Light On Dark Water

Bert Jansch

It hasn't been very long (by my standard) since I wrote about Bert Jansch on the occasion of his death. That was less than three years ago, and I don't have a lot to add to it in the way of commentary, so please read it if you're interested. There are also a couple of music clips there. And here are a couple more. I wasn't able to find many videos on YouTube that showcased his guitar but didn't include other players, most notably John Renbourne, who was the other guitarist in the acoustic folk-rock-jazz group Pentangle. But these two versions of Reynardine, recorded almost thirty years apart, certainly leave no doubt as to his ability. I'm not sure which I prefer.

"Reynardine," a studio performance from 1971:

And a live performance from a 2000 documentary, which I really want to see; I assume this was recorded not too long before the release date.

Here is a good bit of interesting lore about the song. I can't quite make out all the words that Jansch sings, but as far as I can tell they are very close to the variant attributed to Sandy Denny and Fairport Convention (on Fairport's masterpiece, Liege and Leaf, released in 1969). Even when you get all the words, it isn't entirely clear just what has happened.

It can't be said that Jansch has a good voice, but I like it a great deal. I haven't really heard that much of his solo recorded work, but these really make me want to explore it further.

In case you didn't read the older post–an obituary, really–that I linked to above, one thing that really must be mentioned about Jansch is the extent of his influence. He was a bit of a legend for a while in the mid-'60s–people heard of him, but not him. Many of us first heard his name in the title of a Donovan song. It's probably not much of an exaggeration to say that every serious player of folk or folk-based guitar who came after has listened to him and learned from him.