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John Martyn

Y

YSG2000

pfm Member
been revisiting some of johns work and currently listening to small hours from one world. To me it’s a masterpiece and if you’ve not heard it, please have a listen and let me know what you think. Personally, it seems to transend time as it sounds so fresh, as if it was recorded yesterday, truly a classic.

Regards

Brian
 
One World is still my favourite JM album. The entire run from 'Bless the Weather' through to 'Grace & Danger' is peerless, and the rest on either side aren't too shabby either.
 
One World (especially Small Hours) is a great album but Inside Out is still one of my favourites.
 
YSG2000 said:
been revisiting some of johns work and currently listening to small hours from one world. To me it’s a masterpiece and if you’ve not heard it, please have a listen and let me know what you think. Personally, it seems to transend time as it sounds so fresh, as if it was recorded yesterday, truly a classic.

Regards

Brian
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Eight minutes plus of sheer bliss.
A friend of mine heard this piece of music while watching a documentary many years ago ( late 70's pre internet).
He didn't have a clue who it was but I was able to tell him and introduce him to One World and a couple of other JM albums I had at the time.
We ended up seeing John in concert many times together and it was more often than not a magical experience.
Sadly, like JM, my friend is no longer with us.:(
 
Small Hours is one of his best tracks. The version on the BBC sessions CD is very good too.
There was a running joke at the afters I used to have with my best mate that any low tempo track that I played that was good was "John Martyn".
 
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Inside out is certainly a great piece of work and interesting for its more free flowing improvised nature. Only managed to see John live briefly one afternoon but can confirm mr Winwood was in fine voice (and playing) yesterday at Hyde Park.
 
From: http://www.johnmartyn.com/sleeve-notes/another-world/

We hired a PA system and set the monitor stack up on the far side of the stables pointing out across the lake. I used two Neumann U87s on the opposite side of the house, to mike up the outdoor PA sound coming back off the lake. A further two Neumann U87s were placed close to the water’s edge, as far away as our leads would allow. These picked up the sound of water lapping [and geese], and a distant strangled sound on the guitar which was perfect for lead solos. We tried to protect the microphones from the damp night air using polythene, with limited success. When they went down, on particularly wet nights or because of a heavy dew, we replaced them and then dried out the originals. Between 3am and 6am was the toughest time on the mikes, but these quiet hours before dawn created the most magical atmosphere for recording, resulting in two of our classic masters, the title track, One World, and my favourite, Small Hours.
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Imagine someone trying that today...
 
My views on John Martyn are somewhat coloured. I saw him at the Cropredy Festival a few years ago
and it was sad to see how bad things had got with him.
A pale reflection of his glory days...
 
I do love the One World Album, and Small Hours is a stand out track. I remember reading a JM biography which said they set everything up as in Seekers post and went off to bed to leave JM on his own and the next morning they would review the tapes and see what they could do with them.
I have just become aware of a (maybe local) group of guys calling themselves The Solid Air Band who pay(play?) tribute to JM and his music I will have to check them out, as I missed them this Sat.
 
guey said:
Someone whose music I love; but I wish I'd never met him.
Drunken, boorish, sexist pillock - it took me a couple of years before I could listen to his music again.
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As they say, it can be dangerous to meet ones heroes. Like so many gifted people, sometimes there is something not quite right about them. I only met John Martyn once. We waited at the back door of the Hammersmith Odeon after one of his gigs, just to say hello. There were about four or five people including the the three of us so he wasn't being mobbed. Had a quick chat and told him what a great concert it was. My chum handed him a spliff which he lit up and thanked us for, then he stepped into a modest Mercedes and was driven off.
 
guey said:
Drunken, boorish ...
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Saw him loads of times between 1977 and 1992 (approx.).

9 Dec 1984, a Scottish promoter had organised a Concert for Ethiopia in Edinburgh. The bill was, in order of appearance;

A local artist who I don't recall, then;
Set 1 John Martyn
Set 2 Jim Diamond, w Clem Clempson - Guitar, Simon Kirke - Drums, Ronnie Leahy - Keyboards, Chrissie Stewart - Bass
Set 3 Rick Wakeman, w Billy Bremner - Guitar, Tony Fernandez - Drums, Chas Cronk - Bass
Set 4 Bert Jansch, w Richard Newman - Guitar, Lauren Albach - Vocals

Set 5 All-star band with Jack Bruce and Rory Gallagher w Ian Stewart - Keyboards, Charlie Watts - Drums, Dick Heckstall-Smith - Saxophone, Willie Garnett - Saxophone, Don Weller - Saxophone, John Pickard - Trombone?

Martyn's set went off OK, but during the all-star set 5, he barged onto the stage, made what he evidently thought were guitar-hero noises, strutted around in what he thought were guitar hero poses, and generally got in the way of everyone else. There's a few photos from the gig online, and in one of them he seems to be squaring up to Gallagher, as if to challenge him to a shoot-out. Some accounts relate that he'd been in a pub next door for the duration of sets 2 to 4, and got hammered.

RollingStonesSidestepsVolume5AllStarBand1984-12-09BenefitConcertForEthiopia%20(9).jpg


At one point, I could see him and a bunch of roadies offstage to the side of the PA stacks. He was walking around with his guitar on, and seemed to be exchanging angry words with the roadies. One roadie was casually sitting on a flight case, and Martyn took off his guitar, grabbed it by the neck, and was in the process of swinging it at the roadie when the rest of the crew jumped on him and bundled him away...
 
I had heard he wasn’t always the easiest to get along with. Shame really as there is real beauty, warmth and even tenderness in his writing and playing. Seems like a complicated character and disappointing that the greatness appears to be tinged with something less. For me though the songs stand on their own and still sound great.

Regards

Brian
 
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I remember going to see him at Hull uni....1973 , Solid Air era.

Before the concert we were in the bar having a drink.. sadly , as it turned out , so were John and Danny Thompson and they had clearly been in there longer than anyone else.

Concert started late ( not unusual for JM ) with both of them shuffling onto the stage with plasters on their faces.

He completed about two numbers and then announced that the PA was so bad that he couldn't go on with the concert. ( there was nothing wrong with it from where we were sitting ) He said something to the effect that he would try and re-schedule the concert and expected the promoter to honour our tickets ( ! )

As ever and as was fairly common the pair of them had got completely hammered and then proceeded to hammer each other.

The best concert I ever saw by him he was playing on the steps of a very large church in Barcelona ..it was a free concert put on by the city as part of their Saints week celebrations. That would be around 1987. Just him and just sublime.
 
Had to put it on and have a listen, and am wondering whether anyone else has the version I have, which is labelled in reverse? I'm listening to Dealer, One World, Smiling Stranger and Big Muff, but the label is telling me it's side 1.
The sleeve is Island Life Collection, 25Years, ILPM9492.
The quality of the music isn't affected, of course, some terrific musicianship, and that individual voice. Can't say I like all that he did, and only have Grace &Danger and One World LPs, never saw him live, but got interested on an old BBC programme, where he was playing on a ship? Dunno where, though, but was attracted to his voice and style of singing.
 
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