Opher Goodwin

Phil Ochs was the 'The Prince of Protest' in the sixties. The only real rival to Bob Dylan, he was the archetypal Greenwich Village topical songwriter. Whether protesting the Vietnam War or campaigning for civil rights, workers' rights and social justice, Phil was always there. Phil was the man to take up causes, write songs, play at rallies and even risk his life. His clear voice and sense of melody, linked with his incisive lyrics, created songs of beauty and power. As his career progressed, with lyrics and music becoming more highly poetic and sophisticated, he still never lost sight of his cause. Towards the end of the sixties he joined with the YIPPIES in protest against the Vietnam War. But idealism became Phil's downfall. He was an idealist who could see no point in continuing if he was unable to make the world a better place. Phil lost all hope and descended into depression, which, along with excessive alcohol consumption, led to his suicide in 1976. Shortly before he took his life, Phil asked his brother if he thought anyone would listen to his songs in the future. Well here we are; sixty years later, still listening. The songs of Phil Ochs are every bit as relevant as they ever were and they are making the world a better place!

One of the most pivotal albums in the evolution of rock music, no other recording has had more impact than the 1965 classic Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home. In the mid-sixties, Rock Music was about to explode into psychedelia, prog and jazz fusion. Meanwhile, Bob Dylan had made an enormous impact on songwriting with his first four acoustic albums. He had created a different way of writing songs with themes such as civil rights, anti-war protests and social issues that lifted rock music from teenage love songs to serious poetic works of art full of symbolism. But with Bringing It All Back Home, Dylan shot his lyrics through with surreal hard-edged Beat poetry and charged the music from acoustic to blues-based loud electric rock. It alienated him from many of his peers in the folk community but contains classic cuts like ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ ‘Maggie’s Farm’ and ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’. Dylan had opened the door on experimentation. The Beatles, Stones, Who, Doors, Hendrix, Pink Floyd and Cream all listened and responded. Songwriting rose to new heights with few boundaries

"We only ever get glimpses of Ian Dury; nothing is as it seems. From irascible rogue to national treasure, pop star to social commentator, cockney geezer to artist, he was a man greater than the sum of his parts. Part teddy boy, part punk, part vaudeville act; he was unique. The music that emanates from this powerful personality echoes the heart and drive of their complex creator. Dury began his career as a frontman with post-punk outfit Kilburn And The High Roads, but had his greatest success with backing band The Blockheads, which featured Chis Jankel and Wilko Johnson at various times. He found true commercial success with the albums New Boots And Panties and Do It Yourself. Dury went on to a critically acclaimed solo career and worked with The Blockheads again on the 1997 album Mr Love Pants. He also had a slew of non-album hits, especially the UK number one ‘Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick’. In this book, Opher Goodwin dissects his albums and songs to tease out their spirit and reveal the inspirations behind them. This is Ian Dury: a Blockhead, a genius."

An enigma, Leonard Norman Cohen was possibly the most improbable bohemian intellectual songwriter/singer in music history. He was certainly the working-class hero, the peoples' poet, the suicidal lamenter of doom and the purveyor of popular songs. But the truth is even more complex. Throughout his life, there were juxtapositions of the most unlikely life choices and influences. To have fashioned a mishmash of ideas, styles and influences into a successful, long-lasting musical career is nothing short of amazing. He blended secular, mystical, sexual and religious themes into ambiguous poetic tapestries and devised an intricate, unique musical style. He possessed a deep baritone voice that, although mesmerising, was sometimes in danger of sounding monotonous. Leonard was able to fuse these elements into a distinctive amalgam that somehow worked on many levels. He did not look the part, play the game or conform to any rules, but Leonard touched hearts and minds all over the world, while writing some remarkable songs, including 'Halleluyah' and 'Suzanne'. Focusing equally on this popular early albums, his more experimental mid-period and his final, late-career renaissance, this book analyses and interprets every album and every individual song to shed light on the phenomenon of Leonard Cohen.

Arguably the greatest album by the best rock band ever, The Beatles - also known as The White Album - proved to be a watershed recording. Coming as it did, after manager Brian Epstein's death; after the disillusionment with the Maharishi; in the middle of the break-up of long-term relationships, and following on from the psychedelic masterpiece Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, it heralded changes of style and the marked the start of the falling apart of the previously tight-knit group.The album's diversity and creation are analysed and its background and dynamics revealed. This extraordinary double album reflects a remarkable time and period. As the sixties came to an end, so too did the band. They mirrored the times they lived in. The album also followed on from their first highly criticised TV flop Magical Mystery Tour, the success of the first global satellite triumph of 'All You Need Is Love', and the highly ambitious Apple business venture. George Martin ducked out and ructions broke out between band members. But, among all the pressures and stress they found time to write and record an incredible array of songs; songs that synergised into a spectacularly successful album with a fascinating story. This is the tale of every track and every facet of this remarkable record.

In the realm of singer songwriters, few have been as influential as Neil Young, whose music has always been creative and relevant throughout six decades. Neil is a chameleon for whom boundaries of genres do not exist. He has delved into folk, country, r&b, rock 'n' roll, grunge, hard rock, electronic and pop and made them his own. But the sixties were his launch pad. This book follows his music through that seminal period when he played with The Squires, Mynah Birds, Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Crazy Horse and The Stray Gators. During this seminal period, Young wrote or co-wrote some of his greatest songs, including 'I Am A Child', 'Southern Man', 'Helpless' and - most importantly - 'Ohio'. It is the story of how one of the most seminal artists of the last fifty years learned his trade - every band, every twist and turn and every track.

