BILL MESNIK OF THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS PRESENTS: THE SUNNY SIDE OF MY STREET - SONGS TO MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD - EPISODE #74 - BLESS THE WEATHER by John Martyn (Island, 1971)

“Bless the Weather” by Iain David McGeachy, OBE (1948-2009)— known to the public as John Martyn, is an emblem of the unfathomable mysteries of the universe: How could music so divinely comforting have emanated from one so troubled? Of course, treading the path of this maestro’s biography we find the familiar signposts of drug addiction, marital abuse, alcoholism, and psychic distress. And yet. this spiritual offering translates as only gentleness and pure peace. ’Tis a puzzlement. Well, humans are complex, or as he himself wrote: “some people are crazy.” In 1980, after Martyn’s break up with wife and partner Beverly, this “father of TripHop” created “Grace and Danger”, which his friend and label owner, Chris Blackwell refused to release for a year because he felt it was “too disturbing”. So, I guess it wasn’t all hearts and flowers. And yet, even there, the folk-jazz improvisations, abetted by the agile bass fingerings of Danny Thompson, lull, even as they hint at a provocation. Be that as it may, on this cut the soothing, vibrational waves of guitar and voice align my brain waves in such a way that I can feel my heart rate immediately relax. It is a meditation; a connection to the eternal one-ness.