John Martyn has died. A tragedy for his friends and family, as well as those fans devoted to his music. People like me who have lived inside of the sounds he made for so long now. Like many others, I have read the obituaries and wondered how many of the people writing them had actually heard any of the man's music. He certainly hadn't been heard by as many people as his astonishing music deserved. There are many reasons for this, but one predominant one I am sure of is that John's music is impossible to pigeon-hole in an industry, a world really, where pigeon-holing seems to be paramount for some stupid reason. Many of the articles I have read described him as a folk singer/songwriter. That is like saying Hitler was a house painter. It is part of the picture, but only part. In my opinion, the last album he made that could be said to be totally a folk album was his second, 'The Tumbler' which came out in 1968. Still, that is how the press tagged him, that is how Amazon.com categorize him. Just a cursory glance at some of his influences, such as Scottish singer Hamish Imlach, innovative guitarist Davey Graham or jazz man Pharoah Saunders shows that John's musical make-up was complex from the start.If we need to find the seeds of John Martyn's music in the music of someone else, then Davey Graham is a good place to start. Graham had started as a folk and blues guitarist, but by the mid sixties was experimenting with musical styles from around the globe, mixing and matching as he went, long before the term 'World Music' had been coined. Jazz and blues and Celtic themes collided with Indian music, all underpinned by the stand up bass of one Danny Thompson. Graham, who himself sadly passed away just before Christmas, perhaps helped to open up a world of possibilities to a young John Martyn, already establishing himself on the London folk scene revolving around 'Les Cousins' club in the late sixties. Martyn was signed to Island records, a label initially aimed at releasing ska and reggae. Indeed, he was the first white artist on the imprint, although Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, Traffic and Free would soon follow.
His first two albums could indeed be classified as folk, mostly gentle hippy dippy stuff about 'Butterflies wings and lots of nice things' but displaying an already eclectic acoustic guitar technique, exemplified by the instrumental 'Seven Black Roses' which combines a traditional sounding folk tune with blues style finger picking. The next two albums were collaborations with his wife Beverley. her songs have a jazzy feel whilst on some of John's songs there is already a veering away from what most people saw as folk music. he experiments with a band sound, indeed on 'Stormbringer', Levon Helm from the Band is present, and on songs like 'Would You Believe' from 'The Road To Ruin' he stretches out in an almost hypnotic way that suggests musical paths he wouldn't pursue fully till much later on in his career. A recording I have heard of a John Martyn gig recorded for the BBC between 'Road To Ruin' and his next solo record, .Bless The Weather' has a version of 'Would You Believe' that features experimentation with guitar effects that would blossom into his trade-mark echoplex guitar technique.
The next solo album, 'Bless The Weather showed Martyn's developing guitar technique on 'Glistening Glyndebourne' while his songwriting is on display throughout the album. It was the next release, 'Solid Air' which gave him a taste of commercial success. The bass of Danny Thompson is dominant, the songs follow a similar pattern to 'Bless The Weather' and in some cases have a harder edge. The echoplex guitar is fully featured on 'I'd rather Be The Devil', an adaptation of an old Skip James blues that features an intensely rhythmic and aggressive performance from John Martyn. 'Solid Air' itself, a song about Martyn's friend Nick Drake, has a smokey jazzy quality, but is like much of the album, very accessible. Perhaps he suffered from this in the same way Neil Young did with 'Harvest'. There would always be those who couldn't accept Young's Crazy Horse stuff and yearned for the earlier 'easier' material. So too with John. Within a year of 'Solid Air', 'Inside Out' had been released. This is the album I would recommend above all others. It is experimental, edgy, very jazzy, a narcotic haze permeating much of the vocals. The track 'Outside In' sees Martyn and his echoplex driven groove in Pharoah Saunders territory. This album is beautiful the way Mogwai is beautiful, it defies much explanation so I won't try and give any more. Thing is, whatever it is, another 'Solid Air' is what it wasn't. It wasn't quite what the office worker weekend hippies were looking for. It was just what I wanted though!
