John Martyn (+ vinyl content)

randella

Strictly speaking, I'm of the cassette generation. Accidentally putting your Walkman in the wash, winding up slack in tapes with a biro, that sort of thing. That said, I learned the guitar by borrowing licks from my parents' vinyl. Cream, Free, Hendrix, Zep, plus less 'obvious' stuff I guess - Fairport Convention, John Fahey, Davey Graham. And John Martyn. 

A while back I was given some vinyl that's incredibly precious to me for personal reasons so I bit the bullet and bought a deck. Pleased to report the muscle memory of dropping the stylus on the record never goes away. 

TL;DR - I bought a copy of John Martyn's 'Solid Air'. If you've never heard this album, listen to it!  If you know it, listen to it again!  If you've got any suggestions of his other stuff, hit me up!  

richardhomer

Everything from Bless The Weather (1971) through to 1980's Grace and Danger.....

I could go on - I'm a John Martyn fanatic. Saw him play over 30 times - my favourite ever musician.

p90fool

Solid Air is one of the few albums from my adolescence which has made it it into my middle age, it just fabulous. 

The song May You Never can not only still reduce me to tears, but it's also a fantastic performance, recorded in a basement studio in one take in the middle of the night. 

randella

@p90fool - it's a wonderful record right enough. One of those that was always on when I was a kid, so it's nicely familiar but still has plenty new when you rediscover it. I hit up the local charity shops for vinyl the other day, and in amongst the predictable dreck (Des O' Conner), there was a load of Clapton's 70's output so I gave 'Slowhand' another go, pleased I did as it's underrated. I have to say though, despite the fact I've always hated that godawful dirge 'Wonderful Tonight', it's given a run for its money when he absolutely murders 'May You Never' on side two. Charlatan. 

@richardhomer - good man, I bet he was a compelling live act. I know it's a rogue's trick, but if you had to name one album other than 'Solid Air', what would you go for?  I love discovering stuff through a recommendation...

richardhomer

@randella - if I had to recommend one, it would be One World. It's a stunning record - though less acoustic than Solid Air.

I met him a few times - he wrote out his trademark CFCCGD tuning on a CD booklet for me. Contrary to his reputation, he was very charming....

btw - the story goes he earned more from the EC cover of May You Never than he did from his own record sales.

boogieman

Ah, Solid Air, what a magical album. That whole album brings back fantastic memories, it's so atmospheric.  

I only saw John Martyn play once. He did a gig at Surrey Uni at Guildford sometime in the mid 70s: a mate was studying there and invited me down. JM was so out of his tree that a roadie literally had to prop him up with mic stands to stop him sliding to the floor in a heap. He still managed to play and sing beautifully. 

Sarge

Take one acoustic guitar, one echoplex and one of the most soulful and haunting voices ever and get Solid Air.  just fucking beautiful. 

Bless The Weather is next on your new deck sir. 

AliGorie

forgive me if I've put this up before -

From a post I made on 'Celtic Guitar Talk' forum - now defunked -

As a teenager (and mad for the music) in the '60's,
one afternoon in Edinburgh I found myself on the sloping banks of Princes Street Gardens with my Spanish guitar I noticed I had been joined slightly further down the bank by another guitar player but this guy could play, weird and wonderful things were flying out of his guitar, he had frizzy hair an embroidered Indian cheese cloth top bell bottom jeans and sandals - “a real Hippy “ I thought, I joined him and asked if he could show me what on earth he was doing with the guitar - he did, it was DADGAD and other D tunings, we played for a couple of hours then he asked me if I knew of anywhere he could play that weekend (this being a Friday afternoon) I suggested we meet up that evening and I would take him round “the scene” in return for his kindness - we did for that whole weekend. I had no idea who or what this person was but I knew he was extraordinary, that weekend was an awakening for me. He was on his way back to Glasgow ‘hitching’ from London where he had just recorded his first album London Conversation, it was John Martyn.

a good few years later I was watching the Whistle Test (didn’t we all?) - and this came on, I was fulfilled !



my most fav song of his is -

boogieman

@AliGorie what a fantastic story! 

richardhomer

AliGorie said:

my most fav song of his is -

That performance is exceptional - his voice was just beautiful - impossible to believe he didn't mean every word.

