Few survivors from the golden age of British folk-rock have kept their reputations intact. Of the generation of troubadours who came of age in the folk clubs of London in the mid-1960s, some have passed away, others have surrendered to the regurgitation of the blandest form of acoustic folk music. But among the survivors, there is one figure whose body of work, comprising 23 studio LPs and almost as many live and compilation releases, has come to stand for a particularly single-minded form of integrity. That man is Roy Harper.
Now officially ‘retired’, and living in a secluded corner of Ireland, Harper has recently been hailed as a key influence by a much younger generation of devoted starsailors who instinctively recognise his innovations, his refusal to compromise and his visionary world view. It is rumoured that Joanna Newsom insisted she’d only play her recent UK shows if he would support her. The likes of Fleet Foxes, Joanna Newsom, and Jim O’Rourke are avowed fans; and in previous decades he has enjoyed public endorsements and tributes from the likes of Led Zeppelin, Kate Bush, Pink Floyd’s Dave Gilmour and many more.
Biography
Born in 1941, Harper lost his mother within a few weeks of his birth and was brought up in the outskirts of Manchester by his father and stepmother, a Jehovah's Witness. Harper developed a deep hatred of organised religion and ran away, aged 15, to join the Royal Air Force. The rigid discipline required did not suit him. In order to be discharged early he pleaded insanity and was committed to an institution where he received ECT. A former participant in the skiffle revolution in the mid-50s, around 1964 Harper found himself joining the stream of bohemian rambler-buskers hitching and singing their way around Europe and North Africa. On his return to Britain he pitched in to the London coffee-house folk scene and secured a residence at legendary folk club Les Cousins, where he was spotted by the obscure Strike label.
Beginning with 1966’s Sophisticated Beggar, Harper’s music has consistently rattled the cage of received ideas. His versatile, poetic sensibility was employed in a wide range of song styles from romantic love songs to late-night mantras to blackly comedic throwaway numbers. A brilliant, percussive guitar stylist in his own right, he extended the form of folk music over the next few years, allowing himself the space to stretch out in long, lyrically dense and mantrically repetitive odysseys of poetic thought. “I was writing long poems in the 50s,” says Harper, “none of which unfortunately made it past the first few moves of living quarters. My first inspiration was John Keats’s Endymion.”
The first inklings of his expansive approach on record came on the ten minute “Circle” on 1967’s Come Out Fighting Genghis Smith – produced by Shel Talmy – and was vastly ramped up on the following year’s Folkjokeopus, which contained an 18 minute “McGoohan’s Blues”, named after the lead actor of TV’s The Prisoner and whose enigmatic verses were laced with anti-establishment rants.
By this time Harper was a favourite at the outdoor Hyde Park Festivals, where he was exposed to the wider attention of the underground scene. Now produced and managed by Peter Jenner, and signed to EMI’s progressive label Harvest, his 1969 LP Flat Baroque And Berserk reflected his reputation as a bloodyminded, truculent troubadour, reflecting turbulent times with anger, wrath and sardonic humour, singing – like the mistle thrush after which his next opus would be named – into the eye of the storm.
Stormcock (1971) is generally regarded as a masterpiece: a sprawling but focused suite of four lengthy tracks which explored the inner space of Abbey Road Studio to rhapsodic effect. Like Astral Weeks refracted through the pages of OZ magazine, the songs span an enormous spectrum of experience, from the frontline of social unrest to the secluded, birdsong-infested lanes of the English countryside. Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page added guitar, disguised as ‘S Flavius Mercurius’, highlighting a relationship with the group that had begun at the 1970 Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music. “Hats Off To (Roy) Harper”, an incoherent, gutsy blues workout on Led Zeppelin III, paid tribute to the singer’s status as a beacon of integrity for the underground scene.
Harper enjoyed a special relationship with Led Zeppelin, and his subsequent albums began to move into harder rock territory with the addition of various key collaborators including, as well as Page, orchestral arranger/keyboardist David Bedford, David Gilmour, Chris Spedding, Bill Bruford and John Paul Jones. Lifemask (1972) contained several songs written for the film Made, directed by John Mackenzie, which starred Harper as an edgy, high-maintenance rock star. Valentine (1974) was launched with a gig featuring Page and Bedford plus Ronnie Lane and Keith Moon. He was invited to sing lead on the single “Have A Cigar” from Pink Floyd’s classic album Wish You Were Here (1975). In the same year Harper released HQ, a rock based album notable for the closing track, “When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease”, an elegiac hymn to unchanging ways and mortality which BBC DJ John Peel insisted should be played in the event of his death.
