Bøger af Opher Goodwin

An enigma, Leonard Norman Cohen was possibly the most improbable bohemian intellectual songwriter/singer in music history. He was certainly the working-class hero, the peoples' poet, the suicidal lamenter of doom and the purveyor of popular songs.

Arguably the greatest album by the best rock band ever, The Beatles - also known as The White Album - proved to be a watershed recording.The album's diversity and creation are analysed and its background and dynamics revealed. This extraordinary double album reflects a remarkable time and period. As the sixties came to an end, so too did the band.

This is a memoir of my early Hippie days, back in those sixties, when anything was possible. This is a document of those times, the things that happened, the things we believed in, and the things that were going on. Those were good days. The music was great; the friends were brilliant and there was magic in the air. We really felt that we could change this juggernaut of a society and make the world a better place. We wanted an alternative to the greedy, shallow, warmongering, selfish and incredibly boring life we saw everyone being channelled into. We created an alternative culture. We wanted fun, meaning, purpose, and some way of life that was sustainable in the long term. We wanted colour and closeness, love, sex and communion with the natural world. That's all! Then it burst apart. We were bought off, sold down the river and consumed. Now we live on the scraps and fight a rearguard action against that monstrous vision of the future. PS - I had to remove all the lyrics I illustrated this with. Seemingly they are copyrighted and you get sued! The music used to be shared! Now it's owned!

Looking out through that window, standing beside death, peering at the world outside, it struck me that we were all stranded within the parameters of our own narrow lives - the fashions and attitudes of our youth and old age. We were victims of our times and ourselves. There was no such thing as individuality and freedom. It was an illusion. All life ran its course and ended in scenes like this. We were all trapped within the limitations of our days. Outside that window was another world. There were all manner of things happening. It was a panoply of everything you could imagine - rich and eventful. Life went on. It was only in here that it had stopped. In here everything had changed. All values and endeavours had been rendered meaningless.

I wrote this a long time ago. It is a memoir of my early Hippie days back in the sixties when everything was possible. This is a document of those times, the things that happened, the things we believed in and the things that were going on around us. Those were good days. The music was great, friends were brilliant and there was magic in the air. We really felt we could change this juggernaut of a society and make the world a better place. We wanted an alternative to the greedy, shallow, warmongering, selfish and incredibly boring life we saw everyone being channelled into. We created an alternative culture. We wanted fun, meaning, purpose, and some way of life that was more sustainable in the long term. We wanted colour and closeness, love, sex and communion with the natural world. That's all!! Not much to ask for. Then it burst apart. We were all bought off, sold down the river and consumed. Now we live on the scraps and fight a rearguard action against that monstrous vision of the future. Opher 23.7.2014 PS - I had to remove all the lyrics that I'd illustrated this with. They are copyrighted. You get sued. The music used to be shared! Now it's owned!

The earth had become one huge urban conurbation housing 70 billion people. The planet was decaying into squalor and techno-terrorism as the business men continued to call the shots and buy off the politicians just as they had always done. If it wasn't for the harmo suits, drugs and viddys the population, packed in like battery hens would have already ripped it apart. It was on the brink. A longevity drug - the Malthus juice - had only served to make matters worse. It had created despondency and depression resulting in mass suicide, drug stupor and aggressive rage. As the powers that be desperately searched for a new frontier to expand into they were contacted by an advanced race of aliens, the Graphins, who appeared wise and serene and just might have the solution to the human nightmare that was unfurling on Earth. A mission was hastily organised. The mission met with disaster and the survivors found themselves crashed on a strange alien planet falling back on their own resources to survive. Life on this planet seemed immensely fulfilling and they found themselves regarding their new life as a blissful accident of fate. Then the Graphins contacted them...................

Phil Ochs was the ‿The Prince of Protest‿ in the sixties. The only real rival to Bob Dylan, he was the archetypal Greenwich Village topical songwriter. Whether protesting the Vietnam War or campaigning for civil rights, workers‿ rights and social justice, Phil was always there.

The second in a brand new series taking deep dives into rock classics. One of the most pivotal albums in the evolution of rock music, no other recording has had more impact than the 1965 classic Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home.

