Come Out Fighting Ghengis Smith

"Come Out Fighting Ghengis Smith" is English folk / rock singer-songwriter and guitarist Roy Harper's second album and was released in 1968 on the Science Friction label..
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", "a soundscape of Harper's difficult youth" and "totally unlike anything anyone else was doing.
Careerwise, the album was notable for marking a widening of Harper's musical style away from the more traditional side of contemporary folk music heard at the time. 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.
The album was re-issued in 1977 (with a different cover) entitled The Early Years, and again in 1991 with additional content.