Has there been a thread about John Martyn?

homie is awes

We used to drink a great deal together. I got really drunk one night and woke up and Danny Thompson had nailed me under the carpet. I couldn’t move my hands or feet. I was very dry and had a hangover and I said Danny, please… get me, get me a drink. So he stepped over my helpless body, went to the phone and in a very loud voice said, can I have a glass of orange juice for one, please. Breakfast for one, please. I was screaming blue murder by this time. I was furious! He met the guy in the hall, so the guy couldn’t get into the room and see what was happening. He sat in front and downed the orange juice and had the breakfast.

This makes Kossoff cry like a girl, at which point Martyn and Thompson stalk off, laughing like people who are mad.

Amazon.co.uk are currently flogging a few of the reissues for £2.98. Am hugely enjoying Inside Out. Are Grace and Danger or London Conversation vital purchases? (They've also got Sunday's Child and One World at that price at the mo).

(maybe we should have a thread for cheap stuff on Amazon?)

London Conv is pretty much yr standard 'folk singer's first album' stuff.

I guessed it was and passed on it (got The Payback instead).

Yeah lots of these John Martyn CDs are three quid in Glasgow Fopp at the moment - they also have all of Sandy Denny's solo recs, cpl of Richard and Linda Thompsons and some Fairport stuff at the same price

I got Unhalfbricking, just cause it was £3.

Man! That 'sailor's story' sounds like Tom Verlaine guitaring!

yeah, verlaine's gtr sound = 50% jerry garcia, 50% richard thompson - the version of 'Sloth' on the Fairport Convention live at the LA Troubadour set is especially Television-like, tho' Sailor's LIFE always sounds to me more like FT trying to be the Velvet Underground

Talking of guitaring, there's an amazing similarity between the bonus track version of 'Outside In' and the Edge on 'Where The Streets Have No Name'.

tho' Sailor's LIFE always sounds to me more like FT trying to be the Velvet Underground

Yes, that occurred to me too.

(Who's FT btw?)

Have been listening to "Go Easy" on repeat for a while now -- yeesh what a great song! The rest of Bless The Weather is great too, but that one is doing it for me right now. Woozy, wasted self absorption never sounded so good.

http://www.johnmartyn.com/files/images/mojoo.jpg

let's balance out all these fat old John pics with an skinny young one.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Z6nbGySgL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

John's just received his second lifetime achievement award of this year (from Mojo - he got one from BBC Radio 2 in Feb). This does not bode well I fear.

A friend recently lent me the 'Live At Leeds (And More)' album and I finally got round to listening to it last night.

The Live In Leeds set itself, recorded October 1975, and self-released as a LP at the time, is absolutely amazing. Really powerful, rocking, freely extended versions of the tracks. Solid Air on there is wonderful.

The CD set has a second disc of other live stuff from over the years and is pretty patchy to my ears. Too much later stuff that was far too saccharine and sentimental, m.o.r. pish, BUT it ends with an incredible version of a track 'Anna', performed in 1983 at the Bottom Line club in NY.

Anyone know this one? A bit of reading about says that "Anna" was from a movie soundtrack and was an evolution of the track "Small Hours" from 'One World'.

I've only ever heard 'Solid Air' before, which I've fallen in love with over the course of this year. Nothing else I've sampled has clicked yet, but I'm going to explore a few others now.

http://www.johnmartyn.info/?q=node/92

This story needs reposting, especially for the "no matter how drunk JMartyn was, he still could work out what was going on" air.

xp , If you like Solid Air then Bless The Weather is probably the next thing to try.

Mark G, that's incredible! Thank you for the link.

Thanks passed on to caek (link was above)

Ah, I see it now. Thanks caek.

in the end, kind of a depressing thread...

the drum machines added to "dancing" on one other world make it sound like it just came out today. pretty amazing

One World is the missing link between Spirit of Eden, World Of Echo, and Heart Of The Congoes. I can't believe I am only hearing this record now.

aye, its a great record. allmusic gave it 3 stars!!

3 out of 3 right?

Those mid-period Martyn Records are really great--that echoplex!

One World is the missing link between Spirit of Eden, World Of Echo, and Heart Of The Congoes. I can't believe I am only hearing this record now.

That's some playlist you're pointing to there.

They all have to be on Spotify right?

the drum machines added to "dancing" on /one other world/ make it sound like it just came out today. pretty amazing

I prefer One World by a pretty big margin to Solid Air -- the watery dubbiness of "Big Muff" and "Smiling Strangers," the grit of "Dealer," his gruff vocals, Steve Winwood's taut Minimoog solos...there's a lot to love about this album.

"Small Hours" is transcendent, shimmering peace.

"I prefer One World by a pretty big margin to Solid Air"

Bless The Weather is better than both imo

Ranking them is tough. But for now I'd go (1) One World, (2) Grace & Danger, (3) Solid Air and (4) Bless The Weather. Love the man!

Been pretty obsessed with Martyn this year. I don't think the drum machine on One World sounds contemporary though, but that's what i love about it. It's got that primitive feel, like on There's A Riot Goin' On

Also, pretty sure drum machine isn't on Dancing -- it is on Dealer tho.

The drum machine is added to "Dancing" on the outtake/bootleg (yet avail. on iTunes) set Another World.

