A Tramp Shining by Richard Harris recorded on Dunhill Records ,1968, value £50

LISTENING to the music, some songs and singers cause me to wander back to years gone by. This album takes me right back to 1968. The collaboration of actor Richard Harris and songwriter Jimmy Webb of Oklahoma, who wrote all the songs, resulted in a Grammy nominated album, selling over a million copies and spawning the seven-minute symphonic epic MacArthur Park, which as a single sold six million copies worldwide.

Richard Harris won a Golden Globe award for his role as King Arthur in the film Camelot and was looking to further his career as a singer. Jimmy Webb had already achieved great success writing the hit songs Up, Up and Away and By The Time I Get to Phoenix and went on to write a succession of hit songs for Glen Campbell, Art Garfunkel and became one of the most prolific songwriters of the modern age.

The meaning of the lyrics of MacArthur Park have always been a puzzle. The song interpretation is a magnum opus for Susan Horton the love of Jimmy's life, symbolic of the meltdown of their love affair. Jimmy, who was only 21 when he wrote the song, used to have lunch with Susan and often went on walks together in MacArthur Park. He was in the throes of great success as a songwriter; she suggested marriage, he replied that they should wait awhile. She eventually meets someone else and leaves him. One day he goes back remembering their last day together, Susan wearing the yellow cotton dress, feeding the birds, enticing them into her hands, the old men still sitting, playing checkers by the trees. Both together sharing lunch on the grass, including a store bought cake that had green icing, suddenly there was a downpour. They ran to the steps of the office building where she worked, forgetting about the lunchbox, returning only to find the contents of the cake destroyed by the rain, just like his relationship with Susan.

Harris and Webb went on to record another album together, The Yard Went On Forever, recorded later that same year. But despite being another superb album it failed to reach the heights of the first one. Richard Harris, who was widely known for his mercurial temperament, sings these songs with passion, emotion and conviction. A Tramp Shining is simply a stunningly beautiful album.