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"Pentangling"
(Transatlantic,
'1973')
Light
Flight/Bruton Town/Omie Wise/Will The Circle Be Unbroken?/Pentangling//No
Exit/Cruel Sister/When I Was In My Prime/Once I Had A Sweetheart/Reflection
"I think I'll pull the red rose up
and plant a willow tree!"
Pentangle
compilation number three is a budget re-issue set released only in Britain and
the first to use the band's actual pictures on the front of a sleeve of one of
their band records. It's a sort of art gallery which suits the piecemeal
approach of this compilation which hangs lots of the usual suspects ('Light Flight' 'Sweetheart' 'Circle')
alongside some unusual tracks ('Omie
Wise' 'No Exit' the a capella 'When I Was In My Prime') seemingly at random,
two tracks per each of the five Transatlantic albums. Given the speed at which
Pentangle kept changing, it's like walking into a gallery and seeing an
artist's classical, cubist, impressionist, modern and postmodern styles all
jumbled up across the same walls and a little bit disconcerting. Still,
considering this retailed at around half the price of a full LP back in the day
it's a welcome way for new fans who'd just discovered the group to buy up their
old recordings and dip their toes into some Pentangle-flavoured water. Many
future passionate collectors grew up on low budget compilations like these
which are a valuable part of the story, even if sadly this album never did make
it to CD.
Bert Jansch "Moonshine"
(Reprise,
February 1973)
Yarrow/Brought
With The Rain/The January Man/Night Time Blues/Moonshine/The First Time Ever I
Saw Your Face/Ramble Away/Taw Corbies/Oh My Father
"Starving each and every year
along the road, forever"
Released
a month after the 'official' end of Pentangle, Bert sounds relieved to get back
to his own solo career again. Surprisingly, though, rather than going
completely solo again, this is a more 'Pentangle' like range of styles and
players which includes bluesy harmonica (played by special guest Ralph McTell),
electric guitar, violins and even a harp. Many fans rate this album highly,
calling it a major improvement on the last few Pentangle albums, but whereas the
album features many truly lovely moments ('The January Man' is a lovely
variation on 'April Come She Will' with one man's moods changing with the
months and the rockier closing track 'Oh My Father'(asking God why he doesn't
intervene and stop people's misery around the world) its not quite as coherent
or as original as many earlier Jansch albums. Bert has in fact never sounded as
if he needed the rest of Pentangle more, singing all of these similar songs the
same way, so that the album sounds like one long track rather than nine little
ones. The re-make of 'If I Ever Saw Your Face' - sung in an ill advised duet
with Mary Visconti - might also rank as one of Bert's weakest recordings,
without the fluency and telepathy of Pentangle. There are though a couple of
throwbacks to the Pentangle years: 'Yarrow' is a traditional song Bert had been
playing in the band's sets for a while - a recording of it appears on the 'Time
Has Come' box set and will be re-cut in rather less glittering form on the
band's first reunion album 'Open The Door' in 1985. The whole album was also
produced by Danny Thompson, who also occasionally plays double bass, suggesting
that the Pentangle friendships were still strong even when the band as a whole
was in poor health.
Though
this isn't one of Bert's most memorable albums, though, there's a case to be
made that 'Moonshine' is one of his most rewarding records if you're prepared
to do your homework and study. Taken individually, rather than as a whole, each
song is a welcome insight into Bert's more vulnerable and inward style. Though
there's no lyric here quite as strong as 'People On The Highway', his last song
for Pentangle, many take a similar line, finding life at a crossroads and
wondering which way to go. Several lyrics reflect on a life full of changes and
colour that Bert doesn't feel able to join in with, 'rooted like a tree' as he
reflects sadly on the unbridled lives of joy everyone else he knows seem to be
leading. 'Moonshine' is an oddly sober album in fact, despite the alcohol-related
cover and the rather silly cover illustration of two pompous English gentleman
in a saloon, with Bert at his saddest and most frustrated. There's notably less
frivolities here - no instrumentals and less folk songs than usual - which is
what many fans seem to like. For my tastes, though, Bert is at his best when
his scope for music is unlimited and his mood is varied; in many ways this
album is just a long beautiful sulk.
'Yarrow' is the
most 'traditional' recording here, a stately folk song about a lady who rejects
nine suitors in favour of her stable boy, the only one who loves her for
anything but her money. There's a very pretty double-tracked flute arrangement
which together with the slightly offbeat rhythms makes this sound more like
Jethro Tull and the arrangement is prettier than the full Pentangle remake, but
Bert is in scratchy voice and every verse sounds the same.
'Brought With The Rain' is a heartbreakingly sad traditional song with Bert straining
his voice something rotten on a track
about how life can never be good again. Ralph McTell's harmonica part is by far
the best thing about the song, taking it out of folk and into blues, but again
Bert sounds slightly false and artificial here and his guitar part is, by his
high standards, fairly basic.
'The January Man', a Bert original, is one of the real highlights of the album
with a pretty backing which features Bert bouncing ideas off a piano part. It
sounds very much like an obscure English folk song about the 'twelve stages of
man' who always seems to be dreaming about the future: in March the narrator
'hopes for better weather' while in July hew's 'feeling idle', prepared to work
when it gets cooler.
'Night Time Blues' is the epic of the album, an insomniac song where Bert tries to
work out why he can't sleep for a full seven minutes. But though he lists a
great long items of what isn't bothering him and keeping him awake, it's clear
that something is as an urgent violin pulls against his bluesy guitar as if
locked in a musical arm wrestle. Bert finally pins the fact down to someone
lonely out in the world who needs comforting. Another album highlight that gets
quite hypnotic by the time all seven minutes are up!
The
title track 'Moonshine'
is sadly a bit of a step backwards, an original that sounds like every other
folk song out there - melancholy flutes, simple guitar riff, another odd vocal.
That's a shame because the lyrics about being stuck against your will and
unable to go forward are some of Bert's very best.
Though 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your
Face' is a beautiful song, best sung by Johnny Cash. But this duet
version is weak and woolly, oddly paced and with Bert and guest Mary Visconti
singing against each other, not to each other. The main reunion on the album
between Bert and Danny deserved to be better than this rather unlistenable heap
of noise.
'Rambleaway'
is somewhere between the two, with a lovely flowing melody that's played by the
fiddle again with Bert's guitar underneath. Poor Bert sounds like he needs a
hug as he takes on the world's problems and gets frustrated he can't save any
of them
'Twa Corbies'
- more usually named 'Two Crows' - isn't one of Bert's better ideas. It's this
song that really rambles, while Bert sounds like he's got a vicious cold,
although it's nice to hear him singing a rare Scottish folk song from his own
heritage.
'Oh My Father' is a strong ending to any record though, a plea to somebody with
power to do something, performed with a real grunt from a full rock band
backing. Bert wonders if God has been on the Earth and if they have whether
he's seen the same empty corn fields and hungry hopeless faces he has and
sounds about as angry as we'll ever hear this usually laidback figure. There's
a switch near the end when the 'Father' is clearly more human and perhaps
Bert's own dad or a symbol of them, asked 'have you sold out to the devil's
gin?' or 'his poppy seed'.
Overall,
then, 'Moonshine' is something of a mixture. A collection of Bert's best work
and his worst, it's clear that the folk legend was in a bad place in 1973
though admirably he turns this into a song not of personal moaning but of
despair that the whole world see4ms to be suffering and all of Bert's fame and money
can't put it right. A dark, bleak and mysterious album, this is one for poring
over and studying late at night although it lacks a lot of the strong melodies
and performances from earlier records. Thankfully there will be a way out and
Bert will literally 'turnaround' his blues by his next record.
Various Artists "Heads and
Tales"
(Transatlantic,
'1973')
Ralph
McTell: Spiral Staircase/Pentangle: Light Flight/Humblebums: Open The
Door/Peter Bardens: The Answer/John James: Pickles and Peppers/Gerry Rafferty:
Singing Bird/Jody Grind: Bath Sister/Bert Jansch: Reynardine/Errol Dixon: Ain't
Goin' Back To The Chicken Shack/Young Tradition: Lyke Wake Dirge/Stefan
Grossman: So They Say/Stray: Time Machine/Duffy Power: Louisiana Blues/John
Renbourn: My Johnny Was A Shoemaker/Storyteller: Remarkable/The Johnstons:
Streets Of London/Mr Fox: Mr Fox/Marsupilami: Prelude
"Please be civil, my company
forsake, for to my good opinion I fear you are a rake!"
We don't
as a rule include many various artists compilations in our books, but this one
is more worthy than most. You could almost call it a 'Pentangle tribute album'
as a whole string of bands on Transatlantic - the label funded by Pentangle
money more than anything else - record their songs or songs that Pentangle
might have recorded, with performances by future collaborators, friends, rivals
and members nestling in amongst band and solo tracks. Transatlantic are clearly
filling the void Pentangle have left behind after they left for Warner
Brothers, but the mood is oddly respectful over a departing band (compared with
what happened when The Rolling Stones left Decca and The Kinks left Pye
anyway). The band are represented by the studio take of 'Light Flight', Bert by
'Reynardine' and John by 'Johnny Was A Shoemaker', while there are also songs
from the likes of Bert's future buddy Ralph McTell and John's future guitar
partner Stefan Grossman. Other performances by lesser known bands covering
Pentangle songs including a nice a capella adaptation of 'Lyke Wake Dirge' by
Peter Bellamy's group Young Tradition.
Though rare and never re-issued or released on CD, this set is worth
tracking down if you can find it and is a fascinating way of comparing and
contrasting Pentangle's sound with other, largely more traditionally folk-based
groups. Be warned, though, that you may have competition tracking this one down
with 1970s comedy fans, as the record also features a very rare and early
performance by Billy Conolly's band The Humblebums, who funnily enough record
the traditional folk song 'Open The Door' - the title track of the first
Pentangle reunion album in twelve or so year's time.
Bert Jansch "L A Turnaround"
(Charisma,
September 1974)
Fresh
As A Sweet Sunday Morning/Chambertin/One For Jo/Travelling Man/Open Up The
Watergate (Let The Sunshine In)/Stone Monkey/Of Love and Lullaby/Needle Of
Death/Lady Nothing/There Comes A Time/Cluck Old Hen/Blacksmith
"Let us pack our things and leave
tonight, babe, keep going till the road runs out and gets to an end"
Though
Bert was the one who ended up bailing out on Pentangle first, this wasn't as so
many have assumed so that he could simply pick up his solo career again. Bert
had cut his ties with record label Transatlantic when the band did (unlike
colleague John Renbourn who'll be with them for decades longer) and seems to
have felt that the folk scene was at something of a dead-end anyway. Down in
the doldrums and fed up with music, the once ultra-prolific Bert's output had
dwindled to the point where the only songs he taped during an aborted session
produced by Danny Thompson ran to two half-hearted songs ('Chambertin' and a
cover of John's 'Lady Nothing'). Never a natural businessman Bert also had a
hard time winning record company interest in his work, despite his still strong
reputation and sales draw after Pentangle, and refused to work with Warner
Brothers after the way the last band album had 'disappeared'. Bert always
attracted good people, though, and he found himself being 'saved' by his
friendship with two different AAA bands: Lindisfarne producer Tony Stratton
Smith was a huge fan and eagerly signed Bert to the 'Charisma' label in 1974,
effectively as Lindisfarne's 'replacements'. Bert was also befriended by ex-Monkee
Mike Nesmith who offered him a studio, a backing band and a producer's role as
well as one of the few influences Bert had not yet covered on his own material:
country music. Papa Nez, of course, had been a pioneer and his career resembled
Bert's in many ways - the stigma of having been in a famous band and now thrown
on the scrapheap and the desire to unite rock with a less popular style when
fans just wanted to hear 'pop hits'. Nesmith was a valuable ally and it's to
his credit that he offered so much help to a musician he'd long admired but
never met - for his part Bert always works best when he has another guitarist
to bounce ideas off and the Jansch-Nesmith partnership is one of the most
fascinating in Bert's career, especially so when Nesmith's terrific pedal steel
guitarist 'Red' Rhodes joins in too.
As the
title implies, 'L A Turnaround' rekindled both Bert's creative fire and his
sales figures, with a fuller production and sound that tails nicely with a more
commercial-than-usual set of Jansch compositions (Bert writes everything once
again) but one that's less stuck to its time and place than both the usual 'LA
sessionmen' albums of the mid 1970s or the later, more streamlined Jansch
records. The backing band occasionally extends to include an honorary Beatle
(Hamburg pal Klaus Voormann), the only non-Beatle to play with John and George
on their solo albums (Jesse Ed Davis) and session drummer Danny Lane who'll be
a key member of Bert's bands for many years to come. Fans of Nesmith's solo
work will also recognise a certain timbre and sound from his own guest
appearances (this is the period when Mike was cutting his own acoustic
album-plus-book 'The Prison'). 'L A Turnaround' just sounds like a more
accessible Jansch album, while getting the mixture between heartfelt writing
and crass commercialism about right.
