John Renbourn – Another Monday

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When I was sixteen, back in 1965, it was as if I had multiple personalities. Life was music – but what music depended on who you were hanging out with.

Back then it was about hunting out the best sounds and sharing them. When I wasn’t hanging out with mates or hunting out new stuff in the local record shops I was in my room endlessly playing stuff. Everything revolved around music (and girls).

This was the mid-sixties, we were regaled with the Beatles, Stones and a plethora of new exciting rock bands – Yardbirds, Prettythings, Animals, Who, Them, Downliners Sect, Smallfaces, Measles, Spencer Davis, Blues Incorporated. It was an endless stream of our music.

But when I was with Daphne it was Joan Baez.

When with Viv it was Donovan, Woody Guthrie and Big Bill Broonzy.

When with Mutt it was Dylan.

With Hat it was Little Richard and Eddie Cochran.

Dick it was Chicago Blues – Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Lightnin’ Hopkins.

That was fine with me. I was up for all of it and was soaking it up!

It was Neil Ferby who introduced me to Bert Jansch and John Renbourn. He stole my girlfriend but I forgive him. He introduced me to a whole new scene – the acoustic contemporary folk scene – Davy Graham, John Martyn and then Roy Harper. Thanks Neil.

For some reason Neil sold me his Bert Jansch and John Renbourn albums. The fuse was lit.

JOHN RENBOURN – “John Renbourn” / “Another Monday” (Full Album) Guimbarda DD-22037/38 – YouTube

My Journey To Roy Harper

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As an eighteen-year-old, Les Cousins was the place where I first heard Roy sing (and talk) but the journey to get there started a long time before that.

I had to first discover acoustic folk and blues and then the fabulous contemporary folk singer-songwriters. But I’m jumping ahead. I’ll start at the very beginning.

Way back in 1960 when I was around eleven-years-old there was an older girl down my street who was a bit of a beatnik. I remember black polo necks and medallions. She was called Daphne and she introduced me to Joan Baez by endlessly playing Joan’s first album of traditional folk songs. That was a departure from the Buddy Holly and Everly Brothers I had been listening to (along with Adam Faith and the Shadows). I enjoyed the Joan Baez but wasn’t completely bowled over.

A year or so later my friend Charlie Mutton introduced me to Bob Dylan’s first album. I quite enjoyed the rawness. It was very different. But I was not convinced enough to buy the album (money was tight). That happened about the same time that Dick Brunning turned me on to Blues and I started listening to the likes of Robert Johnson’s great acoustic stuff.

By late 1964 Donovan started appearing on Ready Steady Go and released the single Catch The Wind in early 1965. By this time I’d been getting into Dylan (his next few acoustic albums were inspirational) and Donovan seemed related. I had a girlfriend – Viv Oldfield – who was really into Donovan and she had an elder brother who was mad on Woody Guthrie and Big Bill Broonzy. So my musical adventures were going all over the place with the discovery of new singers – Sonny Terry Brownie McGhee, Sleepy John Estes, Snooks Eaglin and Big Joe Williams. Phil Ochs rocked my head with his hard-hitting anti-war and civil rights songs – only second to Dylan. Paul Simon’s first album (The Paul Simon Songbook) had quite an effect. I loved that. Then there was a plethora of others from the Greenwich Village folk scene – Buffy St Marie, Richard and Mimi Farina, Tom Paxton, Pete Seeger, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and the Native American Peter LaFarge. I enjoyed hunting out people my mates hadn’t heard of.

At the time records of Blues and Folk artists were really hard to come by. I used to hunt through the second-hand record bins for obscure Folkways records or a cover that took my fancy.

Bear in mind that at this time I was also really into the beat bands – Beatles, Stones, Yardbirds, Pretty Things, Who, Downliners Sect, Small Faces and Measles, as well as the old Rockers – Chuck Berry, Bo Diddly, Little Richard, Eddie Cochran and Buddy Holly – plus Electric Blues – Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Sonny Boy Williamson and Elmore James – but that’s a different story. I’m focussing on the acoustic. Safe to say that music dominated my mind. I never stopped playing it.

Anyway, I became besotted with Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan because of the lyrics. I’m a lyric guy.  Then a mate called Robert Ede lent me this fabulous album by Jackson C Frank which blew my mind. I couldn’t stop playing it. Another mate called Neil Furby, sold me the Bert Jansch and John Renbourn debut albums and they opened my mind. Neil also played me Anji by Davey Graham and that opened up new horizons. The British contemporary folk scene was exploding and I was in at the beginning.

By 1967 I was really immersed in the contemporary folk scene and was listening to a wide range of American and British singer songwriters. I was also into psychedelia, Blues, R&B and West Coast. No wonder my studies weren’t going well. I had trouble fitting it all in. The Incredible String Band reared their head – a friend called Gary Turp was mad on them and dragged me off to a gig or two.

It was spending my evenings at the Toby Jug in Tolworth, Eel Pie Island in Twickenham and Middle Earth, The Marqui and UFO clubs in London as well as a number of smaller clubs and college venues. Not much time for sleep.

Then a long lost friend called Jeff (with the white plastic mac) told me about this fiery singer who was ranting about the same stuff as me. He told me I had to go and hear him.

By this time my interests in the folk scene had taken me to the Barge, Bunji’s and Les Cousins. I’d turn up on my motorbike, pay a few shillings and get a fabulous evening/night of entertainment from Bert, John, Martyn, Al and hosts of others. Then, one night, between Bert and John, that fiery force of nature took the stage for a short set of three numbers and some gab, and altered the universe!

That was the start.

Today’s Music to keep me IiiiNnNnSSssaaaNNnnEEe – Bert Jansch – Do you hear me now?

