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+--- Thread: Ian David McGeachy (/showthread.php?tid=132)
Ian David McGeachy - Sweder - 06-01-2009
By way of inviting a little contrast into my madcap metal mayhem existence I've been spending a few hours in the company of Ian David McGeachy. Better known by his assumed moniker of John Martyn he's enjoyed a career spanning some 40 years, and in 2008 received the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards accolade for Lifetime Acheivement. His music's always been around - my Mum had some early stuff, the Mrs used to have a wonky old tape of his when we first started courting (along with some Murray Head and a fair dose of Nina Simone), but I've never really given him quality air time until now.
I knew (as most do) of Solid Air and his 'big' hit May You Never (Lay Your Head Down). I didn't appreciate his influence - and that of his 'stable mate' Nick Drake - on a whole raft of musicians including Robert Smith, Kate Bush and Paul Weller, all of whom have openly cited the pair as guiding lights. Drake's music only really came to prominence after his tragic death following an overdose of amitriptyline, an anti-depressant medicine.
You might recall the Dream Academy hit [i]Life In A Northern Town, dedicated to the singer-songwriter who saw so little of his work sold during his lifetime but who enjoyed posthumous success following the publication of Fruit Tree, a Drake retrospective, in 1979. A copy came my way recently, sparking this whole line of inquiry and re-introducing me by association to John Martyn. Solid Air was Martyn's own tribute to his close friend, originally released in 1973 and delivered in his trademark gutteral slur over a gentle, haunting refrain. Well worth a listen under soft lights with a glass of something expensive after everyone's gone to bed.
It's good to dip into other worlds sometimes.
I'll get back to the thrash-grunge in the morning.
Ian David McGeachy - Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man - 07-01-2009
Heartily agree - Nick Drake especially is as good as a song writer gets in my book. If I could take no other music with me to that desert island, there's a very good chance it would be the Fruit Tree boxed set.
John Martyn is also brilliant.
Ooh, I've come over all melancholy all of a sudden...
Ian David McGeachy - El Gordo - 07-01-2009
Sweder Wrote:It's good to dip into other worlds sometimes.
I'll get back to the thrash-grunge in the morning.
The good news is that it's possible to straddle both these worlds, and many others too, on a permanent basis, even for running purposes. A spot of laid-back Martyn or mournful Nick Drake is just as good on the road as my more frantic plodding soulmates like The Doors or Hendrix. They just hit different spots. And don't get me started on the joys of sultry jazz on a dark and frosty morning, or Christmas Carols in the height of summer....
Ian David McGeachy - El Gordo - 29-01-2009
R.I.P.
Just heard that he's died, age 60.
Ian David McGeachy - Sweder - 29-01-2009
Sad news indeed - just heard it meself on't radio.
As E.J. Thribb might have said (or indeed yet say)
Farewell then, John Martyn.
'Living on solid air'
That was the song for which
You were best known
You're on an entirely
Different type of air now
And . . . no longer living
R I P