So began Danny Baker's remarkable tribute on Thursday to John Martyn (you can find it here). Baker had just been told the sad news before he went on air. He was audibly shaken and admitted that he felt like just going home.
He didn't have any John Martyn cd's with him so he sent someone down to HMV to get some. Whilst we waited he played some Nick Drake and told us how he didn't normally play John Martyn as his music was simply "too personal", "too good".
The entire show was given over to John Martyn, the man and his music. It was an extraordinarily moving two hour tribute. All the more so given that it was totally off the cuff.
Baker once again proved what a towering broadcaster (as opposed to a broadcasting tower) he is. You have to wonder why he's working for BBC Radio London, rather than one of the main BBC stations. He certainly should be. Possibly it's for precisely the same reasons that he rarely played any John Martyn on his radio shows. He's simply too good.
Baker kept saying he "was knocked for a loop" (did he invent that phrase especially for the occasion?). He admired Martyn's indefatigable spirit. He'd never met him. Never wanted to. Never meet your heroes. He thought the man was unsinkable. He couldn't believe he'd been sunk. That one of the great immortals was dead.
1 comment:
I remember that day...that DB Prog and was driving around London Town in tears delivering my goods. Yes, absolutely carved in stone....in the Top Two Shows' ever. (The other being a particular Jon Gaunt' Show, on the same channel, Radio London. Also, an incredible, controversial broadcaster....also 'axed' by that station.
Pardon me, I digress....yes that John Martyn tribute was so heartfelt, sensitive and touching, ten years on I remember it today, with the same effect now as it had on me then.
I still miss both those historic programs...from both broadcasters.
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