However,
though 'L A Turnaround' has the sound of an excellent Jansch LP, the songs are
by his high standards something of a mixed bag and haven't quite shaken off the
sense of apathy from the year before. There are, it's true some truly excellent
moments: 'Fresh As A Sweet Sunday Morning' has deservedly become a compilation
favourite, the fond farewell song to old manager Jo Lustig on 'One For Jo' is
one of Bert's sweetest songs, 'Travelling Man' is one of Bert's best
autobiographical tracks harking back to the very earliest Pentangle work
'Traveling Song', whilst the pretty 'There Comes A Time' may well be one of the
most under-rated song in his catalogue. There are, also, far fewer instrumentals
on this album than usual and sadly those that did make their way through the
net such as 'Chambertin' and 'Lady Nothing' aren't much cop, suggesting that
aborted 1973 album would have been a heavy slog indeed. The rest are at times
pretty awful though: the country hoe-down 'Open Up The Watergate' is far less
interesting than it sounds, 'Cluck Old Hen' is yet another childish novelty
song I could have done without and 'The Blacksmith' is one of the ugliest
attempts to update an old subject to the present day (Bert really drops an
anvil here). It's the re-make of 'Needle Of Death', though, which takes one of
the most powerful songs of the past ten years and turns it into a sloppy
country ballad that's the really painful moment here. In other words, 'L A Turnaround'
is a great album and well worth owning for the things it gets right - but it's
not the best Bert record by any means and though it's probably the best
production job on a Bert record I feel we've been swayed a bit too much into
claiming it as Bert's best set of songs too. Interestingly the reception on
this album when it finally appeared on CD in 2009 - after a massive long delay
- was far more positive than I was expecting given the very 70s sound, so who
knows; perhaps there's time for my tastes to turnaround yet too? By the way the
CD adds three alternative versions of which a fully acoustic 'Blacksmith' is
the best without all the distracting drums and extras, plus an album outtake in
Bert's charming reading of Holst's gorgeous carol 'In The Bleak Midwinter'
that's gloriously eccentric and compared to the rest of the album unashamedly
folk. The bleak midwinter must have seemed a long way from bright and sunny LA
in the spring though!
'Fresh As A Sweet Summer Morning' is a last love song for second wife Heather before things get
complicated. Bert once again imagines himself a bird, just so he can get near
her at all times instead of just when she lets him. It's a pretty song with
some lovely Red Rhodes pedal steel, but could do with being a lick or two
faster.
The
complex instrumental 'Chambertin'
is in many ways the end of an era - it's the last Jansch guitar instrumental
that's here purely to 'show off'. It's a clever piece that never stops moving,
which is lovely until you realise that it's named after a Burgandy Wine and may
well be an alcoholic's ode to his favourite fuel! It sounds rather out of place
on this record too.
'One For Jo'
is a sweet piece actually not written directly for manager Lustig as everyone
says but his new wife. It's a kind gesture from one intense relationship to
another to encourage his dreaming and not care too much about it ('I don't
believe the tales he tells, though they're always nice to hear') and praises
him as a 'prince of living who knows all the rules'. Bert remained good friends
right up until his manager's death and praises him to the hilt in the Pentangle
CD re-issue frenzy and box set. The CD includes a rougher alternate version,
although for once the 'right' take made the record!
'Traveling Man' is where the new session country backing works best. Producer
Nesmith knows that this song about a lone rambling traveller is exactly the
sort of thing Bert would normally perform solo but gives it an extra kick with
some lovely Rhodes pedal steel. Bert sadly tells us that he's arrived at his
new destination with 'nothing', without any wares to sell in the land where
everybody is offering something for profit, but asks to sing for his supper if
we can 'lend' him an ear. No problem Bert, not when the songs are as good as
this one!
Bert's
songs don't often pay heed to what's going in the big world, so 'Open Up The Watergate' -
which would have been a very brave and pertinent song for May 1974 - sticks out
like a guitarist's sore thumb. A howling blues with Jesse Ed Davis playing a
mean George Harrisonesque slide guitar (over a track not unlike the Beatles'
'Sue Me Sue You Blues' as it happens...), it's a curious near-instrumental
number. A slightly less dense and slightly better early take appeared on the CD
as a bonus track.
The
poppy 'Stone Monkey'
features Bert 'n' Mike bouncing acoustic guitars back and forth about escapism
and Bert seemingly hiding from all his problems back home while he makes this
album. I've never heard why this track is called this or why it has the chorus
'stone monkey, gather your family around and watch the sun go down', but I'm
willing to bet it had something to do with Mike's former occupation as a
'stoned Monkee'...
'Of Love and Lullaby' is one of those Bert ballads that really grows on you. It sounds
like a sampler of other Bert songs, with just one verse quoting from lots of
earlier songs ('So early in the Spring...For you I sing my song of love') which
sounds as if Bert is trying to tie a neat ribbon around his second marriage and
turning all the good that once was into one last pretty song.
Alas the
re-make of 'Needle Of Death'
is near-unlistenable, a folk classic turned into an over-emotive country weepy
that someone really should have stepped in to stop. Bert's vocal sounds like
he's sung the track so many times he's stopped remembering the harrowing events
that inspired the original, but then his scared and fragile vocal for his debut
album would have been pretty darn hard to beat.
I love
the fact that even after Pentangle have broken up, not without a little
acrimony, the quintet were still friends enough to work with one another and
record each other's songs. 'Lady
Nothing' first appeared as 'Lady Nothynge's Toye Puffe' on John's 1967
album 'Another Monday' and is in many ways his solo signature tune. A tricky
little Medieval instrumental, it audibly challenges Bert to play in his
friend's style and he can't quite carry off the ease of the original, but it's
a good cover nevertheless.
'There Comes A Time' sounds like the one album song written with the country style in
mind. An open and honest account of his failing second marriage or possibly
even the end of Pentangle, Bert tells us that he's had a great time but everything
ends sooner or later - and this is clearly time to part after 'One too many
mornings lazing, one too many nights fooling around'. It's a gorgeous,
devastatingly frank track in the 'People On The Highway' mould enhanced greatly
by Red Rhodes' playing, although Bert's slightly off-key vocals don't have
quite the power of his very best work (was this song too painful to sing for
another take?)
'Cluck Old Hen' is an oddball, another near-instrumental that does a good job at
summing up pecking hens in a farmyard before Bert compares their endeavours
with the hungry railroad workers who devour their eggs every breakfast. There's
some nice blues guitar work here, but it all sounds just a little bit odd - too
silly to be taken seriously, not funny enough to quite be a comedy.
I'm
really not keen on album closer 'The Blacksmith' either, which is the sort of thing fans feared
when they heard Bert was working with a bunch of session men in LA: it's all a
bit anonymous, with lengthy keyboard solos and sloppy playing that rather
smother Bert's own personality. The song doesn't have many words either and
those it does have sound uncomfortably like every Pentangle folk song thrown in
a blender. The outtake included on the CD shows much more promise.
Overall,
then, there are more turnarounds on this album than an LA highway: just as you
think you've worked out where this album is going wrong or right it surprises
you by nailing/failing everything you'd just got used to loving/putting up
with. I can sympathise with the Pentangle fans the first time round who fell in
love with this album as one of the first to be released after the band's first
split and also those who fell in love with this album afresh as the latest
Jansch album to make the shops before Bert's sad death. It's certainly not the
ghastly mistake it could have been, despite being such a departure for his
work. However, for me it rivals 'Moonshine' as the weakest Jansch album to
date, with its inconsistent set of songs the biggest obstacle, though with at
least a trio of career highlights included too. Bert will keep to the same
formula, but will sound less happy, on sequel 'Santa Barbara Honeymoon', which
despite being critically slaughtered and selling far less copies is actually
more or less the same in quality (always the bridesmaid, never the bride...)
Bert Jansch "The River
Sessions"
(Charisma,
Recorded November 1974, Released November 2004)
Build
Another Band/I've Got A Feeling/One For Jo/The Blacksmith/Travellin' Man/Lady
Nothynge's Toye Puffe/Fresh As A Sweet Sunday Morning/Angi/Stone Monkey/Dance
Lady Dance/When I Get Home/In The Bleak Midwinter/Key To The Highway/Chambertin
"I know that my baby's back
home"
A nice
mixture of the old and the new, the earliest live recording we have of Bert
since his pre-fame days in Glasgow surprisingly only came as late as 1974 - and
won't be released until thirty years later. It's a good set that should have
been released sooner, capturing Bert at that crossroads between his Pentangle
days and his return to solo work. Many of the best tracks from his latest
record 'L A Turnaround' are here but so too are many from his next LP 'Santa
Barbara Honeymoon', which must have been a pain for those in the audience who
had to wait eleven months to actually own this latest batch of songs. There is
notably little from the Pentangle era, just a slightly weedy version of 'When I
Get Home' and a unique 'I've Got A Feeling' with Bert taking the song to a very
different place to Jacqui, while there's also a cheeky 'steal' from John
Renbourn's solo work with a short version of 'Lady Nothynge's Toye Puffe'. 'In
The Bleak Midwinter' (well, it was late November) sounds particularly good
tonight, with Bert's unusual sour vocals fitting Gustav Holst's gorgeous
carol nicely, although 'Anji' sounds a
little past her best. Bert clearly feels more at home in Glasgow's City Hall
than the later Pentangle tours - it was his 'home' after all - and is on
particularly witty form, talking a little bit about most of the songs before
playing them. The one song fans might not recognise here is also the oddest:
'Stone Monkey' is a bit of book reading by Bert from a piece translated from
the anonymous Chinese book 'Journey To The West' dated to the sixteenth century
about a Buddhist monk's travels in India to explore his faith. Quite what this
reading has to do with Bert or his music is unclear, but it actually rather
suits this thoughtful setlist full of some of the deeper and more spiritual
songs in the Jansch back catalogue. Though only an hour long and played with
just a single guitar accompaniment throughout, there's more of Bert in here
than on most of his records and this archive release is a highly valuable find,
begging the question - what other gems are out there that haven't been released
yet?!
Bert Jansch "Santa Barbara
Honeymoon"
(Charisma,
October 1975)
Love
Anew/Mary and Joseph/Be My Friend/Baby Blue/Dance Lady Dance/You Are My
Sunshine/Lost and Gone/Blues Run The Game/Build Another Band/When The Teardrops
Fell/Dynamite/Buck Rabbit
"Living is a gamble baby. loving
much the same"
A rather overlooked sequel to the best-selling (well, comparatively)
'L A Turnaround', 'Santa Barbara' was aptly named after being recorded in the
'honeymoon' period of Bert's association with Charisma and is a rather
overlooked album. Certainly it's not as strong as its immediate predecessors
and the mid-70s production has got bigger while the songs seem to have got
smaller in scope (there's the first appearance of a synthesiser on a Jansch
record - not a good omen - while there are no backing tracks here that wouldn't
have been enhanced by wiping everything except Bert's voice and guitar,
especially the ones featuring the gospel chorus, the Dixieland jazz band and
the steel drums - I only wish I were kidding, but I'm not). Bert's still in
great voice though and at the end of his greatest extended peak as a writer,
with ten originals and two of his more interesting covers making for an album
that would be great if only they could remix it one day. The CD is even more
generous, turning this twelve-trackers into a nineteen song set with a
mini-live performance from the period performed with John Renbourn and a whole
six outtakes, which taken together makes this one of the better Bert Jansch
albums to get.
'Love Anew'
somehow still manages to sound like Bert despite being under a mammoth layer of
mid-70s singer-songwriter mediocrity of synths, guitars and drums. The lyrics
about starting again by worrying what went wrong the last time round are very
Bert, though.
'Mary and Joseph' is the album song that divides fans the most. To my ears it's
rather fun and typical of the Pentangle humour, as Bert retells the nativity as
if it was happening in the future, with the anxious parents taking off in
rocket ships and worrying about getting back to planet Earth in time for the
birth. The lovely flowing piano is unusual for Bert and enhances the song
nicely too.
'Be My Friend' is the most traditional song on the album, as Bert tries to get
an ex-partner whose mad at him to at least be his friend if no longer his
lover. Sad and guilty sounding, it's a poignant track with a lot of character.
I'm not
so sure about the bland and forgettable 'Baby Blue', though, which has so many rock overdubs
on top it's claustrophobic. The lyrics are Bert's most cringe-worthy yet too:
'Baby blue I love you, strolling down the high street I see you passing by
shopping at the market sweet flowers you buy...'
The
jazzy 'Dance Lady Dance'
is rather icky too, with one of Bert's emptiest songs dressed up in finery
which, like it's author, doesn't wear well on someone so delightfully scruffy.
I do
however quite admire the re-styling of the old standard 'You Are My Sunshine'
in the same folk-lament style as most Pentangle songs. Though Bert gets the
giggles at one point (probably because a choir start 'ooh' ing along en masse)
but actually one of the better pre-Beatle songs around sounds all the better
for the straight and serious, slower reading Bert gives it here. One of the
album's success stories.
The
moody 'Lost and Gone'
is more like the old Bert too, pining for the end of his second marriage and
the things he left behind when he moved out of his old house. The backing choir
are a tad obtrusive though.
Jackson
C Frank's remarkable 'Blues
Run The Game' could easily have been a Bert Jansch song sharing so many
of his hallmarks: travel, blues and guilt. Bert's reading is more aggressive
than most and finds him still in a guilty frame of mind. The sparser reading on
Bert's debut album is still the best version around though.
'Build Another Band' is clearly about the 'other' big split of Bert's life -
Pentangle - and would be a rather nice sequel to 'People On The Highway' had
Bert got rid of both the gospel choir and the steel drums. Calypso-folk? Though
the master of combining styles, even Bert struggles with this one, which is a
shame because the slightly sarcastic lyrics deserve better than this backing
and reveal another side to Bert's character.