With the dawn of the 1980s Harper took part in a musical exchange with Kate Bush, who guested on The Unknown Soldier (1980), while Harper returned the favour by appearing on Bush’s hit single “Breathing”. Harper rode the unsteady waves of the music industry during the early 1980s but kept up a productive output that saw his music taking on a prophetic role, expressing more explicit concerns with environmental disaster, religious fundamentalism, urban poverty and the first Gulf War, on releases like Once (1990) and The Dream Society (1998), through to his most recent studio album, The Green Man (2000). In 1994, exhibiting typical desire for autonomy and self-sufficiency, he set up his own record label, Science Friction, to curate and rerelease his entire back catalogue, along with a clutch of CDs of live and unreleased material covering his entire career. In his book, The Passions Of Great Fortune (2003), he published his complete lyrics together with photos, annotations and re-evaluations of every one of his songs.
With a new series of reissues in 2011, Roy Harper’s incredible, visionary catalogue of work enters the digital domain in time for his music to take on a new, urgent and timely appeal, in an age in which the hypocrisies and injustices he railed against are more present than ever before. It’s been a damned good innings and he’s still not out.
Goldfish
Roy Harper Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I've dug you all day long
Yellow scales arising
Through the ceiling of my song
Little bee sat on your flower
A-swaying in the breeze
Funny little furry voice
Little bird sat upon your twig
Your sounds ring through my ears
Waking me each sunrise
To the morning's hopes and fears
Crazed blue-eyed starry-minded
fluffly little ball
Oh little baby on my knee
I love you most of all
The song "Goldfish" by Roy Harper is a beautiful ode to the natural world around us. The first stanza talks about a goldfish swimming in its bowl and the wonder of its yellow scales. The little creature is uplifting to the singer, and its movements and colors inspire a song. The second stanza speaks of a bee gently swaying on a flower, pollinating it, and making its sweet buzzing sounds that bring song to the trees. Finally, the third stanza speaks of a little bird perched on a twig whose song begins every morning afresh, full of the hopes and fears of a new day.
In this song, Roy Harper paints a picture of nature as an endless source of inspiration, and he marvels at how seemingly mundane and underappreciated creatures like goldfish, bees, and birds can bring so much beauty and creativity into his life. The final line about a little baby on his knee conveys that despite all the wonder the world has to offer, the love of a child is still something that can surpass it all.
Line by Line Meaning
Little goldfish in your bowl
The singer is addressing a small goldfish in a bowl, observing it at length.
I've dug you all day long
The singer has spent the whole day observing the goldfish.
Yellow scales arising
The singer notes the fish's yellow scales, which remind them of something uplifting and joyful.
Through the ceiling of my song
The fish inspires the artist to create a song that captures the feeling associated with the fish's beauty and peacefulness.
Little bee sat on your flower
The artist sees a bee sitting on a flower near the fish's bowl, and is taken by the way the bee looks and moves.
A-swaying in the breeze
The bee is moving rhythmically as it is buffeted by the breeze.
Funny little furry voice
The bee's buzzing sound strikes the singer as amusing, but also soothing and comforting.
A-buzzing through the leaves
The bee continues to buzz, moving from flower to flower, and eventually disappearing into the surrounding foliage.
Little bird sat upon your twig
The artist notices a small bird perched on a twig nearby, which they admire.
Your sounds ring through my ears
The bird's singing is melodious and calming, and makes the artist feel at ease.
Waking me each sunrise
The bird's song is associated with the dawning of a new day, and inspires the singer's renewed sense of optimism and hope.
To the morning's hopes and fears
The artist is reminded of the ongoing cycle of life, with its daily mixture of positive and negative experiences.
Crazed blue-eyed starry-minded
The singer addresses an unidentified object, perhaps a pet, giving it a whimsical description that emphasizes its otherworldly nature.
Fluffly little ball
Whatever the object is, it is likely a small, furry creature, which the singer finds endearing.
Oh little baby on my knee
The singer addresses an infant, perhaps their own child, and expresses affection and fondness.
I love you most of all
The artist makes an emotional declaration of their love, indicating that the infant holds a special place in their affections.
Contributed by Colton E. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@damienpepper2254
Roy Harper, one of the greatest and most underrated of all time.
@jeffl.8489
I love his vocals and guitar playing on this album.
@justinframpton485
beautiful
@kirstyhillman9600
This song brings me so much joy, thanks Roy 😊
@Paul-rs4gd
I'm amazed there are not more hits on this.
@bcbillbc
Bought the LP at Collett's when it came out, lent it to an American girl called Summer ("Summer was her name") and never saw her or the album again. The foolishness of youth...
@karlspencer9044
some of his best work ... love MR harper
@opheropher9639
Fabulous!
@abiudmendoza5812
It is a good song, I don't know why it has very few likes.
@LoyalOpposition
the same reason Matt Selou's albums have hardly any views.