― paul c (paul c), Friday, 20 August 2004 14:09 (nineteen years ago) link
― paul c (paul c), Friday, 20 August 2004 14:11 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 20 August 2004 14:19 (nineteen years ago) link
― paul c (paul c), Friday, 20 August 2004 14:22 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 20 August 2004 14:23 (nineteen years ago) link
― paul c (paul c), Friday, 20 August 2004 14:33 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 20 August 2004 14:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― Sean M (Sean M), Friday, 20 August 2004 14:58 (nineteen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 20 August 2004 18:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― peter smith (plsmith), Friday, 20 August 2004 18:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 20 August 2004 20:50 (nineteen years ago) link
I just bought The Lady and The Unicorn LP and it sounds so wonderful. Just what I wanted today.
― i drive a wood paneled station dragon (La Lechera), Monday, 5 September 2011 02:43 (twelve years ago) link
i've got a two disc anthology thing of his which is great -- only other solo rec i have is sir john a lot. i should probably get more...
― tylerw, Monday, 5 September 2011 03:00 (twelve years ago) link
The record store had that one too, but I had to draw the line somewhere. I kind of regret not buying it tbh.
― i drive a wood paneled station dragon (La Lechera), Monday, 5 September 2011 03:55 (twelve years ago) link
I love Renbourn's guitar playing on Pentangle's "Reflection" album (Will the Circle ..., When I Get Home, So Clear etc). There are some TV specials on YouTube that they recorded at about this time, one for French tv, one for the BBC. JR very cool throughout - lighting cigarettes just in time for an effortless solo.
― bham, Monday, 5 September 2011 11:51 (twelve years ago) link
of the solo renbourn i know, i'm a big fan of sir john alot, the lady and the unicorn and the hermit, along with the first john renbourn group record a maid in bedlam (despite the destroy above), not so much into another monday or faro annie, but should probably give these two another listen at some point. also remember his collaborations with stefan grossman (who for some reason i never saw getting namedropped during the great freakfolk revival of a few years ago) being quite good.
― no lime tangier, Monday, 5 September 2011 12:27 (twelve years ago) link
maybe Grossman was too much of an educator to be "cool", i remember some ragtime pickin' books by him.
― Ludo, Monday, 5 September 2011 12:30 (twelve years ago) link
could be (i have his first how to play blues guitar lp, or whatever it's called, lying around somewhere), but then again he was a member of the fugs, for however short a period, and he released stuff on transatlantic which must give him some level of coolness cachet. this is almost making me want to pull out his live! lp for the first time in years (which reminds me he also got referenced in a fahey song title).
― no lime tangier, Monday, 5 September 2011 13:32 (twelve years ago) link
i think the domestic twofer is some of his early UK material? i am a big fan of this guy's records. for some reason lady & the unicorn and sir john alot are pretty common records around here. and i do like faro annie myself.
― one dis leads to another (ian), Tuesday, 6 September 2011 19:32 (twelve years ago) link
yeah, i think i picked up sir john a lot from a box of free records at the library. i see it everywhere for some reason. might be an 80s vinyl re-ish? whatever, very nice album.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 6 September 2011 19:35 (twelve years ago) link
i'm glad i didn't go out of my way to go back to get sir john alot then -- i was going to because i thought it might be hard to find again, but it's kinda far.
my copy of lady/unicorn is an 80s reissue, but is in really nice shape and v clean.
― i drive a wood paneled station dragon (La Lechera), Tuesday, 6 September 2011 19:40 (twelve years ago) link
i never bought that bert & john disc -- is it all guitar duets, no vocals? i should get it, how could it be bad?
― tylerw, Tuesday, 6 September 2011 19:42 (twelve years ago) link
bert & john is good!
― one dis leads to another (ian), Tuesday, 6 September 2011 20:07 (twelve years ago) link
cool. this is greathttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_1LyoVC3tA
― tylerw, Tuesday, 6 September 2011 20:14 (twelve years ago) link
It's a mixture of the two. Good Bert version of Anne Briggs 'The Time Has Come' iirc.
― Geirge Hongriot (NickB), Tuesday, 6 September 2011 21:58 (twelve years ago) link
the album starts with the airy "east wind". 85 seconds of pure bliss.