The
delightful 'When The Teardrops
Fell' is the most memorable song on the album, even if Bert is having a
rough day vocally. For once the sweetness of the backing track actually
enhances a pretty song about knowing that an attack of the blues is coming but
taking strength from the fact that you've dealth with it before.
The
sleepy blues-rocker 'Dynamite'
is another unusual Bert song, sounding not unlike period Rolling Stones: slow
and blurry but still a rocker. The fuse never quite blows across this song,
though, with Bert holding his musicians back for a release that never quite comes.
The
album then ends with the funky 'Buckrabbit', a re-write of 'Run Rabbit Run' as Bert again imagines
the chase and identifies with the rabbit more than the hunters after him. Again
the backing sinks a promising song, though: there's no reason for the jazz band
to be here (how did they even fit down the rabbithole?!)
Overall,
then, there's a few more mistakes than normal on 'Santa Barbara Honeymoon' and
fans have never been quite sure what to make of this record, which usually ends
up being regarded as one of the bigger failures in Bert's catalogue. It's far
from being bad though: as with the string-fest (string vest fest?) 'Nicola'
it's good to hear Bert breaking up his usual formulas and stretching himself,
even if he inadvertently reveals why his best albums all feature just him and
the guitar. You could certainly make a claim that this is his most inconsistent
LP, but it's not a bad one - there's still more than enough here worth hearing
and - hey - it's a honeymoon so if Bert is ever going to get away with
tampering with what's been working then it's here!
John
Renbourn "The Hermit"
(**, '1976')
The Hermit/John's Tune/Little Alice/Old
Mac Bladgitt/Faro's Rag/Caroline's Tune//Three Pieces By O'Carolan: The
Lamentation Of Owen Roe O'Neill-Lord Inchiquin-Mrs Power/The Princess and the
Puddings/Pavanna (Anna Banana)/ Medley: A Toye-Lord Willoughby's Welcome Home
" Awright
geeezzaa! welcome 'ome lord willoughby, do put yaaahr feet up an' make
yaaahrself comfortable. Sorted mate"
After
the busy Pentangle years, John retreated to peace and quiet and solitude, back
to a house in the country he'd bought with his savings and whose luxury and
space and tranquillity must have seemed a world away from the flat he'd so
recently shared with Bert in London. Even more than his old partner, you can
tell easily what sort of a period John is going through by the music he creates
and 'The Hermit' is equally introspective and subdued. John wasn't strictly a
'hermit' - he had a family in tow and guests to play on the album like
Dominique Trepau (doing the 'Bert' guitar part) and John James, but he's
clearly been doing some thinking and has spent the last three years relatively
cut off from all his old responsibilities and music contacts. The new Renbourn
hasn't changed that much in terms of style though: this record is still
dominated by music from the Middle Ages, often painstakingly transcribed from
harpsichord and lute to an acoustic guitar. The eleven track album is fairly
evenly split between traditional tunes of 500 years vintage and new original
pieces. The biggest change is how rehearsed and carefully planned everything is
- there's no sense of experimentation or improvisation here, which actually
isn't as bad a thing as you might think (John reasoned that without Bert he was
more reluctant to set off into the ether and was also pleased to be hailed by a
'new' generation of guitarists desperate for guitar tabs to pass down - John
often had to admit sheepishly that a lot of his most famous moments were
improvised and thus were never notated properly!)
Sadly
this is mainly an album of instrumentals again - sadly because I rather like
the sound of John's voice, not because of the chance to hear more of his superb
guitar playing - which does rather prevent this from being one of the true
greats of his back catalogue. However it's one of his better albums of the
1970s, with some terrific engineering work across the album which makes his
guitar sound really soar, while the balance of styles and tempos is better
executed than on some other period LPs of John's. Highlights include 'The
Hermit' itself, a busy complex guitar piece that involved every last millimetre
of John's guitar and the delightful 'John's Tune' which sounds like the theme
song to some olde worlde comedy show ('Henry VIII's Chopping Days Till Xmas!'
'Raleigh smokes a potato!' 'How Cromwell Got His Warts!') I'm not sure I quite
agree that it's the best thing John ever did (there are a lot more slower songs
here than usual and after a while the album does get a bit repetitive) but it's
another strong album by a master guitarist near the height of his powers. The
CD release in 2004, curiously, adds five bonus tracks taken from later Renbourn
LPs but no actual outtakes or alternate versions and messes around with the
original running order without any real sense of improvement.
Bert Jansch "A Rare
Conundrum"
(Charisma,
May 1977)
Daybreak/One
To A Hundred/Pretty Saro/Doctor Doctor/3AM/Curragh Of Kildare/ Instrumentally
Irish/St Fiacre/If You See My Love/Poor Mouth/Cat and Mouse/Three Chord
Trick/Lost Love
"Across the blue and restless
waters - perhaps I can earn my living there"
The
extended 'holiday' in LA over, Bert returned home to England to pick up his
career and return to the sparser, more traditional setting of his earlier
career. Thankfully he fell in with another good crowd who really cared for his
music and many of whom will be his best pals for years to come: Lindisfarne's
Rod Clements will later be in the reunited Pentangle in the 1980s as would
violinist Mike Piggott, while Dire Straits' Pick Withers took time off from the
band to provide some excellent and typically under-rated drums. It was a
milestone moment for Bert, who was at the end of his long-standing twelve year
relationship with Transatlantic and looking for a new deal. The music kind of
reflects that - Bert never did anything without considering all his options
carefully first - and there's a lot of to-ing and fro-ing as Bert questions
where he's come so far and where to go in the future.
'Conundrum'
goes further back than most of Bert's albums, actually, and contains a career
highlight in 'One To A Hundred' about the moment he 'grew up' when his best
friend at school died in an awful accident in a quarry. Bert imagines his
younger self stuck in a permanent game of hide and seek his friend beat him at
by going to a place 'so far away'. The pain clearly still lingers even this
many years on. 'Doctor Doctor' is a strong song too about Bert's declining
health played on a banjo and sung with a special kind of stark horror only
Jansch can manage. 'If You See My Love' is another sad highlight as Bert pines
for second wife Heather, urging mutual friends to tell her that without her
he's 'slowly sinking, heavy drinking' - a mess. The album also ends with one of
Bert's better songs of the decade 'Lost Love', although it's a track the
reunion Pentangle will do slightly better on their 'Open The Door' album - this one is too
bouncy by half. Bert also struggles vocally across the album, losing his usual
ability with phrasing and emotional power, but then he really wasn't in too
good a place during the making of this LP - the wonder is that so much of it is
as good as it is. When finally released on CD in 2009 - one of Bert's last to
make it to the digital world - many glowing reviews made this out as a real
long lost classic. It isn't, with too many ordinary songs and a production
that's beginning a slow uncomfortable descent into being ordinary and
contemporary, but it still has lots of powerful moments fans need to hear. The
CD also adds three really fine outtakes, all of which should have been on the
album - a cover of Rev Gary Davis' blues song 'Candyman', the sad original
'Three Dreamers' and a cover of the John Bidwell song 'Dragonfly' - not to be
confused with the Pentangle reunion song of the same name.
John Renbourn Group "A Maid In
Bedlam"
(**,
'1977')
Black
Waterside/Nacht Tanz-Shaeffertanz/A Maid In Bedlam/Gypsy Dance-Jew's Dance/John
Barleycorn/Reynardine/My Johnny Was A Shoemaker/Death and the Lady/The Battle
Of Aughram/Five In A Line/Talk About Suffering
"Leave this world of trial
and trouble here below"
John's
second album after the Pentangle split finds him coming out of his 'hermit'
cave and looking for a new life in the country, away from all the hustle and
bustle and spotlights of the big city. It's one of his sweeter, happier albums
and sounds not unlike unwinding in a hot bath with the sense of relief at going
back to what the guitarist was doing before the band, with the added bonus of a
slightly bigger budget. Though the album title hints at madness, this album
sounds more like the opposite - it's a man going back to sanity after years of
being moulded into a slightly different shape, as all solo artists who end up
in bands end up becoming to one extent or another. However Renbourn is keen not
to break with his colleagues too much. Jacqui appears on many of John's albums
but this one particularly is quite a close partnership, with McShee's velvet
vocals really enhancing a good half of the record. John also cheekily has a go
at the traditional song 'Blackwaterside' made famous by Bert, stamping his own
personality on the song and tackling it in a far more authentic and traditional
manner than his partner's direct 60s protest style. 'Reynardine', played often
by Pentangle but at first only recorded by Bert, also appears here as a
delightful jam session for Medieval flute, accordion and tabla! John also starts a long lasting partnership
with several new friends here, including singer and flute/recorder/lots of
weird Medieval instruments player Tony Roberts (whose knowledge and passion for
the Middle Ages rivals John's own), Sue Draehim (who sings the songs that
Jacqui doesn't, while simultaneously playing fiddle - this is the Renbourn
album that sounds most like 'The Corrs') and Keshav Sathe whose tabla playing
adds a nicely Pentangly 'Indian' feel to this most English of albums and a
feeling that these are stories for everyone from all walks of life and eras.
The
result is one of Renbourn's more likeable albums, with a notably upbeat
selection of songs whose tapestry of styles makes it perhaps the most Pentangly
of the records made after the band split. Several songs that will become
regulars on Renbourn compilations come from here - Jacqui's tasteful reading of
'My Johnny Was A Shoemaker', the traditional jig 'Death and a Lady' (which
sounds far too cheerful about the whole thing!), the funkiest reading of the
oft-heard 'John Barleycorn' you'll ever hear and the lovely title track, which
is about as psychedelic a version of a traditional eighteenth century Norwich
song as you'll ever hear! In fact the title track is a real highlight that
deserved to be better known - the tale of an African American committed for his
'strange' love for an English lady he can never be near and which he becomes
committed for rather than renounce is exactly the sort of times-change-but-people-stay-the-same
morality tale Pentangle were born to record. Though not quite as memorable,
'The Battle Of Aughrim' is quite an important song in the Renbourn back
catalogue too: it's an anti-war song written not during the height of Vietnam or
Korea but after the 'Willamite War' in Ireland in 1691 that saw 7000 locals
slaughtered. No wonder Renbourn follows this up with the folk-gospel song 'Talk
About Suffering': the Earth is a mad place and always has been on this record;
the decline and fall of modern civilisation feels inevitable after so many
tales of betrayal and deceit.
There
are perhaps a few too many instrumentals here and sad to say John himself keeps
quiet across most of the record, with only one harmony part across the entire
LP, while his guitar is no longer the focal point it is on so many of his other
records. Take nothing away from this pretty but also pretty tough record about
life, death and madness though: 'A Maid In Bedlam' feels like it has the same
eagerness, hunger and storytelling of the early Pentangle records laced through
with the same sense of magic that these styles really shouldn't go together and
yet end up sounding like the perfect fit. Like the best albums that try to
remind us about our history, this set pulls no punches with its storytelling
and though its low on originals and features more 'obvious' songs to cover than
some other albums, all are delivered with an extra special 'twist!' The result
is one of the more accessible Renbourn albums for Pentangle fans and one of the
few that is truly an essential part of his solo catalogue, with Jacqui of
course playing a highly important role too. If this is madness, then I am glad
to be mad - a mad album is better than a bad album any day!
"Anthology"
(Transatlantic,
'1978')
Market
Song/Lord Franklin/House Carpenter/Goodbye Pork Pie Hat/Will The Circle Be
Unbroken?/Way Behind The Sun//Lyke Wake Dirge/In Time/So Clear/In Your
Mind/Waltz/Light Flight
"All day I can hear them cry: come
buy them, sweet records, with covers orange, fresh for you - on sale all
day"
Part of
a Transatlantic re-issue frenzy when they needed money in a hurry, both this
and the accompanying Bert Jansch set look cheap and nasty, with plain orange
covers that bear little to the multi-hewed music inside and a real jumble of
songs. Only 'Light Flight' and 'Circle' are tracks you'd expect to see on a
Pentangle best-of, with other obvious selections like 'Traveling Song' 'Let No
Man Steal Your Thyme' and 'Once I Had A Sweetheart' all absent. There is, at
least, a nicely rounded selection from the band's first five LPs (the sixth
having been released on Warner Brothers and so was thus expensive to license
back in 1979) with three songs apiece from albums two and three and two songs
from the others. More by luck than skill I suspect the record still comes up
trumps with some excellent selections that don't get enough recognition:
'Waltz' 'In Time' and 'Lyke Wake Dirge' are three of the heaviest going songs
from the first three albums when most fans feel
Pentangle were at their 'peak', but also three of the most rewarding.
You have to question what some of the other songs are doing here in place of
the better known material though. What's odd is that, released in punk's 'year
zero', many of these traditional and traditional-sounding songs actually stack
up really well. Though I doubt any punk would have been bothered about the
Middle Ages the sheer adventurism and realness (especially on the early jazzier
songs) gives Pentangle more in common with the Sex Pistols than most people
recognise.
