Led Zeppelin wrote a song about him. He delivered lead vocals on Pink Floyd's classic "Have a Cigar." This Mortal Coil has covered him, Joanna Newsom and Kate Bush have collaborated with him, and his reach has touched uncounted bands since he emerged from London in the mid-'60s.
So it's a wonder that it has taken this long for Roy Harper to land his moment in the reissue spotlight. But that moment is here nevertheless.
this audio or video is no longer availableKoch Entertainment has teamed up with Harper's own label Science Friction to distribute the folk singer's albums. The slate includes Stormcock, Harper's 1971 four-song epic team-up with Jimmy Page, as well as Jugula, Flat Baroque and Berserk, The Green Man, The Dream Society, The Unknown Soldier, Death or Glory, the double-disc best-of Counter Culture and more. Fans of all of the aforementioned bands, as well as Nick Drake, freak folk, Devendra Banhart and onward, will find a kindred spirit with a rap sheet decades wide. Or is that rock sheet?
Whatever you call it, Harper has been hard at work since the '60s and '70s, feverishly recording andcompiling through every decade, including our own. In 2003, he evenwrote a 13-minute protest anthem about the invasion of Iraq called "TheDeath of God." The fact that some music fans have never heard of himthrough all of this productivity is one reason alone to be happy thatHarper and Koch have merged minds. Of course, "Have a Cigar" is another. Stone-cold classic.
Photo: RoyHarper.com