I'm a sucker for his, er, dance-y late-'70s/early-'80s songs, like that track and "Running Up The Harbour" from the Grace And Danger deluxe set.

I think it's on the deluxe remaster too

"Didn't Do That" on Glorious Fool is a great twitchy number. But we are a long way from One World.

The drum machine is added to "Dancing" on the outtake/bootleg (yet avail. on iTunes) set Another World.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTje94as2w4

Jesus Christ

Bless Spotify

John Martyn, I did not know you until now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3QKwMzJZSI

^^^ fave john martyn song of the moment. so great.

when i got to talking to michael chapman last year he mentioned in passing that john martyn was the only person he'd ever kicked out of his house.
i would like to hear the rest of that story someday.

I'd be interested to hear Nick McCabe on John Martyn's new record too; pretty like minded people I figure.

― Keith Watson (kmw), Monday, May 10, 2004 10:05 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I always heard echoes of Richard Thompson in the guitar on the early Verve records. But I guess it was Nick drake not John Martyn that had his accompaniment, RT's that is.

yeah, verlaine's gtr sound = 50% jerry garcia, 50% richard thompson - the version of 'Sloth' on the Fairport Convention live at the LA Troubadour set is especially Television-like, tho' Sailor's LIFE always sounds to me more like FT trying to be the Velvet Underground

― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, June 25, 2008 1:12 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I was really reminded of Verlaine at least by the guitar you can now hear under bits of North Star Grassman & The ravens the Sandy Denny lp.

the guitar on dancing is just so ~sparkly~.

durutti-esque even

I saw him just before he died doing a "Solid Air in full" thing at the Roundhouse in London. He was carried on stage and launched apathetically into about 45 minutes of corporate blues-rock w/rock-gargling vocals. I recognised one song - Dealer - but the rest was 80s/90s stuff I think. Occasional gruff barking. He then said "Well I suppose we'd better get on with the business of the evening" and delivered the aforementioned sweetest, most delicate “Over the Hill” vocal you can imagine. Entire crowd singing along. Then the rest of the album (out of order, so as not to keep changing guitars) brilliantly, then another half hour of blues/rock crud. A memorable event.

JM invents Doom, did he often crank it up like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE6i_qnoAgo

ooft amazing version

Beautiful, thanks

Yeah, I've been wondering why that version isn't on the expanded One World!

xp Good lord that live "One World" is amazing. He used a similar doom fuzz effect on "Root Love" from Sunday's Child (imo his most underrated album, would be my favorite if not for One World)

I feel like I may have posted that “One World” performance two or three times on this thread already. Not that I’m complaining.

I saw him just before he died doing a "Solid Air in full" thing at the Roundhouse in London. He was carried on stage and launched apathetically into about 45 minutes of corporate blues-rock w/rock-gargling vocals. I recognised one song - Dealer - but the rest was 80s/90s stuff I think. Occasional gruff barking. He then said "Well I suppose we'd better get on with the business of the evening" and delivered the aforementioned sweetest, most delicate “Over the Hill” vocal you can imagine. Entire crowd singing along. Then the rest of the album (out of order, so as not to keep changing guitars) brilliantly, then another half hour of blues/rock crud. A memorable event.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLf0YsnDuS4

highly recommend everyone listen to the studio recording of "outside in" first and then jump around 6:30 into that video

The part at 45mins where the string breaks while tuning up for Solid Air, and the improvised comedy banter with the audience while he restrings the guitar is priceless.

message on video says playback on other websites has been disabled.
Not sure how best way to send link in that circumstance but presumably have to watch on youtube directly?
youtu.be/bLf0YsnDuS4

There's literally a link in that message saying "watch on YouTube", just click that

hey stevo, in ilx preferences there's a checkbox that says, "Show Images (and other embedded media, like videos and Tweets)." i keep that box unchecked to workaround stuff like this; it simply displays a direct youtube link on bacon's above post.

(it also cuts down significantly on thread load times and makes for fun mystery links that only carry a description and a reader's context, also like bacon's above post🙂👍🏻)

good link, btw. will dig in later, but wanted to say that his stage banter is definitely alltime. you know how eddie harris released basically an album of banter outtakes? john martyn could have easily done a double lp in the same vein.

See also Robert Pollard... I think he released two of them.

I'm reading Electric Eden, which is great, but possibly the best part is it tipped me to the greatness of this guy. All I've listened to is the The Road to Ruin and Solid Air and only 1-2 times each, but I can tell already I will be listening to these albums for the rest of my life.

How does Auntie Aviator manage to be so laidback and epic at the same time? Love it.

The part at 45mins where the string breaks while tuning up for Solid Air, and the improvised comedy banter with the audience while he restrings the guitar is priceless.

I'm glad I followed up on that. And a few minutes later there's this lovely and laugh-out-loud funny song called Seven Black Roses -- great spoken intro, ridiculous performance.

Thanks for the bump PBKR, been meaning to try some Martyn for ages.

re improvised comedy banter - there was quite a crossover between the UK folk and stand-up comedy scenes in the 70s, Billy Connolly being the most famous example. I think this developed from the need to fill in while retuning (or in this case restringing) guitars between numbers.