Bert Jansch "Anthology"
(Transatlantic,
'1978')
Nicola/Reynardine/So
Long/Allman/Peregrinations/Weeping Willow Blues/Angie///The First Time Ever I
Saw Your Face/Nottamun Town/It Don't Bother Me/Box Of Love/Henry Martin/The
Needle Of Death
"Walking through the stalls, I am
amazed by them all, come buy them, sweet records, with covers yellow - on sale all day"
The solo
Jansch anthology looks even worse with a plain cover in fading yellow colour,
looking to all intents and purposes as if the sister 'Pentangle Anthology' set
robbed the printer of all the 'reds'. It's odd that John didn't get his volume
too to complete the set - perhaps there'd been too much of a fan outcry by
then? The result is a record quite similar to last time: a few of the things
every Jansch fan needs to own are here ('Nicola' 'Reyardine' 'The Needle Of
Death' 'Anji'), but this set doesn't exactly tally with what most fans would
expect to see either (where is 'Blackwaterside' 'The Gardener' and 'I Am
Lonely'?!) A fair introduction to Bert's talents at the time given that it was
at least cheap, you still can't help but feel that Transatlantic were slumming
it here. Surely a cheap shot of the band and the hiring of an actual fan to
choose the running order couldn't have been that expensive?! Again, the record
stacked up surprisingly well in the year of punk despite all this record's
flaws and helped Bert regain something of a critical standing with the young
crowd that will grow and grow until his untimely death.
John Renbourn and Stefan Grossman
"Stefan and John"
(Stefan
Grossman's Guitar Workshop, '1978')
Snap
A Little Owl/Bermuda Triangle Exit/The Shoes Of The Fisherman's Wife/Luckett
Sunday/Why A Duck/The Drifter/Looper's Crooner/Luke's Little Summer/Spirit
Levels/The Way She Walks/Woman From Donori
"Stefan and John are gone, man,
solid gone on guitar solos that are sometimes too long but nevertheless
demonstrate a real bond"
There
can't be many Medieval manuscript loving folk guitarists with a large blues
record collection in the world so it seems inevitable that Renbourn and
Grossman would have crossed paths at some point. Renbourn was always happiest
when playing with others and bouncing ideas off a guitarist with a very
different style to him and Stefan is very like Bert, whilst also being very
different. Both guitarists are about rhythm and possess amazingly dextrous
fingers, with a musical curiosity that John also shared, but the difference is
that Stefan is from the totally no-rules background of jazz and rather than
being happiest when creating something utterly new (like Bert) is at his best
re-acting, dancing around a guitar riff until the music is finally spent. This
was a fascinating collaboration and John had been eager to work with his future
pal ever since learning that he'd actually met the late great blues legend Rev
Gary Davis (a hero to both men). The pair had become friends long before
Renbourn's career had taken off with Pentangle, after Grossman moved from the
States to check out the London guitar scene. They re-connected post-Pentangle
and made this album quickly and cheaply in London ('after bribing the engineer
out of the pub' according to John's later recollections!) The pair went on to
make three studio albums and a live record together over the next few years,
coming together and drifting apart with a looser structure than Pentangle and
in many ways their records are the best John made outside the band.
They're
certainly the Renbourn records to buy if you're more interested in 1960s jazz
than 1460 Medieval banquets and of all the Pentangle records these are the ones
that come closest to the improvisatory style of Pentangle's first LP.
Especially this first record, which finds the guitarists at their most
sympathetic and telepathic, dancing round each other and complementing each
other nicely. Charlie Mingus and his 'jive ass slippers' (according to the
original LP track title!) were a major inspiration for both men and the jazz
writer crops up a lot across the album, even on the pair's original songs. They
tend to be the best tracks too, with a languid laidback jazz breeze rather than
a wild wind, although it's the album's folkiest and most Pentangly moment 'The
Drifter' that's arguably the album highlight, with a first-class melody
performed by two first-class guitarists. If at times this album feels more like
an extended guitar lesson ('Luke's Little Summer' is an overlong exercise in
playing guitar scales) and Pentangle fans like me miss the vocals and lyrics,
if any album was going to turn me into the sort of fan who loves 40 minutes of
guitar instrumentals then this is it. No wonder Stefan and John have the sun in
their eyes on the album cover - the inspiration and 'muse' are up to full
strength across this album so it makes sense they're blinded by some sort of
celestial light (most AAA bands seem to equate the sun with inspiration
somewhere in their career it seems). In a nice nod to how influential this
record once was for guitar players, the current CD re-issue even includes a
free pdf file featuring guitar tabs for most of the songs! What the acoustic
guitar was made for.
John Renbourn "BBC Live In
Concert"
(**, Recorded July 1978 and May 1980, Released
December 2001)
All
Things That Rise Must Converge/Belle Qui Tiems Ma Vie/Tourdion/The Trees They
Do Grow High/Great Dreams From Heaven/Douce Dame Jolie/Plains Of Waterloo/Sidi
Brahim
"The war it is over and peace is
now returned again"
A nice
unexpected Christmas present in 2001 was the first time two interesting
Renbourn concerts had been heard since the date of first broadcast. Though most
guitarists would have used the extra publicity to give their most famous song a
plug and would have chosen a set-list that was 'newbie friendly', Renbourn is
characteristically more concerned with letting audiences hear his favourite
obscure folk songs, many of which aren't even sung in English. Jacqui is
special guest, as she so often is on Renbourn's records, which makes this set
of particular interest to Pentangle fans - though only a particularly lovely
and expressive 'Medieval psychedelia' arrangement of 'The Trees They Do Grow
High' sounds anything like their old style. Long term buddy Stefan Grossman
guests too, giving Renbourn a fellow-minded guitarist to play against and as
usual this pair sound better live than they ever did in the studio. The 1980
gig is the more interesting of the two, containing a glorious reading of the
folk song 'Plains Of Waterloo' (perhaps surprisingly the only Pentangle song
about Napoleon and Nelson). The addition of the very different sounds of flutes
and tablas to the arrangements make everything here sound at the very least
interesting, though, with Renbourn and friends putting together a sound that
defies all genre labels, in true Pentangle style. Overall, a palpable hit.
Bert Jansch "Avocet"
(Charisma,
February 1979)
Avocet//Lapwing/Bittern/Kingfisher/Osprey/Kittiwake
"She sings as she flies, she'll
tell you no warnings, she'll tell you no lies"
'Avocet'
is the sort of album no one but no one else was making in 1979 as birdwatcher
Bert turns combines two of his biggest hobbies and writes a six-part
instrumental suite dedicated to birds. Released at the height of punk, it's
clear that Bert had long since given up trying to stay relevant to the current
music fashions - which is, frankly, wonderful news. Only the truly bird-brained
could argue that 'Avocet' isn't the sort of thing Bert was put on this planet
to do: use his rare combination of folk, pop, jazz and blues as the inspiration
for a series of song suites that are utterly captivating and quite unlike
anything else ever made. The results could easily have become easy listening or
jazz lounge, like so many instrumentals, but there's a real sense of discovery
and adventure across most of this album, especially on the eighteen minute long
title track which is as ambitious a track as any in the Pentangle canon since
the band tackled 'Jack Orion' at a similar length. Performed throughout as a
power-trio, with Bert's guitar, Danny Thompson's typically gorgeous and
experimental double bass and new pal Martin Jenkins' fiddle and flute playing,
you get the sense that the threesome had a ball making this album and pushing
each other to their limits. Of course, with any album of such ambition and
freshness, there are caveats to all this. The second side of smaller songs is
nowhere near as impressive as the first and sounds a bit rushed, making it
unlikely you'll play it as often as some of Bert's more thorough works (once
'Bittern' twice shy?) It surely can't just be me who was waiting for Bert to go
for the extremes on the really unusual varieties of bird too (a sleek refined
monochromatic 'Penguin', a fiery epic 'Phoenix' and a scatter-brained 'Dodo'),
but just as 'The Guitar Of John Renbourn's selection of instrumentals for
library use may well be a candidate for the 'dark horse' of his back catalogue,
so 'Avocet' may well be the 'blackbird' of Bert's - the album you're not
expecting much from but whose packed full of superb performances by three
musicians somewhere near their best. A definite feather in Bert's cap of Bert's
catalogue, this remained his favourite of all the solo albums he ever made,
although shockingly it was one of his last to ever make it to CD, belatedly
issued in 2003.
John Renbourn "The Black
Balloon"
(Transatlantic,
'1979')
The
Moon Shines Bright/The English Dance/Bouree I and II/Medley: The Mist Covered
Mountains Of Home-The Orphan-Tarboulton/The Pelican/The Black Balloon
"Full of music and mirth in the
sweet sounding language of home"
While
Bert will go on to fly a 'toy' one, John's balloon is darker and a homage to
the 'original' Victorian 'Transatlantic' company his record company were named
for, whose logo was a 'black balloon'. Like many a Renbourn album, this is a
fully instrumental album that almost always uses the guitar - the album cover,
in fact, features him looking over his guitar at a piano in horror, as if it's
a completely alien piece of technology to him. This is one of John's more
traditional albums, with only the one original (album highlight 'The Pelican',
which continues Pentangle's love of birds with a lovely warm flowing piece that
may or may not have been inspired by Bert's 'Avocet' album out the same year -
then again John says it's named after a street name he rather liked!) and the
rest all folk songs or old cover tunes. John recalled later that he'd become
obsessed with the 'finger-style steel-stringed guitar' in this period and
performs it frequently across the album - even using it on songs originally
transcribed for the lute or harpsichord. Most of the record is solo, but there
are early appearances by future Renbourn group members Tony Roberts and Stuart
Gordon too, who give the record both a traditionally folky and futuristic
spacey feel with their flute and tabla work. Many rate it as one of John's best
LPs, especially those who come to his records just for the guitarwork and there
are certainly some good things on it - 'The Pelican' works best but the
thirteenth century 'English Dance' works well too, played at breakneck speed.
However the title track falls a bit flat, which as the thirteen minute epic on
the album leaves a big hole and this record doesn't feel quite as thrilling or
adventurous as some other Renbourn LPs. Sorry to deflate the balloon if this
happens to be your favourite, but there are other albums of John's that do this
sort of thing better.
John Renbourn and Stefan Grossman
"Under The Volcano"
(**Transatlantic,
'1979')
Idaho
Potato/Sheebag An Sheemore-Drunken Wagoner/Under The Volcano: Resurrection Of
Blind Joe Death-Four For The Roses-Montagu's Pact-The Rights Of Man/Bonaparte's
Retreat-Billy In The Lowgrounds/Swedish Jig/Water Gypsy/All Things Parallel
Must Converge/The Blarney Pilgrim/Mississippi Blues Number Three
"Let no man steal your magma"
Though
other fans seem to like it just as much, John and Stefan's second album doesn't
quite have the same passion and fire as their debut for me. The formula is the
same - seven guitar duets plus a solo showcase for each man - made up of four
arrangements of traditional folk songs in a jazzy style, four new
collaborations and a solo Renbourn piece. In a neat mirror of the Pentangle
years, this is very much like their second album 'Sweet Child' in that the pair
try to investigate their favourite genres one at a time rather than exploring
them all at the same time. As a result this album doesn't feel quite as fresh
or new, although both men still play exquisitely and their styles are well
matched for each other. However its John's solo piece 'Water Gypsy' that is
perhaps the highlight of the album, a clever loosely jazzy series of chords on
the trusty old acoustic rattled off at dazzling high speed. Other highlights
include the stunning ten minute title suite which heads in lots of different
directions across its ten minutes, being a sort of mini-history of the acoustic
guitar from baroque to the present day and the unusual moody 'All Things
Parallel Must Converge' which sounds like the scariest Western film soundtrack
ever written. The result is a good album which fans of the first one will enjoy
very much, but it's a record to come back to later once you've enjoyed
everything else rather than something you desperately need in your collection. The
album's best feature may well be the great cover - a traditional Japanese
illustration of a volcano about to flip it's lid, with tasteful shots of Stefan
and John in the top corners.
John Renbourn "So Early In The
Spring"
(Transatlantic,
'1980')
So
Early In The Spring/Lindsay/The Mist Covered Mountains-The Orphan/To
Glastonbury/The English Dance/The Banks Of Sweet Primroses/Blues Run The
Game/Great Dreams From Heaven/Peacock Rag/If You Haven't Any Hay/The Young Man
That Wouldn't Hoe Corn/Buckets Of Corn
"I'll sail the seas till the day I
die, I'll break through waves rolling mountain high"
By 1980
many former European stars were struggling to sell records and tickets back
home but found they had a growing and faithful audience over in Japan eager to
hear more music. Always happy to explore new cultures, John took up an invite
from a Japanese record company who hoped that the guitarist had a bit of time
to spare at the end of a tour there to make a quick record. 'So Early In The
Spring' - the second of three times one of other of Pentangle would have a go
at their most oft-recorded song - is a return to the slimmed down folkier sound
of John's early recordings. Gone, for now, are the Medieval recreations and the
sound experiments in favour of a pure folk album featuring nothing except John
and an acoustic guitar performing what was pretty much his live set at the
time. Because of the circumstances - Japan were testing out a new digital
system (after fellow AAA star Stephen Stills had been the guinea pig chosen to
test it the year before) and weren't practised at editing yet, requesting the
album be made as live - this sounds more like the original Renbourn sound than
any album since 'Another Monday' thirteen years earlier. John's guitar is heard
unencumbered by accompanists and better yet he actually sings across most of this
record and rarely had he sounded this good, this full or this warm.
