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Bert Jansch dies

He was an icon in Britain, perhaps not so much in NA, but his playing was a revelation to me when I first heard it. His version of Davey Graham's "Angie" ( covered also by Paul Simon ) was the piece I and probably a thousand British youths longed to be able to play. "Needle of Death" introduced us to heroin. His duo album with John Renbourn, with its "complex inter-dependent, guitar parts" (Wikipedia) was a revelation. I hadn't realized folk blues could give a pleasure resembling that of Bach's counterpoint. There's a great deal more to say -- Pentangle is probably still my absolute fave group -- but that's for other places. Here I just want to wish him well on his journey and send thanks from the heart.
tobias
4 responses Add your response
martykl
3,578 posts
 
That is sad. You can hear his playing echoed in so much of the work of many of those British "guitar heros" of the '60's. I find that most of his music (the Pentangle stuff, in particular), remains compelling all these years later.

RIP.

Marty
lenny_zwik
259 posts
 
That's a shame. I saw him with Neil Young a couple of years ago during Neil's solo tour. Consummate musician.
hodu
316 posts
 
This from Neil Young, talking about his song "Ambulance Blues" from his album "On the Beach":
"I always feel bad I stole that melody from Bert Jansch. ... You ever heard that song "The Needle of Death"? I loved that melody. I didn't realize "Ambulance Blues" starts exactly the same. I knew that it sounded like something that he did, but when I went back and heard that record again I realized that I copped his thing ... I felt really bad about that. Because here is a guy who ... I'll never play guitar as good as this guy. Never. He's like Jimi Hendrix or something on the acoustic guitar."
The above is from the book "Shakey" by James McDonough.
bdgregory
1,712 posts
 
that's so sad . . . a great loss. One of my favorite musicians
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