details on the individual songs and albums. I also love to read the author’s own opinions on individual songs, even if I don’t agree with their opinion. As soon as I bought the book I went to read up on what the author thought of my favorite Beefheart song (You Know You’re A Man) and had to chuckle when I read it wasn’t one of his favorites! This is a must have for fans of Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band. Highly recommended.
Definitions — Fascism is a form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition,
While fascism is defined as a product of the far-right it is just as evident in the far-left.
For me fascism is associated with arrogance, racism and extreme authoritarian control. It divides and labels people. It promotes one group of people above others (even within nations) and sets up mechanisms for suppression and oppression.
Fascism is hierarchical. It sets up a powerful elite and establishes a means of crushing opposition, controlling the people and pumping out propaganda. It runs on fear and deploys secret police, torture and death.
There is no real difference between the way far-right Nazi parties, such as Hitler, Mussolini and Franco operated to that of far-left organisations such as with Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot. They all worked on creating division, exterminating enemies, using fear, deploying propaganda, suppressing all opposition and suppressing the population.
We still operate tribally. We like to elect ‘strong’ leaders who put forward policies in black and white. These leaders often appear strong because they are psychopaths or sociopaths.
Much as school bullies attract sycophantic groups of henchmen and henchwomen who they use to help exert their power, fascist politicians attract in both henchmen and followers who put their policies into action.
Once has to wonder at the mentality of these people. One can see the attraction for those high up but there are similar benefits for those further down the organisation. They are part of the organisation. They have power over others. They are safe, rewarded and have power. Hence the secret police, the torturers, the executioners, the propagandists, the spokespeople, troops and their families feel superior and secure.
Fascism seems to be the default state for human politics. We see democracies such as present-day USA and UK drifting towards it with Trump and Johnson. It is evident in Russia with Putin, In China, North Korea, Austria, Italy, Turkey, India, Iran and Brazil.
Fascism exists in many forms and can be an insidious force infiltrating into the most benign governments. The Johnson government is showing fascistic tendencies – an arrogance and superiority, control of the media, suppression of opposition, creation of division, ignoring of the law, move towards a one-party state.
We have to be forever vigilant.
Those who gain the intoxicating drug of power will do everything they can to hold on to it.
We’ve lost our connection to the bees and the trees,
Brought Mother Nature down to her knees.
In the senseless game that we play
Where a few get everything
And the mindless just pray.
Our inventions betray us
Rob us of life.
Cut from reality
With the stroke of a knife.
The future a blizzard,
The past a blood bath.
Looking for purpose
You must be having a laugh!!
Opher – 2.8.2024
It’s a little epic; stretching from the personal to the universal and crossing time. More than a passing nod to the great Roy Harper – Me And My Woman, The Lord’s Prayer, The Game – though I do not claim to warrant any comparison.
The stupidity and gullibility of mankind never ceases to amaze me.
Our propensity for violence, endless wars; our blind ignorance.
An amazing, magical land; a mysterious journey, marred by tribalism, greed and hate. We deploy our inventions of leaders, gods, politics and lust against ourselves.
Born in a magical land we ignore the abundant treasure for a pocket full of fool’s gold.
We all knew that the obese bloated orange blob stank; it’s just that we thought it was his sexual and criminal dealings – not his body odour! The stench of corruption follows all his businesses.
In his presidency he was milking it for every dollar he could get. It was pouring in from Saudi, China, Malaysia and Turkey. Then he conned poor Americans to support him. The presidency was one huge money-making exercise!!