This is my fourth book of poems. It is an anthology with poems written in October 2015 as well as some dating back as far as 1970. There is the usual range of topics from environmental rage to religious and political diatribe. My poems nearly always have a fundamental meaning. I rarely write to merely entertain. My work is a continuum. The explanations are as important as the poems. They support each other. I called this one Stanzas and Stances because that is precisely what it is - a collection of poems and words on various issues of crucial importance. I take a position on most issues. I put it in words. That is what I stand for.

This is not your average run through an opinionated list of somebody's favourite albums. This is much more than that. By the time you get to the end of the book you will be in no doubt as to the type of person who has written this and what their views are. This is Opher at his most extreme and outspoken. He's been there at the front through thousands of shows, purchased tens of thousands of albums and listened to more music than seems possible to fit into a single life. He's run courses on Rock Music, written books and been there in the studio with many of the greats. But more important than that is that he has lived the life. He was there living it. You'll find a lot of albums and artists in here that you will never have heard of and they are all brilliant. You'll find out a lot of information about them that you did not know; but more than that you will hear someone who was there telling you why they were so important to him and giving his view on the issues around and in that music. There is a depth, a political and social perspective and a personal involvement. The passion suffuses this like TNT through dynamite. Whether you agree with the choices or not you'll love the journey.

For anybody who cares for nature this book is a must. This is written by somebody who loves animals in the wild and despairs at the degradation of the environment that he has witnessed first-hand in his life-time. You reel at the cruelty and thoughtlessness, the stupidity and crass superstition. You boggle at the numbers of this mad population explosion that is to blame. You can see the panic setting in as we career towards an inevitable human catastrophe. Yet it is not all doom and gloom. The passion rips through your heart and the fury saddens you. But also in there is the ecstasy and love of the wonder that is this planet with its bountiful treasure-trove of nature. We write so that it may not come true. This book is not a mass of scientific facts or boggling information; it is one mans view from the vantage point of a long life of what is happening to this jewel of a planet. It is also a book about hope; hope that we can use our intelligence to put a stop to this pollution and cruelty before it is too late. There are ways we can make it work. They are outlined. The way forward is clear. All that is needed is the will to make it happen. If you care about the planet you should read this. It will change your life. Hopefully it will also change the world for the better!

A book of Poetry on these Toxic Times, the Environment and Politics. A burst of fury in Rhyme. The drumbeat of Rebellion!!

My poetry is my artillery. Occasionally it is an atomic bomb or two. It comes to me out of the blue. I have to write it down quick or it is gone. It does not stick around long. These are my thoughts and feelings in poetry and prose. There's no con. These are my essence.

Sex, death, awe, wonder, fury, birth, life, beauty, politics, religion, anger, nature, love, questions, stories and thoughts are all words. I had to rearrange their meanings. You live your life and then you die. You start a journey that will not end as you expect. From a childhood spent in ditches to a lonesome wait in a ditch. You think you understand. You have relationships with people, animals, possessions and places but you can only guess at the other side. You are aware. You have a moral code you live by. You see how good things could be and, when you wear your Sunday best, you do your bit to make it happen. Your life is measured in seconds but how much of it has significance? You laugh and enjoy. You think and wonder. You create and destroy. Sometimes you are fulfilled and often you are frustrated; most of the time you are simply bored or engaged in the mundane. The things that stand out are oases in a desert of forgotten ordinariness. This is a story of a crash.

This is the story of a fabulous voyage to South America in 2016 on a two hulled icebreaker called the Marco Polo. Amusing tales, beauty, observations, social asides, photography, politics and the wonders of nature - it is all there.... And more. Rio De Janeiro, Buenos Aires, The Falkland Islands, the magic of Magellan's Strait plus a dozen more wondrous destinations. The day of the albatrosses, the boobies, petrels, penguins, skuas and frigate birds; the sea-lions and the whales - all the ingredients of a fabulous voyage.

This is the story of a fabulous voyage to South America in 2016 on a two hulled icebreaker called the Marco Polo. Amusing tales, beauty, observations, social asides, photography, politics and the wonders of nature - it is all there.... And more. Rio De Janeiro, Buenos Aires, The Falkland Islands, the magic of Magellan's Strait plus a dozen more wondrous destinations. The day of the albatrosses, the boobies, petrels, penguins, skuas and frigate birds; the sea-lions and the whales - all the ingredients of a fabulous voyage.

