My “favourite album” is not set in stone: it changes every week or maybe every month. Having said that – give me an album at a certain age and it is mine for life, as Miss Jean Brodie might have said. So I’ll settle for Solid Air.
I was not a shoo-in as a John Martyn fan. I was 17 and liked Status Quo and Alex Harvey. When punk came along I would embrace it. A school pal called John Scott played me Solid Air, and I wasn’t hooked. I could hear jazz and folk and soul. Anathema to me at the time. But John knew his music so this had to be good, didn’t it? I duly bought the vinyl and started listening. My mum almost liked it – another mark against it – but I kept listening. It grew on me. And kept growing.
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