― alex in mainhattan, Tuesday, 6 September 2011 22:13 (twelve years ago) link
bert & john sounds good!! i'm a little disappointed with the pentangle record i bought (sweet child), but i don't know what i expected from a live album. it was one of those weird warner "loss leader" releases -- i posted to that thread too, but it didn't seem too heavily trafficked.
― i drive a wood paneled station dragon (La Lechera), Tuesday, 6 September 2011 22:14 (twelve years ago) link
There are some good bits on Sweet Child but that bit where Terry gets his glockenspiel out is just the worst.
― Geirge Hongriot (NickB), Tuesday, 6 September 2011 22:20 (twelve years ago) link
Think I'm probably a Solomon's Seal man when it comes to Pentangle.
― Geirge Hongriot (NickB), Tuesday, 6 September 2011 22:23 (twelve years ago) link
Solomon's Seal is the best. Sweet Child just kinda sounds like shit. I can't really hear anything very well.
― i drive a wood paneled station dragon (La Lechera), Tuesday, 6 September 2011 22:28 (twelve years ago) link
this may be a dumb question but ... it's mainly renbourn who plays electric on pentangle records, right, not Jansch?
― tylerw, Tuesday, 6 September 2011 22:30 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, that's right.
― Geirge Hongriot (NickB), Tuesday, 6 September 2011 22:35 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFuxq_J1VuA
^ here you go
Wow, there's loads of Pentangle stuff on youtube, am quite surprised at the quantity tbh considering how much of a dearth there is for some of their contempories.
― Geirge Hongriot (NickB), Tuesday, 6 September 2011 22:51 (twelve years ago) link
loving bert & john. hey what's the diff between "bert & john" and "after the dance".
― tylerw, Wednesday, 14 September 2011 15:52 (twelve years ago) link
Ok so now every time I see a John Renbourn record, I buy it because (1) usually it is v cheap, < $5, (2) they are always in excellent shape -- what's up with people who bought these records originally that they were so fastidious? and (3) they are always good.
I got Nine Maidens for $4 today and it's not earthshaking or anything, but it's pretty and quiet. I like it.
― La Lechera, Monday, 30 January 2012 00:22 (twelve years ago) link
Just bought my first john renbourn record today
” teach me to hear a mermaid singing”
The realest shit I ever heard
This is great
― dave coolier (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 25 February 2012 19:41 (twelve years ago) link
yeah, i'm still on a jansch/renbourn/pentangle kick since bert passed away. tons of great albums to discover.
― tylerw, Saturday, 25 February 2012 22:15 (twelve years ago) link
The records he cut with Dorris Henderson are pretty good too. Black american folksinger who'd wound up in London for some reason in the mid 60s.I think they were both reissued on cd though I think I've only got There You Go on disc & files of the other one
― Stevolende, Saturday, 25 February 2012 23:21 (twelve years ago) link
i got this 2LP comp from 73 on reprise, i think it's stuff from his first 2 albums combined?
― the wild eyed boy from soundcloud (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 27 February 2012 23:58 (twelve years ago) link
pretty straight up folk, instrumentals, originals and lots of covers of trad stuff
So yesterday I was on a John Renbourn kick and I noticed there was a little card inside my copy of Nine Maidens, and I shook it out, and it was this happy fella
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8518/8407590405_1ce56ac52a_z.jpg
SURPRIZE!
― this customer is a jerk (La Lechera), Wednesday, 23 January 2013 14:30 (eleven years ago) link
Excellent! Flying Fish has its own wiki page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Fish_Records
― a la recherche du tempbans perdu (NickB), Wednesday, 23 January 2013 14:37 (eleven years ago) link
In December 1992, Kaplan developed an ear infection that did not respond to antibiotic treatment and he died very unexpectedly
fuh
RIP I could scan the back, but it was just an order form for the tshirt. The name section reads: Name _________________________ (loyal fan)
― this customer is a jerk (La Lechera), Wednesday, 23 January 2013 14:48 (eleven years ago) link
Actually, it's the tshirt and/or the poster.
