ROY HARPER Folkjokeopus VG/VG+ RARE 1969 UK Liberty 1ST PRESS A1B1 Led Zeppelin
$
30
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Description
Vinyl: VG/VG+ Play Tested. Sounds Great with some warm vinyl crackle that never overwhelms the music. Original UK Liberty Labels are Clean. This is the Original 1969 UK Liberty 1ST PRESSING! Legendary English Iconic Singer-Songwriting Maverick, championed and immortalized by Led Zeppelin shortly after this record was released, on Led Zeppelin III's "Hats off To (Roy) Harper".
See History/Review Below!
In the Dead Wax: Side 1: (Stampers) LBS 83231 A//1 420
Side 2: (Stampers) LBS 83231 B//1 420Cover: VG/VG+ (see photos; some small paper tears and creasing on the front cover)
Goldmine Standards. I play test every album that I sell on eBay as I have found you can't rate an LP accurately by just visually inspecting an album. I wipe the dust off of every cover with clean, unscented baby wipes. I professionally clean the vinyl.
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Why buy a first or early pressing and not a re-issue or a ‘re-mastered’ vinyl album? First and early pressings are pressed from the first generation lacquers and stampers. They usually sound vastly superior to later issues/re-issues (which, in recent times, are often pressed from whatever 'best' tapes or digital sources are currently available) - many so-called 'audiophile' new 180g pressings are cut from hi-res digital sources…essentially an expensive CD pressed on vinyl. Why experience the worse elements of both formats? These are just High Maintenance CDs, with mid-ranges so cloaked with a veil as to sound smeared. They are nearly always compressed with murky transients and a general lifelessness in the overall sound. There are exceptions where re-masters/re-presses outshine the original issues, but they are exceptions and not the norm. First or early pressings nearly always have more immediacy, presence and dynamics. The sound staging is wider. Subtle instrument nuances are better placed with more spacious textures. Balances are firmer in the bottom end with a far-tighter bass. Upper-mid ranges shine without harshness, and the overall depth is more immersive. Inner details are clearer. On first and early pressings, the music tends to sound more ‘alive’ and vibrant. The physics of sound energy is hard to clarify and write about from a listening perspective, but the best we can describe it is to say that you can 'hear' what the mixing and mastering engineers wanted you to hear when they first recorded the music.
History
The album is notable for the lengthy track "McGoohan's Blues", which Harper states was "inspired by actor Patrick McGoohan's depiction of the establishment rebel in his TV series, The Prisoner".[1] An extended, Dylanesque strophic form accompanied only by Harper's guitar ("how the sea she roars with laughter/And howls with the dancing wind/To see my two feet standing here/questioning") suddenly segues, after over ten minutes, first into a brief, new and quieter theme and then into a full-band coda.
The searing falsetto of "She's the One" makes for one of Harper's most intense and moving recordings[citation needed] as manic guitar-strumming accompanies his scornful upbraiding of an acquaintance for his self-pitying insensitivity to a "wonderful wife" whom the singer sees and apparently loves as "a very beautiful young woman". Like "McGoohan's Blues", this track seems to butt-join two related but distinct songs.
"One For All" was dedicated to tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler, whom Harper had known in Copenhagen.[1] It includes a lengthy acoustic guitar solo. "Exercising Some Control" and "Manana" may be numbered among Harper's light-hearted crowd-pleasing songs, while "In The Time Of Water" and the Incredible String Bandish "Composer Of Life" are more experimental, the former featuring the sound of water and Harper's sitar. The opening "Sergeant Sunshine" features the voice of Jane Scrivener[2] while other contributing musicians include Nicky Hopkins, Ron Geesin, "Russ" on bass guitar and drummer Clem Cattini. The American release swaps in two tracks, "Zaney Janey" and "Ballad of Songwriter"[3], for the original UK album's track, "One for All"[4].
The album title was borrowed to provide the name of a Minneapolis record store, Oar Folkjokeopus.
AllMusic Review by Richie Unterberger
This Shel Talmy-produced album is as sprawling and unwieldy as its title. Always a determined eclectic, Harper tries to cover a lot of ground here, and while his effort is impressive, the result is unnervingly inconsistent. The influences of Bob Dylan, Bert Jansch, Donovan, and maybe even early Al Stewarthover over most of this folk-rock. Harper tries to cram too many musical and (especially) lyrical ideas together here, and several of his heart-on-the-sleeve narrative folktales ramble on for too long, with an obscurity that verges on maddening. Some pretty, melodic passages here and there, with adequate folk singing that cracks when he even approaches the upper register. The acoustic guitar work is uniformly excellent, making this confused late-'60s timepiece sound rather more impressive than it should.
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