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Heaven and Earth
One World 2CD Deluxe
Live at Leeds 2CD Deluxe
Solid Air 2CD Deluxe
Grace & Danger 2CD Deluxe
BBC In Concert CD
4CD Boxed Set
Boxed Set
Live at the BBC DVD
BBC In Session CD
For me, no contest; Grace & Danger. The first John Martyn album I bought and the last one I saw him perform in November 2008... I really miss you John
ReplyDeleteYep I agree, with BTW a close second
ReplyDeleteJohn
Different days, different favourites. I think the pairing of Hurt in Your Heart and Baby Please Come Home on Grace and Danger take some beating. Some of the unreleased trackes on the remastered releases were amazing, particularly Ellie Rhee on Sunday's Child, if my memory serves me right (which is questionable) he sang it as an encore once in his raincoat. There are too many favourites, plus there are too many versions of favouries as well. Check out the version of Hurt in Your Heart on the box set, it comes from a Little Night Music TV recording and his guitar solo makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end... His voice on Make No Mistake from Live at Leeds... We could go on and on.
ReplyDeleteI was so pleased when that version of Hurt in you Heart was released on the box set, I remember seeing that tv programme back in 1981 which really turned me onto JM - I bought Grace & danger next day after hearing that. I had taped the programme onto a cassette that night but the tape fell apart some 20 years ago, shame the whole programme can't be released on video/dvd.
ReplyDeleteThe "Little Night Music" set is on the John Martyn In Vision video if you can track it down. That video also includes a number of JM tv performances that didn't make the BBC DVD, including "Make No Mistake" and "Spencer the Rover."
ReplyDeleteIn balance I think One World does it for me. The overall production and general 'blissed-out' mood makes me put it just ahead of Solid Air.
ReplyDeleteIn vision video ? - never even seen one, anyone got one they can copy for me ?
ReplyDeleteHurt in your heart/Grace and Danger
ReplyDeleteTremendous song that almost brings me to tears. Distraught album actually but as Kenny White once said "A lot of us are happier when we're sad".
Miss you JM (and I only found his music in 2008!
Shawn
Best album ,Bless the weather, followed by one world. These two were the best of both his worlds.Best performance,the live Old grey whistle test version of Could'nt love you more with Danny Thompson
ReplyDeleteAlmost an impossible choice. Too many moods, too many decades spanned. At the moment, best album - Inside Out. Best track - Working it Out (from ANS box set).
ReplyDeleteQuite agree with you, Will. Favourite song for me is 'Spencer the Rover' because the words are based on a conversation I had with JM in the bar before a gig in Ulster in November '74 (5th. to be exact, as the lyrics explain). We had a good chat the previous year as well. In those days he was a one-man band doing the college/uni circuit. That night he was not a happy man because the Irish Sea was very rough, the ferries were all cancelled and he had to fly over - from Scotland, I believe. He obviously wasn't too keen on being in the air so he had taken some Valium - allegedly! - so seemed quite relaxed when he went on stage. I jokingly asked him to 'write a song for me and put it on your next LP' as in 'Motel Blues' by Loudon Wainwright III and was absolutely astonished when he did. I am so proud of that song because he was such a great guy and, I think, absolutely unique and totally irreplaceable. I was absolutely gutted when I found out that he had passed away. I never got the chance to see him a third time.
ReplyDeleteSorry to be pedantic but Spencer the Rover is a traditional English folk song, John didn't write the lyrics.
ReplyDelete'The pedant is he who finds it impossible to read criticism of himself without immediately reaching for his pen and replying to the effect that the accusation is a gross insult to his person. He is, in effect, a man unable to laugh at himself.' Sigmund Freud, The Ego and the Id.
ReplyDeleteYou need to get out more at night, or you may develop 'certain developmental disorders'.
Despite your apologia, your tone could be 'perceived as condescending'.
'Spencer the Rover' is NOT "a traditional English folk song". Check the FACTS.
As I recall John heard this song being played by Robin Dransfield and then started to play it himself with lyric change here and there..
ReplyDeleteOK, I checked the facts..
ReplyDelete'Spencer The Rover' dates back to the mid-19th Century; The Bodleian Library website has songbook sheets dating from 1850-1870 with the printed lyrics.
The last two verses differ slightly from JM's version;
''My children flocked around me with their prit-pratling story,
With their prit-pratling story to drive away care,
So we'll be united, like ants like together,
Like bees in one hive contented we'll be.
Now, I am placed in my cottage contented,
With primroses and woodbine hanging round my door
As happy as they that have plenty of riches
Contented I'll stay and go rambling no more''
Also, from 'Some People Are Crazy' by John Neil Munro;
'...John had fallen in love with the song after hearing Robin Dransfield play it at the Glasgow Folk Centre in mid-1960's..'
Then there's the LP cover for Sunday's Child which clearly states 'all songs written by John Martyn except tracks 6 & 9, trad. arr. John Martyn'
That's my recollection to, however all Munro's book does is diarise what is on this website and Big Muff, it's an interesting book but only an introduction to JM. Well written I grant you but a difficult task to write a book about someone who you admire from afar.
ReplyDeleteThe book I want to read is the one as yet unwritten by John Hillarby who runs this site and clearly understands JM's music and is 'in touch' with it more than most. He was also a close brother of JM as well. Now that book would be worth repeated reading!
It is really difficult to name a favourite JM release. My top ten list has to include Bless the weather, One world,Sundays child, No little boy,Well Kept secret,Saphire,
ReplyDeleteOn the Cobbles,Solid air,And and Down,Dirty and Live(Live at the Shaw theatre). Favourite songs I have the same problem with. A top ten list would include Easy Blues,Gun Money,Saphire,Fine lines,Solid air, Sundays child, Ways to Cry,Serendipity, John Wayne and Lonely love.
