This is dedicated to the memory of Iain David McGeachy, known to most as John Martyn who, at the far too young age of sixty years, made his final curtain call January 29th 2009.

 

I knew him then – way back in the day -

when he was wild and could never wait…

When he could write the words to bind,

play up a storm and leave us all behind.

 

But that was then - in days of angel dust -

when all the world was his to own and use.

By first-class air and limousine he travelled,

before his life became so painfully unravelled.

 

Then came a time when a little fame could feed

the hungry, angry flame, and when getting up

to play and sing on the shimmering stage again

held back the night and dulled ever-living pain.

 

He’d sing loved songs of platinum and gold,

to hear the warming cheers and feel the tears.

He tried hard not to count the deadbeat years,

and to forget small town halls are always cold.

 

But this is now, another day, what can I say?

By bus or train or new friend's car he travelled,

sadly glad to accept a caring hand to hold, and

a warm bed for the bitter winter's night ahead...

 

          When, to him, the journey’s end seemed near,

          and the time had come to surrender to the night,

          he would not have ‘gone gentle’ but, in his way,

          would have ‘raged against the dying of the light’.

 

End Note: I met him, briefly, years ago. Strangely, we had something in common, apart from drink, dope, smoke-filled dives and the music. Our northern grandmothers played significant parts in our lives and this influence, to some extent, gave our lives direction. He started his professional career in his mid teens with a blend of folk and blues and became a key figure in the British folk scene, a legend, perhaps, in his own time. He was idiosyncratic, esoteric, and often unpredictable. He created a loyal following - some say a cult then, like Icarus, imprisoned in the Labyrinth, he tried to escape on waxen wings and flew too high, too near the sun, and plummeted to earth.

 

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