― this customer is a jerk (La Lechera), Wednesday, 23 January 2013 14:50 (eleven years ago) link
I'll take both
― Trip Maker, Wednesday, 23 January 2013 15:04 (eleven years ago) link
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8214/8407717065_6446209fc0_z.jpgi couldn't resist. the "boy oh boy" was too much
― this customer is a jerk (La Lechera), Wednesday, 23 January 2013 15:12 (eleven years ago) link
ugh hearing reports that John has passed away...
― tylerw, Thursday, 26 March 2015 17:01 (nine years ago) link
damn
― yeovil knievel (NickB), Thursday, 26 March 2015 17:07 (nine years ago) link
RIP, a great player
― sleeve, Thursday, 26 March 2015 19:52 (nine years ago) link
quick tribute over on my blog: http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/114691438997/rip-john-renbourn-huge-sadness-to-find-out-that
― tylerw, Thursday, 26 March 2015 20:01 (nine years ago) link
this one is so amazinghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYL0ScCuQps&index=4&list=RDS46nREvG-1g
― tylerw, Thursday, 26 March 2015 20:05 (nine years ago) link
oops meant to link to thishttps://youtu.be/vYL0ScCuQps?list=RDS46nREvG-1g
lol learning from this interview last week that renbourn used pieces of ping pong balls under his nails for fingerpicking purposes.
― tylerw, Thursday, 26 March 2015 21:05 (nine years ago) link
Pentangle reunion never played America, did it?
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 26 March 2015 21:07 (nine years ago) link
not that i'm aware of...
― tylerw, Thursday, 26 March 2015 21:21 (nine years ago) link
Glad to say that I saw Bert Jansch (a few times), Davy Graham (which was, er, interesting) and John Renbourn live before they died, John with Robin Williamson... don't die yet, Robin!
― Betel-chewing Equipment of East New Guinea (Tom D.), Friday, 27 March 2015 07:51 (nine years ago) link
awww RIP. saw him a few times in the 90s. he didn't say much in between songs but goddamn he could play
― ( X '____' )/ (zappi), Friday, 27 March 2015 11:43 (nine years ago) link
Tom, curious about Davy Graham, what was the like? From what I've read he was an intense person
― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 27 March 2015 12:27 (nine years ago) link
Intensely fucked up on something or other - booze, pills, smack, who knows what. He basically couldn't play anymore but he couldn't play in a bewildering variety of styles and genres, Buxtehude to raga to calypso, his set must have covered about 6 centuries. At one point he brought a guy he was teaching to play guitar up on stage and, to be honest, it was a relief to have someone play without bum notes, fluffs, fumbles etc.
― Betel-chewing Equipment of East New Guinea (Tom D.), Friday, 27 March 2015 12:51 (nine years ago) link
ah too bad :(
― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 27 March 2015 14:33 (nine years ago) link
people have mixed feelings about Fahey's later period but I guess he at least came to terms with his declining abilities and tried to figure out a way to do something different with what he could do
― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 27 March 2015 14:34 (nine years ago) link
Man, did any of that cohort - Fahey, Graham, Martyn, Jansch - not live terribly?
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 27 March 2015 14:46 (nine years ago) link
Al Stewart was part of that scene and he's still in fine fettle.
― anthony braxton diamond geezer (anagram), Friday, 27 March 2015 14:50 (nine years ago) link
Kottke seems pretty healthyI saw Michael Chapman and he was in great shape musically, though he was getting pretty plowed by the end of the night
― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 27 March 2015 14:50 (nine years ago) link
Robin Williamson is a healthy fellow, if not quite the snake-hipped charmer of his heyday.
― Betel-chewing Equipment of East New Guinea (Tom D.), Friday, 27 March 2015 15:11 (nine years ago) link
richard thompson seems like the picture of health.
― tylerw, Friday, 27 March 2015 15:14 (nine years ago) link
really excellent remembrance in the guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/mar/27/john-renbourn-ceaseless-explorer-of-song-pentangle-folk-appreciation
― no lime tangier, Friday, 27 March 2015 16:57 (nine years ago) link
fantastic. thanks for that.
