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. Phil was the man to take up causes, write songs, play at rallies and even risk his life. His clear voice and sense of melody, linked with his incisive lyrics, created songs of beauty and power. As his career progressed, with lyrics and music becoming more highly poetic and sophisticated, he still never lost sight of his cause.Towards the end of the sixties he joined with the YIPPIES in protest against the Vietnam War. But idealism became Phil's downfall. He was an idealist who could see no point in continuing if he was unable to make the world a better place. Phil lost all hope and descended into depression, which, along with excessive alcohol consumption, led to his suicide in 1976. Shortly before he took his life, Phil asked his brother if he thought anyone would listen to his songs in the future. Well here we are; sixty years later, still listening. The songs of Phil Ochs are every bit as relevant as they ever were and they are making the world a better place!

Arguably the greatest album by the best rock band ever, The Beatles - also known as The White Album - proved to be a watershed recording. Coming as it did, after manager Brian Epstein's death; after the disillusionment with the Maharishi; in the middle of the break-up of long-term relationships, and following on from the psychedelic masterpiece Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, it heralded changes of style and the marked the start of the falling apart of the previously tight-knit group.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. They mirrored the times they lived in. 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 ructions broke out between band members. But, among all the pressures and stress they found time to write and record an incredible array of songs; 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.

In the realm of singer songwriters, few have been as influential as Neil Young, whose music has always been creative and relevant throughout six decades. Neil is a chameleon for whom boundaries of genres do not exist. He has delved into folk, country, r&b, rock 'n' roll, grunge, hard rock, electronic and pop and made them his own. But the sixties were his launch pad. This book follows his music through that seminal period when he played with The Squires, Mynah Birds, Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Crazy Horse and The Stray Gators. During this seminal period, Young wrote or co-wrote some of his greatest songs, including 'I Am A Child', 'Southern Man', 'Helpless' and - most importantly - 'Ohio'.It is the story of how one of the most seminal artists of the last fifty years learned his trade - every band, every twist and turn and every track.

Bob Dylan is the magician who sprinkled poetic fairy dust on to the popular music of the early sixties and his songwriting sparked a revolution and changed rock music forever. The diminutive poet/singer claimed he was merely a 'song and dance man' but Dylan altered popular music from intellectually bereft teenage rebellion into a serious adult art form worthy of academic study. Dylan headed for the sixties as a Little Richard rock 'n' roller but soon turned acoustic folkie and after absorbing the music and words of Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson and Brecht, he became a vagabond social troubadour. Basking in Rimbaud he transformed into a poetic symbolist before later immersing himself in lysergic beat surrealism. The chameleon of Dylan in the sixties was bewildering to his followers. His first album was a raw debut folk/blues. Then followed three acoustic poetic gems, three ground-breaking surreal, electric wonders and four that were more mundane and country-tinged. But by the mid-sixties he was a strung-out polka-dotted rock star. He crashed (physically and mentally) before leaving the sixties as a clean-cut country crooner. Dylan had mutated more times than a trilobite. Dylan's ground-breaking music changed the world and his amazing story is revealed by exploring the eleven albums that he released between 1962 and 1970.

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 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!

Roy Harper must be one of Britain's most undervalued rock musicians and songwriters. For over fifty years he has produced a series of innovative albums of consistently outstanding quality. He puts poetry and social commentary to music in a way that extends the boundaries of rock music. His 22 studio albums 16 live albums, made up of 250 songs, have created a unique body of work. Roy is a musician's musician. He is lauded by the likes of Dave Gilmour, Ian Anderson, Jimmy Page, Pete Townsend, Joanna Newsom, Fleet Foxes and Kate Bush. Who else could boast that he has had Keith Moon, Jimmy Page, Dave Gilmour, John Paul Jones, Ronnie Lane, Chris Spedding, Bill Bruford and Steve Broughton in his backing band? Notable albums include Stormcock, HQ and Bullinamingvase. Opher Goodwin, Roy's friend and a fan, guides the reader through every album and song, providing insight into the recording of the songs as well the times in which they were recorded. As his loyal and often fanatical fans will attest, Roy has produced a series of epic songs and he remains a raging, uncompromising individual.

One of the 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. 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 acoustic albums. He had created a different way of writing songs with themes such as civil rights, anti-war protests and social issues that lifted rock music from teenage love songs to serious poetic works of art full of symbolism. But with Bringing It All Back Home, Dylan shot his lyrics through with surreal hard-edged Beat poetry and charged the music from acoustic to blues-based loud electric rock. It alienated him from many of his peers in the folk community but contains classic cuts like 'Mr Tambourine Man' 'Maggie's Farm' and 'Subterranean Homesick Blues'. Dylan had opened the door on experimentation. The Beatles, Stones, Who, Doors, Hendrix, Pink Floyd and Cream all listened and responded. Songwriting rose to new heights with few boundaries. In the wake of Bringing It All Back Home, music was forever changed.

Captain Beefheart (Don Vliet) was undoubtedly the creator of the most bizarre and wonderful music. A child prodigy sculptor, he applied his artistic approach to music, creating 'aural sculptures'. He befriended Frank Zappa in High School, collaborating on a teenage rock opera and sci-fi/fantasy film entitled Captain Beefheart vs The Grunt People. It was from this film that Don took his name. Of course, a magic character had to have a magic band. The Magic Band started out as a blues band in the mid-sixties but soon, with lysergic propulsion, surreal poetry, free-form jazz, polyrhythms and African beats, they were at the forefront of West Coast Acid Rock. A series of hugely inventive albums, including the infamous Trout Mask Replica, established them as the foremost avant-garde rock band with legendary live performances. The author was there for their first concert at Middle Earth and that night changed his life. Few Bands are as influential. The Beatles, The Fall, PJ Harvey and Tom Waits all pay homage, While The Magic Band have inspired a myriad of tribute bands and created a mythology like no other. This book sets the history of the band in context, analysing every track and interpreting the music with its poetic content. It is essential reading for diehard fans and the Beefheart-curious alike.

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.

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.

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

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.

This is a story in the distant future on an alien planet; a tale of madness, delusion and intrigue. The Earth is dying from overpopulation, pollution and hopelessness. It is running out of energy and time. An expedition to a far off planet, where a strange ultra-magnetic crystal holds the only hope for fusion energy and an escape from a slow lingering death, is the only possibility for salvation. The expedition is the last of many all of which have ended in terror and failure. Yet is everything as it seems? Are there political forces at work? What is the reality? It gets stranger and stranger as it progresses further into the unknown depths of the mind, truth and politics. A mystical adventure into a strange universe.

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.

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?

This is my third compendium of poems. Many of these are my more recent works.

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

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