Bob Dylan is the magician who sprinkled poetic fairy dust on to the popular music of the early sixties and his songwriting sparked a revolution and changed rock music forever. The diminutive poet/singer claimed he was merely a 'song and dance man' but Dylan altered popular music from intellectually bereft teenage rebellion into a serious adult art form worthy of academic study. Dylan headed for the sixties as a Little Richard rock 'n' roller but soon turned acoustic folkie and after absorbing the music and words of Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson and Brecht, he became a vagabond social troubadour. Basking in Rimbaud he transformed into a poetic symbolist before later immersing himself in lysergic beat surrealism. The chameleon of Dylan in the sixties was bewildering to his followers. His first album was a raw debut folk/blues. Then followed three acoustic poetic gems, three ground-breaking surreal ,electric wonders and four that were more mundane and country-tinged. But by the mid-sixties he was a strung-out polka-dotted rock star. He crashed (physically and mentally) before leaving the sixties as a clean-cut country crooner. Dylan had mutated more times than a trilobite. Dylan's ground-breaking music changed the world and his amazing story is revealed by exploring the eleven albums that he released between 1962 and 1970.

Captain Beefheart (Don Vliet) was undoubtedly the creator of the most bizarre and wonderful music. A child prodigy sculptor, he applied his artistic approach to music, creating 'aural sculptures'. He befriended Frank Zappa in High School, collaborating on a teenage rock opera and sci-fi/fantasy film entitled Captain Beefheart vs The Grunt People. It was from this film that Don took his name. Of course, a magic character had to have a magic band. The Magic Band started out as a blues band in the mid-sixties but soon, with lysergic propulsion, surreal poetry, free-form jazz, polyrhythms and African beats, they were at the forefront of West Coast Acid Rock. A series of hugely inventive albums, including the infamous Trout Mask Replica, established them as the foremost avant-garde rock band with legendary live performances. The author was there for their first concert at Middle Earth and that night changed his life. Few Bands are as influential. The Beatles, The Fall, PJ Harvey and Tom Waits all pay homage, While The Magic Band have inspired a myriad of tribute bands and created a mythology like no other. This book sets the history of the band in context, analysing every track and interpreting the music with its poetic content. It is essential reading for diehard fans and the Beefheart-curious alike.

Roy Harper must be one of Britain's most undervalued rock musicians and songwriters. For over fifty years he has produced a series of innovative albums of consistently outstanding quality. He puts poetry and social commentary to music in a way that extends the boundaries of rock music. His 22 studio albums 16 live albums, made up of 250 songs, have created a unique body of work. Roy is a musician's musician. He is lauded by the likes of Dave Gilmour, Ian Anderson, Jimmy Page, Pete Townsend, Joanna Newsom, Fleet Foxes and Kate Bush. Who else could boast that he has had Keith Moon, Jimmy Page, Dave Gilmour, John Paul Jones, Ronnie Lane, Chris Spedding, Bill Bruford and Steve Broughton in his backing band? Notable albums include Stormcock, HQ and Bullinamingvase. Opher Goodwin, Roy's friend and a fan, guides the reader through every album and song, providing insight into the recording of the songs as well the times in which they were recorded. As his loyal and often fanatical fans will attest, Roy has produced a series of epic songs and he remains a raging, uncompromising individual.

A book of Poetry on these Toxic Times, the Environment and Politics. A burst of fury in Rhyme. The drumbeat of Rebellion

Looking out through that window, standing beside death, peering at the world outside, it struck me that we were all stranded within the parameters of our own narrow lives - the fashions and attitudes of our youth and old age. We were victims of our times and ourselves. There was no such thing as individuality and freedom. It was an illusion. All life ran its course and ended in scenes like this. We were all trapped within the limitations of our days. Outside that window was another world. There were all manner of things happening. It was a panoply of everything you could imagine - rich and eventful. Life went on. It was only in here that it had stopped. In here everything had changed. All values and endeavours had been rendered meaningless.

I started to write this book back in 1971. At the time I thought I was creating something quite revolutionary. I was writing a collage of a story incorporating poems, cartoons, spirituality, biology, physics and philosophy. I eagerly sent it off to publishers who, for some strange reason, just did not get the weird counterculture entity I had produced. I think they were looking for something that conformed to a more standard format - you know - something with real characters in a real life setting and a story. What I had produced was a psychedelic mind storm. They were not interested. I simply put it down to their lack of ability to understand and went on my way. Only with the passing of time, many rewrites, and greater objectivity did I realise that the writing was rubbish and the narrative did not carry the reader. They were right to reject it. So why am I bothering to resurrect it now 46 years later? Well I ask myself that too. But I am attached to it. It was my first foray into writing and I still find it fascinating. It is a mass of all the ideas going through the head of a twenty year old veteran of the sixties scene. It's full of weirdness and naivety. Rewriting it is like communing with the person I used to be forty six years ago. It's like meeting an old friend. It makes me smile. I am addressing the writing but I can't do much about the structure. It's a sixties thing - a hotchpotch. It's like reality on acid. So this is Parts 1 and 2. There will be another volume