Unless
you're one of the small handful of fans who like their Renbourn best when he's
surrounded by lutes and fiddles and transported back in time five hundred
years, this may well be the best of the guitarist's solo albums. Though there's
nothing as cutting edge as Pentangle, this is folk protest with grit played by
an excellent guitarist near the top of his game with several highlights. This
record's 'So Early In The Spring' is far more traditional than the band
versions from 1970 and 1993, fast paced and laidback rather than urgent. Live
favourite 'Lindsay', a tribute to a guitar player who may just possibly be
Fleetwood Mac's Lindsay Buckingham, sounds the best of all the many times Renbourn
came back to one of his favourite songs. 'Blues Run The Game' is faster than
when Bert plays it and even more traditionally folk. 'Great Dreams From Heaven'
is a pretty ditty about earthly ties and a heavenly surprise. The closing
'Buckets Of Rain' has Renbourn doing amazing things with his guitar so that it
really does sound like a peal of water droplets!
In truth
the album fades a little towards the middle when so many folk songs are given
the same mid-paced flowing peal of guitar chords they risk sounding the same,
but the beginning and end of this LP is plenty good enough to make up for the
rest. After all that work, Renbourn's English record companies passed on this
low budget LP, which until the 21st century was only available in Japan or on import.
Oddly enough this may well also be Renbourn's most 'English' of LPs, from the
long list of traditional folk songs in the set and the typically English
pastoral album cover! Recommended - sometimes the low budget releases really
are the best.
Bert Jansch Conundrum "Thirteen
Down"
(Sonet,
July 1980)
Una
Linea/Let Me Sing/Down River/Nightfall/If I Had A Lover/Time and Love/In My
Mind/ Sovay/Where Did My Life Go?/Single Rose/Ask Your Daddy/Sweet Mother
Earth/Bridge
"Let me sing about love, love
without fear and tyranny, love like a tempest, like a storm. like a sign of the
devil, you can cut off my hand but I'll be stinging till the day I die, let me
sing and let me live!"
By my
maths that's thirteen down - and thirteen to go if you count 'lost' albums and
live records, putting this album right at the heart of Bert's output! Though
Bert has now reached the unlucky thirteenth album, he seems to be taking the
ill omen in his stride, forming a whole new 'mini Pentangle' with future
reunion members Nigel Piggott and Martin Jenkins along with drummer Luce
Langridge. He may have been inspired to the title by the name of his first
compilation, the limited edition 'Lucky Thirteen' released by Vangaurd in 1966
which mixed songs from his first two records - the sensationalist,
superstitious title chosen by the record executives sounds like exactly the
sort of thing that would have struck Bert as 'funny'! Perhaps to subvert the
old title, 'Thirteen Down' is a surprisingly joyous, happy-go-lucky album that
has more in common with the reunion pentangle than the moodier first
incarnation, with a touch of funk and a certain swagger about this record that
makes it quite unlike anything else in the Jansch canon. Sometimes that's a
good thing: 'Let Me Sing' is a Stones-style song about the drive to sing
despite the devils in the way that brings Bert more out of shell than ever,
whilst 'Time and Love' is one of the prettiest and poppiest songs in Bert's
oeuvre, with a sunny riff and a determination to make the most out of a second
chance to 'start again'. Elsewhere it's less successful: a cackling re-make of
Pentangle traditional cover 'Sovay' is a little too Jethro Tull with Bert
growling out the lyrics over a frenetic backing track that doesn't suit him,
while the French accordion of the Charles Aznavour style 'Down River' takes a
lot of getting used to. This record's Pentangle guest appearance comes from
Jacqui who helps turn traditional folk song 'If I Had A Lover' into the most
'Pentangle' like song on the album thanks to a bluesy downbeat riff and a tale
of loneliness and despair. A similar solo song, 'Where Did My Life Go?' is also
well up to standard, a sad and bitter song about the passing of time with Bert
vowing that he's too happy in his ways to change them but too lonely not to
regret the fact, performed with a real bitter feeling not heard since his
pre-Pentangle folky albums (though Bert revealed later he wrote the song not
about his own passing years but his good friend Sandy Denny, who was going
through problems of her own). A mixed record, then, and one that sounds both
strangely polished and strangely rushed all at once (the record's sleeve lists
two songs as by 'unknown' because nobody could be bothered to research them -
actually both 'If I Had A Lover' and 'Sweet Mother Earth' appear to be obscure
traditional folk songs in the public domain from Sweden and Brazil
respectively, though both could easily be Bert originals. Oddly the album
changed covers for release in UK, US and Australasia markets, with the UK edition
by far the best with a shot of the new band apparently caught in mid 'thank God
that's over!' relaxed pose as they get up to go from the dreaded cameras.
'Thirteen Down' may not be the best of the thirteen, perhaps, but it's
delightful optimism makes it a memorable entry in the solo Jansch discography
and at an impressive thirteen tracks long it has enough strong music within it
still to withstand the filler and failed experiments.
The John Renbourn Group "The
Enchanted Garden"
(**Transatlantic,
'1980')
The
Maid On Shore/Douce Dame Jolie/A Bold Young Farmer/Sidi Brahim/Belle Qui Van
Tiens Ma Vie - Tourdion/The Truth From Above/Le Tambourin/The Plains Of
Waterloo
"Pourquoi fuis-tu mignarde, si je
suis pres de toi"
('Why do you flee daintily when I'm around
you?')
Or as
one mischievous friend of Renbourn's called it 'Vivaldi In Gumboots!' By now
John's dreams of retiring from the city to the country had become a reality and
he was happily mixing with the member of the Renbourn Group who had all moved nearby
him. Unlike 'Bedlam', which is a slightly stricter reading of antique folk
songs, 'Garden' is a lot more informal and sounds as if it was hatched at the
local pub rather than the history museum, more concerned with the songs of the
peasants than the dignitaries. The same caveats apply as before: this album
won't be for everybody and by now includes only the slightest of similarities
compared to Pentangle. The highlights
include a memorable guitar duel on Jean-Phillippe Rameu's 'Le Tambourin' (which
translates simply as 'tambourine'), the fascinating eight minute guitar/tabla
work out on traditional folk song 'Sisis Brahim' that melds so many different
styles together it makes your head spin and a gorgeous vocal from a guesting
Jacqui on a rare Pentangle French folk song 'The Plains Of Waterloo'. Not
everything works: Jacqui's latest a capella performance 'A Bold Young Farmer'
is no substitute for 'So Early In The Spring' and the Celtic panpipes-at-dawn
'The Maid On The Shore' may make you question what on earth you've just forked
good money out for. But overall this is a garden in full bloom and an excellent
place to play time travel in.
The John Renbourn Group "Live In
America"
(**Transatlantic,
'1981')
Linsday/Ye Mariners All/English Dance/The Cruel
Mother/Berton Dances/The Trees They Do Grow High/Farewell Lovely Nancy/Van
Dieman's Land/High Germany/Sidi Brahim/The Month Of May Is Past-Night
Orgies/John Dory/So Early In The Spring/The Fair Flower Of Northumberland/John
Barleycorn
"We must march away at the beating
of the drum"
The
Renbourn group somehow ended up in the Americas for a lengthy tour promoting
'The Enchanted Garden', which somehow turned into a live LP. In truth though
it's a bit of an odd live LP - this is after all a band who primarily re-create
folk songs as perfectly as possible; while rock albums tend to sound better
live when the adrenalin's pumping and the crowds are chanting and even solo
folkies can uncover whole new strands of the songs they're singing, do we
really need a live album of music from the middle ages? After waiting five
hundred years to be put on album, couldn't these songs have waited a few months
more to be done in the studio? That might just my hang-up, however, because
this has always proved to be a popular LP. Jacqui McShee is still very much a
part of her band and she gets to duet with John a lot more often than on the
Group or Pentangle records which is delightful (they always had a special
blend). The track listing includes a few too many jigs for my liking but also
includes a pretty much spot on selection of songs from the first two Group LPs
and three songs recorded by Pentangle and not often heard in concert ('The
Trees They Do Grow High' as sung by Jacqui and John, 'So Early In The Spring'
as sung by John not Jacqui and - biggest surprise of all - 'High Germany'). The
album cover too is spectacular: Erich Von Schmidt's caricatures of the band are
all very spot on, even if both John and Jacqui seem to have green hair! Given
that there only were ever two Renbourn Group studio albums, it's welcome to
have anything - although owning the live
album still seems a little more pointless than owning either of the studio
sets.
Bert Jansch Conundrum "Radio One
Live In Concert"
(Windsong,
Recorded July 1981/April 1982, Released August 1993)
Poor
Mouth/Running From Home/Kingfisher/Let Me Sing/Sovay/Alimony/Love Is Lost/Fresh
As A Sweet Sunday Morning/Up To The Stars/If I Were A Carpenter/Sit Down Beside
Me/Is It Real?/Heartbreak Hotel
"You got the kind of smile that
tells me you're happy but you ain't"
Two interesting shows from the short-lived
'Conundrum' project, this radio archive feature isn't quite as worthy as a
whole Pentangle-linked BBC disc would be one day (Bert and John between them
did loads) but it shines new light on what's a relatively unknown period. Bert
is by not struggling with his drinking and his live shows are becoming a bit
more of a struggle, certainly compared to his work in the 1960s, but he's still
a great performer. The first gig is perhaps the stronger of the two featuring a
nice mixture of old favourites from the solo and Pentangle days (including a
rare solo reading of 'Sovay') alongside several of the better songs from
'Thirteen Down' including a particularly raw and passionate 'Let Me Sing'. The
second gig is mainly made up of songs from 1982's 'Heartbreak' album and is
nice but rather raw compared to the record. Bert is clearly struggling at times
but sometimes this really adds to this songs such as an impassioned 'Is It
Real?' The closing 'Heartbreak Hotel' still sounds weird though. A nice
historical document but far from essential.
"At Their Best"
(Cambra
'1982')
I've
Got A Feeling/Bells/Market Song/No More My Lord/House Carpenter//Once I Had A
Sweetheart/Miss Heather Rosemary Sewell/Bruton Town/In Time/Sally Go Round The
Roses//The Earl Of Salisbury/The Time Has Come/Pentangling/So Early In The
Spring/Rain and Snow//Light Flight/Three Part Thing/Lord Franklin/Haitian Fight
Song/When I Get Home
"I will take you where the grass grows
green on the banks of the river deep"
Well, a
title along the lines of 'the best of' is usually like a red rag to a bull with
me but this double-album retrospective is actually a lot better than most. The
extra length allows the compilers to tell the story and provide all the hits
and fan favourites so that what you have is as good as any 85 set can be at
summing up the many different Pentangles there are out there to collect. The
packaging could be nicer, but at least compared to 'Anthology' there's an
actual picture of the band used this time and the running order actually works
quite well despite not even coming close to chronological order. There's even
room for a real oddity: 'Miss Heather Rosemary Sewell' is a Bert Jansch guitar
instrumental written in honour of his wife for their engagement in 1968 and
included on the 1969 solo record 'Birthday Blues'. It features no other members
of Pentangle and is the only solo recording features in this compilation,
suggesting it's actually here by mistake rather than design. No matter though,
it's a pretty song to have here and offsets the similar acoustic instrumentals
by Renbourn on this set from 'Sweet Child' like 'The Earle Of Salisbury'. A
likeable and comprehensive set, it's a real shame that this one isn't currently
available on CD although the 'Light Flight Anthology' contains even more in
terms of songs and back history. If not quite Pentangle at their best (no
'Train Song' 'Let No Man Steal Your Thyme' 'Lyke Wake Dirge' or 'The Trees They
Do Grow High', all far more important and listenable than 'Three Part Thing' or
'Haitian Fight Song', two of the more heavy going moments in the Pentangle
catalogue) this is at least Pentangle close to their best, which as
compilations go is closer than most get.
Bert Jansch "Heartbreak"
(Logo,
April 1982)
Is
It Real?/Up To The Stars/Give Me The Time/If I Were A Carpenter/Wild Mountain
Thyme/Heartbreak Hotel/Sit Down Beside Me/No Rhyme Or Reason/Blackwaterside/Not
A Word Was Said (This is the vinyl version - he CD changes the running order
but the tracks are all the same)
Deluxe
Edition Bonus Tracks: Live At McCabe's Guitar Shop 1982 (The Curragh Of
Kildare/Poor Mouth/Blackwaterside/One For Jo/Let Me Sing/If I Were A
Carpenter/Blues Run The Game/Is It Real?/Ask Your Daddy/The First Time Ever I
Saw Your Face/Kingfisher/Wild Mountain Thyme/Come Back Baby/I Am Lonely)
"Where I'll end up God only knows
- all I know is that I've got to go!"
One of
Bert's more interesting albums, the good and bad on 'Heartbreak' rather cancels
each other out and leaves it sitting somewhere about the middle of his
catalogue. On the downside Bert is by now reduced to actually thinking about
his audience for a change and pays far too much heed to them, with an
over-slick production, a reliance on cover songs that are far too obvious (is there a band who didn't sing 'Wild
Mountain Thyme' or 'If I Were A Carpenter'?) and a much inferior re-make of
'Blackwaterside' that hints at everything that's gone wrong between the Bert of
1965 and seventeen years later. Skip this album at your peril however because
underneath it all, hidden away underneath the surface murk and a rather
anonymous band performance, are some of Bert's most poignant and moving songs about
the growing distance his drinking was putting between himself and his loved
ones and Bert is in fabulous voice throughout- amazingly so given what a
'heartbreaking' period this was for the guitarist. Not that this is Bert's
saddest album by any means: despite the title it's rather an 'up' album by
Jansch standards, with a real swing in its step at times - arguably a bit too
much of a swing at times.
