Ain't No Saint
6 Feb 2009
The Guardian
John Martyn, who died last week, was impossible to categorise.
Related to:
Ain't No Saint
UK
Remembering Musician John Martyn
02 Feb 2009
BBC Scotland
Here, BBC Scotland reporter Iain MacDonald recalls his and other stories about singer-songwriter John Martyn who died last week at the age of 60.
The folk, blues and funk artist was widely regarded as one of the most soulful and innovative singer-songwriters of his generation. Iain interviewed the musician for a BBC radio programme.
But the journalist was also among those who "cottoned on to" the Martyn phenomenon back in the 1960s.
Great Art That Came Without Regrets
01 Feb 2009
The Observer
We're steering unsteadily along narrow corridors on an upper floor of a London hotel, John Martyn cheerily pointing the way with a tumbler of brandy and port. I've got one hand on his wheelchair, one on the handle of a swing door. There's a wheezy cackle in his throat that makes a rich baritone sound like it's fighting through radio interference. "Sorry mate, I don't have a reverse gear, I can't go back... "
John Martyn
31 Jan 2009
The Glasgow Herald
Some rock stars affect outrageousness but John Martyn was the real deal. Powered by more than 40 years of enjoying the excesses of a rock'n'roll lifestyle, John could be boisterous, difficult company. Consequently, his enemies -and he had a few- genuinely disliked him. Back in his heyday, he hung out with gangsters and had a reputation for resorting to violence: he once broke the ribs of a former manager during a brawl.
John Martyn
30 Jan 2009
Blog post
JOHN MARTYN
2009-01-30
I know that some people just adore John Martyn's music. He has a loyal fanbase indeed. These fans would have been delighted that John just got awarded the honour of an OBE — but then everything is overshadowed by his death yesterday.
John Martyn: Guitarist And Singer
30 Jan 2009
The Times
John Martyn emerged from the British folk scene in the late 1960s to make some of the most hauntingly evocative and mesmerising music of his era.
A virtuoso guitarist with a laid-back but highly expressive voice, he made innovative records that defied categorisation and thrillingly blurred the boundaries between folk, jazz, blues and rock. At his height, every note he played or sang seemed to be imbued with a spacious elegance and sublime airiness all too rare in the hurly-burly of modern popular music.
John Martyn
30 Jan 2009
The Guardian
Hellraising folk musician and creator of the seminal album Solid Air
Ain't No Saint was the title of the four-CD restrospective of John Martyn's career, released to mark his 60th birthday last September. The name could hardly have been more apt, since Martyn, who died yesterday, became renowned for a career that lurched between triumph and disaster, both personal and musical. Drugs, drunken brawls and marital breakdown littered his CV, but then so did several of the most enduring and idiosyncratic albums made by a British artist in the last 40 years.
Last Word
30 Jan 2009
BBC Radio 4
Matthew Bannister tells the life stories of people who have died recently: Bill Frindall, John Updike, John Martyn, Reg Gutteridge and Angela Morley.
John Martyn Dies Aged 60
30 Jan 2009
Daily Telegraph
British musician John Martyn has died aged 60. Our writer recalls a prickly encounter and examines his legend and his legacy.
Singer and guitarist John Martyn had a reputation that always preceded him. A rebel in all senses, he railed against every musical cliché and genre straitjacket they tried to pin on him – annihilating the genre barriers between folk, blues, jazz, rock and avant-garde as he bullishly rejected attempts to tame him and mould him into a sellable product.
May We Never Forget The Genius Of John Martyn
30 Jan 2009
The Times
John Martyn: guitar pioneer
For many music fans, one lingering image of John Martyn, the British singer-songwriter who has died at the age of 60, remains preserved in the amber of the communal memory bank: 36 years ago, the pioneering acoustic artist appeared on The Old Grey Whistle Test playing the song for which he will probably be remembered best, May You Never.
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