Live At Rockpalast 1978
With a mischievous grin and full head of curly hair, the roguishly charming John Martyn bursts onto the stage and instantly holds the audience in his thrall. “Hi fans! Welcome to the furniture auction, good evening tables and chairs, what’s happening? Right, it’s jacket off and in at the deep end for JM. Here we go…” At just 29 years old he gives a wonderful performance that was filmed for the German rock music TV show Rockpalast on 17 March 1978 in the Audimax in Hamburg, now available for the first time on CD, accompanied by a DVD courtesy of MIG Music.
John opens with One Day Without You, mellow and listless, with a guitar riff adding purpose and follows with an awe-inspiring ‘wall of sound’ from the very same guitar playing Outside In. His stunning vocals and percussive guitar play incorporating echoplex and Wah-Wah effects, extract unbounded musical textures from his guitar. John wrote Bless The Weather after moving home from London to Hastings on the South coast of England “where you just can’t get away from the weather.” The next four songs Certain Surprise, Big Muff, Couldn’t Love You More and Small Hours are all taken from John’s album One World released just four months earlier.
The glowing warmth of Certain Surprise is followed by a fierce and fiery rendition of Big Muff. John introduces all the songs in his own inimitable way, no more so than Big Muff where he acknowledges good friend and co-writer Lee “Scratch” Perry at the same time condemning widely established racial prejudice (albeit awkwardly with the benefit of hindsight).
John took a sabbatical in 1976 and visited Jamaica where he met and formed a lifelong friendship with Perry. I asked John how they came to meet, “Chris Blackwell took me to Scratch’s house, he thought we should meet as we were using the same recording techniques, I was using echoplex and rhythm boxes and Scratch was into his dub thing. I loved working with Scratch we recorded in his studio in the back yard, smoked and drank it was a great vibe and a cool place to hang out.”
John is at his most tender and intimate as he plays Couldn’t Love You More, a compelling ballad of unrequited love that leaves no secrets untold. Small Hours is blissful and hypnotic, a ‘late night’ fusion of John’s whispered vocals and waves of spellbinding, rapturous guitar, a moment to cherish with brief but all meaning lyrics.
Solid Air was written for his dear friend Nick Drake, “a very quiet lad, extremely personal and charming when necessary, handsome to a devastating effect… delicately witty, but he just became more and more withdrawn as time went by. He went to Paris and spent a lot of time there, he went to the country, he came and lived with me in various locations, and was just distinctly unhappy in all of them. I think he distrusted the world. He thought it didn’t quite live up to his expectations.” The poignant outpouring of sadness at losing his friend has a sublime rhythm and palpable intensity.
May You Never is John’s most well-known song, happy and hopeful, far from the sadness and despair of Solid Air. In just two songs John has vocalised the full spectrum of human emotions.
The dazzling Seven Black Roses demonstrates John’s deftness as a guitar virtuoso, and the echo and reverb saturated I’d Rather Be the Devil is rousing and breathtaking in its sheer power and energy.
John dazzles the audience with a peerless and sophisticated melange of traditional folk, blues, rock, jazz, and reggae. His strength as a musician was his understated craftmanship and creativity, he could do it all – lyrics and music, hooks and riffs, power and subtlety, and always with honesty and integrity. His driving force was creativity and innovation, masterfully creating music that tells a story and exudes emotion, no matter how deep or personal.
Whilst commercial success may generate fame and fortune it does not guarantee authenticity, longevity and greatness. John Martyn was a force of nature, creativity coursed through his veins, his intimate and open-hearted songwriting, his single minded and unparalleled exploration of music is captured here in a magnificent and absorbing performance. Acoustic, electric, witty banter, wry observation, unpredictable, fearless, and fascinating; it’s all here!
The Great John Martyn doing what he loved.
John Hillarby
