Whatever Happened to Jugula?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Whatever Happened to Jugula? is a 1985 album by Roy Harper and Jimmy Page.

Professional reviews
Whatever Happened to Jugula?

Studio album by Roy Harper
Released	1985
Recorded	Clapham, Hereford, Berkshire, Mamaraneck, West Cork and at Boilerhouse Studios, Lytham
Genre	Rock (Album notes to "File Under Science Fiction")
Length	45:25
Label	Beggars Banquet BEGA60 (Original UK Release) (EMI EMC 276, NZ / HMV Victor VIL6177, JAP / PVC PVC 8937, USA) Science Friction HUCD032 (Current release)
Producer(s)	Roy Harper
All Music Guide link
Roy Harper chronology
Born in Captivity (1984)	Whatever Happened to Jugula? (1985)	In Between Every Line (1986)

1 History
2 Miscellanea
- 2.1 "Hope"
3 Track listing
4 Singles
5 Personnel
6 References
7 External links

[edit] History

Jimmy Page (left), Roy Harper (Right) Source:http://www.mistlethrush.co.uk/stormcock/tracks2.htm

Roy Harper and a large Rizla

With a working title of Rizla due to the albums cover art (an unravelled orange Rizla pack), Jugula, as this album is often called, was released on the Beggars Banquet label and reached the UK Top 20. The album contains a number of well crafted, original songs written by Harper. It is recorded in a fresh and spontaneous manner, often with only the unique and beautiful sound of Ovation guitars and vocals. Occasionally, the spacious arrangements are filled with synthesizer and electric guitar.

This album in particular brought Harper to a new and wider audience, mainly due to Harper and Jimmy Pages appearances at the Cambridge Folk Festival in 1984, an album tour and a 15 minute, televised interview by Mark Ellen on the Old Grey Whistle Test (16th November 1984). The interview featured Harper and Page playing their acoustic guitars on the side of Scafell Pike, Cumbria in the UK's Lake District, a somewhat different and unusual interview for the time. Songs played included "Hangman" and part of "The Same Old Rock". ^[1]

The first track, "Nineteen Forty-Eightish", a reference to George Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four, crescendos with a fine piece of lead guitar by Page. This album was the fifth that Harper and Page had worked on, but the first entire record they made together ^[2]. For those used to Page's guitar playing, his input is quite evident throughout the album. Page is a natural and perfect compliment to Harper's deft, fresh and unique guitar playing. Other standout tracks include "Hangman", a powerful song that expresses the feelings of an innocent man condemned to die and "Frozen Moment", a particularly beautiful song played entirely in the chord of C.

[edit] Miscellanea

The title for 'Jugula' came from playing Trivial Pursuit, in order to explain to everyone how they should go about answering the questions as straight and honestly as possible I'd say, "Go for the jugula". It was going to be 'Harper & Page' for a while, but that's like selling Jimmy's name, then it went to '1214' which is the year that the Magna Carta was signed... but that was a bit esoteric. So one day we were talking and "jugula" came up, so I phoned the artist and they'd designed up to the 'Whatever happened to...' bit so I said leave it there and put Jugula at the end. ^[3]

[edit] "Hope"

Dave Gilmour wrote the music for the third track, "Hope" ^[4], Harper penned the lyrics, and Nick Harper (Harper's 16 year old son at the time), played the lead guitar on this track (not Gilmour as is often mistakenly stated). A faster tempo version of this melody with different lyrics, appears on the White City: A Novel album by Pete Townshend, entitled "White City Fighting".

A cover version of "Hope", with "Bad Speech" as an introduction, can be found on the album Eternity ^[5] by the Liverpudlian band Anathema, an album that Harper also makes an appearance on.

[edit] Track listing

"Nineteen Forty-Eightish" - 9:45
"Bad Speech" - 1:17
"Hope" - 4:31
"Hangman" - 7:09
"Elizabeth" - 6:39
"Frozen Moment" - 3:18
"Twentieth Century Man" - 4:27
"Advertisement (Another Intentional Irrelevant Suicide)" - 8:19

[edit] Singles

Source:http://www.iki.fi/musicnaut/royharper/discography/singles.html

"Elizabeth" was released as a 12" single and again, an unravelled Rizla package appeared on the record cover, this time in green. The 12" was released on the Beggars Banquet label BEG 131T, 1985.