John Martyn
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John Martyn (1948 - 2009) was a British singer-songwriter and guitarist known for such songs as "Solid Air" (1973).
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Biography
Early life
Martyn was born in New Malden, Surrey, England. Martyn's parents, both opera singers, divorced when he was five and he spent his childhood alternating between England and Scotland. Much of this was spent in the care of his grandmother. His strongest ties were in Glasgow, and he attended Shawlands Academy there.
Late 1960s and collaborations with Beverley Martyn
Mentored by Hamish Imlach, Martyn's professional musical career began when he was seventeen, playing a blend of blues and folk that resulted in a unique style that made him a key figure in the London folk scene during the mid-1960s. He signed to Chris Blackwell's Island Records in 1967 and released his first album, London Conversation, the following year.
This first album was soon followed by The Tumbler, which was moving towards jazz. By 1970 Martyn had developed a wholly original and idiosyncratic sound: acoustic guitar run through a fuzzbox, phase-shifter, and Echoplex. This sound was first apparent on Stormbringer! in 1970, which featured Martyn's then wife, Beverley Kutner, as his collaborator. She also appeared on The Road to Ruin in 1970.
1970s
In 1973, Martyn released one of the defining British albums of the 1970s, Solid Air, the title song a tribute to the singer-songwriter Nick Drake, a close friend and label-mate, who in 1974 died suddenly from an overdose of antidepressants. On this album, as with the one that preceded it, Bless the Weather, Martyn collaborated with jazz bass player, Danny Thompson, with whom he proceeded to have a fruitful musical partnership which continued until his death. He also developed a new, slurred vocal style, the timbre of which resembled a tenor saxophone.
Following the commercial success of Solid Air, Martyn quickly recorded and released the experimental Inside Out, a more difficult album with emphasis placed on feel and improvisation rather than song structure. In 1974, he followed this with Sunday's Child. In September of the next year he released a live album, Live at Leeds—Martyn had been unable to convince Island to release the record, and resorted to selling individually signed copies by mail from his home. Live at Leeds features Danny Thompson and drummer John Stevens, and is notable not only for the performances given, but the recording quality and incredibly quiet audience for a live recording. After releasing Live at Leeds, Martyn took a sabbatical, including a visit to Jamaica, spending time with famous reggae producer Lee "Scratch" Perry.
In 1977, he released One World, which led some commentatorsTemplate:Who to describe Martyn as the "Father of Trip-Hop". It included tracks such as "Small Hours" and "Big Muff", a collaboration with Lee "Scratch" Perry. One World is notable for having been recorded outside, the album's lush soundscapes are partly the result of microphones picking up ambient sounds, such as water from a nearby lake.Template:Fact
1980s and breakup of marriage
Martyn's marriage to Beverley finally broke down at the end of the 1970s and, according to his official website, "John hit the self destruct button". Out of this period, described by Martyn as "a very dark period in my life", came the album Grace and Danger.
Released in October 1980, the album had been held up for a year by Island boss Chris Blackwell. He was a close friend of John and Beverley, and found the album too openly disturbing to release. Only after intense and sustained pressure from Martyn did Blackwell agree to release the album.
Commenting on that period, Martyn said, "I was in a dreadful emotional state over that record. I was hardly in control of my own actions. The reason they finally released it was because I freaked: Please get it out! I don't give a damn about how sad it makes you feel—it's what I'm about: the direct communication of emotion. Grace and Danger was very cathartic, and it really hurt."
In the late 1980s Martyn would cite Grace and Danger as his favourite album, and said that it was "probably the most specific piece of autobiography I've written. Some people keep diaries, I make records." The album has since become one of his highest-regarded, prompting a deluxe double-disc issue in 2007, containing the original album remastered.
Phil Collins played drums and sang backing vocals on Grace and Danger and subsequently played drums on and produced Martyn's next album, Glorious Fool, in 1981.
