Zabu - My Coffin's Ready, 1972

French Blues Vocal In English

I have just come across this fine French blues album – though you wouldn’t know it’s French – performed by Lucien Zabuski who used to be the vocalist for Magma, though I think he left before their first release. Not sure; still learning.

For the vocal think Edgar Broughton and you’d have a perfect reference point for the sound in its growl and emotion. The songs are basically a rock blues with some soulful singing, but also generic rather than original – not that this matters at all because that is what you should expect and want if listening to this: and Zabu’s vocal is superb in that style already noted.  

Track five Silent Angel is a delightful exception, a jazz number enlivened by the saxophone playing and Zabu’s more expressive vocal, here sounding like Roger Chapman. The French band is excellent [and if you want the full cast list, check it out here], but it is the sax soloing that plays wonderfully off the voice, though I’m not sure if the lead is Teddy Lasry or Yochk’o Seffer [and there is a Laurent Grangier who plays too], and I like the guitar work woven amongst the saxophone, presumably played by Dominique Frideloux.

Sixth Subversion Blues is another song sticking its head above the rest, a gothic/horror riff [you just recognise it, don’t you?] and the manic shrieks and ringing bell add a further sense of menace – a song that really must be used is any one of the zombie films/series so popular at the moment: The Waking Dead meets Zabu.

The album closes on a punk amalgam of country and rock, Yellow Girl, the opening bluegrass fiddle disappearing as a sound as quickly as it has started. What a tease. 

John Martyn - Solid Air, 1972 - Top Fifty

May You Never Forget

This is undoubtedly John Martyn’s most popular album, following on from Bless the Weather and including the title track which was written for Nick Drake after his sad early death. This song and album once again joins the idiosyncratic bass playing of Danny Thompson with Martyn’s acoustic guitar and equally distinctive vocal, now beginning to develop a slightly lower timbre – a nuance – but not the jazz slur of his next album; however, the sax of Tony Coe and vibes of Tristan Fry hint at the jazzier sounds to come later in John’s career.

Second Over the Hill returns us to the folk song/sound upon which John established his career and which graced so much of Bless the Weather, mandolin, autoharp and violin all played by Richard Thompson on this bright track. Next song Don’t Want to Know and seventh May You Never are two of the most beautiful and well-known songs written by Martyn, the latter probably having the most covers of any one of his works [a problematic homage in that John’s originals are so perfect]. 

I’d Rather Be the Devil provides another outing for John’s use of echoplex and other effects on his guitar and it is a dynamic piece of bluesrock with the soloing presaging so much of the brilliance we would all enjoy over the years, especially seeing Martyn playing live – listen to the exquisite echoplexed acoustic soundscapes dancing above Danny’s complex bass lines. Dreams By The Sea is another rousing rock track and these two definitely produce more overall variety on this album. The instrumental contribution of Rabbit (John Bundrick) – reviewed elsewhere on this site – plays a key role in the jazzier range too.  Closer The Easy Blues/Gentle Blues illustrates John's virtuoso playing of acoustic blues, the speed matched by Danny's dueling double bass and it is such a delightful tandem romp. Unforgettable brilliance throughout.

Gone too soon aged 60, but never forgotten

Barclay James Harvest, Ipswich Civic College - 1972

Tis in my memory locked, And you yourself shall keep the key of it...

So Will, who the Beelzebub is the 'yourself' and where do I find them?!

A little while ago I posted about missed concerts but also those attended in Ipswich and Felixstowe in the 70s [link] and a visitor kindly stopped by and prompted me to try and remember these. Well, I'm struggling! Could use any help from anyone with a better grasp of the past who attended that local triangle of venues - St Matthews Baths, Ipswich Civic College, Felixstowe Pier Pavilions - though there were others: I saw Curved Air at the Ipswich Arts Center; then there's the Gaumont Theatre where I saw early Supertramp, but then the soul bands were later.

Have managed to recall BJH at Ipswich Civic College, sans orchestra, though I did see them with orchestra at the Weeley Pop Festival in Clacton. Oh those were the days.

And then there was Essex University: John Martyn, Quintessence, Lindesfarne.....