52 Guitars: Week 19

May 10, 2014

52 Guitars: Week 19

John Renbourn

Renbourn's name is associated with Bert Jansch's, not only because they worked together in Pentangle but because they were basically doing very similar things. Their voices even sound somewhat similar. Also, as with Jansch, I had a little trouble finding YouTube videos that emphasized his guitar work. This is in part because he seems to have made a lot of music under his own name which emphasised strings or keyboards as the main voices. Or at least I seem to have come across a lot of it. But here's a solo (plus tabla) piece, from 1968, which sort of explains the tabla (Indian drums, often heard with sitar).

And here's a maybe better one, although it's not solo–an electric guitar comes in part way through, which according to AllMusic is Renbourn overdubbed.

I always wanted to like Pentangle more than I did. They were great musicians, and I did like them, but their singer, Jacqui McShee, through no fault of her own just didn't appeal very much to me. So one of my very favorite Pentangle tracks was one on which she only sang a bit of background, with Renbourn taking the lead: "Lord Franklin," a ballad about a lost Arctic expedition. I had always thought Jansch was the singer, and only in recent years learned otherwise. Here is a video which not only contains a great performance of the song, but also tells you how to play it. (I'm very excited about that because it turns out not to be as difficult as I thought, and I might even be able to play it. It's even in standard tuning, which I thought surely it was not.)

I learned from this performance that for lo these many years I've had part of the words wrong. I thought it was "Through cruel hardship they made a stroke / Their ship on mountains of ice was broke." But it's "Through cruel hardship they vainly strove / Their ships on mountains of ice was drove."

Here's Pentangle's version. It's really quite lovely, with the accordion or concertina or whatever that is, and the bit of electric guitar. I've always loved that combination of distorted/compressed electric single-note lead over an acoustic background.

You can read the sad story of the Franklin expedition here.

Maclin Horton

52 Guitars, Music

5 responses to “52 Guitars: Week 19”

Charles Kinnaird

May 10, 2014

Great selections! This one brings back memories. I discovered John Renbourn the way I discovered many other musical delights — at the public library. Some artists I discovered on the radio, especially NPR broadcasts; other artists I learned about by word of mouth. John Renbourn was one of those happy chance meetings while browsing library selections.

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Mac

May 11, 2014

You must have a pretty good public library. I don’t think any of the ones I’ve experienced had very much music that wasn’t very mainstream, although sometimes it was useful for checking out something I was curious about.
I think the only Renbourn album I actually own is The Lady and the Unicorn, which I’m not that wild about. On the basis of what I found while doing this post, I want to hear some of the earlier stuff, like the albums from which the first two selections are taken.

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Grumpy

May 11, 2014

I’m enjoying these selections. John Renborne is not one I know. I used to see Pentangle in the ‘folk’ section of the DVD shop, when I was looking for my absolute favourite, Planxty.

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Mac

May 11, 2014

Somehow I have the idea that you wouldn’t care all that much for Pentangle’s vocalist, either. She’s very much in the ’60s folkie Joan-Baez-ish vein. Good voice but just not all that much to my taste, especially on bluesy stuff, which Pentangle did a good bit of. See what you think of this one, where she sings lead:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3S2brPXjEM
I think I used to hear Planxty on NPR a long time ago but can’t remember them distinctly from other similar bands.

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Mac

May 11, 2014

I just noticed the first comment on that video. Sickly funny. Or maybe that’s just an indication of something wrong with me.

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