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JOHN MARTYN

Prog Folk • United Kingdom


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John Martyn biography
Born Iain David McGeachy - September 11, 1948 (New Malden, Surrey, UK) - January 29, 2009

Like a vast majority of 1960s UK folk artistes (such as INCREDIBLE STRING BAND, STRING DRIVEN THING, DONOVAN, The PENTANGLE, JETHRO TULL's IAN ANDERSON, etc.), John Martyn (Born Iain David McGeachy), grew up in Scotland and by the age of 15 took up the guitar and by the time he'd finished school, he had started to play folk music in Glaswegian pubs. Taking influences from DAVID GRAHAM and getting friendly with ISB's Clive Palmer, he soon found his own style, which brought him to Island label's boss Chris Blackwell's ears and earned him a recording deal.

Martyn's first two albums London Conversations and The Tumbler are about as straight folk and folk rock as you can get and were both recorded under Joe Boyd's tutelage, and it is through him he met singer Beverly Kutner. She would quickly become Mrs Martyn and they recorded together two albums, which are essential in Martyn's instrumental progression. Both Stormbringer and Road To Ruin have their own duo charm, but also hold the first hints of the future soundscape of John Martyn.

Ending his musical partnership with Beverley (she'd still write a few lyrics and make the odd appearance in coming album) after the birth of their second child and returning to the UK (Hastings, Kent), John Martyn's musical realm took another giant step with the stunning Bless The Weather. Indeed Beverley's acoustic guitar strumming had allowed him to pick up the electric guitar and he became enamoured with the pedal effects (but also daring 'electrify' his songwriting), especially one that would make his guitar sound famous, the Echoplex. With BTW, Martyn proposed us a blend of folk, blues and jazz, that can only maybe compared with Tim Buckley around Happy Sad or Lorca, even if the latter's vocal prowess made him unique as Martyn's Echoplex. With the stunning Inside Out and the career-defining Solid Air, John Martyn developed an incredible sound, helped by the former PENTANGLE bassist Danny Thompson, one of the best and most recognizable bass paw in the genre. With the less-successful Sunday's Child in 1974, Martyn's new studio recording, he would eventually decrease the frequency of album releases. Unfortunately he was prone to excessive drinking and substance abuse even this soon in his career), which caused his erratic behaviour, and later growing health problems often having to cancel gigs with no notice....
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JOHN MARTYN discography


Ordered by release date | Showing ratings (top albums) | Help Progarchives.com to complete the discography and add albums

JOHN MARTYN top albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

3.20 | 23 ratings
London Conversation
1967
2.82 | 20 ratings
The Tumbler
1968
2.93 | 22 ratings
John & Beverley Martyn: Stormbringer!
1970
3.26 | 21 ratings
John & Beverley Martyn: The Road to Ruin
1970
3.98 | 46 ratings
Bless The Weather
1971
4.02 | 81 ratings
Solid Air
1973
3.59 | 36 ratings
Inside Out
1973
2.75 | 23 ratings
Sunday's Child
1975
3.69 | 37 ratings
One World
1977
3.44 | 31 ratings
Grace And Danger
1980
2.71 | 20 ratings
Glorious Fool
1981
2.50 | 15 ratings
Well Kept Secret
1982
2.76 | 14 ratings
Sapphire
1984
2.98 | 15 ratings
Piece By Piece
1986
3.70 | 10 ratings
The Apprentice
1990
3.80 | 10 ratings
Cooltide
1991
1.38 | 7 ratings
Couldn't Love You More
1992
3.38 | 8 ratings
No Little Boy
1993
3.25 | 4 ratings
And
1996
3.20 | 5 ratings
The Church With One Bell
1998
3.25 | 4 ratings
Glasgow Walker
2000
3.71 | 7 ratings
On The Cobbles
2004
3.78 | 9 ratings
Heaven And Earth
2011