The
highlights are many. 'Sit Down Beside Me' has taken a while for me to notice
but is quickly becoming one of my very favourite Bert songs, with a gorgeous
riff and a lyric caught between concern and love when Bert bumps into an old
lover. He doesn't even recognise her at first but knows her well enough to know
she's lying when she says 'I'm fine'. Throughout the song acoustic guitars
dance around each other trying to say nothing, while Bert's electric pounces
and says everything direct he can't bring himself to say. 'Up To The Stars'
sees Bert vowing to leave the world to start afresh on a new one and features a
truly mesmerising performance as he's torn between longing to escape and
tearfully promising his loved ones he'll be back when he's ready. 'Is It Real?'
features one of Bert's most philosophical songs as he debates over how 'life's
not always what it seems' and the only part of living that seems 'real' to him
is when he plays his guitar. The closing 'Not A Word Was Said' is impressively
funky too, more like the sort of sound the later Pentangle reunion albums tried
to go after and failed ('Meat On The Bone' especially), with an unusual
irregular slam of the acoustic guitar up against a bubbling electric guitar
part and a bass waiting to pounce.
Of
course up against these four great moments are six tracks that are average
going on ghastly. Bert's growled cover of 'Wild Mountain Thyme' needed an awful
lot more rehearsal time than this, 'If I Were A Carpenter' is too fast and too
ragged and yet somehow also too polished for Tim Hardin's intended emotion and
the folk version of 'Heartbreak Hotel' is surely a candidate for the weirdest
thing Bert ever did (some fans seem to like it - but even in an 'ironic' sense
it doesn't feel as if Bert 'understands' this song at all). 'Blackwaterside'
was a song ripe for re-recording, but not like this with a mandolin
accompaniment, jazz drums and the most 1980s slap-bass ever recorded playing
along - just, no...not even close. The
originals 'No Rhyme Or Reason' and 'Give Me Time' are better, but still rather
forgettable by Bert's high standards and feel as if a man of great intelligence
is stooping down to keep things as simple as possible for us. Given that by now
only Bert's real fans who loved his depth were buying his records anyway, it
all feels that little bit wrong. Ah well, there's heartbreak indeed on
'Heartbreak', but a lot of heartwarming stuff too.
One
final word about the CD release, which was much delayed (it's one of the last
AAA recordings to get its first showing on compact disc, as late as July 2014)
and they 'messed around' with the album quite a bit. I'm not sure the revised
track listing (it now starts with 'Blackwaterside' instead of starting with 'Is
It Real?') is any better really - not enough to mess with history over anyway.
However the addition of a 'bonus' disc containing a period concert 'Live From
McCabe's Guitar Shop' is an excellent find, if a little similar to the second
'Radio One' concert recorded the year before. The album tracks sound much
better without the heavy production or the other players, intimate and warm,
while a strong selection from Bert's last album 'Thirteen Down' in a solo
acoustic setting also improves many of those tracks too. 'Blues Run The Game'
sounds especially good tonight, while the rare 'Ask Your Daddy' is a nice find
too, with Bert turning concerned parent. Only a slightly weary feel to Bert's
voice prevents this from becoming his best live album - it's still a good one
though and far more interesting than a good half of the parent LP!
John Renbourn and Stefan Grossman
"Live In Concert"
(Transatlantic,
'1984')
Looper's
Corner/The Shoes Of The Fisherman's Wife/Twelve Sticks/Cocaine Blues/Pretty
Girl Milking A Cow/Tightrope/Make Believe Stunt/Sheebag An Sheemore-Drunken
Waggoner/The Assassination Of John Fahey/Cincinnati Flow Rag-New York City
Rag-Hot Dogs/Judy-Angie/Lindsay/Lament For Owen Roe O'Neill-Mist Covered
Mountains Of Home/So Early In The Spring/The English Dance/Great Dreams From
Heaven/Sweet Potato/Bonaparte's Retreat-Billy In The Lowgrounds/Goodbye Pork
Pie Hat/Candyman/Midnight On The Water/Spirit Levels/Mississippi Blues
"Let's see if we can tickle the
strings on this guitar!"
Recorded
in 1982 in Portland, Oregon, with a few tracks added from a year later from
Sydney, this is the John 'n' Stefan collaboration at its peak. Both men are on
good form, taking the spotlight in turns and egging each other on before coming
together in a series of two-hander duets where their friendly competitive sides
really come out - far more so than between John and Bert! The concert is
mellow, but fast, with both men restricted to acoustic guitars and both are
fantastic players. Sadly many of the choices tend to be Medieval folk songs and
instrumentals at that rather than original songs, although there is a
smattering of tracks from the pair's first two albums together at the beginning
and end of this record too. Oddly enough the closest thing here to a Renbourn
'standard' is a cover of 'Charlie Mingus' 'Goodye Pork Pie Hat' which is
similar in feel to the version on Pentangle's 'Sweet Child' - the odd bit comes
from it being performed not by John but by Stefan solo! (It's a sign how
similar the two friends are actually - if there was a blind hearing test I
doubt many fans would notice the change!)
As a sign of how low budget the album is, however, track nine starts
with John introducing an entirely different song ('The Orphan') before he plays
one of his lengthy melodies, something the editor should really have picked up
on. The original vinyl packaging also 'skips' the number fourteen and jumps
from thirteen to fifteen (what would the missing song have been?!) The engaging
opening rocker 'Looper's Corner' is amongst the highlights here with its pretty
rhythms, while the 'roll' comes from the clever instrumental 'Spirit Levels',
where the two guitarists really do sound like a changing tide. One of the
better Renbourn live recordings around, with an informality that hides what a
skilled and clever set this performance is.
John Renbourn "The Nine
Maidens"
(Transatlantic,
'1985')
New
Nothynge/The Fish In The Well/Pavan D'Aragon/Variations On My Lady Carey's
Dompe/Circle Dance/The Nine Maidens (Clasarch-Nine Maidens-The Fiddler)
"For your next record, John, we
were thinking you could do something along the lines of...maybe...rock?"
I'd like
to imagine that Camelot was something like this and so, I suspect, did John
Renbourn: simple and traditional but with a hint of new age records as well as
past history that makes this more than just a boring exercise in Medieval
history lessons. Renbourn's love of the Middle Ages and their music is famous,
but many of his albums tend to use the style as one element amongst many - a
sort of colourful court jester in the Pentangle court of many colours or as an
authentic theme park for fans to go back in time and visit for the day. Though
the album title recalls Pentangle tales of helpless maidens tackling big bad
wolves, it's actually - like the album cover - based on a tale surrounding nine
mysterious stones buried in the ground at St Columb Major in Cornwall, a sort
of unfinished Stonehenge (the album was recorded just down the road from the
stones, which Renbourn visited often for inspiration). The myth - and the title
track instrumental based on it - is that nine friends were all turned to stone
by God for daring to dance on the holy Sabbath day while another larger stone -
the fiddler - stands a couple of fields away caught in mid-pluck. The stones
date back to Neolithic times, making this an 'old' album even by Pentangle
standards, though surprisingly this is a Renbourn original and no folk song
ever seems to have been written about the stones (there is an opera though by
George Lloyd!) Renbourn clearly steeped himself in the local customs and even
goes the trouble of 'borrowing' the Padstow Abbey Oss Drum which was played
during local ceremonies on May day where locals dressed up as a horse (a sound
that, in all likelihood, had never been captured on a record before).
Of all
the Renbourn albums 'The Nine Maidens' is the one that takes it commitment to
updating the Medieval sound most mysteriously without any sops to chart
placings or record sales or what fans think. There are, for example, no vocals
anywhere across this LP. Only one rare occasion ('Circle Dance') do you hear
any other performers at all and the sudden interruption by period horns feels
like a real intrusion. The record also has the lowest number of pieces per
album - six - than any since Pentangle's 'Cruel Sister', while at 34 minutes
the running time isn't exactly generous by the standards of the mid-1980s. One
of them - 'New Nothynge' - is a remake of the oft-played 'Lady Nothynge's Toye
Puffe' collectors already had several times over by now. Almost all the album
is in the peculiar tuning of G Minor, a key Renbourn had first used on his
piece 'The Hermit' an album earlier and decided to use across the whole LP,
something musicians and songwriters rarely do because of the interests of
variety. and repetition. Which makes this either the greatest album in
Renbourn's solo catalogue or a bit of a problem, depending on what exactly
you've come to hear. John's careful but exuberant playing is as exquisite as
ever and his passion for the material comes over loud and strong, with
highlights such as the closing thirteen minute medley title track impressively
fluid and memorable, as if we really have been transported back some five-six
hundred years.
If they'd have had record players at the time
of the Tudors and Stuarts 1) this would have been an even weirder period in
history (Ye Spice Girl witches recorded ye horrid LP and dressed provocatively
with thine ankles showing on the cover - off with their heads!') and 2) this
record would never have been off the turntable. However for modern audiences
who don't share Renbourn's passions quite so thoroughly this is an album that
can often be boring, with every song taking its time with all the urgency of a
solar-powered tram on a gloomy British day. The kind reviewers in the mid-1980s
praised John for giving the compositions so much 'space', rare in an age when
every conceivable hole was filled up by noise somewhere down the line'; the
less kind reviewers called it pompous and dull, a whole album where nothing
happens and every minute sounds like the one before. The truth as ever lies
somewhere in between: Renbourn's authenticness and desire to treat us to as
bare-bones a Middle Ages record as he can make is admirable until you actually
have to listen to it and you yearn to hear some other instrument or tempo in
there somewhere. Though an album about the middle ages, 'The Nine Maidens'
risks coming across as a bit too middle aged and old before it's time.
"Open The Door"
(Spindrift,
July 1985)
Open
The Door/Dragonfly/Mother Earth/Child Of The Winter/The Dolphin//Lost Love/Sad
Lady/Taste Of Love/Yarrow/Street Song
"Wild geese flying Eastward leave
their music to the sky"
Ding
dong! Most fans are quite dismissive about Pentangle's reunion years, some
thirteen years after their original split. By the mid-1980s Pentangle had
become something of a folk memory themselves, a passing of time so good and so
brief that it seemed far too magical to have ever existed anyway -
resuscitating that sound with mid-1980s
production values of all things seemed like madness. However, I've always been
fonder of the reunion albums than most and this first album especially which,
while never as good or as groundbreaking as Pentangle the first time round, was
at least never bad (which is more than you can say for some AAA reunions!) For
now four fifths of the band had reunited, with John Renbourn the odd man out
and replaced by Mike Piggott (who also brings his violin to the party), and
it's probably fair to say that the band come about four-fifths of the way to
capturing their old sound. For a time Renbourn was part of the band too, with
all five original members appearing for a show in 1982, their first in nine
years although it was a very odd returning gig. Terry had been involved in a
nasty car accident that saw him unable to play (although he did sit in with the
band and played what he could) and without his drums the set was poorly
received (probably the reason Renbourn legged it soon after, although the
official reason was that he'd just enrolled in a classical music course at
Darlington College!)
Far from using Pentangle as just another
excuse to make money, Pentangle get busy concocting mini-dramas out of old folk
songs and new tracks that sound like them that are as edgy or uncompromising as
anything the four had made solo. One of the pieces - the finale 'Street Song' -
even recalls 'Market Song' with its dramatic use of see-sawing double bass riffs
and shouted a capella vocals; Pentangle hadn't been quite this daring since
'Cruel Sister'. Oddly the band also
moved record label to make the album, switching to Spindizzy, even though most
of the band continued to release solo albums on their old label for the next
decade or so. Only the slightly anti-sceptic 80s production (though not quite
as bad as most), some occasionally iffy song choices and the passing of time
making the harmonies sound a little less pristine prevents 'Open The Door'
matching the quality of the original six. Even so, it's a door well worth
opening - especially if you've bought all the originals already.
There's
also the case to be made that 'Open The Door' is Pentangle's first bona fide
concept album. Which seems odd when you think about it - so many Pentangle
albums ran with similar themes and yet this is the one that comes closest to
coming out and saying it. Fittingly the theme if one of conservation, perhaps
the only 'protest' movement not in full swing back in Pentangle's heyday and
one steeped in their usual passions of tradition and leaving things for your
grandchildren as taught to you by your grandparents. Many songs on this album
concern the plight of animals and by association whether mankind is trying to
make himself extinct as well. Only three songs are actually traditional - and
one of these, Bert's 'Yarrow', had been kicking around for a while - and there
is perhaps more of a contemporary feel to many of these songs. Bert is on
particularly fine form, now promoted into being the album's chief guitarist and
he's a lot happier singing with Jacqui after years of successful albums than
the shy awkward youth of the earlier albums. His songs 'Lost Love' and 'Taste
Of Love' are his best in years, while Jacqui doesn't sound any different,
instantly connecting with the slight melancholy air of the album and extending
her usual storytelling skills from frightened maidens to scared dolphins and
carefree dragonflies. Danny and Terry get less to do and the arrangements are
tighter, without any recourse to jazzy improvisations, but Danny fits in a few
double bass solos that still sound unlike anything else music had to offer at
that time and Terry's voice has aged better than anyone's, uniting with
Jacqui's on 'Street Song' like the good ol' days. Piggott too is as good as
anybody could be in the John Renbourn part except John Renbourn himself and he
tastefully re-creates his predecessor's style while throwing himself into the
violin parts. He'll remain with the band for some-time to come, though of the
original members only Jacqui will last the course.