The sixties raged. I was young, crazy, full of hormones and wanting to snatch life by the balls. There was a life out there for the grabbing and it had to be wrestled into submission. There was a society full of boring amoral crap and a life to be had in the face of the boring, comforting vision of slow death on offer. Rock music vented all that passion. This book is a memoir of a life spent immersed in Rock Music. I was born in 1949 and so lived through the whole gamut of Rock. Rock music formed the background to momentous world events - the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War, Iraq war, Watergate, the miners' strike and Thatcher years, CND, the Green Movement, Mao and the Cultural Revolution, Women's Liberation and the Cold War. I see this as the Rock Era. I was immersed in Rock music. It was fused into my personality. It informed me, transformed me and inspired me. My heroes were musicians. I am who I am because of them. Without Rock Music I would not have the same sensibilities, optimism or ideals. They woke me up! This tells that story.

This is a peek into various corners of my attic. The memories are piled up in heaps. Have a rummage through.

This charts the progress of Rock Music from its beginnings in Country Blues, Country& Western, R&B and Gospel through to its Post Punk period of 1980. It tells the tale of each genre and lists all the essential tracks. I was there at the beginning and I'm still there at the front! Keep on Rockin'!!

Emily is the smallest person in her class. She sometimes finds it hard to exist in this big people's world. there are good and bad things about being small. She sometimes finds it frustrating but knows there are some advantages. This is Emily's perspective.

This is the story of what goes on in one man's head; an antinovel in which the mosaic of thoughts, ideas and interactions with friends, colleagues and life build into a picture of a life in crisis. An aging rebel finds himself increasing isolated and craving for a dream that is fading and a promise that never materialised. The compromise of life has created dissatisfaction. He feels split in two with no real identity. He sits at his computer and tries to make sense of the world and his life with its mundaneity, highs and lows. This book is an alternative elegy to a disturbing world.

I started to write this book back in 1971. At the time I thought I was creating something quite revolutionary. I was writing a collage of a story incorporating poems, cartoons, spirituality, biology, physics and philosophy. I eagerly sent it off to publishers who, for some strange reason, just did not get the weird counterculture entity I had produced. I think they were looking for something that conformed to a more standard format - you know - something with real characters in a real life setting and a story. What I had produced was a psychedelic mind storm. They were not interested. I simply put it down to their lack of ability to understand and went on my way. Only with the passing of time, many rewrites, and greater objectivity did I realise that the writing was rubbish and the narrative did not carry the reader. They were right to reject it. So why am I bothering to resurrect it now 46 years later? Well I ask myself that too. But I am attached to it. It was my first foray into writing and I still find it fascinating. It is a mass of all the ideas going through the head of a twenty year old veteran of the sixties scene. It's full of weirdness and naivety. Rewriting it is like communing with the person I used to be forty six years ago. It's like meeting an old friend. It makes me smile. I am addressing the writing but I can't do much about the structure. It's a sixties thing - a hotchpotch. It's like reality on acid. So this is Parts 1 and 2. There will be another volume!

This is my second anthology of poems. I do not claim to be a poet. I have no pretensions in that direction. I just like writing. Sometimes ideas and feelings come out as what I describe as poems and sometimes they come out as my version of novels. For me it is all about communication and playing with words. Words are slippery things, like eels. Their meanings are nuanced. When you put them together they are tinged with other sheen. They wriggle into other forms. A word is amazing. It is a symbol, sometimes for a very tenuous concept, that we are able to use to touch each other with. We assume that each word we select has exactly the same baggage for everyone else. I doubt it does. These are not my words. They are borrowed. The arrangements are mine though. I have organised them to have a flow, a rhythm and to interact with purpose. Perhaps this will be obvious, but perhaps not. Some have humour and some are imbued with fury. I occasionally use my words like ballistic missiles. They deliver a warhead. I hope you appreciate them. I have attached my other words in the form of extensions to illuminate, exaggerate and confuscate. Even confuscation can be good. I write to make a difference - hopefully a positive difference.

A Sci-fi novel set in the future. Elspin is born without a nervous system; a brain with no connection to the world. She is locked within her dreams. She should have withered into nothing but against all the odds she prospered. Politicians and Business-people are at each others throats. The world is in crisis. The Greens are split into factions. Passions are explosive. They find a way of contacting Elspin. What happens when universes clash? Will the world survive?