I saw him live around this time. A cheeky chappie blagging joints from the audience, but totally involved in the music once it began. When he used the echoplex, he sounded like a whole band, notes swirling round the room. The songs cut through me, as did the playing. I hadn't heard anything quite like it, yet through all this, he remained this jolly bloke onstage. It was like if your mate from the pub was incredibly talented as well as being a drunken sot! In all the times I saw him play, I was never really disappointed. I could keep on through the albums, 'Sunday's Child' 'Live At Leeds' (essential, that one), 'One World' and on, but if you are at all interested by any of this, you will go out and discover this stuff for yourself.
Martyn kept on releasing albums, I kept buying them, seeing the tour every year. By the early 80s, the acoustic guitar was mostly put away, he toured with an electric band. I drifted away from his music for around ten years. Not great years for him or me, actually, although I never gave up listening to the records of his that I loved. By the late 90s, I was running a website for my other musical hero, Peter Green, and had begun to look for John martyn material again. This was the decade of the email, and I got in touch online with a guy called John Hillarby who was putting a tribute website for John together. We swapped tapes as fans do, and through John I got to see John Martyn live many times again, even getting to meet him a few times. this was an older, much heavier man, and it was clear that his lifestyle over the years had affected the way he was now. Performances could be a little erratic at this stage, I remember one show John Hillarby and I saw at Shepherd's Bush Empire where John was a little worse for wear, but his voice still moved me to tears that night as it had done so often in the past, his guitar playing still cut through the sea of shit in which so many of his musical contemporaries still swim. There were truly magical shows too, like his appearance at the 'Drifting' Festival at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on London's South Bank. The South Bank had a reputation for putting on festivals with dodgy concepts and managing to tie whoever was good and available or on tour at the time into the event. This night was a double bill, with Bill Nelson, an improvising guitarist. Nelson had played an entertaining set, backed by tapes he had made that day, and with a backdrop of movies Film students had made that day inspired by the backing tapes. After the interval, the lights went up on stage and there was John Martyn and band sitting around reading magazines. After about two or three minutes, Martyn just said, "I'm sorry about that, we're just all drifting!" He proceeded to read out the backstage fire regulations (which were extremely funny" and eventually deliver a set so good that I was horse from cheering so much. At this stage he had Arrun Ahmun on drums, and his trip-hop rhythms were just what Martyn needed to expand his numbers onstage.
A few years earlier, he had released an album called "And" where the trip-hop element was fully explored. This album in particular, and his career in genera l had been a big influence on Beth Gibbons of Portishead, and when he later covered 'Glory Box' it seemed fitting somehow. There were a couple of more albums, including the last studio effort, 'On the Cobbles', an attempt by producer Jim Tullio to recreate the 'Solid Air' kind of vibe. John allegedly hated it, refusing to play much from it on stage, but some fans loved it. It does have some charm, but I prefer Martyn's music when it is hard edged and challenging such as the mighty 'My Creator' from the previous album, 'Glasgow Walker.' I learned today that song was played during the memorial service for him in Ireland on february 8th. Quite right too.
In later years, John Martyn had had some financial problems, he had to have a leg amputated, and life was harder than it should of been for a musician of his talent. Voiceprint records did do an excellent job of releasing many live shows and rarities that came to light, many from the collections of the various fans who followed Martyn through the years. Do we need 18 versions of 'Outside In' for instance? Need maybe isn't the word, but I guarantee there will be a different element in each performance which keeps it interesting. I was going to post some mp3s at one point, but no, go and explore the amazing canon of work he has left. Youtube videos are a good place to start, as is johnmartyn.com, still run by my friend John Hillarby. As for albums, my favorites are 'Bless The Weather', 'Outside In' 'Live At Leeds', 'One World', 'Grace & Danger', 'And', and 'The Church With One Bell' and of the live albums, there are a couple with Danny Thompson from the late 80s which are very wonderful. To start with though, I would suggest 'Ain't No Saint', a four CD retrospective of his 40 year career which features some classic yet not always obvious selections, plus much unreleased material from all eras that in some strange way seems to sum up his genius better than anything else I can think of. I couldn't imagine life without this man's music, it is a fucking tragedy that he will not be making any more, (although I have to believe there is lots to hear that hasn't been released yet) but at least what is out there is available to be explored. John Martyn was never an easy option, but the best options never are.