― tylerw, Friday, 27 March 2015 17:07 (nine years ago) link
was totally knocked out once again by this one this morninghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uP7FAZ3vXI
― tylerw, Friday, 27 March 2015 17:12 (nine years ago) link
<3 that album!
just remembering there's a pretty good interview in one of the galactic zoo dossiers where he's being asked about all the rediscovered acid-folk groups and having no idea who any of them were: "fresh maggots? what!".
also interestingly, he introduced davy graham to sandy bull's work after noticing the similarities in what they were each doing.
― no lime tangier, Friday, 27 March 2015 17:13 (nine years ago) link
haha yeah i have that interview, kind of hilarious.
― tylerw, Friday, 27 March 2015 17:15 (nine years ago) link
xpost I want to say that Richard Thompson has said in interviews that very, very early on he saw that drinking was becoming a problem, so he stopped, or at least seriously cut back.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 27 March 2015 17:16 (nine years ago) link
yeah, with converting to islam in the early 70s, i think he gave up any sort of decadent/debauched lifestyle. think he's vegetarian too? what is the Richard Thompson Diet?!
― tylerw, Friday, 27 March 2015 17:19 (nine years ago) link
I imagine that 60's car crash was a big wake-up call, along with Sandy Denny dying
xp
― sleeve, Friday, 27 March 2015 17:20 (nine years ago) link
Lol I have a fresh maggots lp on my hard drive somewhere. One by Subway too.
― demonic mnevice (Jon Lewis), Friday, 27 March 2015 17:28 (nine years ago) link
I understand that you haven't drank any alcohol for a very long time. Did you have problems with alcohol, so you had to quit or was it just a decision to lead a healthier and more focused life? I stopped drinking when I was 24. I saw a fork in the road, and one way didn't look too good. I think the choice was survival rather than health. As I understand you don't drink, eat meat, drink coffee, smoke, take drugs. Any of these things you sometimes miss? I do eat meat - I was vegetarian from about 1969 - 73, but some people are still reading old copies of Disc and Music Echo! I miss coffee a lot, just the taste - and the effect.
I stopped drinking when I was 24. I saw a fork in the road, and one way didn't look too good. I think the choice was survival rather than health.
As I understand you don't drink, eat meat, drink coffee, smoke, take drugs. Any of these things you sometimes miss?
I do eat meat - I was vegetarian from about 1969 - 73, but some people are still reading old copies of Disc and Music Echo! I miss coffee a lot, just the taste - and the effect.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 27 March 2015 18:02 (nine years ago) link
didn't danny thompson also convert to islam at some point and forswear alcohol?
― no lime tangier, Friday, 27 March 2015 18:10 (nine years ago) link
Grooving with a John Renbourn special edition of KMUW's Global Village, started at 7 central. Now moving from "Goodbye Porkpie Hat" and "Round Midnight" to early music. Can listen here to the current stream, or check archive at bottom of this page:http://kmuw.org/programs/global-village
― dow, Friday, 3 April 2015 00:24 (eight years ago) link
Speaking of grooving, now we're undulating through thee sunflowers with Pentangle--Jaqui Mcshee, most unabashed flower babe spirit evah!
― dow, Friday, 3 April 2015 00:31 (eight years ago) link
SPECIAL: Thursday in the Global Village we pay tribute to innovative guitarist and songwriter John Renbourn, who passed away March 26th. He was a founding member of the popular English folk group, Pentangle, and an artist whose music creatively blended early music, blues, jazz, and world influences. The show highlights music from Pentangle as well as recordings under his own name, with guitarist Stefan Grossman, and from Grammy-nominated albums with Robin Williamson and the John Renbourn Group.Here's a Renbourn favorite we didn't have time for in the show, but always a delight to hear, "Sweet Potato"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7h2rZjJ288'SPECIAL: Thursday in the Global Village we pay tribute to innovative guitarist and songwriter John Renbourn, who passed away March 26th. He was a founding member of the popular English folk group, Pentangle, and an artist whose music creatively blended early music, blues, jazz, and world influences. The show highlights music from Pentangle as well as recordings under his own name, with guitarist Stefan Grossman, and from Grammy-nominated albums with Robin Williamson and the John Renbourn Group. Here's a Renbourn favorite we didn't have time for in the show, but always a delight to hear, "Sweet Potato" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7h2rZjJ288'
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xat1/v/t1.0-9/11133693_922843257767521_407508554908202502_n.jpg?oh=e334ca6a16e7c2c2058ad99b68651e99&oe=559C9674&__gda__=1437436800_33c6c5eb25b0e07308b7cbf6347db588
― dow, Friday, 3 April 2015 00:59 (eight years ago) link
Sorry for the double post!