I listen to JM every day and No little boy is hard to get through without a tear.
Favourite album One World favourite track Couldnt Love You More. Miss you John.
ReplyDeleteVery hard to decide. Can be different every day. Currently One day without you, Bless the Weather and Spencer the Rover. John's voice on Spencer is fantastic.
ReplyDeleteSpencer the Rover does seem to be a firm favourite amongst the fanbase, it seems odd that something in such a 'traditional'vein should warrant such ongoing admiration. Perhaps all you guys are just 'folkies'at heart after all...les cousins forever!?!?!?
ReplyDeleteThree from my top ten... Spencer the Rover because he seems to have found a tale of his own life in a traditional song and he sings it with deep understanding. His cover of Rock Salt and Nails because, for all that he's covered his travails with women in so many other songs, you can imagine him resorting to filling up his shotgun with rock, salt and nails 'if ladies were squirrels'. And, relax guys, you can be a JM fan and love May You Never, especially if you saw him do it in Les Cousins in a room so full of dope that this 15-year old schoolboy got his first high. It's great to see him so chuffed with his version accompanied by Kathy Mattea. If you want to be reminded of JM happy, check it on Youtube.
ReplyDeleteMay You Never.....sung by John Martyn & Kathy Mattea in a Scottish castle for the Transatlantic Sessions takes some beating but
ReplyDeleteit's amost impossible to pick a favourite from such a tremendous body of work!! The Fisherman's Dream is also a fine song & one that John himself called his "First Hymn" according to the book "Some People are Crazy"
which should be recommended reading for all John Martyn afficionados.....God Bless, John.
You were one of the Best, if not THE Best!!
I note that the Transatlantic Sessions version of May You Never has quite a few fans - me too, I think it's the best rendition of all. I love the expression on John's face at the end of Jerry Douglas' sublime dobro solo..looked like he was enjoying it so much he almost forgot to sing!
ReplyDeletei think the "bless the weather" album is my absolute favorite , and the best intro when you're trying to turn on someone new . if they don't "get" that one , they prob'ly won't get the rest .
ReplyDeletebut in a very different style - with the phil collins influence - i still get chills every time i listen to "please fall in love" and "don't you go" from the end of the "glorious fool" album . a stunning , profound , unforgettable recording .
- jim
Big John singing in the rain takes some beating...
ReplyDeleteAnything and EVERYTHING with Danny Thompson. Particularly almost anything pre-80s and some spotty late 90s like Excuse Me Mister and One for the Road.
ReplyDeleteAmy from New Hampshire
Anthing and EVERYTHING with Danny Thompson. Anything earlier than the 80s and anything with Thompson in the late 90s like Excuse Me Mister and One for the Road.
ReplyDeleteAmy from New Hampshire
hard to look past spencer the rover and the make no mistake/beverley/bless the weather medley on live at leeds.
ReplyDeletePlease can anyone tell me where I can find a copy of Rock Salt & Nails, it appears to be only available on a compilation album, did it appear on an original ?
ReplyDeletePaul - rock salt and nails is on the no little boy album, the vocals are shared with levon helm. It is a good version - but it pales in comparison to the times I've seen john performing it live. On stage it became a gigantic soulful volcanic eruption of a song and was guaranteed to take your breath away...aaah, good times...if anyone out there has a live version of the song i wouldnt mind getting hold of a copy...cheers, Will.
ReplyDeleteSurprised to see no one seems to be a fan of Johns and...period which happens to be my favourite John album.No mentions of The Apprentice and Cooltide either.I have all of his cds and have been listening to him for manys the year.My favourite song would be Fishermans Dream closely followed by the funky Step It Up.
ReplyDeleteThought you would all like to know that there seems to be a JM 'tribute' album in the making. Don't know much about who's behind it or when it's due to appear. So far there's Robert Smith (the cure)doing Small Hours and Skye (ex morcheeba) doing Solid Air. Beth Orton is also involved, as are one or two others that i also know very little about. Sounds interesting i think. Apparently, Sting was initially asked to contribute a version of Solid Air, but had to decline the offer due to his own busy schedule - perhaps that's a blessing in diguise! If I find anything else out - I'll keep you all posted. Anyone got any updates on the progress of Willing to Work??...cheers...Will...x
ReplyDeleteSure I may miss some, but these soon come to my mind:
ReplyDeleteOne World, Small Hours, Smiling Stranger,
Bless the Weather,Go down easy, Fine Lines, Solid Air, May You Never, Hurt in your Heart, Lookin' on, Comin' in on time (?), Rope Soul'd (oh, what a soul..), One step too far, Baby please come home, Grace and Danger, Sunday's child (live version on LP: "Philentropy"),She's a Lover, Carmine, The Sky is Crying, Can't Live Without, You Don't Know What Love Is, Cry me a river, and perhaps most of all: Outside In (live version, London 1991 I guess)...that guitar and voice make me cry ..cry me a river..oh how I miss you. Be forever the Smiling Stranger in Heaven, big John..
I love 'Looking on', the original from Grace and Danger and his vocal performance of it at the live show at the Shaw Theater with David Gilmour. The lyrics and feel are just great.
ReplyDeleteJust come across " May you never" on a " Old Grey Whistle Test" CD that I bought the other day and thought how come I never picked up on J.M. before, don't know but really sorry I did'nt and now will find out more as he is GOOD !!! Sorry now to find out on website that he has passed away what a loss and really sorry I did not know this. Best respects to him.
ReplyDelete