both ends BURNING ….

John Martyn died yesterday , January 29th 2009

I was privileged to have seen the great man play a couple of times, once in the 80’s at Cheltenham with his band, and once in a sublime duo performance with Danny Thompson at the Huntingdon Hall in Worcester, which I think was the last tour he did before the amputation of his leg. Once you heard JM’s incredible guitar playing and famous slurred vocal, you couldn’t forget it. If you ever have the need to stay up late and just think with a glass of whisky, you need to play either JM’s “Solid Air” or Joni Mitchell’s “Blue”.

John was one of the players to whom the word ‘original’ truly applied. The musical world is a lot poorer now JM and his great mentor Davy Graham have left us within the space of 6 weeks.

Bless the weather that brought you to me
Curse the day you go away
Bless the weather that brought you to me
Curse the storm that takes you away

Go and have a listen and raise a glass to Johnny Too Bad.

Danny Baker’s programme from BBC London on 29th January which became a tribute to John is here for a while, and is available as a torrent here.

Or here …

Here’s John playing “Spencer The Rover” in 1977.

Rolling Stone Obituary

The Word