JOHN MARTYN Live Albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

4.12 | 15 ratings
Live At Leeds
1976
3.67 | 6 ratings
Philentropy
1983
3.96 | 6 ratings
BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert
1992
3.25 | 4 ratings
Live
1995
4.25 | 4 ratings
Germany 1986
2001
4.25 | 4 ratings
On Air: John Martyn
2006
3.13 | 5 ratings
In Session At the BBC
2006
4.00 | 4 ratings
BBC Live In Concert
2007
0.00 | 0 ratings
The Simmer Dim
2008
4.00 | 1 ratings
Live at The Hanging Lamp
2013

JOHN MARTYN Videos (DVD, Blu-ray, VHS etc)

0.00 | 0 ratings
Live from London
2000
4.25 | 4 ratings
John Martyn At The BBC
2006
0.00 | 0 ratings
The Man Upstairs - In Concert in Germany 1978
2007
0.00 | 0 ratings
Solid Air - Live at The Roundhouse
2007

JOHN MARTYN Boxset & Compilations (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

4.20 | 5 ratings
Sweet Little Mysteries: The Island Anthology
1994
3.22 | 4 ratings
Ain't No Saint
2008

JOHN MARTYN Official Singles, EPs, Fan Club & Promo (CD, EP/LP, MC, Digital Media Download)

0.00 | 0 ratings
May You Never
1971
0.00 | 0 ratings
Don't Want to Know About Evil
1973
0.00 | 0 ratings
Over the Hill / Head and Heart
1977
0.00 | 0 ratings
Dancing
1978
0.00 | 0 ratings
Please Fall in Love with Me
1981
0.00 | 0 ratings
Over the Rainbow
1984
0.00 | 0 ratings
Lonely Love
1986
0.00 | 0 ratings
Deny This Love
1990
0.00 | 0 ratings
Jack the Lad
1992

JOHN MARTYN Reviews


Showing last 10 reviews only
 Well Kept Secret by MARTYN, JOHN album cover Studio Album, 1982
2.50 | 15 ratings

BUY
Well Kept Secret
John Martyn Prog Folk

Review by kenethlevine
Special Collaborator Prog-Folk Team

2 stars There comes a time on every journey, no matter how loosely planned, that one acknowledges it's time to bail, whether it's rats off a sinking ship, that year round post graduation trip with the friend to whom you weren't speaking 3 months in, and everything in between. For my blow by blow set of JOHN MARTYN reviews, that time is now, not that I won't necessarily revisit some of his later albums at a future date. It's been a 4 step drop from the visionary "One World", with "Well Kept Secret" his new nadir, and we can't even blame PHIL COLLINS for this one. I still can't award 1 star for this early 1980s R&B drivel by an erstwhile folkie, from which there is no identity to steal, for his increasingly BOWIE influenced deep bass vocals may have themselves influenced other Scots like BIG COUNTRY and SIMPLE MINDS, and a host of other of the more accomplished from the middle of that decade. In addition, both "You Might Need a Man" and "Back with a Vengeance", as infantile as their lyrical messages might be, hit the sweet spot for this style between which it and I have no love lost. At this point it is indeed a well kept secret that this was his highest charting UK album, because its success was ephemeral in contrast to MARTYN's secure legacy.
 Glorious Fool by MARTYN, JOHN album cover Studio Album, 1981
2.71 | 20 ratings

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Glorious Fool
John Martyn Prog Folk

Review by kenethlevine
Special Collaborator Prog-Folk Team

2 stars Decline in artistic integrity results in a surge in commercial success, though in the end it's the earlier material that most surviving fans remember fondly. Sound familiar?

This has about as much in common with his folk rock phase, say, "Solid Air" as MICHAEL MARTIN MURPHY's 1980s successes have to do with his early progressive country phase, or, for that matter, PHIL COLLINS and GENESIS superstardom with "Selling England by the Pound". Why mention PHIL COLLINS at all? Because he produced this overly lubricated chart bound affair and contributed percussions.

With that out of the way, one could see this as a continuation of a trend that began with the prodigious "One World" in 1977, and is certainly the logical offspring to "Grace and Danger", just not as consistent or enjoyable, sacrificing genuineness for a variation on early 1980s seductiveness that is ironically a turnoff.

