Bøger af Opher Goodwin

There are a range of poems here that date from the 1970s right up to yesterday. I write poems if I have something inside yearning to be expressed. I can encapsulate it into a succinct form as a poem. The writing that goes with the poems are every bit as important to me as the poem itself. My poems are explosions of passion.

This tells the story of how Opher Goodwin was selected by aliens to save the world. The visitors from afar had scoured the universe in search of life and intelligence. They found it on a planet called Earth, where, unfortunately, the dominant life form was trying it's best to wipe itself - and everything else - out. The aliens set about selecting a saviour and installing him as Global President. They chose the unlikely hero Opher Goodwin. Opher and his friends from the pub had all of the immense problems of the world on their shoulders plus the vicious opposition of the existing establishment. Against such odds - could they possibly succeed? What was it that made Opher the chosen one?

More anecdotes from the sixties, childhood, college, sex, drugs and Rock 'n' Roll. In the mix are beliefs, diatribes and the usual doses of Roy Harper, Jimi Hendrix, Rock Music and the Blues. There are tales of strange happenings, mechanical prowess, my family and disasters. If you enjoyed volume one then this is more of the same. This is Opher revealed, up close and personal.

This is the ultimate sixties book - an 'On the Road' for the British Underground with all its sex, drugs, dreams and music; those times of crazy people high on life and mad for experience - when anything was possible. It captures that idealistic naïve impossibility permeated with vitality and careering love and dreams, the wild rush for adventure without a thought for the future because it was going to last forever. - Seemingly forever changes! It spans continents as it trips its way through time, space and mind in a mad rush to discover life and experience or die trying. Now was all there was and it had to burn, burn, burn or it was dead. In the days of dope and poetry, where the world was ripe for changing, there was a mystical buzz of unity. In the shadow of an establishment that stood for war, prejudice, work, isolation and the rat-race with all it's status seeking power games, racism and slow death signified by getting the lines straight on your lawn, Jack's cackling laughter and bright eyes, death-defying madness and care-free attitude showed there was an alternative. Maybe dope was never enough and when we grow up it is time to put aside childish things where they are confined to our dreams and memories. But somewhere out there Jack still lives where it is real. We did change the world!

This is my seventh book of poetry. Poetry for me is a vehicle to explore and distil my thoughts, attitudes and feelings. These books are not by any means confined to my poems. Each poem is combined with a section of prose. It is intended to illustrate the issues and expose my inner thoughts. The poems included cover a range of subject matter. They range through nature, love, war, religion and social comment. They express my feelings of anger, despair, tenderness as well as love and war. Life is a wonder. A life unexamined is a life unlived. To be involved is to be alive. As I sit here in my room in Yorkshire I reflect on the state of the planet and the nature of human beings. It is not always a pleasant experience but it is something that I feel needs to be dissected and understood. Thought provoking, mind expanding and personal. We have one life - it's all down to what we do with it.

This is my third compendium of poems. Many of these are my more recent works.

This is a story in the distant future on an alien planet; a tale of madness, delusion and intrigue. The Earth is dying from overpopulation, pollution and hopelessness. It is running out of energy and time. An expedition to a far off planet, where a strange ultra-magnetic crystal holds the only hope for fusion energy and an escape from a slow lingering death, is the only possibility for salvation. The expedition is the last of many all of which have ended in terror and failure. Yet is everything as it seems? Are there political forces at work? What is the reality? It gets stranger and stranger as it progresses further into the unknown depths of the mind, truth and politics. A mystical adventure into a strange universe.

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. 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.