Monday, December 15, 2014

Sophisticated Beggar
Roy Harper

I'm just a sophisticated beggar living underneath your summer day
Counting all my blessings as I'm counting all the money 
I've accumulated on my way
I don't want your plastic Gods
Tin-pot religions and silly ideas
All I want is your money
I listen to you but I know you have nothing to say
I'm just a sophisticated beggar living underneath your summer day 

I'm an emancipated firework exploding on your busy street
Strumming my guitar as you pass in your car always 
trying to knock me clean off my feet
I don't care if you own the whole world
The stars in the sky
Or a heavenly body
You're wasting your time if it's only that that you're trying to convey
'Cos I'm just a sophisticated beggar living underneath your summer day 

I'm an emaciated hipster drinking dreams and eating consciousness
Standing in the gutter in the middle of a splutter 
hiding horrors underneath my largesse
I'd be hoarse for a million years
Trying to rescue my brain from the flood of my mind
And all that I need, seems to me, to be needless to say
'Cos I'm just a sophisticated beggar living underneath your summer day



Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) said Roy Harper was his primary influence on guitar and songwriting. Jimmy Page and Robert Plant wrote "Hats Off To Harper", a song about him and his impact on them. Roy is still writing songs and touring.
His stuff  (32 albums) is incredible and worth a listen. His effect on many artists can be heard both musically and lyrically. Sophisticated Beggar was written in 1967. I didn't know the word "hipster" was around back then.....


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