Roy Harper

Roy Harper built a reputation in the British folk scene of the 1960s as an uncompromising, often difficult figure — his songs ran long, resisted commercial packaging, and drew as much from beat poetry and philosophy as from any folk tradition. Led Zeppelin's "Hats Off to (Roy) Harper," a tribute track, gave him a level of rock-world recognition that his own record sales never quite matched.

Stormcock (1971), four extended songs with orchestral arrangements by David Bedford, is generally regarded as his most fully realized work, and its combination of acoustic guitar, ambitious structure, and unhurried pacing has made it a specific touchstone for later artists drawn to long-form, arrangement-heavy folk songwriting — a lineage that runs directly to some of the more expansive singer-songwriters of the 2000s.