| Some People Are Crazy: The John Martyn Story | 
 enlarge | Author: John Neil Munro
Publisher: Polygon An Imprint of Birlinn Limited
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 12532
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 246
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 4.7 x 0.8
ISBN: 184697058X
Dewey Decimal Number: 782.42166092
EAN: 9781846970580
ASIN: 184697058X
Publication Date: May 15, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 He aint no saint! August 23, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This man's music has moved me for over 20 years and I was looking forward to this biography. It is a warts and all look at his career. It is well written and the author hits the nail right on the head when he concludes that the world would be a far better place if more people listened to John's music. Since reading it I have listened to loads of his old (and new) stuff again and again, and you can not fail but be moved by his majesty.
Authoritative. A must for all JM fans December 21, 2007
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
It is clear that a lot of work and thought has gone into producing this biography. It would have been easy to have produced a superficial production based on all the various anecdotes and other published works.
John Neil Munro should be congratulated on the way in which he covers the good , the bad & the ugly sides of Martyn as well of course as the beautiful and fantastic music which has captivated so many for the last 40 years. The book is well produced in hardback and a most enjoyable read.
Maybe John Neil Munro should have a go at Davy Graham as his next subject?
 Munro has set the bar high October 28, 2007
22 out of 25 found this review helpful
A declaration of interest first of all: John Neil Munro is an old friend and colleague, so I was in any case disposed to like this book. That said, he didn't disappoint me.
Writing for "Scotland on Sunday" (Sept. 30, 2007), Munro explains that he decided to write the book after hearing conflicting reports about one of his musical heroes. The man responsible for some of the most romantic and mellow acoustic ballads, for classic albums such as "Solid Air" and "One World", apparently also had a darker side. So he set out to see "whether John Martyn was really a peace-loving good guy or was indeed something of a bampot."
The answer of course is he's a bit of both: Munro does a good of job of weaving together the twin threads of Martyn's remarkable musical career and the old rock-and-roll cliche of his self-destructive personal life. The book's great strength is that he has access to many of the key sources: not just Martyn himself but musical collaborators - and great musicians in their own right - such as Ralph McTell, Dave Pegg and the incomparable Danny Thompson.
Munro has also done his homework on key influences in Martyn's life and work, such as fellow musical prodigy and friend Nick Drake, who inspired "Solid Air". (The chapters on "lost souls" Drake and Paul Kossoff are sensitively handled.) And where he hasn't been able to interview important sources such as Beverley Martyn, thorough research ensures that her voice is heard.
Munro does a fair job sketching out Martyn's formative years in Scotland, though a few local references may escape some readers. He really gets into its stride when the young Martyn arrives in London. Munro does not pull his punches when it comes to assessing the limitations of some of Martyn's earlier work. But where the book really scores is in its detailed accounts of the making of the key albums: Solid Air, One World, Grace and Danger. As well as talking to the musicians involved, Munro puts the albums in the context of Martyn's personal life. And as well as offering his own assessments, he has taken the trouble to dig up some of the most perceptive reviews written at the time of their release.
I was interested, though perhaps not surprised, to discover that Martyn's slicker 1980s albums - when he put on a suit and went electric - are dismissed by many of the diehard fans hooked on his acoustic work. (Personally I love "Well Kept Secret" even if Martyn admits "to being so sozzled that he barely remembers anything about the recording".) But I would like to have read more about the merits or otherwise of Martyn's work from the 1990s onwards.
Martyn the man, as opposed the Martyn the musician, does not come out of the book terribly well. It is not just because of what some former friends, lovers and collaborators have to say. His own attempts to justify what has clearly on occasion been quite appalling behaviour are less than convincing. Martyn tells Munro how he doesn't suffer fools gladly. But one can't help thinking that the only reason so many people have suffered him is that hiding behind the bampot is a warmer, gentler man. And it is that gentler voice that comes through in a lot of his most beautiful work.
As Danny Thompson explains to Munro: "Someone who can write `You curl around me like a fern in the spring' - that's the man that is going to be missed, not the guy who is chucking beer all over you and poking you in the chest."
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