John Martyn RIP

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martinfoyle
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John Martyn RIP

Post by martinfoyle »

http://www.johnmartyn.com/

Considering his health problems not terribly surprising, but still desperately sad. Otis W. wrote glowingly about seeing him last year, I was lucky enough to see him 1 & 1/2 times. The first was the end of a festival set 13 years ago when, after the stage manager furiously beckoned him to finish up, John, contrary as always, did a blinding 10 minute version of Johnny Too Bad. Went to see him do a Midnight at the Olympia a few months later. Awful drunken audience who talked and fought all the way through the show so John disgustedly phoned it in. I'd love to have seen a full proper show, but that Johnny Too Bad will linger in the mind.
Last edited by martinfoyle on Mon May 04, 2009 5:04 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Otis Westinghouse
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Re: John Martyn RIP

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Profound shock. God I thought he seemed in a bad way, and that this news mightn't be too much of a surprise, but of course it is. I'm so glad I go the ticket to that show on his last tour and saw all of the magnificent Grace and Danger, along with the beauty of the Solid Air classics he played too. I hope that his death brings more recognition. It's always seemed he isn't known and celebrated enough. He possessed the holy trio of a great voice, great guitar playing and great songwriting skills. I still have several more LPs to explore. For those who haven't tried but are curious, for me the holy quartet are:

Solid Air
One World
Grace and Danger
Bless the Weather

BBC article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/gla ... 858458.stm

Didn't know he'd got the OBE. Excellent form of recognition (despite the British Empire bollocks).
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Tim(e)
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Re: John Martyn RIP

Post by Tim(e) »

Shocked! Saw him two or three times over 1974/1975... my first experience of him at the Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park is still etched in my mind as one of the greatest concerts I was fortunate enough to attend - that one man could create such sounds with just an acoustic guitar, an echoplex a fuzz box and a beautifully lazy voice, never ceased to amaze me.
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Otis Westinghouse
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Re: John Martyn RIP

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Wow, great memories. Wish I could have been in London at that time, and old enough to go to gigs. I feel a tower of Martyn coming on:

1. Sweet Little Mystery
2. Solid Air
3. May You Never
4. Couldn't Love You More
5. Hurt In Your Heart
6. Don't Want To Know
7. Small Hours
8. Don't Think Twice, It's Alright (as in Dylan, on JM's first LP, divine)
9. Head and Heart
10. Dancing

Heavenly stuff.
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johnfoyle
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Re: John Martyn RIP

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Glistening Glyndebourne
- I just can't get enough of it.

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=ez7TWij7QLE
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ReadyToHearTheWorst
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Re: John Martyn RIP

Post by ReadyToHearTheWorst »

He came up in pub conversation last night, and the consensus seemed to be "Who He?".

Even Mrs RtHtW seemed unaware of the great man and his works, yet remarked on the contrast of good looking 70s Rock-Type with Naughties fat bloke in a wheel chair. However, when I played Solid Air she seemed genuinely saddened as though something special had indeed passed.

He was a character alright.

I recall a scene in a recent documentary, shortly after he lost his leg, wherein he was being pushed by his 'partner' whilst he ostensibly 'walked' the dog. He called out 'mush' whilst said partner struggled valiantly. He obviously found it highly amusing, though not so sure about other participants.
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Otis Westinghouse
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Re: John Martyn RIP

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Gorgeous. Was playing the LP earlier. There's lots of the great man on YouTube. Let's see if I can load up my top 10, clips spanning a 25 year period:

1. Sweet Little Mystery
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=E-YrJbX4Wrs
(Phil Collins' finest moment)

2. Solid Air
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg_Utj4Aljc

3. May You Never
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LOi_wxypeGc

4. Couldn't Love You More
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rhFLtOIhhCw
(fantastic!)

5. Hurt In Your Heart
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TkcmB8a1c ... re=related
(from 2007, with sober-sounding interview)

6. Don't Want To Know
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VHtXGaf1Scg

7. Small Hours
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pYLVM560F ... re=related
(I always hear the influence on Vini Reilly from this. Vini supported JM after the relese of his debut LP, which would probably qualify as my Ultimate Guitar Heaven gig. Vini could never quite match John in the voice stakes though.)