Human civilisation has miraculously survived for another three hundred years into the future. Technology has blossomed and intergalactic travel is now feasible. This has enabled contact with other races living on planets nearby within the same spiral arm of the Milky Way. Despite all these advances humanity has not learnt much from its mistakes. There are still two blocs with different political ideologies vying for supremacy and threatening to destroy each other. There is still the same power madness, greed and selfish exploitation that has prevented mankind from reaching its potential. The only major stride forward has been the abandonment of primitive superstition. There are no longer religious beliefs to shackle people's minds. The need for rare metals has meant that the asteroid belt has become a major resource to exploit. Itinerant prospectors make a living on this new frontier out on the Rim and occasionally make a killing by discovering an ore-rich asteroid. One such prospector by the name of Hansim Olasson is attacked by a skilled assassin. Another, by the name of Miken Thorsby, discovers a place he would like to call home. A strange alien craft with hugely advanced technology comes into the system from out in the vast intergalactic wastelands. The ship is viewed as a threat and could destabilise the fragile balance of power. What is going on and how will it all pan out?

If you like Rock Music you'll love this! - 195 tributes to Rock Acts of Genius. - Each one a gem of a picture. You'll find out what makes them so brilliant and a lot more besides! This is the writing of a true passionate obsessive. These are Ophers tributes to Rock geniuses - loving pen-pictures to all the great artists and bands that have graced the screens, airways, our ears, vinyl grooves and electronic digits - (well a lot of them anyway). These tributes make you thrill to all the reasons why they were so great. There will be many in here that you are already familiar with and adore but I bet there are also a number that you've never heard of and would love to get to know. Whether you know them or you don't this book will give you a fresh insight from a very different slant that will make you think about them again. I guarantee this will widen your horizons, give you new eyes and make you chuckle and nod your head. These are the 'Greats' - lest we forget.

I was in conversation with a good friend who, like me, is a Rock Music fanatic. We have both been everywhere, seen everyone and have had our lives hugely affected by music. However it is not who you have seen but what you failed to catch that you dwell on. I said to him that it would be brilliant if we had a time machine and were able to go back and see all the major events in Rock history; Robert Johnson play in the tavern in Greenwood, Elmore James in Chicago, Elvis Presley in the small theatres, The Beatles in Hamburg, Stones in Richmond, Doors in the Whiskey, Roy Harper at St Pancras Town Hall................. and a thousand more. Then I realised that I could. I knew it all, had seen much of it first hand, and had the imagination to fill in the gaps. All I needed was a character who worked his way through it, was witness to it, part of it and lived it; someone to tell the story and paint the picture. I invented my 'man with no name' and made a novel out of the History of Rock Music. This is that novel. It starts in Tutwiler Mississippi in 1903 and finishes in Kingston upon Hull in 1980. On this journey you will breathe the air, taste the sweat and join all the major performers as they create the music that rocked the world and changed history.

This book consists of definitions of religious words interpreted by a cynical antitheist. While hilarious it is sacrilegious, offensive and controversial. If you are religious and easily offended then I suggest you steer well clear. If you are not religious (or are of a less sensitive nature to your more serious religious colleagues) then dip in and have a laugh along with me. However, I should warn you; I have serious intent as well. I view religion as a social menace that should be kept clear of children, schools and the State. I believe history has shown religion to be a major source of evil worldwide. I believe it creates war, misogyny, torture, hypocrisy, exploitation, bigotry and hatred. There is little good that ever comes out of it. I hope all religion withers away naturally. Until then I respect your right to believe in whatever brand of superstition you wish - just as long as you do not try to force it on anyone else!

This volume was largely written at the end of 2016 and on into 2017 so it is overshadowed by the scourge of Brexit and Trump. Some of the poems reflect that. For me overpopulation and the wanton destruction of nature are the two compelling drivers. I perceive that we are destroying the planet and it grieves me. I want some sanity and a universal approach to dealing with poverty, overpopulation, environmental degradation and pollution. Something has to happen fast or it will be too late. Both Brexit and Trump seem to me to be quantum leaps backwards in this regard. They represent insular, narrow nationalistic attitudes based on fear and hatred that are the opposite of the ideals I aspire to. We can but hope and go on dreaming.