JOHN MARTYN-THE APPRENTICE.

dereksmusicblog ♦ May 24, 2011 ♦ 1 Comment

JOHN MARTYN-THE APPRENTICE.

In this article, I am going to write about an artist who has long been a favorite of mine. This artist recorded twenty studio albums in their lifetime between 1967 and their death in 2009. They were an artist whose music crossed the musical genres, and encompassed folk, blues, jazz and rock. Throughout, their career they toured prolifically, and were one of the great live performers of their generation. The artist I am about to write about is John Martyn, and his album The Apprentice.

John Martyn was born Iain David McGeachy, in 1948 in New Malden, Surrey, England. Both his parents were opera singers, so from an early age Martyn was exposed to music. When he was five, his parents divorced and much of his childhood was spent at his grandmother’s in Glasgow.

His musical career began aged seventeen, playing a mixture of blues and folk music. Legendary folk singer Hamish Imlach was to prove to be an early influence, even a mentor, to Martyn. Quickly, Martyn became a leading figure on the London folk circuit. Thereafter, things started to move quickly for Martyn. Aged nineteen, he signed to Chris Blackwell’s Island Records in 1967. Later that year, his debut album London Conversation was released. Just over a year later, his second album The Tumbler was released. On this album, the style of music was to change, to a much more jazz influenced sound.

By the time Martyn was to release his third album Stormbringer, he had met and and married Beverley Martin. Previously, she had been a solo artist, Beverley Kutner, working with Jimmy Page and Nick Drake. Once again, the sound changed on Stormbringer, with Martyn playing his acoustic guitar through a fuzzbox, phase shifter and Echoplex. John and Beverley Martyn released one further album together. This was the The Road To Ruin, like Stormbringer released in 1970. Ny then, Island Records wanted to market Martyn as a solo artist, and Beverley Martyn’s role on further albums was as a backing singer. She returned to her career as a solo artist.

During the period 1971-1980, Martyn recorded and released six studio albums and his Live At Leeds album in 1975. By far, the best album of this time was the seminal album Solid Air. Solid Air is seen as one of the best albums of the 1970s. The title track was a tribute to Nick Drake, a close friend of Martyn’s who died tragically of an overdose. During the recording of Solid Air, Martyn was to meet bassist, Danny Thompson, who he collaborated with until his death in 2009. Martyn’s vocal style changed during the recording of Solid Air. At that time, he started to develop a new slurred vocal style. The timbre of this new vocal style resembled a tenor saxophone.  

His next album Inside Out featured a much more experimental style of music, with more emphasis on improvisation. In 1975 Island Records refused to release Martyn’s live album, Live At Leeds. Martyn resorted to selling signed copies by mail from his home. After the release of Live At Leeds in 1977, Martyn headed to Jamaica on holiday, and ended up collaborating with famed reggae producer Lee “Scratch” Perry. One World is seen by some people as the first ever trip hop album, and Martyn as the father of trip hop.

The 1980s were a turbulent time for Martyn personally and professionally. By the end of the 1970s his marriage had broken down. This led to Martyn pressing “the self destruct button” as he described it. Martyn became addicted to alcohol and drugs. He later said this was avery dark period in his life. Grace and Danger was the album that came out of this period. The album described what he was going through at that time. Blackwell had held the album’s release back a year, because of his friendship with both John and Beverley Martyn. This was to be the last album he released for Island Records.

After leaving Island Records in 1981, Martyn joined two albums for WEA. These albums, Glorious Fool and Best Kept Secret saw a change from Martyn’s traditional sound, with his new label trying to make him a more mainstream artist, with more commercial success. Martyn only stayed with WEA for the two albums. 

After leaving WEA, Martyn returned to Island Records. Back at Island Records, he released two studio albums Sapphire and Piece By Piece, and a live album, Foundations. Island Records dropped Martyn in 1988.

In 1990, Martyn released the album that this article is about, The Apprentice, on Permanent Records. It is thought that one of the reasons for Martyn’s departure from Island Records, was that they did not like the demo recordings of what would become The Apprentice. As a result, Martyn paid for the recording of the album. On its release, it was given a good reception by music critics, who believed that the album was a return to form for Martyn.

After the release of The Apprentice, Martyn only released five more albums prior to his death in 2009.  The follow up to The Apprentice’s  was Cooltide. This was another return to form for Martyn. One of his better of his later releases was Glasgow Walker, released in 2000. This album sees Martyn experimenting with trip hop on Cool in This Life, and a cover version of Cry Me A River. 

Sadly, John Martyn died in January 2009, aged sixty-one. When he died, the music industry lost one of its most talented and charismatic and talented performers. He is sadly missed by his legions of fans.  However, we are lucky that he has left behind a huge body of work that we can all still enjoy. Many people still enjoy listening to his music, and cherish seeing him live in concert. I saw him play at a small venue in Edinburgh many years ago, and when he stopped for an interval he chatted happily with the concert-goers. That was probably a memory that everyone he spoke to will remember to this day. It is hard to imagine any modern day artist even contemplating doing that nowadays. 

I will now tell you about John Martyn’s album The Apprentice. The Apprentice was released in 1990 on Permanent Records. The first song on the album is Live On Love. As soon as you hear John Martyn singing the first few bars of the song, you can tell that that this is a return to form for Martyn. His voice is clearer, he sings the song well, and the lyrics are well written, with a strong narrative. The song is a love song, about finding love when you have almost given up hope. This is a good start to the album, and features a good performance from Martyn and his band.

