Edit: At the time of originally sharing this post, I was unaware that John Martyn had a history of perpetrating domestic abuse. I recognize the implications of embracing his work in light of that, and will do my best in the future to be more thorough in my research on the artists I write about!
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Piece By Piece is not for everyone. But what makes it such an exemplary slice of sophisti-pop, in my opinion, is that every time John Martyn toes the aesthetic line (is this too much saxophone? does this sound like late night lonely hearts suburban radio? are these lyrics actually just bad?), he redeems himself tenfold with startlingly gorgeous instrumentation and perfectly plump, high-gloss production. It continues to surprise after repeat listens, and is extra generous in headphones.
Backing up, though–for the unfamiliar, John Martyn was a British musician and songwriter who initially came up as a precocious folk scene giant but, as is well-evidenced here, branched out into much more exploratory territory. His body of work is as big as it is diverse, so much so that I still haven’t really wrapped my head around it. It’s been suggested that it was this very proclivity towards experimentation that kept him just shy of the mainstream success that he clearly deserved. He sadly passed away in 2009. He was a truly brilliant guitarist, he loved fretless bass, and his inimitable voice could turn from wistful sweet to inhuman growling on a dime.
While Piece By Piece might be an odd place to jump into his very rewarding discography, I think it’s appropriate in its own way. “Angeline,” for example, is exemplary of Martyn’s particular breed of strangeness: at first it seems like a Toyota dad ballad, but its repeating out-of-sync broken drum sample acts as a reminder that there’s got to be more, and sure enough, the “chorus”–which isn’t really a chorus at all–breaks open so pleasingly into gorgeous washes of reverb in which the vocals disappear into dissonant synth and vice versa. Oh, and for the fretless bass die-hards, it’s all over the record in spades. A deep purple and navy blue world of a record that feels so good to live in for 41 minutes: moody, wickedly smart sophisti-pop, with more and more to say for itself at every turn. Ideal night-time driving music.
Thank you for this. What would be the ultimately sophisti-pop album in your opinion?
boring answer, but–probably hats by the blue nile!
The Blue Nile are amazing and so is this blog (I visit often). Thank you for your efforts.
prefab sprout’s swoon and two wheels good put the sophisti in sophisti-pop! musically much more intricate than the blue nile in my opinion and predates hats 5 years or so. still love hats as well 🙂
Thank you for the recommendations! Blue Nile is great and will definitely give Prefab a more close listen that I have previously.
I don’t fully understand why Martyn having a history of domestic abuse should give you pause when sharing or celebrating his music, nor what the “implications” of sharing his music you allude might be. I hope it doesn’t mean you won’t share his music in the future on (misguided IMO) principle.
If we were to go through the history of art and selectively “remove” from the canon that made by men and women who did bad, even terrible, things, we would be denying ourselves a remarkable amount of beautiful art, and we would gain nothing. By celebrating his music, you are not endorsing his personal behavior, just as orchestras performing Wagner or anyone reading Burroughs is not endorsing anti-Semitism or murder. Indeed, we can take, if we like, lessons from their work that are contrary to their own personal beliefs and behavior. That is a freedom we have.
More generally, rather than separate people into the “good” and the “bad”, and shunt their art into the canon or the dustbin accordingly (a Manichean habit of social media milieux), we should acknowledge the hard truth that people are complex and contradictory, that beautiful art can come from people with ugly souls, and that moral grace has little to do with artistic talent, as much as we might wish this to be so (and as much as we might value those who have both).
hi jonah, hope this finds you and larry well!
i understand that some people feel differently than i do about separating the art from the artist, and i don’t intend to change anyone’s mind. however, without wanting to suggest that i should be a gatekeeper of what kinds of transgressions we should or shouldn’t let slide for the sake of good art, i will say that as somebody who has repeatedly been on the receiving end of intimate partner violence, it feels important for me to not knowingly celebrate serial abusers on my website, which is a big part of why this instance has given me pause. i’m not suggesting removing anyone from the canon, nor do i think my blog has any meaningful bearing on “the canon.” you are correct that people are complex and contradictory, and i hope i haven’t suggested that john martyn was without value. i still love his music, though i feel differently about it now. it seems as if you feel strongly about engaging with curation that doesn’t weigh the moral merits of artists, and as such i’m sure there are plenty of resources out there for you. however, i imagine that other readers might make decisions differently from you or me about what kinds of art they consume, so i feel a responsibility to provide the context with which to make those decisions as best as i can, and i sincerely hope it doesn’t alienate you. (for what it’s worth, i also recognize that debating ethical consumption is a little funny in the context of this blog, since i’m distributing martyn’s work for free, and since he’s no longer alive.)
