Remastered reissue of the 1974 album features the 11 original tracks plus the 7 bonus tracks 'Ellie Rae', 'Satisfied Mind', 'One Day Without You', 'You Can Discover', 'My Baby Girl', 'The Message' & 'Spencer the Rover'. Universal. 2005.
Très bonne édition 2005 d'un des meilleurs albums de john martyn,en compagnie de Danny Thompson, contrebassiste de pentangle,en continuité de son chef d'oeuvre,"solid air",de 74. Il tournait souvent avec traffic, et collabora avec stevie winwood en 77 sur "one world"
I bought this CD to replace a rather old and scratchy vinyl version of the album that I bought not long after it was originally released. The intervening (nearly) 40 years have done nothing to diminish the excellence of the tracks; there are some absolute classics.
Songs like "Sunday's Child" and "You Can Discover" are heart-rendingly beautiful both in their lyrics and in John's arrangement and playing. He was an astoundingly good guitarist and me managed to produce a delicacy in his playing (whether acoustic or electric) that added to the emotion of the words he sang.
Yet at the same time this album marks a further move away from the purely acoustic work that he was originally known for. The album contains a mixture of tracks. Some, like those mentioned previously hark back to his earlier work but others such as "One Day Without You"; "Root Love" and "Clutches" have a distinct jazz-funk feel to them and provide an indication of how his future albums were going to sound.
And of course, there is "Spencer The Rover" a traditional song given a wonderful acoustic arrangement and sung beautifully. He did have a great voice, after all.
What a talent he was. A great song-writer; an excellent singer and a magnificent guitarist.
"Sunday's Child" represented a step back to his folk roots for John Martyn after the radical experimentalism of his previous album "Inside Out". "Sunday's Child" finds Martyn in a content mood. As detailed in the liner notes Martyn was a young father at the time this was recorded and this disc captures that aspect of his life, particularly on tracks like " My Little Girl". Martyn's voice throughout is excellent, and his guitar playing (as usual) is phenomenal. I personally prefer some of his more pensive material from this one, such as the title track, "Lay It All Down", and "Call Me Crazy", which all showcase his acoustic guitar playing and signature slurred vocals, but after repeated listens I began to appreciate the more upbeat material like "One Day Without You" and the almost heavy metal sounding "Root Love". The bonus tracks included on this remastered edition are a worthy addition to the original album, and give the listener an opportunity to hear some of the electric guitar driven songs off the album in an acoustic setting live on the BBC. After purchasing all of Martyn's CD's from the 1970's I am convinced that the man could do no wrong during this period. All of his albums on the Island label are amazing, and "Sunday's Child" is no exception. Word to the wise: if you buy this you may find yourself buying the rest of John Martyn's catalog down the line. Don't smirk...it happened to me.
Sunday's Child is often the forgotten one in John Martyn's astonishing run of classic albums in the mid 70's. After the ballsy, jazz fusion of Inside Out, he for the most part went back to the acoustic guitar to record these songs. It's chilled, and I am sure was a chosen soundtrack for the stoners back in the mid 70's. Root Love is almost a pre-cursor to Big Muff which would appear on his next album One World. One Day Without You & My Baby Girl are lovely late hour confessionals that Martyn does so well. His cover songs, are simply astounding, the soulful Satisfied Mind, and the mesmerizing folk standard Spencer The Rover. What a character Martyn was, his music - relaxing, romantic & soulful. However, his life was far from that. John liked the booze & drugs, and the odd pub punch up. His upbringing in both Glasgow & Surrey allowed him to switch into either accent. so it's amusing to hear his live recordings where he could be talking to the crowd in broad Glaswegian or a Home Counties accent. Always seemed a witty, self effacing chap too. Great album. Great man.