The
opener is fittingly enough 'Open
The Door', the most Pentangly thing on the album. An old folk song from
Ireland (the first Pentangle had ever done, though Renbourn will do a whole album
of this stuff in a decade or so's time), it's possibly adopted from the
Victorian era 'Paddo's Song' , with Jacqui and Bert crossing lines as they try
to get their lover to stop talking enough to tell them something important. The
great acoustic guitar rhythm is more like a sea shanty, while Danny's double
bass rumbles are highly distinctive.
'Dragonfly'
is a bit more like contemporary folk - the sort of thing Steeleye Span were up
to around this time. It's all still nicely Pentangly though, with Danny again
getting top marks for playing loud and aggressive against the more laidback
backing track, while Piggott's violin solo adds a lovely dash of colour too. As
for the lyrics, though credited to the band 'Dragonfly' sounds very much like a
Jansch song as a dragonfly is born and dies within a day without any chance to
ponder the meaning of life - has a human, with all their many years, put their
time to any better use?
Milton
Nascimento was a Japanese protest singer admired by many (including Jefferson
Starship who often covered his songs). 'Mother Earth' is typical of his canon, a slow song that hops from
one foot to another in protest over the ridiculousness of a species that keeps
making life difficult for himself. I'm not sure the sudden switch to falsetto
harmonies was a good idea (Pentangle struggle a little vocally on this album
anyway) but the song is a good one and fits nicely into the Pentangle style.
The five
minute ballad 'Child Of
Winter' is one of those songs where not a lot happens but it doesn't
happen very prettily. Jacqui emotes over twin guitars without the rhythm
section appearing at all on a lyric about feeling lost and alone.
'The Dolphin'
is a stately instrumental that sounds like a slightly smaller and more graceful
animal than such a large but intelligent one. Bert leads the way on a very
Jansch instrumental part before Piggott's violins join in. It's not the best or
most memorable Pentangle instrumental around but it does the job.
Side two
begins with 'Lost Love',
a surprisingly poppy song by Bert who despite the gap of these many years is
still searching for the perfect image of love he once had in his mind's eye.
The gently rolling melody is an excellent basis for some terrific Jansch
electric guitar solos and he and Jacqui have never sounded better together,
however more 'normal' and un-Pentangly the lyrics may sound.
'Sad Lady'
is the most rocky song on the album and points the way to the other Pentangle
reunion albums to come. Piggott's guitar pings aggressively across Jansch's
acoustic, while Terry hits an unusual offbeat groove. Jacqui is back to
portraying maidens, but this one is much more modern than normal and feistier
with it, choosing to be alone after being previously hurt rather than being the
passive victim in life's drama.
Bert's 'Taste Of Love' is perhaps
the album highlight. The melody is gorgeous and rolls around the song's chords
like washing flying off a line, while the lyrics are far more autobiographical
and revealing than usual for Bert. He's been hurt so bad he fears he'll never
love again and begins to wonder what the point of anything he's done is
anymore. But then he remembers the tiny taste of love that once inspired him
and figures that it must be out there somewhere waiting for him again and that
a tiny taste is all he needs.
Traditional
song 'Yarrow' is before
the band kicks in sung a capella by Jacqui, the first time she'd done this
since 'So Early In The Spring', although chances are the choice of song was
Bert's (the song had appeared on his first post-Pentangle album 'Moonshine').
Given that it's an old folk number (originally listed as 'The Dewey Dens Of
Yarrow') you'd have thought this Scottish ballad about nine noblemen trying for
the band of a lady who chooses her servant boy would be right up the band's
street. However compared to the days of old no one sounds that interested in
this song and for the first time on record Pentangle sleep-walk their way
through the track. Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the record.
Thankfully
'Street Song' sends us out on a high. Part 'Market Song', part 'Who Will Buy?'
from the Lionel Bart musical 'Oliver!' and a whole lot of 'Oranges and Lemons',
it's a musical compilation of market vendor cries as Terry and Jacqui overlap
vocals over a moody held double bass note from Danny. After one of their most
gripping introductions the main song is no slouch either, with a hard-edged
rock attack and some terrific Bert improvisations with a solo in turn for all the
musicians. Though the song is little more than a list of fruit, it all sounds
much deeper than that, as if the whole of humanity's eco-system is up for sale.
It's a memorable end to a usually memorable album.
Overall,
then, 'Open The Door' may not have opened that many doors for Pentangle - the
few people who heard it didn't seem to like it that much while most of the
world met it with a yawn. The record wasn't the happiest to make and Danny
decided to quit soon after its release, with more and more members leaving bit
by bit over the course of the next nine years. Released at the peak of mass
produced factory fodder pop, it was perhaps an album a little too removed from
its time and while the music world was still fond of Pentangle as a memory
neither Bert nor John were yet quite held up in the high esteem of bands in the
90s and 00s. A rather boring cover of crops being harvested in a field also did
little to remind people what Pentangle had once been and oddly enough is their
most generic 'folk band' sleeve on what may well be their least folk-orientated
album.There is however much of value that got passed by, from the chance to
hear Bert strutting his stuff against another top guitarist and throwing in two
of his more accessible songs that sound suspiciously like he'd kept them in his
pocket in the hope of having them played by the band who could do them best to
most of the band sound back the way it should be despite the passage of time. A
handful more top notch songs (preferably traditional folk covers) and Pentangle
might yet have cracked the music market in 1985. Caught somewhere between a
waste of time and improving on the original, the Pentangle reunion is a mixed
affair that does just enough to remind you of what a great and distinctive band
they were in the first place without adding an awful lot to your understanding
of the band you didn't already know.
Bert Jansch "From The
Outside"
(Konnexion,
September 1985)
Sweet
Rose/Blackbird In The Morning/Read All About It/Change The Song/Shout/From The
Outside/If You're Thinking 'Bout Me/Silver Raindrops/Why Me?/Get Out Of My
Life/Time Is An Old Friend/River Running/High Emotion/I Sure Wanna Know/From
The Inside/From The Outside
The
1993 CD re-release changes the running order and substitutes the tracks
'Blackbird In The Morning' 'Why Me?' 'River Running' and 'High Emotion' for the
songs 'Ah Sure Wanna Know' and 'Still Love Her Now That She's Gone'
"I'm gonna get my kicks from a
different source...keep the tune but change the song"
The
release of this solo album in the very short gap between two Pentangle reunion
albums meant that 1985 saw more Bert Jansch material to buy in the shops than
any year since 1968! This is proof of just how revived and rejuvenated Bert
felt in this era, inspired afresh after his brush with death when he nearly
died from pancreas failure after a lifetime of drinking and eager to turn his
experiences into song. A cross between the mournful Jansch of last album
'Heartbreak' and the happier albums to come, this is a very complex and
important album that seems to have been kind of lost amongst Bert's following.
Few if any rate this as his best album, perhaps because Bert's reputation had
slipped to the point where this album was only originally released in Belgium,
but while the 1960s work and a couple that come later might just have the edge,
this is a far more inspired Jansch than we'd had for the past decade or so. Writing
wise this is the closest Bert ever came to writing a full album himself (Nigel
Portman Smith from the reunion band helps him out on 'If You're Thinking 'Bout
Me'), proof of how much creative juice was flowing through his veins. The
biggest change is in Bert's voice: its sweeter and as close to a 'mainstream'
top 40 voice as it will ever be and so different to his singing on 'Open The Door', evidence of just how much alcohol had impaired his
singing by this time.
'Change
The Song' is Bert's best song for years, a humble but upbeat song about all the
changes Bert is going to make in his life and how good it will be. Bert is
realistic enough to know that 'someone is going to get hurt', but knows that he
needs to make the changes now or more will get hurt - it's a glorious life-affirming
moment that Bert isn't ready to throw in the towel yet when he still has so
much on his mind to say. The opening song 'Sweet Rose' is another good one
which sounds several hundred years old at least and re-acquaints Bert with his
old banjo. 'I gave it all I had - it
taught me a lesson' Bert sighs on 'I'm Thinking 'Bout You', a poignant song
about a man vowing to stay alive for his loved ones though he's not quite sure
why for himself. 'Read All About It' is an angry protest song about the people
being laid off work for the flimsiest of excuses in Thatcher's Britain and
Bert, rarely political, sounds really bitter here. 'Why Me?' sounds like Bert's
darkest hour as he falls apart on a bluesy piece of self-pity, pleading with
life to put things right. 'Time Is An Old Friend', meanwhile, reflects Bert's
relief at simply still being alive and given another chance - a soppy ballad by
Bert's standards but deeply heartfelt. The idea of twin songs about suffering
first hand and what it seems like from a loved one's point of view is also well
handled, Bert acknowledging that its him who caused the 'problem', but not only
him it has consequences for.
All of
these songs are major moments in Bert's songbook and worth buying the album for
alone, even if around half of the album sounds like filler by comparison (with
songs perhaps left over from the Pentangle reunion). However, the sad truth for
us Pentangle fans is that this album is notoriously hard to track down. Though
Bert might have been joking, he revealed to a reviewer who asked about this
album selling only 500 copies the first time round that even he didn't own a
copy! Only ever released once in Europe, in 1993 on CD, it wasn't even a
straightforward release of the album but a curious hodgepodge that swapped four
of the better album songs in favour of two newer and slightly lesser songs.
Though no explanation was given, it wouldn't surprise me to learn that Bert had
requested it: notoriously private, he must have been mightily relieved to hear
that the album would only be given release in one small country and thus
wouldn't get much attention back home, judged 'from the outside'. Taking the
most revealing songs out sounds like something Bert would do ten years later,
when the problems behind this album were still very much in his memory banks.
However, for me a writer is never greater than when they're admitting to their
faults and failures and my respect for Bert is all the stronger having heard
him grapple with his failing health and what he's put his loved ones through.
Far from being something to be ashamed of, 'From The Outside' is a terrific
album that reveals what a great and undervalued writer Bert was and how
important his work still was twenty years on from the release of his first LP.
I really hope that one day this album will get a proper re-issue, with tracks
taken from both versions of the record, and the world can enjoy again the
moment when Bert realises that there is something in this life to live for,
however many painful changes and admissions that results in. An album to
treasure for those lucky enough to have heard it.
"In The Round"
(Spindrift,
'1986')
Play
The Game/The Open Sea/She Moved Through The Fair/Set Me Free/Come To Me
Baby/Sunday Morning Blues//Chase That Devil Away/The Saturday Movie/Suil
Agrar/Circle The Moon/Let Me Be
"She went her way homeward, with
only one star awake"
Though
the title conjures up the image of a Medieval Theatre with Pentangle physically
surrounded by their audience 'in the round', this is the point at which what
Pentangle fans want and what their band delivers become two different things.
Pentangle had never sounded as if they'd even noticed they had an audience
before this and had certainly never paid lip service to what their peers were
up to, but 'In The Round' begins a series of albums that spend so much time
looking over their shoulder at commercial expectations they lose their way in
the path ahead.. Danny Thompson, a particularly strong believer in thinking
'outside the round' quit early on in the sessions to be replaced by Nigel
Portman Smith, who'll also play the Renbourny guitar parts when Mike Piggott
has his hands full of fiddles and while once again Portman Smith as good as
anyone can be it's another piece of the distinctive Pentangle sound gone
missing. A hideous 80s production, shoddy album packaging (what is the cover
meant to be? A Pentangle star on top of a polo mint on a stripy beach towel?)
and a whacking mistake (apparently this album features a 'Jackie McShee' - no
it's not a long lost twin but an embarrassing mis-print) make 'In The Round' a
strong candidate for the nadir in Pentangle's catalogue.
The
surprising thing is that, despite all that being true, 'In The Round' is not as
deep and low as some would make it out to be. Any band that still includes
Jacqui, Bert and Terry can't be all bad and the song choices are pretty sound -
it's the arrangement and performances that are a bit weaker than normal. 'She
Moves Through The Fair', for example, is perfect Pentangle territory - ghostly,
mysterious and full of unrequited loving. Terry gets a rare writing credit on
the poppier than normal 'Set Me Free', which is a great vehicle for Jacqui. The
lovely 'Suil Agrar' is another adaptation of an Irish folk song and like the
Celtic songs on other period solo and band albums is amongst the best the band
have tried. Bert gets seven credits on the album, the most of any Pentangle
release, and while not everything is a classic the best of it - the singalong
'Come To Me My baby' (the only Pentangle song ever co-credited to Bert and
Jacqui) and the dramatic 'Let Me Be' are well up to standard. Jansch was
actually going through a horrendous period, battling with alcoholism and
struggling with the aftermath of a divorce to second wife Heather and while
that's clearly a tragedy for him it's to the record's benefit, giving 'In The
Round' a strangely gritty feel every so often compared to 'Dragonfly' which
cuts through even this production horror. There remains, though, a feeling that
the fun has gone out of the band again even on the second reunion album. The
best moments from Pentangle in the past almost always revolved around the band
doing interesting things together, but this is just a bunch of occasional solo
showcases. There are fewer flying solos, more overdubs and less harmonies than
ever before. Pentangle's magic was diluted with the loss of one of its five
'points' last time around, but still managed to be head and shoulders above
most other period folk albums. The band can't manage with two points gone
though and are in danger of sounding just like everybody else. Though other
Pentangle albums feature the band falling flatter on their faces, 'In The
Round' suffers the fare greater crime of being anonymous.