On parallels to COLLINS, as time went by, he became more and more about "I'm a great drummer", and so his banging got high in the mix and insisted on itself. That was beginning to happen in his own career at the same time, and gone was the subtlety of "In the Air Tonight" for instance. The colossally failed funk rockers "Amsterdam", "Perfect Hustler" and "Never Say Never" do much to degrade "Glorious Fool", but even the ballads "Hearts and Keys", like a fossilized DAVID SYLVIAN in terms of dynamism, and the lackluster title cut lack any emotional tilt, while the reasonable remake of "Couldn't Love You More" doesn't add to the song's legacy.

If this was all there was, I would gladly award my first 1 star rating to a MARTYN album, but it's salvaged from the wreckage by a handful of above average numbers, the best of these being "Pascanel". "Didn't do that" proves he could have done better with the aforementioned duds, and might have inspired the likes of a few now renowned Senegalese artists. "Don't You go" has been oft covered and represents Martyn's best excursion into a unique take on trad sounding folk, as opposed to his more transparent "Spencer the Rover" from some time back.

While this is clearly a 2 star album, it's better than his others of that caste, while any fool can see it's worlds away from his glory days.

 Grace And Danger by MARTYN, JOHN album cover Studio Album, 1980
3.44 | 31 ratings

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Grace And Danger
John Martyn Prog Folk

Review by kenethlevine
Special Collaborator Prog-Folk Team

3 stars While JOHN MARTYN was many things over his lengthy career, up until 1980 one of those was never polished, let alone slick. With the enlistment of PHIL COLLINS who was about to attain massive audiences on at least 2 fronts, he here enters the realm of light jazz and sophisticated R&B tinged pop, still with a degree of experimentation but mostly salvaged by a few of his best numbers and a massively talented backing band, with special kudos to keyboardist TOMMY EYRE whose credit list was like a CVS receipt even by this early date.

I admit it's happened before that my first reaction to a MARTYN recording was "yuck", and on a few occasions it was also my last, but here my initial distaste was due to leader and band waking up only after track 3. "Johnny Too Bad" reminds me of a few of PETE BARDENS' poppier vocal tracks of the 1990s, bouncy, catchy, and at the very least a funky guilty pleasure. This is followed 2 equally appealing numbers: the popular ballad "Sweet Little Mystery" and the spacier ballad "Hurt in Your Heart". "Save Some for Me" is more upbeat with innovative rhythms. Hooks abound.

This was released as MARTYN's marriage to Beverley was either disintegrating or had already had the plug pulled, but it doesn't sound much less dour or more cheerful than most of his other efforts from a tumultuous decade of that relationship, the unsavory details about which you can read elsewhere. It's not quite "One World" nor does it even try to be. It's more a case of grace under pressure.

 One World by MARTYN, JOHN album cover Studio Album, 1977
3.69 | 37 ratings

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One World
John Martyn Prog Folk

Review by kenethlevine
Special Collaborator Prog-Folk Team

4 stars After a relative lull in the previous 2 albums, JOHN MARTYN desperately needed a break, and travelled to Jamaica for inspiration in the form of a BURNING SPEAR. This influential infusion rewarded him and his fans with a second career peak, as well as a continuation of his once an album stylistic shift, here to a variation of world music that fits with its contemporaries like a puzzle piece that you clipped or appended to in order to finish first. It's a little bit reggae, a little bit krautrock (ok, like CAN was doing at the time), a little bit jazz and blues (PASSPORT, TRAFFIC via STEVIE WINWOOD), and yeah, a little bit country (kinda kiddin). Almost all is good or great though, in particular the sensuous title cut, the little bit middle eastern "Smiling Stranger", the popular "Couldn't Love you More", beating JOE COCKER at his own game, and the ambient cunning of the epilogue, "Small Hours". Even "Dancing" is worthwhile - I mean don't hate on him given this is 1977 and if you had a pulse you needed to hit the planks - for being a rare joyous number from this often overly serious fellow. Highly recommended to non purists of any stripe, and aren't we all?
 Sunday's Child by MARTYN, JOHN album cover Studio Album, 1975
2.75 | 23 ratings

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Sunday's Child
John Martyn Prog Folk