― dow, Friday, 3 April 2015 01:00 (eight years ago) link
just jamming out to this on a saturday morning <3 <3
http://www.soundstation.dk/images/products/large/91/132691-a.jpg
― just sayin, Friday, 18 December 2015 21:23 (eight years ago) link
so nice - i've been listening to a ton of renbourn this year (for obvious reasons). have yet to come across a bad album. that attic tapes set of early home and live recordings that just came out is good (maybe not essential).
― tylerw, Friday, 18 December 2015 21:25 (eight years ago) link
yeah just re-reading the thread now and saw that you recommended 'the pelican'! seeing that the second side of the record only had 2 songs on it is what made me buy it
― just sayin, Friday, 18 December 2015 21:34 (eight years ago) link
"the pelican" is amazing... think it might be my favorite of his.
― tylerw, Friday, 18 December 2015 21:35 (eight years ago) link
I'm having a hard time with The Black Balloon. What am I missing? I love Pentangle and Bert and tons of stuff like this, but almost every Renbourn album I've heard leaves me wishing I liked it more than I do. Admittedly, his medieval / early music / Renaissance Fair affectations grate on me, but that alone doesn't really put me off. What puts me off are the compositions / melodies, I guess. I mean, sometimes I hear him playing a melody that sounds vaguely familiar, and it'll almost always remind me of, like "Streets of Cairo" or "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" or some other corny thing.
I remember liking an album of his called Nine Maidens, but it's been a while since I heard it. The Black Balloon is playing now for the third time this week, and I just can't get into it at all. Any hope for me as a late-blooming "Renbourn guy?"
― Wimmels, Friday, 22 July 2016 02:21 (seven years ago) link
I came across a few later 70's Renbourn albums once several years ago in the used record store back in Reno and I bought them all without hesitation because such a thing did not show up very often in Reno. The Black Balloon was amongst them. And I have to admit that I played it once upon getting it home, filed it away and haven't thought about it since. I'll revisit in the next few days.
I came, by chance, upon a Japanese CD pressing of his 1980 album So Early in the Spring many years ago (it was the first music of his I heard after the Pentangle). It's a completely solo affair where he does a few instrumentals and few vocal things (including an ace version of 'Buckets of Rain' if you can believe it). Maybe it's because of the sentimental attachment I have to it, but it is by far my favorite thing of his outside of the Pentangle.
― Austin, Friday, 22 July 2016 05:11 (seven years ago) link
Black Balloon has one of my fave Renbourn tunes -- just perfect to my ears. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYL0ScCuQps
― tylerw, Friday, 22 July 2016 17:13 (seven years ago) link
lol i see i have already sung its praises in this thread. #thepelican
Listening now and I really, really like this album. It's actually very light on the "medieval / early music / Renaissance Fair affectations" that you mentioned, Wimmels. I mean, in relation to other Renbourn solo albums (thinking mainly of The Lady and the Unicorn and Sir John Alot of Merrie Englandes Musyk Thyng & ye Grene Knyghte here). It's really just in line with that southwest England Pentangle "folk baroque" sound, but with a little more space than the usual Renbourn fare. The flute on a couple tracks is a nice touch, but I definitely prefer the solo songs. Really cool electric guitar overdubs on the title track, as well.
**shrug**
Maybe Renbourn solo just isn't your bag?