The River has an atmospheric start to the song. Since the first time I ever heard this song, it has always made me think of Glasgow, and the River Clyde. This may be because Martyn lived in Glasgow, and grew up at a time when the river provided work, via the shipyards for large swathes of the population. In the song he sings about about having worked for years on the river, yet having nothing to show. This is quite a poignant comment, as many men and women spent years working on the river, and at the end of their career’s had nothing to show for it financially, and many conversely suffering poor health because of the working conditions. I think this is one of the album’s strongest tracks. The song tells a very real story, and describes the lives of many people perfectly. 

Look At the Girl is a lovely song, with lovely lyrics. When you listen to the song carefully, you understand that the song is about a young girl, who has grown up and has “turned out so fine”. This song sounds personal to Martyn. It as if he is proud of the subject of the song. That is what makes me think the song is personal to him. It is song that Martyn sings so well, his voice is much clearer and his phrasing is much better than on previous albums. This song demonstrates clearly, that The Apprentice was a return to form for Martyn.

Income Town has a bigger and busier sound. This song has a quicker tempo than the previous songs. Martyn sings the song quicker, and that band have a bigger part to play in the track. The band Martyn has chosen. features a strong group of musicians. On this track they demonstrate their talents, and bring the track to life. When you listen to Income Town, you would think the track was recorded live, as  you can hear people cheering. However, the crowd noise has been overdubbed onto the track in the studio. Income Town is a good track, but not as good as many on the album.

Send Me One Line is quite simply a stunning track. Three things make this song the best on the album. Firstly, the track as some lovely lyrics. It is a song about love, and a relationship that never happened. Martyn reflects in the song on what might have been. Secondly, John Martyn produces  great vocal performance. Gone is the slurred vocal, of numerous previous albums, that many of his long term fans knew and loved. Thirdly, Andy Shepherd’s saxophone solo compliments both the vocal and the song. This track is as good as anything Martyn has written or recorded for many a year.

Deny This Love has a lot in common with Income Town. Both tracks feature a bigger and busier sound. On both tracks, the band play a bigger part than on previous ones, and give strong performances. The difference between the two tracks is that Deny This Love is a better song than Income Town. The lyrics to the song are stronger and better, and Martyn produces a good vocal performance. 

Hold Me starts with a slow and atmospheric introduction that Martyn sings softly. After that, the track opens up, and Martyn and his band, go on to sing, and play this song beautifully. Later in the track, Martyn plays a wonderful guitar solo which adds to the track’s quality and beauty. One thing I like about this track, is the way there is space in the song, this allows the song to breath, and adds to its quality. 

The weakest track on the album is Upo. This, to me, is the only poor track on the album. Upo has a jazzy feel to it, and although the band play the song well the lyrics and Martyn’s vocal performance is weak. Here, Martyn returns to his slurred style of vocal. I do not mind that. It can be incredibly powerful and effective. However, here the combination of weak lyrics and a poor vocal make this a disappointing track.

The Apprentice is a much better song than Upo. It starts slowly, and quickly the tempo increases. Martyn’s vocal is stronger and clearer. Throughout the track Dave Taif-Ball plays a really effective bass solo. It drifts in and out the track, just at the right time, and proves effective. In some parts of the song, the band really cut loose, allowing them to showcase their own individual talents. Overall, this is a good track that reminds me of some of Martyn’s earlier work.

The penultimate song on the album The Moment. It is a nice song, that, like many others on this album, features some great lyrics. This album has demonstrated Martyn’s talent as a songwriter. To me, his songwriting on this album is better than some of the albums that immediately preceded this album. Throughout the album the majority of the songs are well written, with some great lyrics. This track features a heartfelt and dramatic performance from Martyn. He has reserved one of his best vocal performances for this song.

Patterns In The Rain is a quite beautiful song. It is nearly as good as Send Me One Line. The song sees Martyn deliver some lovely romantic lyrics with feeling. He sings the song really well, and his band play behind him on this track. They allow him and the song to take centre-stage, playing quietly and effectively. This is a great way to end the album, and is one of my favorite John Martyn songs.

The Apprentice was a return to form form for John Martyn. On its release, it was well received by both music critics and fans. Previously, Martyn had being going through what seemed like a musical mid-crisis. Both critics and fans had been disappointed by some of the material he had released prior to The Apprentice. Thus, when The Apprentice came out, many people felt that he had turned a corner, and that the future would be bright for him. However, he would only release five more albums in his lifetime. In my opinion, The Apprentice was, by far, his finest release between 1990-2009. Cooltide and Glasgow Walker are both good albums, but not as strong as The Apprentice. 

The Apprentice is an album that contains some great tracks on it. These songs are well written, and well sung by Martyn. He put together a strong band to back him on this album. They repaid his faith in them, by producing some great performance on the album. If having read this article, you are interested in either John Martyn’s music or his album The Apprentice, I can strongly recommend that you buy this album. It is a good starting point for anyone who has not heard his music before. However, Martyn released twenty studio albums during his lifetime, as well as numerous live albums and compilations. If you would like to hear some of his earlier work, Martyn rerecorded many of his best known songs for the compilation album Classics, released on Artful Records. On Classics, there are some fantastic recordings of some of his most famous songs, and it is a great introduction to his music. Two of his best ever albums are Solid Air and One World. These albums deserve a place in every record collection, and feature some of John Martyn’s greatest work. Standout Tracks: Live On Love, Look At the Girl, Send Me One Line and Patterns In The Rain.

JOHN MARTYN-THE APPRENTICE.