Review by kenethlevine
Special Collaborator Prog-Folk Team

2 stars Having been musically fecund up to this point, JOHN MARTYN saw 1974 pass without a release, though "Sunday's Child" was recorded that year. It's...different...again, more in a blues-boogie vein with less of his feral guitar effects, but still a serving and a half of psychedelia, which somewhat saves the album from full fledged forgettability. Once again, a trad tune is covered - one has to wonder if some of his frequent guests encouraged this - but it's definitely not his forte in a field already over-sown in 1975. Though "Root Love" and "Call me Crazy" both unveil creative passages, much of this floats by like an indolent river. Ultimately nothing hits even the secondary highs of the prior 3 releases, so I'd recommend skipping "Sunday's Child" every day of the week.
 Inside Out by MARTYN, JOHN album cover Studio Album, 1973
3.59 | 36 ratings

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Inside Out
John Martyn Prog Folk

Review by kenethlevine
Special Collaborator Prog-Folk Team

3 stars In keeping with Martyn's implicit philosophy, his second 1973 release is quite different from his first, with many more blues influences knocking on, nay, knocking down the door. While his echoplex and spacey keyboards on "Solid Air" were revolutionary early that same calendar year, they seem timid relative to the experimentation on numbers like "Outside In", the title a clever and a propos inversion of the album name. Unfortunately, some of that strength is also a weakness, with the angst towards its completion and in the also promising "Make no Mistake" being unfortunately reminiscent of TIM BUCKLEY's "Starsailor" in the most irritating ways, and transforming a 6 minute classic to an eight and a half minute "valiant effort". I mean cmon where's the folk here?

Actually, the folk is mostly in the second track which is a lead guitar jam of a trad celtic tune; if I hadn't heard it a thousand times I might be impressed; well, I am impressed I suppose, but to a point. It's also in the flamenco of the otherwise dim "Ain't no Saint". My picks here are "Fine Lines", which is a luxurious ballad evolved from the prior two albums; the unpretentious "Glory of Love"; and the closer "So Much in Love with You" that marries blues to his balladic approach.

A major step down from its two predecessors, "Inside Out" is perhaps a bit too outside the box for its own good, though those who prefer their CAN a bit folkier might venture inside.

 Solid Air by MARTYN, JOHN album cover Studio Album, 1973
4.02 | 81 ratings

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Solid Air
John Martyn Prog Folk

Review by kenethlevine
Special Collaborator Prog-Folk Team

4 stars The measure of an artist is, to me, in part established by their ability to simultaneously reinvent themselves while still sounding authentic, not to mention retaining that familiarity that can be critical to fans. As of "Solid Air", JOHN MARTYN had been balancing these qualities for 6 years, even if the quality had not always been top tier, but for the duo of "Bless the Weather" and its successor "Solid Air", he reached what many consider his peak. The first was a more acoustic slice of generally optimistic folk rock that, while well supported, comes off like a true solo record; the second, under consideration here, sounds more like a band with Martyn at the helm, and with a broader scope from blues to jazz to para ambient. If the potency of "Bless the Weather" was delivered through the songs themselves, the secret to "Solid Air is in its arrangements. It doesn't hurt that the guest list is even more impressive with the addition of several FAIRPORT members (I'm not going to check if they were current, former or future at this juncture) and TRISTAN FRY.

The album peaks early, with a boom echo towards the end. The title cut is an atmospheric cautionary tale with fascinating lyrics that may or not have been aimed at his downcast friend NICK DRAKE. "Over the Hill", along with "May You Never", are the throwbacks to 1971 in their deceptive simplicity and positivity, and not out of place at all. "Don't Want to Know" is of a similar theme but the keyboards, here and elsewhere, impart an eerie air that seems ahead of its time for prog folk. "I'd Rather Be the Devil" is where Martyn's revolutionary almost didgeridoo-like effects reach their apex, and is one of the heavier pieces here. I also adore the brooding and subdued explosiveness of "The Man in the Station" with its elegant lead guitar embellishments. Less successful again are the bluesy "Go Down Easy" and the unfortunate closer about a jelly roll that seems like a marginal improvement on the sugar lump of yore.

