Needles and Grooves AoTM /// Vol 52- October 2023 /// John Martyn “ Live at Leeds” 1973

How long will it take @joemac to guess

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So why Live at Leeds ?

I’m pretty sure all of us here on this forum are next level consumers of music, we are not the normal!
Normal people get the odd album/cd as Xmas presents , or have a family Spotify subscription, and have little thoughts about music outside of choosing a wedding first dance or eventually a funeral song. Although they’d probably leave that last one to someone else. I bet all of us have our funeral playlist planned out long ago. (Mine is In my Life by the Beatles , and Asleep by The Smiths )

So as higher level music obsessed folk it takes something quite special to jolt us out of our surroundings, and start us off on a new listening thread. As I get older and have listened , no studied , more and more artists catalogues, read the books , brought the t shirts , seen them live etc, I can count the times this has happened on one hand ..

As a teenager in the 80’s it was hearing “How soon is Now?” coming over the speakers in a Virgin megastore ...and they kindly had a Now Playing sign up, that sent me away from a hard rock diet into an indie NME reading kid .
In the 90’s it was hearing “Supersonic” blasting out of Snobs dance floor with no one on it ..all of us going to the DJ, “who’s this ?” ....queue britpop 90’s hangovers galore
Crate digging in a market store in Worcester , the owner bunged on Neu! Debut album , track one side one , ....queue Krautrock purchase

With John Martyn , it was the first time I had one of my own CD’s on , bumbling around the house , when the live version of Inside Out carries around the room ....”what’s this......” to myself .... followed by “turn that down” from the wife

I’d brought a 4 CD Best of the island years set in a sale a while before to console myself for Amazon Germany cancelling my order for his 19 CD complete Collection box set at the mispriced “£39” instead of £199...the bastards ...no idea who John Martyn was but that massive set looked a thing of beauty , along with the Sandy Denny one , two I regret not getting more and more over the years...

So the 4 cd set arrives, goes into the shelves , and guess what .... I forgot about it somehow, other stuff arrives , busy doing up the house etc .... fast forward a few years later .......

“Inside Out” live and “I’d rather be the devil” from the same gig are stunning , and later in that box set “Small Hours” from his One World album did the same again , three tracks on one CD that literally blew me away ...

That doesn't happen much when your 50+ with thousands of listening choices ..(only time since was that “yellow submarine” demo ..what a sad song that could have been from John...)

So I started off on a deep dive of his catalogue , loads of cheap CDs on eBay , and started grabbing the odd bit of vinyl here and there ...picked up a biography in a charity shop ...but Live at Leeds ..that one not so easy to find in black wax , and then you read the story of it’s release....

To be continued.......
 
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Live at Leeds was originally a mail order only album - as island records declined to release it - so John wanting to capture the more expansive live versions of his most recent albums (solid Air and Inside Out) decided to go the do it yourself approach - it was the 1970’s - queue large scale cottage industry that was left mainly to his wife Beverley to take care of as John was off on tour - postal orders , handwritten notes and long wait times - all part of the charm !

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Here’s the wiki version.

Live at Leeds is a live album by John Martyn. He independently released this album himself in an initial run of 10,000 that were numbered and signed, after a disagreement with Island about its commercial viability. The working title was "Ringside Seat"; photos of Martyn and bassist Danny Thompson in a boxing ring were taken for a prospective cover, though never used. It was recorded on 13 February 1975 (the sleeve incorrectly states October), at Leeds University, at the same venue that The Who recorded their Live at Leeds in 1970.
 
Track one

Outside in-

This live version clocks in at over 18 mins - way way better than its studio counterpart- and the impetus for the albums existence . The echo guitar is the star here - and special mention to Danny Thompson who turns up on pretty much all the classic late 60’s and 70’s folk albums . This Jazz/Folk hybrid is a beautiful piece of music - hope you enjoy
 
So the CD version I would recommend is the below 2 CD deluxe edition which has the original full concert at Leeds spread over two discs plus some rehearsal versions

The original vinyl and cd reissues have the original 6 track mail order album which is half live at Leeds and half from elsewhere

Pics below

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The Joe Boyd covers all those witchseason acts like Fairport Convention, incredible string band , nick drake , Sandy Denny and of course john and Beverly Martyn - his decision to sell his company to Island records had massive repercussions on all those acts - with only John Martyn really benefitting in the long run - the chapter on his leaving behind for his successor a song publishing contract left unsigned for a pair of Swedish folk songwriters was certainly costly!
 
The eagle eyes may have noticed that Paul Kossof from Free is on the 2nd disc of rehearsal and unreleased stuff - which is a nice bonus !
John Martyn outlived a lot if friends somehow given his drinking and lifestyle
 
So track 2 ....

Solid Air ... according to wiki ...


“Solid Air"was dedicated to a friend of Martyn's, Nick Drake, who would die of an antidepressant overdose 18 months after the studio album was released. Martyn said of the track "It was done for a friend of mine, and it was done right with very clear motives, and I'm very pleased with it, for varying reasons. It has got a very simple message, but you'll have to work that one out for yourself."

A great 1-2 opening to this album ..an 18 minute folk jazz work out followed up by this quiet reflection on the passing of a friend .
In the autobiography Beverley Martyn talks a bit about Nick Drake and his unlikely bond with her husband John ..you couldn’t get two more opposite characters but the mutual respect they held for each other as musicians , combined with Nick seeing a life (family, children, comfortable in their own world) that was never likely to be his.

I think the phrase “solid air” was how Nick drake described how he felt moving about the world ..that it was like walking thru solid air.

Anyhow , a beautiful track to close side 1.
 
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