hq / when an old cricketer leaves the crease

Roy Harper played the rock game with the majestic ring and swell of this progressive folk elegy.   His first three albums were released on three different record labels (Sophisticated Beggar on Strike Records in 1966,   Come Out Fighting Ghengis Smith on Columbia Records in 1968,   Folkjokeopus on Liberty Records in 1969), as his uncompromising modernist folk challenged audiences and record company expectations.   The same year that Harper signed with EMI subsidiary Harvest Records, he was celebrated by Led Zeppelin on their third album with the song  "Hats Off to (Roy) Harper".  His next four albums (Flat Baroque and Berserk  in 1970,  Stormcock in 1971,  Lifemask in 1973,   and  Valentine in 1974) would all be released by Harvest .  As with all of those albums, 'HQ' was recorded at EMI Studios on Abbey Road with producer Peter Jenner during March of 1975 under the working title 'Blood From a Stone'.   The sessions included  Roy Harper on vocals and guitar with his short-lived band Trigger:   Chris Spedding on guitar;  Bill Bruford on drums;  and  Dave Cochran on bass.  "The Game" featured David Gilmour on guitar, John Paul Jones on bass, and Steve Broughton on drums,   The Grimethorpe Colliery Band played brass on "When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease", which was the title of the album in the US.    That same year, Harper sang lead vocals on the song "Have a Cigar" from Pink Floyd's 'Wish You Were Here' album.  


Harper harkens back:    "HQ is to date my most integral 'rock' record. The songs on the record are less acoustically oriented than on any of my other albums. However this is not to say that any of the songs couldn't have been recorded playing just an acoustic guitar. The combination of Chris Spedding, Bill Bruford, Dave Cochrane and myself was a band I should have kept together, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. Dave Gilmour, John Paul Jones and Steve Broughton were the band that played together at a Hyde Park Free Concert and then recorded the backing track for 'The Game'.   The highlights of the record are one, Chris Spedding's guitar solo on 'The Game,' which was a first take and is a wonderful piece of spontaneous Rock and Roll. He played it on a tiny amp in the middle of the empty aircraft hanger sized Studio 1, at Abbey Road, a studio built for a 100 piece orchestra and opera cast. He was dressed in a white suit with a red carnation and was in and out of the studio within 20 minutes! And two, the great lift that the Grimethorpe Colliery (brass) Band gave to the David Bedford arrangement of 'When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease.' It was recorded in the same studio and there were about 50 musicians in the studio that day.    My childhood memories of the heroic stature of the footballers and cricketers of the day invoke the sounds that went along with them. Paramount among these was the traditional Northern English brass band, which was a functional social component through all four seasons, being seen and heard in many different contexts. My use of that style of music on 'Old Cricketer' is a tribute to those distant memories. Finally, not least among the highlights is the third verse of the lyric of 'The Spirit Lives.' A poem of mine that I really enjoy. I always look back on HQ as a great album made at one of the best times of my life."







http://www.royharper.co.uk/











"When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJCqECUmx44



When the day is done and the ball has spun in the umpires pocket away
And all remains in the groundsman's pains for the rest of time and a day
There'll be one mad dog and his master, pushing for four with the spin
On a dusty pitch with two pounds six of willow wood in the sun.

When an old cricketer leaves the crease, you never know whether he's gone
If sometimes you're catching a fleeting glimpse of a twelfth man at silly Mid-on
And it could be Geoff and it could be John with a new ball sting in his tail
And it could be me and it could be thee and it could be the sting in the ale, sting in the ale.

When an old cricketer leaves the crease, well you never know whether he's gone
If sometimes you're catching a fleeting glimpse of a twelfth man at silly Mid-on
And it could be Geoff and it could be John with a new ball sting in his tail
And it could be me and it could be thee and it could be the sting in the ale, sting in the ale.

When the moment comes and the gathering stands and the clock turns back to reflect
On the years of grace as those footsteps trace for the last time out of the act
Well this way of life's recollection, the hallowed strip in the haze
The fabled men and the noonday sun are much more than just yarns of their days.

When an old cricketer leaves the crease, well you never know whether he's gone
If sometimes you're catching a fleeting glimpse of a twelfth man at silly Mid-on
And it could be Geoff and it could be John with a new ball sting in his tail
And it could be me and it could be thee and it could be the sting in the ale, the sting in the ale.

When an old cricketer leaves the crease, well you never know whether he's gone
If sometimes you're catching a fleeting glimpse of a twelfth man at silly Mid-on
And it could be Geoff and it could be John with a new ball sting in his tail
And it could be me and it could be thee.




'HQ'
full album:




All tracks credited to Roy Harper

Side one
"The Game (Parts 1–5)" – 13:42
"The Spirit Lives" – 4:14
"Grown Ups Are Just Silly Children" – 2:55
Side two
"Referendum (Legend)" – 3:49
"Forget Me Not" – 2:24
"Hallucinating Light" – 6:24
"When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease" – 7:13
bonus tracks
"The Spirit Lives" (Early Mix, 23 March 1975)
"When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease" (Live in Exeter, 31 October 1977)
"Hallucinating Light" (7" Single version)