Come Out Fighting Ghengis Smith

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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). [4]

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"". [3] Bert Jansch contributed sleeve notes for the album. The first song on the album is called "Freak Street" on the back cover of the Science Friction CD but is given as "Freak Sweet" in the liner notes; elsewhere it is referred to as "Freak Suite". During this period, Harper was managed by American music entrepreneur Jo Lustig; manager of The Pentangle and former agent to Julie Felix.

Single

The same sessions produced a non-album single (CBS 3371 [5] ), "Life Goes By", with "You Don't Need Money" on the B-side. The A-side, also produced by Talmy and orchestrated by Mansfield, [5] has never been reissued.

Re-releases

In 1977, the album was re-issued by CBS with different cover art under the title The Early Years. In 1991, the album was re-released again by Awareness Records with new artwork and additional content. The 2017 remastered album removed those 1991 bonus tracks, reverting to the original 1968 tracklist.

The track "You Don't Need Money" appeared on the first bargain priced sampler album, The Rock Machine Turns You On , as "Nobody's Got Any Money In The Summer".

Track listing

All tracks are written by Roy Harper.

Come Out Fighting Ghengis Smith
Come Out Fighting Ghengis Smith album cover.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedJanuary 1968
RecordedEngland
Genre Folk rock, progressive folk, folk baroque
Length45:40
Label CBS BPG 63184
Awareness AWCD 1035
Science Friction HUCD006
Science Friction SFLP004
Producer Shel Talmy
Roy Harper chronology
Sophisticated Beggar
(1966)
Come Out Fighting Ghengis Smith
(1968)
Folkjokeopus
(1969)
Alternative Cover
The Early Years Album Cover.png
1977 Reissue cover
Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Freak Street"3:06
2."You Don't Need Money"2:27
3."Ageing Raver"4:11
4."In a Beautiful Rambling Mess"2:51
5."All You Need Is"5:49
6."What You Have"5:16
Side two
No.TitleLength
7."Circle"10:40
8."Highgate Cemetery"2:22
9."Come Out Fighting Ghengis Smith"8:58
1991 CD reissue bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
10."Zaney Janey" (from the US release of Folkjokeopus )3:31
11."Ballad of Songwriter" (from the US release of Folkjokeopus )3:10
12."Midspring Dithering" (A-side from the 1967 single)2:49
13."Zengem" (A-side from the 1967 single)1:37
14."It's Tomorrow And Today Is Yesterday" (John Peel — BBC Radio Show 1970)4:11
15."Francesca" (recorded for "Top Gear" at the BBC, 3 June 1969)1:32
16."She's the One" (recorded "Top Gear" at the BBC, 3 June 1969)4:45

Personnel

Technical

References

  1. Melody Maker. United Kingdom: IPC Media. 20 January 1968 https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Melody-Maker/60s/68/Melody-Maker-1968-0120.pdf . Retrieved 17 September 2024.{{cite magazine}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. "2017 Shel Talmy Interview". Record Collector Magazine. April 2017. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  3. 1 2 "2011 Roy Harper Interview". Uncut.co.uk. July 2011. Archived from the original on 2 December 2013. Retrieved 24 November 2013.
  4. 2008 Roy Harper interview. Popmatters.com. Retrieved on 9 December 2011.
  5. 1 2 Life Goes By on YouTube