The English folk rock singer, songwriter and guitarist Roy Harper (born on June 12, 1941) has released 32 albums during a career that has lasted over 50 years. His 7th album Valentine, released in 1974 with Harvest Records, contains 10 tracks, starting with the song “Forbidden Fruit” that tells of a love affair with a 13 years old girl.

Here is a YouTube video of the song:

I give below the lyrics from Genius and LyricsWorld:

Forbidden Fruit
words & music by Roy Harper

Baby, won’t you play with me ?
Games that no one else can see ?
Leanin’ over out my window
Flashing me a mini flower show

Steal away from mummy, oh there’s my little girl
On the pillow of my tummy give my hair a curl
Run your fingers under and over, make us a little pool
And don’t forget about tomorrow in the same place after school

Baby, make me calm your fears
Let me hold your thirteen years
In between the silky, love me
Race my heart and let my tongue rest

Oh baby I can feel you, see my thunderburst
Melting us together in the plains of magic thirst
We can be forever and ever, watching the water fall
Floating in the lake of all peace after love and after all

We can be forever and ever, watching the water fall
Floating in the lake of all peace after love and after all

As one can notice by reading the comments to the YouTube video, such lyrics, which could be freely expressed in the early 1970’s, have become scandalous in the contemporary ageist and puritanical UK/US culture.

In November 2013, during the hysteria fuelled by the Saville affair, Roy Harper was charged with seven counts of alleged “historic child sexual abuse” against two separate under-age females. After a two-week trial in early 2015, he was unanimously acquitted by a jury of two of the charges with no verdicts on the remaining five, then in November 2015, following a review by the Director of Public Prosecutions, the remaining charges were dropped.