RFI : John Martyn

Last time I saw him was at Burnley Mechanics about 5 years ago, he was off his nut, stoned as a kipper and was veh good indeed.

But I never heard about this accident.

I remember an older late 70s compilation (So Far So Good?) that had a lot of good early stuff on it. His 80s stuff is generally not as good, although, yeah, One World has some gorgeous moments.

Has anyone heard his cover of Portishead's "Glory Box"? Is it any good? I just can't envisage(?) it in my mind's ear.

His live shows in recent years have been notoriously erratic - my "uncle" saw him numerous times and said almost everyone was a dud.

On an unrelated note, an old friend of mine claimed his dad used to work alongside him before he became a musician, My friend's dad was a coffin maker. I'm not sure if Martyn was in the same line.

I just listened to One World since this thread started. I hadn't heard it in years. It's amazing. Everyone ignored it 'cos of punk (probably, it was 1977, after all), but it's an overlooked 70s gem. "Small Hours" is all ambient and heartbreaking. Who knew?

(x-post, yes, definitely, John and Beverley. There's also an instrumental he wrote for his ex-wife -- then his wife -- simply called "Beverley" I think, and it's gorgeous).

earlier records are more straight acoustic folk but nice.

i saw him solo circa 77 and he stretched out the spacy stuff to completely fck with my teenage head. i had a tape of the performance i played over and over.

-- David A. (merdaco...) (webmail), July 24th, 2003. (link)

They were talking about this on "Doc Martin"! The usually 'duh!' going receptionist was in raptures talking about John Martyn and the Glory Box cover to a lad.

Somewhat unexpected. bit like Greengrass raving over Syd Barrett to the sergeant..

"May you never lay your head down without a hand to hold...."

Damn it this song is gorgeous.

Amongst all the different Martyn compilations there's this 1986-1996 collection, Hidden Years, I'm grown curious about - anyone know whether that's a good comp (of that period)?

bump cause i finally picked up one of his albums--solid air and damn it is a hell of an album. just totally gorgeous stuff, this guy was doing like proto-smooth music with great musicianship and emotional honesty.

the other jm threads give me a good idea of where to go next for his stuff, but what about stuff that has a similar tone--specifically 70s, moody, jazzy, genre-crossing sensitive guy stuff? not folk, more the electric small ensemble type stuff.

yeah, solid air is undeniable -- the Live At Leeds record is killer too. anyone gotten the double disc reissue of Solid Air? Tempted to shell out for it.

as for "specifically 70s, moody, jazzy, genre-crossing sensitive" -- not a guy, but Joni Mitchell's jazzier stuff might fit the bill

Yeah, the super-obv. things are Joni, Tim Buckley, Van Morrison maybe, Robert Wyatt...

Maybe something like Bill Fay might work? Would suggest Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow. Maybe a bit light on obvious 'jazzy' bits, lots of great exploratory guitar playing by Gary Smith though.

hmm yeah joni and tim buckley might be good calls; i've listened to van's stuff from this era and can't really get into it. love wyatt. never heard of bill fay but i'll check him out.

He's kind of an odd figure lurking on the edge of all the singer-songwriter stuff of the era. Some of it's fairly conventional sound-wise, but you always get a very real sense of a strong, deeply-felt personal vision driving him on.

someone posted a live clip of John Martyn on another thread playing a song from One World, do all his albums have the same spazzed out beach hippy vibe?

the earlier the better for the beachy, hippy vibe. later he gets more into spazzy, coked out smooth yacht vibe. all good to me tbh.

i've only heard a few.
start with Solid Air. best collection of songs and floating rhoades sound.
Inside Out is his most jazzy, out, free beachy album. similar to tim buckley's weirder albums
Sunday's Child is folky, but has the amazing, heavy "Root Love"
One World was recorded in jamaica. one track w/lee perry
Sapphire is super smooth, but still great

thanks a lot! i dled one world straight after watching that clip and ive listened to it along with the demo vers. that came with it over and over all day, my head is swimming.

plax, ONE WORLD is the bizness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btRv4MnPOBE

wish there were live videos of Dancing.

Bless The Weather is awesome too. It's mostly mellow folky songs (really great ones though - check out 'Head and Heart'), but there's also 'Glistening Glyndebourne' which is this beautiful exploratory instrumental piece that has a bit of a free jazz feel to it.

get the "live @ leeds and more" thing. starts off with a huge tidal wave "outside in" and has a smokin' version of "clutches" as a bonus track. vocals performance top-knotch throughout. plus danny thompson is aboard, iirc (talk about musicians having seemingly telepathic links)

and yeah "Glistening Glyndebourne" is a must for the spaced out jazz vibe

really dig the phil collins drumming/production on Glorious Fool.

