LONDON CONVERSATION

John Martyn

Prog Folk

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London Conversation was John Martyn's first album, which was recorded when he was just 18. It is much more folk oriented than his jazz/blues tinged offerings that came later. But his altered, mainly acoustic tunings give a different feel to the album than to some other Folk albums of the time. His playing was already slick and thoughtful, accompanied by his raw, melodic vocals. It's also largely self-penned with just one or two covers, including Dylan's "Don't Think Twice It's Alright". His own "Fairy Tale Lullaby" and "Back To Stay" are sublime. "Rolling Home" is also an eye-opener and I believe it's him that plays the sitar. It's quite a stonker. Recommended to anyone who enjoys Nick Drake and Bob Dylan etc. It's a strong album but not among Martyn's most progressive, I'll give it three and a half stars.

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Posted Saturday, January 28, 2012 | Review Permalink

kenethlevine
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Prog-Folk Team

Somehow during my period of burgeoning interest in British Isles folk rock that began in earnest when I heard a concert recording of STEELEYE SPAN on radio in 1976 (and for reasons I won't go into thought it was RENAISSANCE!), I never picked up a JOHN MARTYN album and indeed was no more than vaguely aware of him. He appears to have gained almost immediate acclaim for his association with the likes of JOE BOYD and by extension FAIRPORT CONVENTION, but gained a more than cult following through some of his early 1980s releases, at a time when I was in despair at the exaggerated at the death of prog. If I heard him during these years, it made no impression.

As far as this debut goes, I will sum it up with an overly simplistic "you had to be there" trope. It's "nice", even pretty, sweetly personal in that slice of life manner, and an early pioneering effort for the singer/songwriter/acoustic guitar era, soon to be adopted by the more accomplished more engaging works of the likes of DONOVAN, CAT STEVENS. AL STEWART, NICK DRAKE, GORDON LIGHTFOOT (whose contemporaneous works were already in another class), and others far more obscure like NIGEL MAZLYN JONES and BOB THEIL. The influence of DYLAN is felt and he even covers the iconic "Don't Think Twice it's Alright" for further confirmation. To be fair, at least at this stage he sings better than most of these though their material and their voices might be more in sync than those of Martyn. Most importantly, they had a real identity.

Nonetheless, a few gems are scattered in here, like the opener "Fairy Tale Lullaby", "Ballad of an Elder Woman", and "Golden Girl", to which the aforementioned CAT must have listened on repeat while recovering from TB and without which his brilliant "Mona Bone Jakon" might never have existed. The rest is history, but I round up because, though I wasn't there, I probably should have been. Respect.

Report this review (#3146289)
Posted Sunday, January 19, 2025 | Review Permalink

JOHN MARTYN London Conversation ratings only

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Adams Bolero
MichelNeurophile
ibnacio (Ignacio A. Garc�a Valdivia)
Blobski
Dougless
Vano
Guran7004 (Lars-G�ran Ros�n)
Jonny66
topeka (Tony)
ZBDMiller
andrewdene (Andrew Dene Helbig)
simmo (Jonathan Simpson)
altomont (simon vockings)
lord777lord7 (Kuehne, Axel)
HarryAngel746 (Maciej) COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
ahmetbolanyig (Ahmet BOLANYIG)
dannyb
alexdeley (Alex Deley)
Gordy (El Gringo del Mundo) SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Folk/Eclectic/PSIKE/Metal/Post/Math Team
CoalBlackSmith (Winston Greene)
Piskie (Malcolm Pinch)
mgb90 (Matthew Baker)

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