The Goo 1
The Grape Vinyl Words: Conor Farrell BERT JANSCH
- BERT JANSCH (1965) 60TH ANNIVERSARY YEAR In July 2011 Joanna Newsom played in Marlay Park. The concert was well attended, as Newsom was still riding high with critics and fans from Have One on Me (2010). I was quick to secure my ticket, and although I liked Newsom, the real attraction for me was her support act, the incomparable Bert Jansch. Although Bert’s career began in the 1960s, I had only discovered him in recent years and spent that time trying to convert everyone I knew. The crowd was sparse and scattered for Bert’s set that day. Bert ambled onto the stage looking like a roadie or just a regular guy coming off the late shift. He sat on an uncomfortable-looking chair and tuned his guitar, his presence quiet and unassuming. He seemed lost and impenetrable under the flashing stage lights as if they were fighting to keep him from the shadows. There was a shyness to him and a gentle demeanour that made him seem almost invisible - until he started to play. That was when the magic happened. Born in Glasgow in 1943, Bert’s musical journey began, at age 16, when he saw Big Bill Broonzy perform on television. Broonzy’s use of a thumbpick to keep the rhythm on the bass strings struck Jansch like lightning, and from that day on, 46 he was rarely without one. Soon his distinctive picking and unique string-bending techniques would influence generations of guitarists. He began frequenting Edinburgh’s folk clubs, learning his craft and soaking up the sounds of the burgeoning folk revival. In 1960, he settled in London, where he joined the folk club circuit and met other emerging talents of the British folk revival, including Davey Graham, John Renbourn, Martin Carthy, and Anne Briggs. Bert and John Renbourn soon after formed a duo and later co-founded the experimental folk-rock band Pentangle Another significant meeting around this time was with Bill Leader, a record producer and central figure on the scene. Leader recorded Bert and John Renbourne in his flat. Renbourne later recalled Leader “setting up the tape machine in the sink and having us play in the broom cupboard”. Leader sold Bert’s raw recordings to Transatlantic Records for the lavish sum of £100. The resulting album, Bert Jansch (1965), became an underground hit, selling 150,000 copies—a remarkable feat for a folk record at the time. The album quickly became influential on some of his more successful contemporaries, most notably Donovan, who covered Do You Hear Me Now. Paul Simon also used Bert’s arrangement of Angie on Simon and Garfunkel’s breakthrough album Sounds of Silence. Neil Young often covered Needle of Death live. He would speak highly of Bert over the years, calling him his favourite guitarist, and declaring that he was to the acoustic guitar what Hendrix was to the electric guitar. Jimmy Page, meanwhile, adapted Blackwaterside - from Bert’s third album, Jack Orion (1966)—into Black Mountain Side for Led Zeppelin’s debut album. Nick Drake and Johnny Marr were also amongst Bert’s many celebrated diehard fans, and the list goes on. Bert Jansch (1965) was just the beginning—and what a beginning it was. An amateur tape recording that launched a highly respected and deeply influential career. By the time I saw him perform, he looked a little frail and worn, shuffling off stage as though already retreating into the shadows. Yet to me he remained a giant that day. It was my first time seeing Bert live— and sadly one of the last gigs he ever played. Just over two months later, he died from lung cancer. He may never have been a household name, but his reputation among fans and fellow musicians far outshone any relative obscurity.