'Play The Game' is a rare song by Jacqui, co-credited to Portman Smith who hits
the Pentangle blocks running with a credit on his first song released with the
band. Alas it's not a very memorable one being more like the poppy folk rock
Steeleye Span et al were making in this period and even the return of Bert's
banjo and some nice crisp harmonies can't make it stay between the ears.
'The Open Sea' is a great Bert song, full of seafaring metaphors and life as a
stormy wave of emotion, that's rather poorly performed. It's hard to work out
where the trouble is, but nobody really seems to connect with this song, which
sounds as if the band all added their contributions on later. A shame, as Bert
has rarely so dramatic or emotional, like a one-legged pirate whose just lost
his crutch and his parrot.
Though
most fans seem to reckon it's one of the band's weaker traditional folk
arrangements, I actually like what Pentangle have done to 'She Moved Through The Fair'.
This version is entirely different to any other version I've heard yet still
suitable to the song, slowed down to an eerie crawl with lots of keening violin
played over the top. Until somewhere near the end only acoustic guitar and
fiddle are heard, which means this song has less to get wrong compared to the
rather overcooked productions elsewhere.
You can
always count on Terry to add something a bit more straightforward to an often
convoluted LP and 'Set Me
Free' swaps the metaphors and attempts to genre-bend with a nice uptempo
pop song that at last gives Jacqui a chance to soar. It's another of the
album's songs about love gone wrong with the narrator trying to remember the
moment when things went wrong and he no longer felt 'your spirit blowing
through me'.
'Come To Me My Baby' is a fun uptempo number with an accordion and a hint of cajun
jazz co-written by Bert, Jacqui and Nigel. Though the words aren't as
gloriously complex as the melody's multiple time signatures, it's still one of
the album's better songs about dreaming of better tomorrows.
Bert and
Jacqui also wrote the distinctly oddball 'Sunday Morning Blues' with Mike Piggott which is
again more jazz than blues and features Terry playing an entirely different
beat to the rest of the band. 'What a way to start the day!' Jacqui sighs as
the narrator feels deeply out of synch with the rest of the world.
Terry
adapted 'Chase The Devil Away'
from an old folk song though it's not
one I've ever been able to track down (the closest is 'Chased Old Satan Through
The Door' and even so it's not very close). Terry adds a nice jazz shuffle to
this song which gives it a more urgent feeling than most of the album, while
Jacqui stops being mere decoration and turns into ice maiden seductress on by
far the album's most striking and memorable moment.
Bert,
meanwhile, has gone to watch 'The
Saturday Movie' and it's encouraged him to live life to the full once he
gets outside. However, life is not like a movie and he soon finds life paling
by comparison. A most unusual track for Jansch, this song pretty much has him
growling rather than singing and is one of the most commercial moments on the
album.
'Suil Agrar'
(loosely translated as 'Hope for the harvest') is a pretty Irish folk ballad
that's sung with just the right amount of sting by Pentangle over the closest
thing this album has to a bank of acoustic guitars. Jacqui is in good voice too
on this tale of being deceived by a lover who makes her sell all her
possessions to prove her love for him - and then does a runner to France. For
all that, the narrator still believes he really did love her and will come back
- even though the listeners know that's looking doubtful from the details she
gives. Only a rather stilted, artificial
feel from the production end of things prevents this one from being a
mini-classic. The song may have been an 'evolutionary branch' from an even
earlier Irish folk song 'Siuil A Run' where the lover runs away to join the
military - and the jilted fiance still feels proud of him!
Bert's
prettiest acoustic song on the album, 'Circle The Moon', was co written with Portman Smith and given to
Jacqui to sing, all about the circle of life and how beginnings start from
endings. You can just imagine Bert writing this one during a morning after
sobering up job after the rages of the more unhinged and emotional songs across
this album.
The
album ends with another of those sorts of songs with the highlight 'Let Me Be'. A demand for
freedom in all things, it's not clear whether Bert is singing to a lover, his
God, his band or his record label but it works just as well in all cases as the
band stomp their feet to one of his best rock guitar riffs and Bert gets right
carried away by the end of the song. Though as much of an experiment in sound
as most of the LP, this track has far more life to it and you can tell that
Pentangle are playing live at last, with the atmosphere in the room crackling
with some much-missed energy.
In truth
'In The Round' could have done with a lot more of this sort of thing. Though
only a few songs here are truly bad, there's less heart and soul and less care
across these recordings than usual and of all the eras for Pentangle to start
sounding like everyone else around they couldn't have chosen a worse time than
the mid-1980s. Generally lacklustre, with poor production values and badly
lacking John and Danny, there are never the less great things at the 'core' of
'In The Round' and Pentangle might well have come up with another promising LP
had they had the time to 'go round again' and rehearse these songs up enough to
record them as-live. For completists only really.
John Renbourn and Stefan Grossman "The Three Kingdoms"
(Transatlantic,
'1986')
The
Three Kingdoms/Round Midnight/Dollar Town/Catwalk/Cherry/Rites Of
Passage/Kiera's Dream-Parson's Mud/Keeper Of The Vine/Minuet In D
Minor/Farewell To Mr Mingus/Abide With Me-Old Gloryland
"Once upon a time there were three
kingdoms: folk. blues and jazz"
Though
this record was recorded in the home studio of Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul
Jones, there's nothing rock and roll or flashy about this predominantly
acoustic record. In fact the informal recording sessions were ruined by that
very 'rural' of problems - loud sea gull squawks down the chimney pots when the
pair were trying to record! (The guitarists even took it as turn to be 'seagull
scarers' when the other were recording their parts!) As usual Renbourn's folk,
Grossman's jazz and their shared love of blues makes for a unique mix that's as
equally at home on Medieval standards and modern day heroes (including a sad
farewell to jazz player Charlie Mingus). There's little here to get pulses
racing, with slower tempos than the pair's three earlier records and less 'wow'
moments across the whole LP. The record is, however, solidly played and
carefully chosen, with the pair both bringing songs to the table they know the
other an embellish and the telepathy between the two players is getting ever
closer to the peaks of Bert 'n' John. I just wish there was as bit more urgency
about this albums, which is a little too neat and tidy and with the emotions
removed, like a guitar workshop rather than a pair of visionary writers. In
fact there are far fewer original songs here than normal - just a couple each,
with a pair of shared collaborations on
'Keeper Of The Vine' and 'Rites Of Passage'. This last song is by far
the highlight of the album, with the pair playing in their own unique styles
and finding an overlap in psychedelia of all things, taking it in turns to
crash down to earth and take off into the stratosphere. Thankfully the guitar
sounds are captured perfectly and the clarity of each growing improvisation is
enough to make the hairs at the back of your neck start doing funny things.
It's a shame there aren't more moments like that across this album, though and
the collaboration was clearly running its course. The only records the two will
make together from this point on will be live concerts and archive releases.
John Renbourn "The Essential
Collection Volume One - The Soho Years"
(Transatlantic,
'1986')
Judy/Candyman/Lost
Lover Blues/East Wind/Nobody's Fault But Mine/The Wildest Pig In Captivity/I
Know My Babe/After The Dance/No Exit/Lord Franklin/The Cuckoo/Another
Monday/Country Blues/Waltz/White House Blues/My Dear Boy/The Hermit/Buffalo
Skinners/Sweet Potato/Kokomo Blues/So Clear
"Come walk the streets of crime
and colours bright, ther corners of love with the Earth"
A nice
collection of songs mainly taken from the first three pre-Pentangle albums,
with a small gaggle of later songs included too right up to 'The Hermit' but
skipping the more historical sets 'John Alotte' and 'Lady and the Unicorn'
entirely. Old favourites 'Lord Franklin' and 'So Clear' are here to represent
Pentangle, while the solo selections are a bit up and down. It's fascinating to
me that so many different record labels can all have come up with such
different ideas of what really is 'Essential' John Renbourn and there are only
a handful of tracks replicated with other compilations. This is perhaps the
best one to go for if you're after John's poppier-folkier side, without any
distracting moments from the Middle Ages (if instead that's more what you're
after then 'The Medieval Almanack' should suit you just fine). The packaging
leaves a bit to be desired, too, with the cover of 'John Renbourn' over a blue
background and hardly any details about the songs heard in the set, where they
came from or what year. For all that, it's not a bad set but there are better
Renbourn best-ofs around.
John Renbourn "The Essential
Collection Volume Two - The Moon Shines Bright"
(Transatlantic,
'1987')
Gypsy
Dance/Lady Nothynge's Toy Puffe/The Lady And The Unicorn/The Lady Goes To
Church/The Trees They Do Grow High/The Watermill/The Trees They Do Shine
Bright/My Johnny Was A Shoemaker/Alman/Melancholy Gallaird/The Pelican/Three
Pieces/Morgana/The Earle Of Salisbury/English Dance/Pavanne/Jew's
Dance/Tourdion
"The moon shines bright and the
'star' gives it a light..."
Aww - I
was really hoping that after the 'Soho' years in London Transatlantic were
going to call this more historical orientated set 'The Camelot Years'. This is,
you see, a compilation that draws heavily from the Medieval branch of
Renbourn's music and includes several tracks from 'Sir John Alotte' and 'Lady
and the Unicorn' alongside a few later recordings by the Renbourn Group.
There's no Pentangle this time, although you do get to hear John and Jacqui
together on their 1978 remake of 'The Trees They Do Grow High'. Jacqui pops up
a lot on this album actually, which shifts the emphasis away from solo acoustic
guitar pieces to more of a band sound. Even so, I'm not quite sure who its
chiefly aimed at: old fans know this stuff already and new fans after a Middle
Ages album still sounding youthful and vibrant will get a lot more of this sort
of thing on 'A Medieval Almanack', which was marketed as much more of a
historical type record. Still, the track selection isn't bad and includes many
favourites.
Danny Thompson "Whatever"
(**,
'1987')
Idle
Monday/Tilll Minne Av Jan/Yucateca/Lovely Joan/Swedish Dance/Lament For
Alex/Crusader/Minor Excapade
"I'm free to be whatever I,
whatever I choose and I'll play jazz and the blues if I want!"
Of all
the five members of Pentangle, Danny went on to have the most unexpected
careers, a journey that will take him to the more extremes of the Pentangle
love of genres. After the band's split he threw his lot in with a film company
and helped both produce and write scores for wildlife documentaries amongst
others. He also played with everybody who was anybody - including some old
Pentangle colleagues' albums. After hanging round for just the first of the
Pentangle reunion albums, Danny decided to form his own mini-Pentangle which,
though it was never billed that way, was effectively the antithesis of what the
reunion band had become. Whereas the modern look Pentangle were slick, secure,
rehearsed and predominantly folky, Danny's new band 'Whatever' were a jazz
combo who never played a song the same way twice. However, like the debut
Pentangle album, the brilliance of 'Whatever' was that they weren't just
another jazz group but a combination of styles and you can also hear bits of
folk, blues and pop in the mixture too. The shoulder shrug of the band name was
what Danny responded with whenever any of the music press asked Danny what form
the band would take and 'Whatever' became a playful term for the band's
limitless horizons.
Sadly
'Whatever' didn't even last as long as the original Pentangle before running
out of steam and turning into something of a caricature of themselves. Though
the band will make three albums in total (one of them a film soundtrack) this
is arguably the only you really need to own - a thrilling, ambitious purely
instrumental twist on the 1980s' current
obsession with modern jazz by giving it a sense of tradition and history via
the traditional numbers. Danny's off-beat double bass trills are at last back
at the heart of the music again (surely a re-action against the final mix of
'Open The Door' in which Danny is barely heard), but he's well matched by
Bernie Holland playing the Bert/John guitar role and multi-instrumentalist Tony
Roberts handling all kinds of saxes, clarinets and the like. Though Danny was
the biggest 'star', with his name and picture upfront and big on the sleeve
(very unusual in fact - only a small handful of Pentangle albums together and
apart ever feature themselves on the covers - and when they do they're usually
smaller than the band/artist/record company logo), this is very much a
collaboration with the parts of the album that work best the ones where the
band are really bouncing off each other. Opening original 'Idle Monday' is a
good example: 'jazz baroque' that's one part 1590s to 1950s. The atmospheric
ballad 'Tilll Minne Av Jan' is pure 1980s, but for once that's a good thing not
an insult: think one of those brilliantly mood Dire Straits tracks that goes on
for hours. 'Yucateca' (it's what the natives call 'Yucatan' in Mexico) is what
an Aztec jazz band might have sounded like, so close yet so different to our
own world's style. 'Crusader' is baroque and roll. 'Minor Escapade' the best
'running down a corridor to get the baddies in a 70s cop show' soundtrack ever
made (why has no TV series used it yet?) Not everything is quite so top notch,
but there's a strong half hour album in these 42 minutes, which is better odds
than most.
Debate
rages as to whether this is 'purist' enough to count as jazz. Personally I
don't care: Pentangle don't technically qualify as folk with their sitars and
their amplifiers and their subject matters of trains and hippies, but the music
is more important than the label in both cases. Well, whatever 'Whatever' it
is, it works. Like so many of these Pentangle solo albums this might well not
be for everyone, but of all the many (100?) solo Pentangle records out there
this is the one post-split that best captures that anarchic free genre-bending
spirit that made the group so special. Would that there had been a better
sequel - but then the relative failure of the next two records makes this album
even more special.
A Now Complete List Of Pentangle
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