Martyn left Island records in 1981, and recorded Glorious Fool and Well Kept Secret for WEA, the label clearly aiming to bring him mainstream success. Glorious Fool was a sharp departure from Martyn's 70s sound and at the time was regarded as something of a sell-out by his die-hard fans, but time has revealed it to be a much stronger album than it seemed at the time, with some fine songwriting and vocals. Well Kept Secret (1982) was less successful, hardly surprising as Martyn was heavily medicated during the sessions, the result of a punctured lung, and appears not to remember taking part!
Martyn released a live album, Philentropy, in 1983.
Returning to Island records, Martyn recorded Sapphire (1984), Piece by Piece (1986) and the live Foundations (1987) before being dropped by Island in 1988.
1990s and beyond
Martyn released The Apprentice in 1990 and Cooltide in 1991 for Permanent Records, and then rerecorded many of his "classic" songs for No Little Boy (1993). The similar 1992 release Couldn't Love You More was unauthorised by and disowned by Martyn. Material from these recordings and his two Permanent albums has been endlessly recycled on many releases. Permanent Records also released a live 2 CD set called "Live" in 1994
And (1996) came out on Go!Discs and saw John draw heavily on hip-hop textures while blending a sound still distinctively Martyn, a direction which saw more complete expression on 2000's Glasgow Walker ; The Church With One Bell (1998) is a covers album taking in material from Portishead to Billie Holiday.
In 2001 Martyn appeared on the track Deliver Me by Faithless keyboard player and DJ Sister Bliss.
In July 2006 the documentary Johnny Too Bad was screened by the BBC. The programme documented the period surrounding the operation to amputate Martyn's right leg below the knee (the result of a burst cyst) and the writing and recording of On the Cobbles (2004), an album described by Peter Marsh on the BBC Music website as "the strongest, most consistent set he's come up with in years." Much of Cobbles was a revisiting of his acoustic-based sound.
He continued to write and collaborate with various artists up until his death. He recorded a ballad entitled "Really Gone" with Ultan John which was released in November 2006.
On 4 February 2008, Martyn received the lifetime achievement award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk awards. The award was presented by Phil Collins. The BBC website says of Martyn, "his heartfelt performances have either suggested or fully demonstrated an idiosyncratic genius." Martyn performed "Over the Hill" and "May You Never" at the ceremony, with John Paul Jones accompanying on mandolin.
To mark Martyn's 60th birthday Island released on 1 September 2008 a career-spanning 4CD boxed set, Ain't No Saint. The acclaimed set includes many live recordings and unreleased studio material, researched and compiled by his close friend John Hillarby who also runs the official Martyn website.
Martyn was appointed OBE in the 2009 New Year Honours.
Martyn died on 29 January 2009.
Discography
Studio albums
- London Conversation (October 1967)
- The Tumbler (December 1968)
- Stormbringer! (February 1970) (with Beverley Martyn)
- The Road to Ruin (November 1970) (with Beverley Martyn)
- Bless the Weather (November 1971)
- Solid Air (February 1973)
- Inside Out (October 1973)
- Sunday's Child (January 1975)
- One World (November 1977)
- Grace and Danger (October 1980)
- Glorious Fool (September 1981)
- Well Kept Secret (August 1982)
- Sapphire (November 1984)
- Piece by Piece (February 1986)
- The Apprentice (March 1990)
- Cooltide (November 1991)
- And (August 1996)
- The Church with One Bell (covers album) (March 1998)
- Glasgow Walker (May 2000)
- On the Cobbles (April 2004)
Other
- Live at Leeds (September 1975)
- So Far So Good (1977)
- Philentropy (November 1983)
- Foundations (October 1987)
- Couldn't Love You More (October 1992)
- No Little Boy (July 1993)
- Sweet Little Mysteries: The Island Anthology (1994)
- Live (1994)
- Late Night John (2004)
- The Battle of Medway: 17 July 1973 (live) (2007)
- Anthology (2007)
- The Simmer Dim (2008)
- The July Wakes (2008)
- Ain't No Saint (2008) 40-year anthology
See also