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Always takes me back to 1965 when I was just discovering these gems – Bert, John Renbourn and Jackson C Frank – then, a little later Roy Harper, Al Stewart, John Martyn, Davy Graham and the rest. Those great days at Les Cousins and Bunjies, The Barge and The Three Horseshoes.

Today’s Music to keep me SssSAAaannnEeeEe in Isolation – Jackson C Frank

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Right now I’m reading this biographical book on Jackson C Frank called The Clear Hard Light Of Genius by Jim Abbott.

It embellishes the picture I already knew. A sad tale. But I can’t get his songs out of my head so I’ve given in and started playing them!

Today’s Music to keep me Saaannneee in Isolation – Davy Graham

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Just listen to Anji and marvel!

Davy was the guy who started the whole contemporary folk scene in Britain. In the early sixties, he went out to Morroco and brought back the rhythms and chords. He married them to traditional British folk songs and created  a whole new way of playing.

His work with Shirley Collins (a traditional folk singer) was extraordinary for its time. Folk Routes New Routes was something new. It lay the groundwork for bands like Fairport Convention.

He was an extraordinary guitarist – the best on the Les Cousins folk scene and his incredible work on songs like Anji laid down the standard for all the others to aspire to.

Davy was a genius – but heroin was his downfall.

Today I’ll be nodding along to those fabulous sounds

 

Jackson C Frank – An unsung genius.

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Jackson C Frank

I note that Jackson has a new box set of everything that he had recorded. There is also a book about him. Though I can only see that as a Kindle version so far. I am waiting until it comes out as a book.

I was lucky enough to be introduced to Jackson in 1965. A friend of mine by the name of Robert Ede played his album to me. I was smitten from the very first song.

Jackson played his ten songs with simple guitar backing in the contemporary Folk manner. The album was produced by Paul Simon before he hit the big time and featured Al Stewart on a few of the tracks as second guitar. What made it for me was the memorable melodies, the sad, thought provoking and interesting lyrics and Jackson’s voice.

I hadn’t heard anything like it before or since. Bert Jansch, John Renbourn and Roy Harper were just getting their acts together and the contemporary Folk scene, following Dylan’s success and Donovan’s British contribution, was about to inflate.

Jackson was a huge influence.

He only really ever had one album. During those years in the later sixties it was always rumoured that there was a second, but there wasn’t. It seemed that the songs had dried up.

I caught him at a pub in Ilford High Street in 1970. He was outstanding. He sang all the songs. Afterwards we stayed behind for a chat and he was warm and friendly. That was the last anyone heard of him. He was meant to go for a guest appearance at a Roy Harper concert at St Pancras but never turned up.

He was a tragic figure who hated the limelight following considerable scarring due to a fire at his high-school in Canada in which he was badly burnt.

He came across to England on the QE2 and wrote the songs for that notorious album. He performed at Les Cousins and Bunjies as a regular and set up with Sandy Denny. Roy Harper was a big friend and wrote the song ‘My Friend’ for Jackson.

In 1970 his life went to pieces. He got married, divorced, lived on the streets, had his eye shot out and died as a down and out. There were more recordings done in the early seventies and some early demos have been uncovered. But for me that early album is the nub of all that was good in that contemporary folk scene. He was seminal.

John Renbourn – Tribute to a superstar and unsung genius

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John Renbourn77 john-renbourn2

John was one of the warmest, friendliest men I have met. You would not know he was a superstar, a founding member of the highly influential contemporary sixties Folk Scene (that so influenced both Bob Dylan and Paul Simon) , a brilliant guitarist, innovator and songwriter, a member of the successful Folk-Rock group Pentangle and a man who popularised Old English Music and gave them a unique modern twist as he did with American Folk-Blues. He was a genius.

Despite all this he remained an unassuming man.

A number of year’s back in 2001 I chatted and laughed with him as we both waited to get albums signed by the great Ramblin’ Jack Elliott in a rare Leeds gig. He was as excited and thrilled to see and meet Jack as if he was a young kid, and was in awe of the man. It was a delight to witness.

Only a week later I was at the Royal Festival Hall I saw him again. He was doing a song with Roy. Did his bit (guitar on Highway Blues) and unobtrusively went off. I saw him sidling off after the show and had a quick work with him. He signed my brochure and was cheerful and friendly.

I first saw John play in the fabled Les Cousins on Greek Street in 1967. He did a set of folk-blues and instrumentals reminiscent of his first two albums. Bert Jansch did the second set and Roy Harper was sandwiched in between. It was quite a night!

I later caught him a couple of times performing with Bert and loved the way their two styles, very different, complemented each other. It’s hard to think that they are now both gone and that era is shunting off down the line into history.

I was also fortunate enough to see the wonderful Pentangle a number of times. The times that stand out for me were in the basement of the Three Horseshoes Pub in Tottenham Court Road. Bert and John, augmented by Danny Thompson on bass and the beautiful voice of Jacqui McShee (as well as the rest of her beautiful self) performed a loose jam/practice/gig for what felt like a group o friends. It was free and performed for friendship, love of music and enjoyment. It was great to see something so far removed from the avarice and greed of music today.

This was music for music’s sake – sharing for friendship and love and the sheer enjoyment of performing.

Bert and John, along with Davey Graham, were the core that that British Contemporary Folk Scene of the mid-sixties and their energy and innovation propelled it to another level.

I had just noticed that he was touring with Whizz Jones and made a note to go and see him and then a read a tiny obituary. It should have been front page. He was a figure worthy of a headline.

John achieved so much and yet he remained a modest man and one who should have received so much more recognition and respect.

We all owe him a lot. He will be missed.