It’s not an easy choice. It changes with the mood and wind.
I narrowed it down to 1 of 6.
I like the epic tracks with scope and depth. So for me the lyrics are the most important element, but the music is there as well. When Roy creates once of his mammoth songs he tends to chose a big canvas and embellish it with his poetic vision in a way that stimulates you to thinking and understanding the chosen subject in a different way. He likes big issues such as human evolution, society and religion. His words are the paint he daubs the canvas with. They are coloured with the hues of emotions – anger, fury, love, appreciation, nostalgia, hope, despair and beauty. You get the full works in a way that no other singer-songwriter does for me – not even Dylan.
Here are my six nominations:
McGoohan’s Blues
I was fortunate to be around when Roy first wrote and started singing this. It was like nothing I had ever heard. I sat entranced and tried to absorb it into my mind. It scorched my brain. The recording on the FolkJokeOpus album does not do it justice but it is, even flawed, a testimony to the power and the passion. How I wish there was a recording from 1967/68 of Roy in all the fury of those performances. The passion and intensity are branded in my memory. I don’t think anyone has got near to this. It was immense.
I Hate the Whiteman
Probably Roy’s most ‘popular’ some. A song about the North American Indian prior to the arrival of the White Man when life was hard and free. A commentary on the state of Western Society with its alcoholic violence and nuclear holocaust – its propaganda and establishment psychopathy.
Me and My Woman
Another opus on love, society and history. A story of a refuge from the storm of society raging around us. A song with many themes and moods. A beautifully produced song. The music and production reached new heights.
The Lord’s Prayer
This is a bold attempt to marry poetry to music that works brilliantly for me. You cannot get a broader scope than this. The whole of human history encapsulated in a song largely centred in the mind of Geronimo, a man from the Iron Age, a free human being untrammeled by the propaganda of politics, society and the establishment.
The Game
This is Roy with his band doing an electric version of his poetic songs. A warning about the perils of civilisation with all its controls as we are swamped with religion, the state and the strictures of careers and society. A cry for freedom and an end to control and wish for a life with more meaning and individuality.
This version is actually a live acoustic version – different to the album.
One of those Days in England
Another epic song covering the whole gamut of English History, society and the fight for individual freedom in the midst of this social experiment which has such a head of steam that it is gobbling up the planet.
Once again this is a live version.
It is amazing how many brilliant songs I had to put to one side to come up with this limited selection. No doubt everyone has their favourites.
Which one is your favourite?