― Austin, Friday, 22 July 2016 18:06 (seven years ago) link
from the post-Fahey thread last year:
Just listened to John Rebourn's The Attic Tapes, out Oct. 16. They go back at least to '62---he died before getting all the dates, but his commentary is really fluent, analyzing some of the songs, without getting pedantic, and talking about how several of them came together, incl. ones whose (probable) sources were unguessed way back when he learned 'em: who knew "Can't Keep From Cryin'" was a Blind Willie, and it's one of several familiar titles who sound really different from any version I knew.He also talks about finding traces of the UK songster Davey Graham in various cities, ideas that lodged in the heads of musos who may well have had no reel-to-reels, or anyway didn't need one to summon the bits that JR puts together here. Mind you, he does give Graham the writer's credit for the opening tightly loose bedsit version of "Anji"(that's from the box marked "1962"). Most are like that, as he says up front, with no thought they'd ever be heard---apprentice JR, but he's already got it, and the audio's a lot better than I expected: just whoosh on the hemp carpet, and You Are There. Ditto the live tracks, where you can tell he knew somebody was listening. He's an okay-to-good singer, maybe more the former, but we also get a couple of nice jolts from Beverly Martyn, on young Donovan's Jansch-y "Picking Up The Sunshine." JR mentions her being on the cover of a Jansch LP...need to check out more of her stuff; I only know her from the album with hubbie John. She's even better on a tight blues. Though actually most of this is pretty concise--20 tracks in 60'48"---with no lack of atmosphere.Also a couple guest shots from the Hurdy Gurdy Man, Mac Macleod (vocals and guitar only), and the grand finale teams JR with Graham himself, on "Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out": jazzy-bluesy, duh, and rawther magical. What other Graham should I check out?Oh yeah, audio and more info here: http://www.worldmusic.net/store/item/TUG1089/PS: speaking of Jansch, this also has an intriguing solo Renbourn version of "Courtship Blues," which Renbourn says is Jansch's first song--they hadn't met then, and the writer hadn't recorded it yet, but Renbourn heard it when Tom Paley came down from Edinburgh.Wantin those Graham tips yall.
― dow, Tuesday, September 8, 2015 6:11 PM (10 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
lots of davy graham releases i've yet to hear but...
the comp that came out on see for miles is a great place to start, picks and chooses from most of his decca albums. not sure if this has been superseded by a more recent collection or not.
favourite dg lp of mine: large as life & twice as natural. stretched out folk blues jazz raga (love the joni both sides now cover that kicks it off), cd reissue has good notes from john renbourn himself.
& if you don't want to hear him sing (i like his voice personally) the collaboration with shirley collins is a+
― no lime tangier, Tuesday, September 8, 2015
― dow, Friday, 22 July 2016 19:01 (seven years ago) link
Info about the forthcoming:
Artist: John Renbourn & Wizz JonesTitle: Joint ControlCatalogue No: TUGCD1095Barcode: 605633009521Label: Riverboat RecordsRelease date: 9 September 2016
Wizz is among a host of performers appearing at a special John Renbourn Tribute concert on Thursday 22 September at Cecil Sharp House, London.
Riverboat Records is delighted and proud to be releasing Joint Control whose 13 songs wonderfully embody the fruits of that friendship, capturing the two great artists and consummate guitarists performing together live and in the studio. The album is all the more poignant because it represents the final recordings by John Renbourn, the final tracks made just days before his death on 26 March 2015 from a heart attack at his home in Hawick in the Scottish borders.
At the time of John’s death, Joint Control was almost entirely finished. The pair had been working together since the start of the year in a small studio, about an hour from John’s Hawick home. Alongside the sheer artistry of their playing you can’t but escape the warmth of the camaraderie permeating these performances. Most of the songs are drawn from a repertoire honed through their touring together since 2012; the only original composition, Wizz’s instrumental ‘Balham Moon’, was recorded at the insistence of John, who also gave it a title.
Of course, many of the songs date back to that extraordinary period of the 1960s when Wizz and John first met, reflecting the ideas and techniques that were shared by all the young British pickers and the influences which neither Wizz nor John would have hesitated to acknowledge - Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Josh White and Davy Graham.
The version of ‘Glory Of Love’ here is one of two performances taken from a brace of Edinburgh shows in 2014; it was learnt via a version performed by Big Bill Broonzy rather than the million-selling hit by The Five Keys. Broonzy’s ‘Hey Hey’ also fittingly opens Joint Control. The other song taped at these shows, ‘Great Dream from Heaven’, is from the repertoire of Bahaman gospel singer Joseph Spence. John was a great admirer of Spence’s work but the song was also a staple of Davy Graham’s set. “It was through Davy that we knew it,” recalled Wizz to Peter Paphides whose fine notes grace this collection. “We didn’t know much more about it than that, but then John researched it and went back to the roots of it a bit more.”
