Lifemask

Artist: Roy Harper
Label: Science Friction
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Import
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 679076770058
EAN: 0679076770058
ASIN: B00006L3ME

Release Date: 2002-09-09

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Listmania:

JAMES PATRICK PAGE:LEAD GUITAR!!
ROY HARPER!
ECLECTIC ROCK TASTES: SOME OF THE BEST YOU HAVEN'T HEARD

Tracks:

Highway Blues
All Ireland
Little Lady
Bank of the Dead
South Africa
Lords Prayer: Poem/Modal Song, Pts. 1 to 4/Front Song/Middle S [Medley]

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Stormcock
Flat, Baroque And Berserk
Folkjokeopus
Bullinamingvase
HQ

Customer Reviews:

Not an Album for the Lazy Listener.......2006-04-02

One problem with these reviews is that they're pretty much always written by fans of the music in question. This one's not markedly different - I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Harper enthusiast - but I'll try to be balanced about this album.

Roy Harper has always been uncompromising. His concerts are edgy, often uncomfortable insights into the character of an artist who's never learned to trust his own talent. His songs vary from delicately structured love songs to bruising, anarchic screaming about lobotomies; sometimes they decay into herbally-induced giggling.

I'm not selling this am I?

Lifemask came at a time in Harper's career when he'd been diagnosed as the victim of a rare and terminal lung condition (Thankfully the prognosis proved incorrect and Roy's still firmly with us). As a result this is a strangely introspective album, less accessible than Stormcock, its better-known predecessor. Side one includes tracks written for the film "Made", in which Harper played a rock star. It's a mixed bag, starting with the biting piledriver "Highway Blues" and progressing to the startlingly lyrical "South Africa".

But this is just a curtain-raiser for "The Lord's Prayer", an astonishing magnum opus that manages to encompass the entire human condition in its 25 minute journey. On the way we're treated to some of Harper's most spine-tingling soaring vocals, backed by inspired lead guitar from Jimmy Page. The lyrics are an exceptionally brave approach to the description of Mankind and its uniqueness. For at least 10 minutes, every line begins with "Who" or "Whose": "Whose style is diguise/whose dream is innate/whose woman is soothing/Whose poets know/Whose music is barbarian".

This is not an album to be approached casually. It's not for everyone because it expects you to suspend disbelief and to be ready to work to get to where it leads. But put in the effort and you're rewarded with a work that will never grow stale. I bought it on vinyl more than 30 years ago and it remains a favourite in CD form. In its way, Lifemask equals the heights achieved by Blonde on Blonde or Harper's own Stormcock.

In Roy's own words, "Don't be scared of it, it's just a movie".

Harper's best -a true gem!!!!.......2004-09-27

Hello to you uot there in U.S.A. land, thought i'd tell you about a maste-work you'd otherwise miss!!Roy Harper was/still is ,the quintessential English singer/songwtiter,sadly maligned & misunderstood ,simply because he wouldn't play record company "games" to further his musical career!(Besides which, he once took an awful lot of chemicals-sorry, Roy!)Needless to say ,the Rock cogniscenti, snobs that they are, tended to ignore a lot of his astounding music/songs.However, by the mid 70's, Harper was actually threatening to make it BIG(pAUL mCCARTNEY, Dave Gilmour, Kate Bush Jimmie Page e.t.c. ALL dug his songs & music!!Ipresonally believe i've never yet heard better,more truly astonishing acoustic guitar playing than Mr.Harper performed on his first albums-many might agree!With his 'freak-flag' flying high, rOY Harper wrote some of the most socially-aware & clever lyrics that anyone ever wrote in the late 60's/early 70's!!!!His voice rang gloriously out onto all his early albums "Come out Fighting", "Folkjokeopus", "Sophisticated Beggar"-all these are transient /timeless masterpieces ,and some of the best & cleverest lyric writing you'll ever hear!Marvellous albums!And so we come to "LIFEMASK"....quite simply Mr. Harper rode the storm of true genius here..this is quite possibly his finest work (and THAT'S saying something) "Highway Blues" the opener, is such a tour-de-force acoustic epic, today it still sends shivers up my spine-what a song!......"All I reland"(where he now resides) was and is prophetic to an uncanny degree, of the Irish troubles (& SOLUTION)..."bANK OF THE dEAD" IS MY FAVOURITE CUT-just listen to the studio echo & reverb here, and what a fine acoustic guitar(thanx Jimmie Page), a song he never performed live ,what a shame!Then onto the Harper classic-"South Africa", no-one could hear this most beautiful of songs, and not be moved..Roy,we love you!!!Finally ,& what makes this album so special , is the ULTRA- long The Lord's Prayer"(alternative version!!!)Story goes Harper thought he'd not long to live, this being possibly his final lyrics-well,let me tell you,he went for GOLD..what a lyrical labyrinth song of epic propoprtions, i've never heard anything to touch this masterpiece, and that includes Al Stewart, Bert Jansch John Martyn & everyone inbetween!!Even now 34 or so years on, theis epic song has me spellbound!!!!This is an album to truly treasure.Thanks, Roy!!---Now it's on c.d.--GET!!!!!

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