Reviewing the deluxe CD reissue of One World, Uncut magazine described this mesmerising eight-and-a-half-minute track as “possibly Martyn’s finest hour”. The opening track became a live favourite which John would often introduce with a cheeky rhyming slang reference: “This song is dedicated to the Berkeley Hunt, or the National Front”. Harry Robinson (Nick Drake, Sandy Denny etc) arranged the strings, Bruce Rowland (Fairport Convention) played drums and Rico Rodrigeuz provided trombone some years before he worked with the Specials.ġ975’s Sunday’s Child saw a little less Echoplex and a return to more structured songs. Possibly the most tuneful and accessible track on One World, this samba-like pop song is a delight in every way.
Johnny Too Bad was also the title of a 2006 BBC documentary covering Martyn's life and the period up to his leg amputation. It also appeared as a 12” single in 1981 and there are many live versions scattered throughout his CD catalogue. John’s version was a high octane Echoplex extravaganza in the style of “Big Muff”. Taj Mahal recorded a version in 1974 before Martyn covered it on Grace and Danger. It’s likely most people first heard this song performed by Jamaican reggae outfit The Slickers on the 1972 Jimmy Cliff soundtrack The Harder They Come. The Gaelic title loosely translates as “The Fair and Charming Eileen O’Carroll” and the tune is not a million miles away from “The Skye Boat Song”.
This multi tracked fuzz guitar instrumental is a highlight of Inside Out. Well received by fans and critics alike, it was John’s first album to trouble the UK charts, reaching #54 in early 1978. Produced by Island boss Chris Blackwell and featuring an array of big-name sidemen, including Steve Winwood on synth and bass, this hard driving opening track sets the scene for the delights to come. The Echoplex and rhythm box were still very much in evidence, but the album was far more accessible than some of his recent work, incorporating touches of pop, rock, jazz fusion and even (it was claimed) trip-hop rubbing shoulders with the dub influence of Lee “Scratch” Perry who Martyn had met and worked with in Jamaica. One World was a clear indication that Martyn had well and truly left the folk world behind. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. It was later replaced by a Fender Stratocaster and then an even weightier Gibson Les Paul came along (the guitar John claimed was directly responsible for causing the cyst in his knee, leading to septicemia and ultimately his leg amputation in 2006).
#Acoustic guitar jam tracks tv
Well, it didn’t happen right away, but sure enough a few years later there he was on TV performing in front of his own rock band, standing up on stage, no less, and playing the very same Gibson SG I'd seen him trying out in Selmer's, or one very much like it. Of course, since adopting the Echoplex tape delay effect, which dominated his middle period albums, he’d started using a pick-up on his acoustic guitars (crudely fixed across the sound hole with duct tape, more often than not), but a solid body electric? Nah, it’ll never happen, I mused.
Here was one of the foremost acoustic folk blues guitarists in the land seemingly thinking of buying an electric instrument. I remember thinking how strange and out of character it seemed. I stood watching him for a while in quiet disbelief. One day around 1971 I dropped into the Selmer guitar store in London’s Charing Cross Road, as I did regularly back then - they were the biggest UK Gibson agents and always had the best and most interesting new and second-hand instruments in stock – and there was John Martyn trying out a Gibson SG solid electric guitar.
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