McGoohan’s Blues
The main event of the album is this epic song. Eighteen minutes with a mountain of verses and not a single word wasted. The song consists of two parts typical of many of the longer Roy Harper compositions.
He began by writing two distinct poems that he developed into songs. ‘McGoohan’s Blues’ is a masterpiece that was achieved by marrying the two together.
Roy plays and sings solo for the first part of the song which is an amazing twelve minutes long. A short bridging verse takes him into the final section when the full band springs into action. For those who have heard Roy perform this live it does feel that the last part of the studio version is a little too busy as by driving along at a fast rate Roy’s powerful delivery is masked. This is frustrating for those of us who would like a perfect production of such an important piece of work.
The song was recorded in the studio in one live take. Consequently there are one or two minor glitches but ‘McGoohan’s Blues’ remains an immaculate piece of work the like of which few songs have ever matched.
The first part of the poem is based on Patrick McGoohan’s TV series ‘The Prisoner’. The iconic sixties series lambasts a range of twentieth century institutions from religion to the law. Through verse after verse it hits out at TV, pop music, game shows, conformity, rules, regulations, propaganda, manipulation and control as we are herded into mindless automatons by an invisible elite. This list of things to rail against is as pertinent now as it was fifty odd years ago.
The main theme of the drama is that all of us are prisoners in this crazy global society whilst outside ‘the village’ there is the possibility of a more natural way of life.
The second part is more philosophically based and deals with the metaphysical proposition that reality is nothing more than a dream.
One could spend hours analysing the poem and extracting various meanings. As with all Roy’s poetry there are many layers and much to unpick.
As a song I think it is unparalleled. Apart from maybe one or two of Roy’s later epic songs, nothing comes close – not even Dylan’s vitriolic ‘It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding’ which is the nearest comparison that I can make.
Roy’s standard of poetry and musicianship is incredible. He sings with gusto, remembers all the words (a feat in itself) and delivers the song with aggression and passion.
The rest of the album pales into insignificance. This song is the album’s reason for being.