RIP JOHN MARTYN
I saw Martyn on the "One World" Tour (77? 78?) and it was pretty spesh. He played solo with a bass sequencer-unit and a delay that pumped his guitar-lines out round the hall - they had wired up some sort of Quad speaker set-up so that his rhythms bounced, panned and orbited around the audience. I think it was Martyn's response to hanging out with Lee Perry and listening to Dub.
I've never seen an artist get so wrecked yet still sound so beautiful. He smoked 4 spliffs on stage, one after the other, and emptied an enormous bottle of wine down his throat during his set, but never played or sang a single bum or sour note - he was Apollo and Dionysus in the same package.
I bet he was a fucking pain to live with, but boy could the guy ever play back in his glory-days. And that voice...
posted by I am not Kek-w @ 8:24 PM
5 Comments:
That's quite something to have seen him in his heyday.
I can't claim to be any expert, but it's surprising there aren't boots of him live floating around. Agree about the voice, something that's increasingly important to me opened up somehow by Scott Walker. Before it was always instrumental voices, Miles, Ornette and so on.
Last time I got this upset over a musician's death it was when Simon Jeffes passed, something about their generosity.
Yeah, all those great voices: John Martyn, Scott Walker...I really love Robert Wyatt's voice too - I've always thought of him as The Great White Soul Singer, even tho he's the inverse of trad. 'Soul' - there's something beautifully emotional - almost hearbreaking - about his tone, his phrasing...
I had absolutely no idea Simon Jeffes had passed and I'm very sad to hear that.
I only discovered him about 5 years ago. Solid Air was released 2 years before I was born.
I've been searching YouTube for footage of Over The Hill but can only find covers...
A sad, sad day - if you can find it there was a documentary about him made in 2003, in the run up to him losing his leg. Fascinating insight into this great man.
Yeah, I saw the documentary last year when they re-broadcast it - he seemed pretty unrepentant about his wayward ways lol, even after the amputation. It was kinda poignant to me cos my dad lost both legs for similar reasons. He could never sing as beautifully as John Martyn tho.
ive only discovered him i the past year or so...an astounding talent...this is just so tragic :(
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