As I am discovering Martyn through an astute co-conspirator (thanks B) and have no idea what lies next, I hope you will continue to take your time and discover him with me

 Bless The Weather by MARTYN, JOHN album cover Studio Album, 1971
3.98 | 46 ratings

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Bless The Weather
John Martyn Prog Folk

Review by kenethlevine
Special Collaborator Prog-Folk Team

4 stars You don't just summon the virtuosity of RICHARD THOMPSON, DANNY THOMPSON, PAUL KOSSOFF and "RABBIT" unless you've garnered some attention prior to said summons, which apparently JOHN MARTYN did during the commercially unsuccessful collaborations with spouse BEVERLEY. Here she is relegated to occasional backing vocals on a surprisingly carefree release as these matters go.

Apart from one abysmal blues number and an overrated but decent instrumental, this is an inspired take on singer songwriter folk rock with the added bonus of AAA session folk that somehow don't even overshadow MARTYN's playing. Apart from the earnest attention grabbing opener, "Bless the Weather" skips merrily from strength to strength from the Caribbean enhanced "Walk to the Water" to the LOGGINS and MESSINA like "Back Down the River", and the influence of NICK DRAKE's only slightly depressed alter ego everywhere. "Just Now" and "Head and Heart" would be my picks if forced to choose just one (!), the first for all the above reasons and the second for Martyn's savvy, rhythmic technique that attains its apex in the closing minutes when paired with Danny's double bass..

Easily Martyn's best to this point, "Bless the Weather" delivers sunshine heaped upon sunshine, perhaps reflecting a relatively happy period in his life, but without being cloying in the slightest. Unexpected and better for it.

 John & Beverley Martyn: The Road to Ruin by MARTYN, JOHN album cover Studio Album, 1970
3.26 | 21 ratings

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John & Beverley Martyn: The Road to Ruin
John Martyn Prog Folk

Review by kenethlevine
Special Collaborator Prog-Folk Team

3 stars Released later the same year as "Stormbringer", this second and final equal billing collaboration between the Martyns is vastly superior, from the production to the songwriting and arrangements. Both artists are hitting their stride here, though Beverley was never, or at least only when it was too late, afforded the opportunity to build upon this. It's a shame because her assuredness in the timely "Primrose Street" and the infectious "Auntie Aviator" should have magnified her legacy. In the meantime, John pens two classics - the atypically melodic "Give Us a Ring" in which Beverley contributes triumphant backing vocals, and the title cut, beginning like many of his ballads but morphing into a boisterous extended piano and sax blues outro that hints at higher ambitions. This is the only road worth navigating in your exploration of the brief tenure of these two talents as a single entity.
 John & Beverley Martyn: Stormbringer! by MARTYN, JOHN album cover Studio Album, 1970
2.93 | 22 ratings

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John & Beverley Martyn: Stormbringer!
John Martyn Prog Folk

Review by kenethlevine
Special Collaborator Prog-Folk Team

2 stars Beverley Kutner met John Martyn in 1969. In the fashion of that era, they were quickly married and recorded two duo albums in the span of a year before Beverley stepped back from direct participation. "Stormbringer" is the first, and considered a key moment in the evolution of Martyn, though it's static in a decidedly non-Darwinian manner. You would think that, with two songwriters, two singers, superb guest artists in particular on piano and bass, this would at least offer more variety than John's prior solo releases, but this is like the gray water used in showers by those who take our environmental crisis seriously, simply there, utilitarian and lacking in good taste, only slicker.

It's an anonymous piano based bluesy folk with nary a hook or quotable line in its near 40 minutes, let alone much in the way of tempo changes. I'm not sure to whom to compare it, because I'm even less sure if anyone else has bothered. Perhaps PETER GREEN era FLEETWOOD MAC. Maybe LINDISFARNE's 1969 debut, but several leagues below it. A few passing allusions to SANDY DENNY? "Woodstock" is the only tune reminiscent of the prior two discs, mostly "Tumbler", but is better than most of that album because it's a veritable beacon here. Otherwise, this album's name is utterly in opposition to its effects.

Thanks to sean trane for the artist addition. and to kenethlevine for the last updates

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