Album Credits: Johnny Boy Would Love This...A Tribute to John Martyn

CD 1
1. "LET THE GOOD THINGS COME" DAVID GRAY
2. "GLORIOUS FOOL" CLARENCE FOUNTAIN AND SAM BUTLER (Formerly the Blind Boys of Alabama)
3. "SMALL HOURS" ROBERT SMITH
4. "STORMBRINGER" BECK
5. "OVER THE HILL" TED BARNES Featuring GAVIN CLARK
6. "I DON'T WANNA KNOW" THE SWELL SEASON
7. "BLESS THE WEATHER" THE EMPERORS OF WYOMING
8. "COULDN'T LOVE YOU MORE" LISA HANNIGAN
9. "GO EASY" VETIVER
10. "SOLID AIR" SKYE EDWARDS
11. "YOU CAN DISCOVER" CHERYL WILSON
12. "THE EASY BLUES" JOE BONAMASSA
13. "DANCING" SONIA DADA
14. "CERTAIN SURPRISE" SABRINA DINAN
15. "ONE WORLD" PAOLO NUTINI

CD 2
1. "MAY YOU NEVER" SNOW PATROL
2. "GO DOWN EASY" BETH ORTON
3. "FAIRYTALE LULLABY" BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB
4. "FINE LINES" SYD KITCHEN
5. "HEAD AND HEART" VASHTI BUNYAN
6. "RUN HONEY RUN" MORCHEEBA Featuring BRADLEY BURGESS
7. "ANGELINE" NICHOLAS BARRON
8. "WALK TO THE WATER" JOHN SMITH
9. "HURT IN YOUR HEART" JUDIE TZUKE
10. "ROAD TO RUIN" JIM TULLIO
11. "JOHN WAYNE" OH MY GOD
12. "ROPE SOUL'D" THE BLACKSHIPS
13. "BACK TO STAY" ULTAN CONLON
14. "ANNA" BRENDAN CAMPBELL
15. "TEARING AND BREAKING" PHIL COLLINS

I wonder where I will find John Martyn records among the myriad "folk" genres at my community station?

kinda curious about Robert Smith on "Small Hours"!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd_yg5rppYo

Oh god, Paolo Nutini doing "One World"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da1f3T8gjZo

this song rules

john martyn rules

http://25.media.tumblr.com/31892b734bea62c63abc3a0600143620/tumblr_mf0z88Du441riscrbo1_500.jpg

john martyn otm

apparently that address was his actual residence...

hastings is quite the place for weirdo bohemian folksy types. i believe that's where shirlay collins lives at the moment, plus barry dransfield, david tibet and james blackshaw. home of aleister crowley too of course once upon a time

shirlay <--- written in country dialect obv

Don't know many people from Glasgow who speak like that.

You mean the advert? That was pretty much how John Martyn spoke wasn't it?

Well I think he did both, so he did that when he was in England and then he spoke Scottish when he was in Scotland.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra_uv0uIY-g

^ it's his 70s comedy cockney voice

To be fair to him, I can appreciate that. I am from Glasgow but would like to be cockney.

how is that Live at Leeds album? I've been tempted by the deluxe edition

the original is pretty great -- don't think i've heard the deluxe.

xp

I love John Martyn, but I wouldn't say it's amazing. The deluxe one is better because it has MORE on it, but I despite its fame, I don't think it really does that much more over the records it's take from. I've seen him do amazing live versions of songs (Lookin' on, for example), but they're not on that record. I mean it's obviously good - I just feel like it could've been better, but then perhaps I suppose you'd always think that.

shirlay <--- written in country dialect obv

― Jaap and roids (NickB), Tuesday, January 29, 2013 5:10 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

hahaha!! <3

my favorite john martyn song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6Jvp3QBwgY

yeah, it's up there

that's a really good one, agree

john martyn is some of my favorite road trippin music, no idea why

I only have/only know Solid Air. I should get Inside Out sometime since I vibe with shit like Starsailor/Lorca etc

Don't forget Bless the Weather - terrible cover, beautiful music

was listening to eibhli ghail (can't actually type out the whole title) from inside out on repeat yesterday. kozmiceltic.

which one has him wearing that crazy pointy hood on the front? That is an all time visual.

you should definitely hear glistening glyndebourne off bless the weather, jon

i'm talking about the floating martynhead

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/5f/Bless_the_weather.jpg/220px-Bless_the_weather.jpg

Martynhead sounds like one of the stations in 'I Often Dream of Trains'

This is great - it's You Can Discover but also the coda to Call Me Crazy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz1RIwxYsCQ

probably my OPO, although there's so many worthy contenders....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz8uNRWsmFY

Indeed that one's definitely up there, although as you say, with about 50 others, but it is indeed a personal favourite.

