Come Out Fighting Ghengis Smith
| Come Out Fighting Ghengis Smith | ||||
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| Studio album by Roy Harper | ||||
| Released | 1968 | |||
| Recorded | England | |||
| Genre | Folk rock, progressive folk, folk baroque | |||
| Length | 45:40 | |||
| Label |
CBS BPG 63184 Awareness AWCD 1035 Science Friction HUCD006 |
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| Producer | Shel Talmy | |||
| Roy Harper chronology | ||||
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| Alternative Cover | ||||
1977 Reissue cover
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| Alternative Cover | ||||
1991 Reissue cover
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |
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Come Out Fighting Ghengis Smith is English folk / rock singer-songwriter and guitarist Roy Harper's second album and was released in 1968. The album was re-issued in 1977 as The Early Years.
Columbia Records, recognising Harper's potential, hired American producer Shel Talmy to produce the album. Musically it was notable for the 11 minute track "Circle" comprising several movements, "a soundscape of Harper's difficult youth" that, according to Harper, was "totally unlike anything anyone else was doing. The Beatles weren’t doing anything like that at the time. The Stones weren’t doing anything like it, either. No-one was"
Career-wise, the album was notable for establishing a broadening in Harper's musical style away from the more traditional side of contemporary folk music then played. Harper had an interest in traditional folk but did not consider himself a Bona fide member of the folk scene. He later explained:-
I was too much of a modernist, really. Just too modern for what was going on in the folk clubs. I wanted to modernise music, but more than that to completely modernise people’s attitudes towards life in general. I was involved in trying to bring (more) meat to the (contemporary) folk music...(of the time).
Harper's record company had different expectations. "They wanted me to write commercial pop songs and when they heard the album...they didn’t have a clue. They wanted hits. And I gave them "Circle"".Bert Jansch contributed sleeve notes for the album. During this period, Harper was managed by American music entrepreneur Jo Lustig; manager of The Pentangle and former agent to Julie Felix.
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Wikipedia