Capturing John Martyn At His Peak

There's been an embarrassment of riches for the hardcore John Martyn fan of late, and whaddya know, here's some more. In Session contains all the songs our John recorded for the Bob Harris and John Peel shows between 1973 and 1978, and though some of these performances are available elsewhere, this is an essential purchase for the committed fan.

Though consistency was never one of Martyn's strong points, it would seem that he did make a bit more of an effort when he was in front of a BBC microphone, judging by this set of performances. Most are solo; four tracks add the peerless double bass of Mr Danny Thompson, though annoyingly he's barely audible (what were the engineers thinking?).

Martyn's tendency to improvise means that even his most straight ahead acoustic songs (like May You Never or Spencer The Rover) have new life breathed into them every time he sings them. From the 1973 sessions I'd Rather be The Devil and Outside In (both mysteriously retitled here) take things further out with some typically cosmic guitar explorations; you get the sense that at this point in Martyn's career, each performance was as much about self discovery as anything else.

The set closes with the glorious Small Hours, which sounds like it was recorded yesterday afternoon rather than nearly 30 years ago. Essential stuff from probably the most fruitful period in Martyn's career.

This review is by Peter Marsh via the BBC music site and is shared under a Creative Commons licence. The original is available here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/p5w6/  Track listing comes from www.musicbrainz.org
For my policy on copyright, creative commons, and fair use of material including album artwork, please see the legal section here.

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Log #25 - Van's Window on Astral Weeks

1. Lynyrd Skynryd - Gold and Platinum
2. John Martyn - Solid Air
3. Tom Waits - Blue Valentine
4. John Martyn - Grace and Danger
5. Van Morrison - The 1967 New York Sessions
6. John Martyn - Glorious Fool

The Van Morrison New York Sessions are outtakes from around the Astral Weeks time. Releases of studio outtakes like this are often filler for some artists. But not in the case of Van Morrison whose perfectionism has meant many great songs not making the cut to his albums over the years (see the tremendous Philosopher's Stone for example). On these tracks we hear the genesis of the Astral Weeks album with early takes of some of the songs that would resurface a year later on the album proper. The sound is rawer, his voice is powerful and soulful, and the songs are bluesy with an improvisational quality. Listening to this album reminds me of Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes and the aforementioned Philosopher's Stone.

Cover album Blue Valentine is classic Tom Waits,  providing a bridge between his early soulful ballads and his later industrial rhythms. I love the night hawk neon green tinged seedy imagery which augments the groovy blues tinged music and lyrics within.

Blue Valentine, back shot.

The evocative track titles tell some stories in themselves.

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Log #24 - Johnny (Martyn) Be Good

1. Lynyrd Skynryd - Gold and Platinum
2. John Martyn - Solid Air
3. Tom Waits - Blue Valentine
4. John Martyn - Grace and Danger
5. Van Morrison - Tupelo Honey
6. John Martyn - Glorious Fool

So there I was on this barge on the river wearing nothing but denims and a smile, and this blue man says to me, 'You know I used to be like you, but I saw sense and I changed myself.' So I looked at his sage expression and black shoes and thought 'Thanks all the same, I'll stay on the river.'

I do feel lucky to have discovered John Martyn relatively early in life. I was introduced to him on a summer holiday in France one year by a friend of a friend who played a bit of acoustic guitar in that percussive slapping manner which was very new to me at the time, and characteristic of Martyn's acoustic playing especially on his earlier folky albums. Then later the same (long) summer (I assume) I was helping another friend refurbish a boat down in Cornwall somewhere and had two albums in rotation on my Walkman: Bob Dylan's Desire and John Martyn's Solid Air.  Not a bad selection if you only had one C90 tape for the whole summer (and two of my favourite albums still today 30 years later)!

It sounds wonderfully free and romantic, rather like Martyn's quote from the sleeve notes of his debut album above. I had indeed just met a new girlfriend and in my mind's eye the sun shone and I would have been bare footed and long haired too! What emotional memories particular music always brings up.

JM with smoking joint lodged in machine head

Solid Air is the classic John Martyn. A lovely blend of folk and jazz and the beginnings of his more electronic echoplex guitar playing. Perhaps most evocative is the lovely electric piano. It is of course, like most of his records, a very chilled laid back album - there is a track entitled Go Down Easy and the title track is a homage to Island label mate Nick Drake. But perhaps his most famous song in his full catalogue is May You Never, a song he always played live and one the crowd would sing along with especially in later life when the drugs and booze had taken such a toll his concerts had become a little more ramshackle.

However like many artists who suffered poor health in later life his voice never left him (just becoming even more of a bear growl), nor did his unique guitar playing which although relying increasingly on effects still mesmerised. Like his very easy going effortless slurred voice the guitar also looked extremely loose and free but he was obviously channelling some higher source as I could never work out what he was doing despite studying May You Never guitar tabs for years.

We also have two later albums in the list above. I say later but Grace and Danger and Glorious Fool were released in 1980 and 1981 respectively so still very early relatively. The heartbreaking Grace and Danger album I've written more extensively about here. The slightly harder edged Glorious Fool was a bit of a crossover album between classic John Martyn and later 80s smoothness, and slightly disjointed as a consequence but still contains some excellent tracks. One disappointment is the electrified rendition of Couldn't Love You More which loses much of the soul of the acoustic original on the excellent One World album. In fact I'd proffer that One World is Martyn's peak, representing the perfect equilibrium of his earlier folk days and the later electric period. All his 70s albums right up to, and including Grace and Danger which was a departure, are worth getting but start with One World and Solid Air.

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John Martyn - Grace and Danger

Maverick jazz-folkie John Martyn’s Grace and Danger is a “break up” album from the same stable as Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks or Marvin Gaye's Hear, My Dear.  Best enjoyed, if that’s the word, with a bottle of wine at 3am, such painfully honest expressions of loss, denial, bitterness, and anger, can be strangely cathartic for the broken-hearted listener.

Things are bearable at first. Some People Are Crazy sets the tone with lovely harmonic bass, twinkly electric piano and Martyn rolling his booze and smoke enriched bear’s growl of a voice around his rrrrs. Lookin’ On has a luxurious jazz club atmosphere with gorgeous cymbal laden rhythms, and Johnny Too Bad forewarns of stormy times ahead if our Johnny doesn’t stop behaving badly.

Then the mood takes a serious downturn, beginning with one of the most beautiful love songs ever written, Sweet Little Mystery, where John cries in the night waiting for a letter that never comes. Two heartbreaking pleas for reconciliation follow; both Hurt in Your Heart and Baby Please Come Home do exactly what they say on the tin and all self respect has gone.

So how could she not come back after these passionate declarations of unconditional love? Well, if she’s still listening, the answer lies in the next track where John’s tone becomes defiant (the letter has come and it’s not good news). Hidden deep in the mix he slurs the line “I cheated on the side”. As a rock star on the road for whom “the way I live I’m never on my own”, this can be no surprise, but nevertheless an astonishingly brutal admission to make in public. Anyway, we know by now it’s too late as she is already “in the arms of some new friend”.  The final track, which intriguingly has a co-writing credit with his estranged wife (maybe via that letter?), offers some hope; he’s still angry but is on the way to forgetting.

An equally distraught Phil Collins (whose own marriage was to shortly undergo a similar public exorcism on Face Value) lends moral and musical support with some crisp drums and restrained backing vocals.  The studio can’t have been much fun but for music this good it was worth it; Grace and Danger will stay with you long after the “hurt in your heart has gone”.

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