One guy once described listening to John Martyn as though time stops when you do it and I think that's pretty much a perfect description.

huh. maybe that's why it's good road trippin music?

that's true for me & "Small Hours", such a peaceful record, can just drift away

Bless The Weather is alltime. I got absolutely blitzed on Balvenie last night and night and it was perfect, sounding great with the hangover as well.

http://store.universal-music.co.uk/restofworld/folk/boxset-john-martyn-the-island-years-box-set-2013/invt/0602537422883/

The Island Years is the most exhaustive career retrospective from one of Britain’s most original and enduring singer/songwriters. Housed in an LP size hard-back slip case, this lavish box set contains 18 Discs including:

• 17 CDs featuring 12 key studio albums, recorded for Island between 1967 and 1987, now with previously unreleased mixes, Out-Takes, unheard songs and 2 complete, previously unreleased live solo concerts from 1972 and 1977 and the complete demos for The Apprentice, the last album Martyn delivered to Island.
• 1 DVD containing rare television performances from the Old Grey Whistle Test, Sight and Sound – In Concert, A Little Night Music and first time on DVD for the VHS release, Foundations.
• A hard-back book featuring a new essay by The Island Years compiler and researcher John Hillarby plus rare and previously unseen photographs and extensive memorabilia.

There is a strong selection of previously unreleased alternative takes from Martyn’s career defining 70s albums Stormbringer, The Road To Ruin, Bless The Weather, Solid Air, Inside Out, Sunday’s Child and One World; plus there are extensive outtakes and a number of unreleased songs from Martyn’s 80s Island releases: Grace And Danger, Sapphire and Piece By Piece.

170 quid, haha!

WANT

yeah looks neato. $170 for 17 CDs + book + DVD doesn't sound insane.

suppose it's only fitting that they want an arm and a leg for it

eeeyowch

Have still never listened to any JM later than Grace & Danger. Anyone know much about the stuff that came after? What am I missing out on?

I have Piece by Piece and I think it's horrible (but am not sure I have even listened all the way through because it was so horrible). Maybe it's an undiscovered classic waiting to be given a second chance.

Grace and Danger, however, is another matter. For me, it's close to perfection and an album I'll never tire of. I took it to our club recently and wrote about it here:

http://devonrecordclub.com/2013/10/20/john-martyn-grace-and-danger-round-55-toms-selection/

I was going to revive this thread, because I heard One World for the first time this week. Such an incredible record, totally out-there but also really warm and organic. It's totally balearic.

the OGWT clip of that song is amazing

Oh man, One World is such a great album! 'Dancing' is one of the all-time great morning-after comedown tunes

I did update a different thread about that boxset as an £8 dl, off amazon

Mistake, I guess, it's gone now

I bought it for £1.99 from play.com! But the download doesn't work at all and I reckon when I get in touch, they'll probably just give me a refund.

wow @ One World

The song "May you never" is really disturbing. It is quite clearly an incredibly tender song, but one that sounds like it was written by a serial abuser. Its so full of paranoia, its appeal to love is really a veiled threat. So much violence in the imagery, but pleading and pathetic. I've been gradually, increasingly troubled by this song since I started listening to Solid Air almost constantly last summer.

Definitely feel what you're saying here. Martyn's alcohol consumption surely had a lot to do with the more, uhm, unsettling aspects of some his narratives.

'Make No Mistake' is another disturbing one.

"Head and Heart" has made me pause before -- it's a really tender song but idk how healthy it is to want to be loved like a child
guy had problems, news at 11

The guy was an absolute horror but what can you do?

Exactly. Martyn's lyrics are so slurred that I've rarely paid attention despite having listened to him for 30 years. I wouldn't care to read a biography of the man but I'll continue to return to a large number of his albums.

I also love Miles Davis' music despite his horrific character, which I'll admit is pretty much irrelevant to me.

I mean I think what's wonderful and terrible about May You Never is that it *is* so romantic. It is a very moving song, and there is a real appeal in it. For me I had loved it for a long time before I started to taste the poison in it. I was thinking about him when I was in Hastings at the weekend on the beach.