(label)
04 February 2008 (released)
22 January 2008
John Martyn’s career spans the great British Folk and Blues boom of the 1960’s through to the present day. This concert was recorded at the Audimax venue in Hamburg on March 17th, 1978.
I had high hopes for this DVD (filmed for the German rock music TV show Rockpalast) - I wasn’t disappointed. The footage of Martyn at his artistic peak blew me away. He is so creative and inspired that it’s scary. I was riveted to the screen for the entire length of the DVD.
Opening track 'One Day Without You’ demonstrates immediately Martyn’s inimitably percussive guitar playing style. He hammers and claws at the strings with a vengeance and it is remarkable that he breaks only one string during the entire gig.
The stunning 'Outside In’ contains incredibly innovative use of effects; wah, Echoplex, distortion and volume swells are combined to create a soundscape far beyond the realms of most acoustic guitarists. The low Bb in the bass of Martyn’s tuning adds another dimension to the sound. He manages to separate and layer his guitar parts to create an almost synth like sound.
Martyn enters Jimmy Page territory with 'Bless The Weather’ - high levels of dissonance combined with folk melodies and enchanting improvisation. 'Small Hours’, the only song played on an electric guitar, is probably the most gentle song on the DVD. It is a beautiful ballad performed by a master of his art. 'Solid Air’, the title track from his classic 1973 album, was written for Nick Drake and is truly moving. The performance here is brilliant.
'May You Never’, the classic feel-good anthem, includes one of Martyn’s most touching lyrics 'May you never lay your head down without a hand to hold/May you never make your bed out in the cold'. Martyn’s heavy fingerstyle adds so much to this simple song. He appears to want to rip the strings from the guitar with his fingers at times but still manages to make this a touching and delicate performance. 'Seven Black Roses’ is a piece of phenomenal show-off fingerstyle guitar. Very tongue-in-cheek, but dazzlingly virtuosic none the less. This is a real gem and it’s worth the price of the DVD alone.
The songs are interspersed with drunken comic interludes, with Martyn having to send away for more beer at one point. The DVD also contains 'Certain Surprise’ ('about as romantic as we get'), 'Big Muff' (more Echoplex with bluesy rasping vocals), 'Couldn’t Love You More’ (an outpouring of love and soul), 'Singin’ In The Rain (surprisingly good!) and a bonus track of 'I’d Rather Be The Devil’ which is absolutely dreadful – only kidding! It’s brilliant too!
A must for John Martyn fans, and indeed anyone with a soul. I really can’t recommend this DVD enough. Buy it!
JOHN MARTYN: 'THE MAN UPSTAIRS (In Concert In Germany 1978)’ is released on the Voiceprint label (VPDVD34) on Monday 4th February 2008.
www.johnmartyn.com
www.voiceprint.co.uk
