John Martyn:THE TITLE of the four-CD retrospective of John Martyn's career, released to mark his 60th birthday last September was called Ain't No Saint. The name could hardly have been more apt, since Martyn, who has died aged 60, became renowned for a career that lurched between personal and musical triumph and disaster.
Drugs, drunken brawls and marital breakdown littered his CV, but then so did several of the most enduring and idiosyncratic albums made by a British artist in the last 40 years.
Martyn was born Iain David McGeachy in New Malden, Surrey. His parents, Betty and Tommy, were professional light opera singers who worked the post-war variety circuit. They divorced when their son was five, and Tommy took the boy back to his native Scotland, where he proved academically gifted.
However, he became fascinated by the music he heard in Glasgow’s folk clubs, and felt galvanised towards a career in music by the likes of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and British guitarist Davey Graham.
By 1967 he had moved back to London, living like a hobo and carrying only whatever he could cram into his guitar case. He changed his name to John Martyn on the advice of a booking agent and was snapped up by Island Records. His debut album, London Conversation, recorded in a few hours, had a conventional approach that did not reflect the true Martyn, who was introducing jazz and experimental electronics elements into his music.
"I didn't like that finger in the ear stuff," he said later. "I've never been the Morris dancing type. I'm a funky, not a folkie." His 1970 album Stormbringer! found him collaborating with his new wife, Beverley Kutner, and taking an innovative approach using phase shifting and echo devices with which he could create a one-man wall of sound.
The Road to Ruin(1970) and Bless the Weather(1971) marked the start of Martyn's long musical relationship with jazz bassist Danny Thompson, and he was starting to perfect a slurring, impressionistic vocal style that complemented the rich ambiguities of his music.
He often cited avant-garde saxophonist Pharoah Sanders as an inspiration. He hit a creative peak with 1973's Solid Air, which included May You Never– covered by Eric Clapton on Slowhandin 1977 – earning Martyn the largest royalty cheque of his career.
Happy to play the poet-ruffian, Martyn performed on US tours with Free and Traffic, where groupies and drug abuse were integral. He gave full vent to his vagabond ways while touring his Sunday's Childalbum in 1975, accompanied by Thompson and ex-Free guitarist Paul Kossoff. The atmosphere grew fraught when Kossoff broke a bottle over his head and Melody Makerjournalist Allan Jones described Martyn as "looking like he'd been drinking since the dawn of time".
Dabbling with heroin and a US tour with Clapton took Martyn to the brink. He split up with Beverley and made the infamously bleak break-up album Grace and Danger(1980) with help from Phil Collins. He married his second wife, Annie Furlong, in 1983, but they later separated.
Collins produced Martyn's next album, Glorious Fool(1981), but further plans were scuppered when a drunken Martyn broke several ribs by impaling himself on a fence. By now he had left Island for WEA, but their plans to expose him to a wider audience failed. By 1984 he was back with Island and recorded Sapphire and Piece by Piece, but the label dropped him again in 1988.
The Apprentice(1990) and Cooltide(1991) appeared on Permanent Records. In 1996 he released And, on Go! Discs, also home to Portishead. Perhaps influenced by the latter, he used samples and trip-hop beats, and a Talvin Singh remix of the album track Sunshine's Betterwon plenty of radio play. Glasgow Walker(2000) featured more trip-hop sounds, and Martyn modified his approach further by writing on keyboards. In 2001, he featured on DJ/musician Sister Bliss's electronica track, Deliver Me.
In 2006, the BBC screened the documentary Johnny Too Bad, which followed Martyn as he wrote and recorded the album On the Cobbles, and also covered the amputation of his right leg. He remained stoical, but his weight ballooned to 130kg. He retreated to his farmhouse in Thomastown, Kilkenny, with his partner Theresa to recuperate.
Martyn was touched to be given a lifetime achievement award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards last year. Collins made the presentation and Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones accompanied him on mandolin as he performed May You Neverand Over the Hill. Speaking at the ceremony, Martyn said: "I didn't set out to achieve anything. I was driven. I'm still driven. It wasn't like a great mission to save folk music."
He was appointed OBE in the British new year’s honours list just published. He is survived by Theresa.
John Martyn (Iain David McGeachy): born September 11th 1948; died January 29th, 2009