interestingly, you aren’t the first john martyn apologist to leave a comment—my last interaction with a reader got so bogged down in misogyny that i had to delete the whole exchange and eventually block the commenter. it’s surprising, as i don’t think “domestic violence is bad and i feel conflicted about promoting the work of somebody who perpetrated it” is a particularly challenging or radical opinion. still, i feel nervous that expressing that opinion again here will direct more anonymous misogyny towards me, and i’m disheartened to feel that way on my own website. my general hope would be that men refrain from telling women how to respond appropriately to violence against women, and also to consider more broadly the ways in which an excusal of violence reinforces a disregard for victims and upholds the structures that allow violent behavior to continue unchecked. to be clear, these are general hopes that i don’t mean to direct specifically at you, and i hope you can hear me out in good faith!
thanks for reading,
jen
Hi Jen! I do hear you, I take your comments in good faith, and you’re at no risk of alienating me from the blog (and I appreciate that you even care about that!). I’m sorry someone else who commented was being a misogynistic asshole. maybe I should have brought this up privately rather than on the blog, and I would be happy with your deleting this and my other posts if you’d like to do so!
I don’t think I’ve earned the tag “John Martyn apologist” nor was I participating in an “excusal of violence.” I’m not apologizing for, nor trying to minimize or deny the harms he visited upon women in his life. one doesn’t need to “apologize” for artists’ abhorrent behavior to appreciate their work …or put in reverse, appreciating their work and wishing it to continue circulating doesn’t constitute an “apology” for their abuse. (especially, as you note, when the music is circulating in such a way that doesn’t send royalties their way.) I don’t really know what’s to be gained from eliding this distinction.
nor was I arguing that we shouldn’t acknowledge and discuss the moral failings (to put it far too politely) of artists. it’s important to talk about those, as part of a larger conversation on violence, but also, often, in terms of how it inflects the art itself. I never regret learning more about artists whose work I’m interested in, even if that “more” casts them in an unflattering or damning light. I was responding not to your having raised the subject, but to the apologetic tone that seemed to imply that you regretted posting Martyn’s work to begin with and wouldn’t in the future. above all, I was trying to figure out what you had meant by “implications” in the comment above—I probably should have just asked, rather than writing a long response, although I worried that simply posing the question would seem passive-aggressive.
on a different subject: I do think your blog has been pretty influential on emerging canons of taste in certain quarters. sorry, that’s vague, but it would take a lot more words for me to sort out more clearly what I mean by that! suffice to say you are making an impact, I think, as witness the many albums that were “rediscovered” on this blog and subsequently reissued for broader consumption. the same was true of the wave of album blogs of the mid-2000s, which I think set an agenda for the rediscovery of certain artists and genres that resonates to the present even though most of those blogs are long defunct. there’s a way that the role such blogs (and torrent sites etc.) play gets elided once the rediscovery/revival gets recast in “official” or “legitimate” terms.
now I have to walk the dog!
thanks for clarifying, and i appreciate your sensitivity and consideration! to contextualize, i did briefly consider deleting this post after i found out about martyn’s history of domestic violence, but ultimately decided that in this instance transparency made more sense, and would allow readers to make a choice as to if and how they wanted to engage. i’m still unsure if i’ll share more of martyn’s music going forward, but if i do, i’ll definitely approach its presentation more sensitively, and will continue to bring up the abuse for the sake of transparency. in general, i don’t think it’s possible or necessary for me to know every bad thing about every artist whose work i share, but i do feel as if not knowing about this was a pretty glaring oversight on my behalf—i.e. i might have read the first paragraph of his wikipedia page a little more carefully. that’s the kind of thing i’d like to do better going forward so that i don’t, for example, inadvertently promote harmful ideologies. (to be clear, i don’t think that’s what happened here, but it’s not hard to see how that could happen in the future if i continue to not do my homework.)
to answer your initial question, the “implications” i was referring to were that my initial post might have suggested that i only had celebratory things to say about martyn, or was deliberately ignoring the elephant in the room. i was also referring to the disparity between elevating the work of a known abuser and the kinds of people whose work i’d like to support, both in my life and on this blog.
it’s complicated, as i know we both know, and i’m still working out my own thoughts on how i want to navigate these situations—though i’m glad that the recent increase in social accountability has put us in the position to have to make these decisions in the first place. i don’t believe that artists should necessarily have to be good role models, but i also think there’s plenty of distance between “bad role model/complex/contradictory” and “repeatedly physically abuses one’s partner.” (not trying to lecture; just working through my own reservations about how we celebrate whom.)
thank you for your kind words re: influence, and for reading, and for thinking about this—i’m thinking about it a lot too!
I think it’s wonderful that you have highlighted Martyn’s history of extreme violence. There is no reason to suppress that information since we can all make up our minds as to whether this should effect our listening experience. But it does concern me that the posts for Haruomi Hosono have no similar disclaimer regarding his relationship with animals. Why is this?
hi ken, i actually am unaware of the relationship you’ve mentioned and would be grateful if you could clarify, as google hasn’t turned anything up for me. if email is better for you, jen (at) listentothis.info — i appreciate your time!
Postscript: sorry for what may seem like the preachy, didactic tone of that last post. I wish I could edit! But I hope my general point isn’t taken too badly.
What about Hosono and animals ? (…)