I saw him live around this time. A cheeky chappie blagging joints from the audience, but totally involved in the music once it began. When he used the echoplex, he sounded like a whole band, notes swirling round the room. The songs cut through me, as did the playing. I hadn't heard anything quite like it, yet through all this, he remained this jolly bloke onstage. It was like if your mate from the pub was incredibly talented as well as being a drunken sot! In all the times I saw him play, I was never really disappointed. I could keep on through the albums, 'Sunday's Child' 'Live At Leeds' (essential, that one), 'One World' and on, but if you are at all interested by any of this, you will go out and discover this stuff for yourself.
Martyn kept on releasing albums, I kept buying them, seeing the tour every year. By the early 80s, the acoustic guitar was mostly put away, he toured with an electric band. I drifted away from his music for around ten years. Not great years for him or me, actually, although I never gave up listening to the records of his that I loved. By the late 90s, I was running a website for my other musical hero, Peter Green, and had begun to look for John martyn material again. This was the decade of the email, and I got in touch online with a guy called John Hillarby who was putting a tribute website for John together. We swapped tapes as fans do, and through John I got to see John Martyn live many times again, even getting to meet him a few times. this was an older, much heavier man, and it was clear that his lifestyle over the years had affected the way he was now. Performances could be a little erratic at this stage, I remember one show John Hillarby and I saw at Shepherd's Bush Empire where John was a little worse for wear, but his voice still moved me to tears that night as it had done so often in the past, his guitar playing still cut through the sea of shit in which so many of his musical contemporaries still swim. There were truly magical shows too, like his appearance at the 'Drifting' Festival at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on London's South Bank. The South Bank had a reputation for putting on festivals with dodgy concepts and managing to tie whoever was good and available or on tour at the time into the event. This night was a double bill, with Bill Nelson, an improvising guitarist. Nelson had played an entertaining set, backed by tapes he had made that day, and with a backdrop of movies Film students had made that day inspired by the backing tapes. After the interval, the lights went up on stage and there was John Martyn and band sitting around reading magazines. After about two or three minutes, Martyn just said, "I'm sorry about that, we're just all drifting!" He proceeded to read out the backstage fire regulations (which were extremely funny" and eventually deliver a set so good that I was horse from cheering so much. At this stage he had Arrun Ahmun on drums, and his trip-hop rhythms were just what Martyn needed to expand his numbers onstage.
A few years earlier, he had released an album called "And" where the trip-hop element was fully explored. This album in particular, and his career in genera l had been a big influence on Beth Gibbons of Portishead, and when he later covered 'Glory Box' it seemed fitting somehow. There were a couple of more albums, including the last studio effort, 'On the Cobbles', an attempt by producer Jim Tullio to recreate the 'Solid Air' kind of vibe. John allegedly hated it, refusing to play much from it on stage, but some fans loved it. It does have some charm, but I prefer Martyn's music when it is hard edged and challenging such as the mighty 'My Creator' from the previous album, 'Glasgow Walker.' I learned today that song was played during the memorial service for him in Ireland on february 8th. Quite right too.
In later years, John Martyn had had some financial problems, he had to have a leg amputated, and life was harder than it should of been for a musician of his talent. Voiceprint records did do an excellent job of releasing many live shows and rarities that came to light, many from the collections of the various fans who followed Martyn through the years. Do we need 18 versions of 'Outside In' for instance? Need maybe isn't the word, but I guarantee there will be a different element in each performance which keeps it interesting. I was going to post some mp3s at one point, but no, go and explore the amazing canon of work he has left. Youtube videos are a good place to start, as is johnmartyn.com, still run by my friend John Hillarby. As for albums, my favorites are 'Bless The Weather', 'Outside In' 'Live At Leeds', 'One World', 'Grace & Danger', 'And', and 'The Church With One Bell' and of the live albums, there are a couple with Danny Thompson from the late 80s which are very wonderful. To start with though, I would suggest 'Ain't No Saint', a four CD retrospective of his 40 year career which features some classic yet not always obvious selections, plus much unreleased material from all eras that in some strange way seems to sum up his genius better than anything else I can think of. I couldn't imagine life without this man's music, it is a fucking tragedy that he will not be making any more, (although I have to believe there is lots to hear that hasn't been released yet) but at least what is out there is available to be explored. John Martyn was never an easy option, but the best options never are.
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