Tone71

I have been reading Phil Collins autobiography and he pops up a fair bit in it, was listening to Solid Air this morning, bloody excellent

randella

@AliGorie - thank you for those, just listened on headphones and those clips were almost hypnotic. 

I was was lucky enough to learn my first guitar steps on me dad's D35. These days (quarter of a century later) it's just the right side of reliced - it's light and resonant and the ebony fretboard is slightly greasy and black as the night sky. It's my favourite guitar. It's also the single most revealing instrument you'll ever play. Despite its bulk you simply cannot hide bad playing behind it. I can't begin to imagine consuming my own body weight in booze and cocaine and playing it live on national television with that soul and depth. Wonderful.

Disclaimer - I'm guessing by the lack of fretboard binding on Martyn's guitar it's a 28 or 18

@richardhomer am I being unfair to Clapton?  As a self-confessed Martyn fan, where do you stand on his cover version?  I'm interested to know. 

randella

Slightly off-topic, why do we have nothing like the Whistle Test now? It was slightly before my time, but I had The Word, and the televised pissup TFI Friday. Much as I dearly love Jools Holland, it seems nowadays that Later... has all the edge of a Monday-morning catch-up meeting with your manager. 

randella

Finally, thank you @Sarge and @richardhomer for the record suggestions, I'll get on to it!

boogieman

I've never heard the Clapton version of May You Never, but I can't imagine anyone else singing it as well as JM himself. 

richardhomer

randella said:

@richardhomer am I being unfair to Clapton?  As a self-confessed Martyn fan, where do you stand on his cover version?  I'm interested to know. 

No, it was a pretty lame cover - and I say that as a massive EC fan. But it was that cover that lead me to checking out John's music.

John was quite friendly with EC - he rerecorded Couldn't Love You More with a band for the Glorious Fool album with EC playing lead.

John was a unique talent - he dabbled in so many styles - Grace & Danger was almost Weather Report-esque - Glorious Fool was quite electronic, And (from the mid-90s) used Hip Hop beats - he never stood still musically but always sounded like himself. 

I loved him.

AliGorie

boogieman said:

I've never heard the Clapton version of May You Never, but I can't imagine anyone else singing it as well as JM himself. 

who's Clapton ?
JM was a huge influence on - dA maN as seen here early on in his shot but beautiful life -


before www etc he had JM's tunning's sussed
I can forgive MH for being such a guitarist -but not for being able to sing as well and so well, dam

AliGorie

randella said:

@AliGorie - thank you for those, just listened on headphones and those clips were almost hypnotic. 


Disclaimer - I'm guessing by the lack of fretboard binding on Martyn's guitar it's a 28 or 18

D28 IIRC Randy, when I met him it was a Yammaha FG somthin - yeah a plywood guitar - who needs anything else when you ARE music, no case or bag and no truss rod cover (that's the geek in me ).

randella

AliGorie said:

randella said:

@AliGorie - thank you for those, just listened on headphones and those clips were almost hypnotic. 


Disclaimer - I'm guessing by the lack of fretboard binding on Martyn's guitar it's a 28 or 18

D28 IIRC Randy, when I met him it was a Yammaha FG somthin - yeah a plywood guitar - who needs anything else when you ARE music, on case or bag and no truss rod cover (that's the geek in me ).

@AliGorie - Looking forward to digging out more of Martyn's music. I only put the disclaimer about the guitar as this is a guitarist's forum and you lot can spot a freestyler pretty quickly - trouble is, that was about my best bit of guitar knowledge re. the fretboard binding and now I've played my trump card dammit.

thebreeze

Grace and Danger.

AliGorie

the thing I cant understand is how people don't get that the magic in music isn't the guitar (or equipment ) used, the magic is in the music - itself.
heres the pickup he's playing through -
http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/RYcAAOSwopRYgQC7/s-l1600.jpg