Friday, January 30, 2009
Into solid air
May you never - John Martyn
John Martyn dies aged 60: "The trappings of fame and celebrity held no interest for him, which is why one of the greatest, most exhilarating and innovative British albums of the past 50 years - 1973’s Solid Air* - remains largely unrecognised by the general public." (Telegraph)
Here is the title track from Solid Air (live in Dublin).
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2 comments:
For me this was sadder than the death of Lennon. Martyn's music has always been something private. He never courted fame or released a single. He lived his life large and was not shy of excess but somehow we always hoped he would hang in there and be there for us. The last time I saw him he was like Falstaff staring into the fire. It was simply magical. Perhaps now, like Nick Drake, more people will come to his music and release just how good Big Muff was.
In the fall of 1977, I flew to Saudi Arabia where my father worked, and there met a man from Scotland--Paisley, outside of Glasgow, Scotland--by the name of Raymond (Remy) Duff. I was a little bit crazy for him and by January his time was up. He was off to Turkey. I went to Zurich. But the night before I left he called to say goodbye, and he sang the words of this song into the phone. I loved it so much. Hearing this news and his voice again was sadly beautiful.
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