Joint Control is fundamentally steeped in the history of British folk music in the 1960s with many songs by Wizz and John’s contemporaries such as Al Jones and Archie Fisher. Another on the scene was Jackson C. Frank who first arrived in London in 1965; his most famous song, ‘Blues Run The Game’, was one Wizz had never got round to recording. It was only in more recent years that he started to play it, albeit it from Bert Jansch’s version.
Bert Jansch himself is appropriately represented on this album by no less than three performances each one bearing the hallmarks of his unique technique and great songwriting. The unreleased instrumental ‘Joint Control’ is an early example of the reflective, intricate filigree work that would dramatically bear fruit on 1966’s Bert & John album. It was actually recorded for Jansch’s It Don’t Bother Me the previous year but inexplicably left off the final selection. Masterfully interpreted here by John with Wizz, it makes it’s presence here all the more special and significant.
The anthemic ‘Strolling Down The Highway’ first appeared on Jansch’s debut which in the hands of Wizz and John - as eloquently described by Peter Paphides: “now sounds like a careworn validation of the bohemian aspirations parlayed by Bert and all the contemporaries for whom the guitar represented an escape route from the expectations of their forebears.” The other Jansch song, ‘Fresh As A Sweet Sunday Morning’, from his LA Turnaround album, always provided one of the most moving moments in Wizz and John’s shows together; Wizz would usually look skywards at the song’s close. In the wake of John’s death, this recorded version becomes even more heartfelt and moving.
As much as Joint Control is steeped in the celebrated history that its two participants shared, these genuinely historic recordings also sound utterly fresh and contemporary. John and Wizz had only rarely appeared on record together in the past. John produced (and played a little) on Wizz’s 1972 album Right Now, as well as on 2011’s Lucky The Man so we can be particularly thankful that these recordings were made. As Peter Paphides concludes: “Joint Control is a fitting testament to two musicians who never forgot the spirit of joy and exploration which made them pick up their instruments in the first place; two fires of more than fifty years standing. We’re very fortunate that they managed to capture it in time.”
should be tracks from this and The Attic Tapes here:https://soundcloud.com/world-music-network/
― dow, Monday, July 4, 2016 5:18 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Re "Glory of Love," John Martyn used to do a good extended version of it also.
― dow, Monday
― dow, Friday, 22 July 2016 19:05 (seven years ago) link
My first listen:Listening to that John Renbourn & Wizz Jones set, Joint Control, which I posted info about recently. Somehow not yet into the opening and closing instrumentals---though appreciating the latter's it-ain't-over-yet diligent picking-as-digging as an end---but the one in the middle, Jones's "Balham Moon," is pretty cool, and the singing x playing of the others also bring several cycling shades of blues-as-a-feeling vs. purism, even in the Renaissance Faire come-on, "Fresh As A Sweet Sunday Morning," JR's notes got thee pangs. Mostly, though, it's closer to the relatively expected sort of UK and American rare birds, "Buckets of Rain" aside. Distinct approaches, but very cohesive (think Renbourn plays most of the solos).
― dow, Tuesday, July 12, 2016
― dow, Friday, 22 July 2016 19:08 (seven years ago) link
Misplaced stress in the word "guitar" S&D, RFI, BLT, C/D
― Lidsville U.K. (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 15 December 2019 12:59 (four years ago) link
god, i love THE HERMIT
― budo jeru, Wednesday, 29 March 2023 20:56 (one year ago) link
i wish i knew more about his friendship with stefan grossman
― budo jeru, Wednesday, 29 March 2023 20:57 (one year ago) link
i sold my copy of this but wish i had held onto it:
https://i.discogs.com/6OzeNHtlJvEAC1Zt-gPn4REHI3zrr2LL3VrutXYRRX8/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTIzNjk1/NzgtMTI4MDAzMzcy/NS5qcGVn.jpeg
― budo jeru, Wednesday, 29 March 2023 21:00 (one year ago) link
^thought i knew all the grossman/renbourn collabs, seems not!
seventies solo renbourn is all time, but have recently gone back and found myself appreciating his first two lps more than i maybe did in the past.
― no lime tangier, Thursday, 30 March 2023 08:16 (eleven months ago) link