Goodbye, John.

It'd take ever such a long time to explain that John Martyn was one of the most important musicians and songwriters in my life, that he showed me that so many things I felt guiltily drawn towards was not only 'alright' or 'acceptable' but could actually be everything I imagined they'd be--so playing guitars through tape-delays, playing fingerstyle, singing softly, swinging rather than strutting, writing songs that don't necessarily have choruses--and what's more, that there was such a brass-balled courage in being the person you were rather than what you thought someone else wanted you to be. To be empathic, to care, to hurt and love and, yes, to risk looking like a fucking idiot for the privilege of doing so.

It'd take such an awful long time to tell the story about how I played "May You Never" on my brother's guitar in the sitting-room of my grandmother's house the day after she was killed, and kept on playing it until my Dad had fallen asleep.

Some of us live like princes
Some of us live like queens
Most of us live just like me
And we don't know what it means
To take our place in one world
To make our peace in one world
To make our way in one world
To have our say in one world

It'd even take a long time to explain how I drove home from work one night during the most torrential rainstorm I have ever seen in this or any other country, the skies lit up purple, the drains frothing and fountaining as they overflowed, the pavement submerged along with the road, and how I had to ford two feet of flood water a mile out from home that left me parking up outside the house with the entire engine steaming, and how I was listening to "Outside In" from Live At Leeds the whole way home, and how I'll remember that until the day I die.

It'd take a long time to explain that I saw this, immediately below, when I was eleven years old, and that it pretty much changed my life.







John's music has gotten me through some tough shit. I have no doubt it'll continue to do so. If this is your first acquaintance, I'd like you to be friends.