8. Don't Think Twice, It's Alright (as in Dylan, on JM's first LP, divine)
http://hypem.com/track/740121/Various-J ... +All+Right
(not on YouTube at all, but good ol' Hype Machine have it their to commemmorate him)

9. Head and Heart
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lusPaLec9TE
(no live version to be found)

10. Dancing
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=UgHGRtFcGME
(ditto, but comes with a photo gallery, this is the Deluxe CD2 version, I do believe)
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Otis Westinghouse
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Re: John Martyn RIP

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

ReadyToHearTheWorst wrote:He came up in pub conversation last night, and the consensus seemed to be "Who He?"
Was asking an American colleague today if he knew his stuff, a guy who's a huge Dylan and 60s music in general fan, and he too had never heard of him . It is bizarre given the talents he possessed. At the same time, he retained a decent sizeable fan-base, regularly filling places like our Corn Exchange in later years. I was touched by the small quota of younger types at the Nov gig, probably who came to hear of him via 'Solid Air' in a chill-out scenario.
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Otis Westinghouse
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Re: John Martyn RIP

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Adam Sweeting's obit in the Guardian mentions most of his LPs, apart from dwelling on mid-70s alcohol excess and then jumping to Grace & Danger and omitting One World, which I would definitely not be alone in putting among his best. The fool.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/ja ... n-obituary

The Independent's is much more satisfying, mentioning the above and also including some nice personal details from interviewing including curry-making. Nice line about a creator too:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obitu ... 20361.html

I'd like to hear the folk award duo with John Paul Jones they both refer to.
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johnfoyle
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Re: John Martyn RIP

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Costello biographer Graeme Thomsom e-mails -

Genuinely sad about JM. Spent most of Thursday and all of Friday putting together interviews with Danny Thompson, Bert Jansch, Chris Blackwell etc. for WORD's hastily assembled (typically contrary, he died on press day) tribute feature, which should hit the shelves in 10 days or so. It was exhausting, speaking to a lot of very shocked and distraught people.

http://ishotamaninrenobook.blogspot.com/
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Otis Westinghouse
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Re: John Martyn RIP

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Good blog entry. and that's a lovely clip of Spencer The Rover, which I hadn't seen before. there's a nice version of that on the current Word sampler from Cara Dillon's new LP.

My brother in law lived in Thomastown for a while and we spent a memorable afternoon in the pub watching Kilkenny against, er Cork maybe, in the Gaelic football final. I wonder if that was Carroll's. Was watching the BBC Johnny Too Bad doc the other day, with domestic scenes of John with partner Theresa before and after the amputation. Lots of memorable quotes from Blackwell, D Thompson, Ralph McTell. It's a good doc. JM veers between stoned, drunk and mumbly and sober and lucid in different scenes.
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martinfoyle
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Re: John Martyn RIP

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martinfoyle
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Re: John Martyn RIP

Post by martinfoyle »

Otis Westinghouse wrote:
I'd like to hear the folk award duo with John Paul Jones they both refer to.
Some guy just put up the show on dime, here's the duet

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?whttddtlzm0
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Jackson Monk
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Re: John Martyn RIP

Post by Jackson Monk »

I bought Solid Air for the first time a few months back and my interest in JM has snowballed from there. I cannot believe that I am only just discovering this superbly talented artist. I've just ordered the Munro biography and am awaiting a delivery from Amazon of 'Grace and Danger' and 'One World', although I have spent so much time watching the great man on Youtube, that I feel I know a lot of those albums already. His rendition of hurt in your heart in that documentary just left me emotionally drained.

I feel incredibly saddened that I never discovered him whilst he was alive.
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Otis Westinghouse
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Re: John Martyn RIP

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Me too - you could have joined me and mad-for-it Chris at the Corn Ex on hos last ever tour in Dec playing all of Grace and Danger!

Looks like you're following the classics. Those three are my faves, though Bless The Weather is also superb, with some of his finest folkier moments. I have a few other of the LPs (Stormbringer, London Conversation - worth hearing if only for his cover of Don't Think Twice -Inside Out, Sunday's Child - with must have genius of Spencer the Rover), but these don't generally scale the heights of the above. All worth checking out, and I'm sure there are some wonderful moments of his I've yet to discover.
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martinfoyle
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Re: John Martyn RIP

Post by martinfoyle »

David Fricke wrote this nice piece for Rolling Stone

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/i ... hn-martyn/

On Air (T&M) can be got easily enough here

http://www.tradition-moderne.com/eng.ph ... 39ce214e38

and is great.
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Jackson Monk
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Re: John Martyn RIP

Post by Jackson Monk »

Played One World to death on holiday. I think Small Hours has become one of my all time favourite songs. Just beautiful.
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Otis Westinghouse
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Re: John Martyn RIP

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Agreed. I love 'Dancin' too. And 'Couldn't Love You More'. What a shame he didn't get to do a tour playing it as a whole, following on from Grace and Danger.
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johnfoyle
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Re: John Martyn RIP

Post by johnfoyle »

http://www.theartsdesk.com/index.php?op ... &Itemid=29

John Martyn, One-Year Wake

Friday, 29 January 2010

Written by Graeme Thomson
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