"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. "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. false 2022-09-13 08:19:18 Come Out Fighting Ghengis Smith 1991 1991-01-01 1991-01-01 67 Folk Rock Progressive Folk Psychedelic Folk Rock Singer-Songwriter 127893 2201543 84e7c2db-0f5e-45ae-b7e4-efe8e13519fb 8fc0c1d2-9be0-464f-98ee-ae7ae5b0086b d2527837-c1e9-3a9c-aa4a-7437f6a74c5b /media/data/media4/Music/Roy Harper/Come Out Fighting Ghengis Smith (1968)/folder.jpg Roy Harper AlbumArtist Roy Harper Artist Roy Harper Roy Harper 1 Freak Street 03:05 2 You Don’t Need Money 02:27 3 Ageing Raver 04:10 4 In a Beautiful Rambling Mess 02:50 5 All You Need Is 05:48 6 What You Have 05:16 7 Circle 10:40 8 Highgate Cemetary 02:21 9 Come Out Fighting Ghengis Smith 08:58 10 Zaney Janey 03:31 11 Ballad of Songwriter 03:09 12 Midspring Dithering 02:49 13 Zenjem 01:36 14 It's Tomorrow and Today Is Yesterday 04:11 15 Francesca 01:31 16 She's the One 04:45 Roy Harper (born 12 June 1941) is an English folk rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He has released 22 studio albums (and 10 live ones) across a career that stretches back to 1966. As a musician, Harper is known for his distinctive fingerstyle playing and lengthy, lyrical, complex compositions, reflecting his love of jazz and the poet John Keats. He was the lead vocalist on Pink Floyd’s “Have a Cigar.” Harper's influence has been acknowledged by Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Pete Townshend, Kate Bush, Pink Floyd, and Ian Anderson, of Jethro Tull, who said Harper was his "primary influence as an acoustic guitarist and songwriter." Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph described him as "one of Britain's most complex and eloquent lyricists and genuinely original songwriters... much admired by his peers". Across the Atlantic, his influence has been acknowledged by Seattle-based acoustic band Fleet Foxes, American musician and producer Jonathan Wilson, and Californian harpist Joanna Newsom, with whom he has also toured. In 2005, Harper was awarded the MOJO Hero Award, and in 2013 a Lifetime Achievement Award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. His most recent album, Man and Myth, was released in 2013. In 2016, Harper celebrated his 75th birthday by performing concerts in Clonakilty, Birmingham, Manchester, London, and Edinburgh.