Piece By Piece

Piece By Piece

23 February 1986

John celebrated twenty years as a performer in 1986 with the release of his fourteenth studio album Piece By Piece in February on traditional vinyl and the all new CD format. Piece by Piece was recorded and mixed by 29 November 1985 at Cava Sound Workshops in Glasgow and mastering was completed in December. To mark his twentieth anniversary, Island released a strictly limited CD of the album with bonus songs, May You Never, Solid Air, Glistening Glyndebourne and a cover of Dylan’s Tight Connection To My Heart. A twelve inch Classic John Martyn single with different tracks Angeline, Tight Connection To My Heart, May You Never, Certain Surprise and One Day Without You. and the world’s first commercially available CD single Angeline were also made available.

John performed a special anniversary concert at The London Palladium on 3 March followed by appearances at Glastonbury on 21 June and the Montreux Jazz Festival on 18 July.

Island also released Angeline / Tight Connection To My Heart as a single.

The album itself featured the powerful John Wayne, complete with typically ambiguous lyrics and what John describes as his ‘strangled duck’ vocal. To achieve the effect John indulged large quantities of liquid refreshment and did the vocal track in a single take. The track pushed his vocal style to new limits and is a song that he likes to perform live. John has said that the track was written for an ex-manager who he was rather unhappy with at the time!

Piece By Piece is mainly the product of a liaison with Foster Patterson who wrote the title track. Other musicians included Alan Thomson (bass), Danny Cummings (percussion) and Colin Tully (saxophone).

“Martyn endows the music with all the benefits of a crystalline production technique and Piece By Piece showcases Martyn’s ability to blend his personality and voice with the rigours of jazz instrumentation.” – New Hifi Sounds

The early CDs of Piece By Piece included four extra tracks: Tight Connection to my Heart, Solid Air, One World and May You Never and was soon replaced by a standard 9-track version.

In March 1986 Island released Lonely Love, described by John as “the album’s little pop song”, as a single in 7 inch with Sweet Little Mystery (live) on the B-side. The 12 inch version featured a live recording of Fisherman’s Dream and Sweet Little Mystery on the B side.

Island produced a Piece By Piece promotional boxed set which included 2 interview discs, a copy of the 12 inch Classic John Martyn single, CD Single and a promotional booklet. John is in conversation with Trevor Dann and talks about his life, his views and the background to many of his songs. This is a rare item and was only produced in very small numbers.

John on Piece By Piece, “..it’s a bit more mature and sophisticated, what do you expect from a 37 year old man? It’s not going to be raucous and punkish, hardly going to have the U2 feel about it.”

“What I’ve tried to do is sing more than play, and have fun with some new sounds, like the strangled duck (on John Wayne). I’ve been trying to sing better for the last few years and push myself in a certain direction. I always find the vocals more difficult to get right in the studio, they’re better live, generally. To get the effect I wanted on the track John Wayne I had to go out and get totally rat-arsed, and then I did it on one take. Great effect.” John toured extensively with a demanding tour schedule.

John provided the soundtrack to Tyne Tees Televisions major series on the environment, Turning the Tide. Broadcast in Autumn 1986 the moving title song was loosely based on I Don’t Want to Know About Evil but with a new musical arrangement and adapted lyrics. The series ran over budget and plans to release a soundtrack were scrapped though there are some tapes in existence.

1. Nightline (J. Martyn)
2. Lonely Love (J. Martyn)
3. Angeline (J. Martyn)
4. One Step Too Far (J. Martyn)
5. Piece By Piece (F.Patterson)
6. Serendipity (J. Martyn)
7. Who Believes In Angels (J. Martyn)
8. Love Of Mine (J. Martyn)
9. John Wayne (J. Martyn)

Catalogue Number: ILPS 9807 Island
Matrix / Runout: Matrix Side A – ILPS 9807 A-1U-1-1-X SOUND CLINIC and Side B – ILPS 9807 B-1U-1-2-X1 JONZ

All Guitars and Guitar Synthesisers – John Martyn
All Keyboards and Backing Vocals – Foster Patterson
Fretless Bass – Alan Thomson
Percussion – Danny Cummings
Saxophone – Colin Tully
Produced by – John Martyn
Engineers – Brian Young and Robin Rankin
Special thanks to my dearest wife Annie, the Peerless Foster Patterson, Steve Parker, Kenny Macdonald, Chris Ridgway, Helena Ketley, Brian and all at Cava
Artiste Representation – Steve Parker
Cover by – Island Art
Photography – Mike Owen

Cassette: ICT 9807 Island (February 1986)
CD: CID 9807 (90507-2) Island (additional tracks) (April 1986)
CD: CID 9807 (IMCD 68) Island (1989)
CD: 422-826 788-2 Island (USA)
Vinyl: 90507-1 Island (USA)
Cassette: 90507-4 Island (USA)
Vinyl: ISL 1083 Island (Canada)
Vinyl: L 38516 Island (Australia and New Zealand)
Vinyl: 826788-1 Island (France)
CD: IMCD 68 (826 788-2) Island (June 1993)
CD: 471 172-8 Island (26 January 2015)
CD: 471 172-4 Island (2CD remastered and expanded) (26 January 2015)
Vinyl: 471 172-2 Island (2LP remastered and expanded) (26 January 2015)