Opher Goodwin – författare

Arguably the greatest album by the best rock band ever, The Beatles - also known as The White Album – proved to be a watershed recording. This extraordinary double album reflects a remarkable, turbulent time. They were attempting to follow on from the psychedelic masterpiece Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band; manager Brian Epstein had died, long-term relationships were coming to an end, and they had become disillusioned with the Maharishi. The album heralded changes in style and marked the start of the falling apart of the previously tight-knit group. A wildly diverse album, its creation and dynamics are revealed. But as the sixties came to an end, so too did the band. The album also followed on from their first highly criticised TV flop, Magical Mystery Tour, the success of the first global satellite triumph of ‘All You Need Is Love’, and the highly ambitious Apple business venture. George Martin ducked out and conflict broke out between band members. But, among all the pressures and stress, they found time to write and record an incredible array of songs that synergised into a spectacularly successful album with a fascinating story. This is the tale of every track and every facet of this remarkable record.

Opher Goodwin is the author of many books on rock music and science fiction and taught the first History of Rock Music classes in the UK. He was fortunate to spend the sixties in London, the epicentre of the underground explosion of rock music and culture, where he was able to see everyone from Pink Floyd, Hendrix and Cream to The Doors, Captain Beefheart and Roy Harper. He was also fortunate to spend time in the Abbey Road Studios, where the Beatles recorded. He never fully recovered but now lives happily in East Yorkshire, UK.

One of the most pivotal albums in the evolution of rock music, few other recordings have had more impact than the 1965 Bob Dylan classic, Bringing It All Back Home.In the mid-sixties, rock music was about to explode into psychedelia, prog and jazz fusion. Meanwhile, Bob Dylan had made an enormous impact on songwriting with his first four all-acoustic albums. He had created a different way of writing songs, by embracing themes such as civil rights, anti-war protests and social issues, which lifted the subject matter from teenage love songs to serious poetic works of art, rife with symbolism.But with Bringing It All Back Home, Dylan shot his lyrics through with surreal hard-edged beat poetry while the music contained both acoustic songs and blues-based loud electric rock. It alienated him from many of his peers in the folk community but nonetheless contains classic cuts like ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ ‘Maggie’s Farm’ and ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’. Dylan had opened the door to experimentation. The Beatles, The Stones, The Who, The Doors, Hendrix, Pink Floyd and Cream all listened and responded. In its wake, Songwriting rose to new heights with few boundaries.After Bringing It All Back Home, music was forever changed.

Opher Goodwin is the author of many books on rock music and ran the UK''s first ‘History of Rock Music’ courses. Fortunate to spend the sixties in London, where the underground explosion of rock music and culture happened, Opher was in the right place at the right time. He was regularly out at the gigs of Pink Floyd, Hendrix, Cream, Doors, Captain Beefheart, Country Joe and the Fish and many other exciting bands. Among his favourite songwriters are Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Jackson C Frank, Leonard Cohen and Roy Harper. Opher now lives and writes at home in Yorkshire, UK but can still be found at the front of gigs. Where else?

An enigma, Leonard Norman Cohen was possibly the most improbable bohemian intellectual singer/songwriter in music history. He was the working-class hero, the people’s poet, the suicidal lamenter of doom and a purveyor of popular songs. But the truth is even more complex. Throughout his life, there were juxtapositions of the most unlikely life choices and influences. To have fashioned a mishmash of ideas, styles and influences into a successful, long-lasting musical career is nothing short of amazing. He blended secular, mystical, sexual and religious themes into ambiguous poetic tapestries and devised an intricate, unique musical style. He possessed a deep baritone voice that, although mesmerising, was sometimes in danger of sounding monotonous. Leonard was able to fuse these elements into a distinctive amalgam that somehow worked on many levels. He did not look the part, play the game or conform to any rules, but Leonard touched hearts and minds all over the world, while writing some remarkable songs, including ‘Hallelujah’ and ‘Suzanne’. Focusing equally on his popular early albums, the more experimental mid-period and his final, late-career renaissance, this book analyses and interprets every album and every individual song to shed light on the phenomenon of Leonard Cohen.

The AuthorOpher Goodwin is the author of many books on rock music and science fiction and taught the first History of Rock Music classes in the UK. He was fortunate to spend the sixties in London, the epicentre for the underground explosion of rock music and culture, where he was able to see everyone from Pink Floyd, Hendrix and Cream to The Doors, Captain Beefheart and Roy Harper. He now lives happily in East Yorkshire, UK.