Remembering Bert Jansch — The Greatest Guitar Player From The U.K. Who Left Behind A Legacy & Discography To Be Admired & Appreciated
When people usually list down the greatest guitarists of all time who have emerged from the U.K. over the course of the years that have rolled by, you’d usually think of Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, Jimmy Page, or perhaps Brian May. While they are the usual suspects, there is one name who gets largely overlooked, yet in his own gifted right should be mentioned as perhaps the greatest guitarist to have come from the U.K., his name is — Bert Jansch.
Herbert Jansch or simply Bert Jansch was a guitarist from Scotland who pioneered the British folk music revival dating well back to the ’60s.
Ask any guitarist who has heard Jansch play or seem him perform live or been influenced by him(like me), and they’ll tell you about how technically gifted and how far ahead of his time Bert was in his guitar playing style.
Bert had his own unique and riveting finger-picking style of playing the acoustic guitar, with odd time signatures and complex riffs and motifs which made all of his music sound so extraordinary and melodically beautiful.
Early Life
Bert was an elusive character who was born in Glasgow, before his family, of German roots and origins, shifted to Edinburgh. In his younger years, Bert worked as a nurseryman and spent his early earned wages on an acoustic guitar and began methodically plucking away at it.
Jansch would become the caretaker of the Howff folk club in Edinburgh, after regularly spending his time there perfecting his guitar playing skills.
By the 1960s Bert began performing live and frequented various pubs across Scotland. He then traveled around Europe touring between 1963 and 1964 predominantly hitchhiking, making most of his money by busking or performing at various pubs, folk clubs and bars.
He would then move to London where he caught the eye of a recognized producer named Bill Leader and then proceeded to record his eponymous debut album — Bert Jansch — released in 1965.
The First Album — Bert Jansch
The haunting & brilliant album, his first, which announced Bert to the world stage, a stark contrast from the rock and roll emerging in the early ’60s, showcased his surreal, complex and gifted guitar playing style, and would have songs like ‘Strolling Down The Highway’ and ‘Ramblings Gonna Be The Death Of Me’, which would reflect on his times hitchhiking, and living on road.
Other songs like ‘Oh How Your Love Is Strong’, ‘Courting Blues’ and ‘Dreams Of Love’ are love songs perhaps written for his first wife Lynda Campbell and other former lovers.
Other instrumental songs like ‘Smokey River’ and ‘Finches’ and ‘Veronica’ explore Bert’s expansive finger-picking repertoire and make for interesting interludes and admirable fillers in between the songs with lyrics that are breathtaking in their composition.
However, the most famous songs from his debut album would be ‘Needle Of Death’ — a haunting and personal song warning people against the dangers of Heroin use, written for a friend of Bert’s who died of an overdose, and Bert’s interpretation of the Davy Graham classic ‘Anji’ — an instrumental track created by Graham which was a popular folk number played by musicians influenced by Graham’s albums of the ‘50s.
My favourite though is the song ‘Running From Home’ — A mystifying ballad, with a catchy finger-picked riff running through it, which explores and puts words to a life escaping familiar surroundings and heading out on the road into the unknown, ‘running, running from home, breaking ties that you’ve grown, catching dreams from the clouds’
Here it is on Spotify:
Jack Orion and The Led Zeppelin Connection
As one year turned to the next in the ‘60s, Bert followed up his debut effort with his other solo albums ‘It Don’t Bother Me’ (1965), ‘Jack Orion’ (1966)and ‘Birthday Blues’ (1968).
Jack Orion consisted of the song ‘Blackwaterside’ a traditional folk song sang by Bert’s friend Anne Briggs, whom Bert learned the song from, with Bert’s own acoustic arrangement to it.
The song, would be copied and reproduced by Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, who rebranded the song as ‘Black Mountain Side’, copying the exact arrangement made by Jansch along with Indian tablas as percussion elements in the song.
Here’s the song performed by Bert and Anne Briggs many years later.
The Pentangle Years
Jansch would emulate the wave of emerging bands from the ’60s Brit rock and roll scene, perhaps trying to catch the wind of the success that bands springing up in the UK had at the time by becoming the founding member of the band ‘Pentangle’ in 1968.
The band, with a distinct folk sound, as compared to the rock and roll predominantly dominating the British music scene, would tour around the U.K. over the course of the late sixties and early seventies.
The band comprising fellow folk compatriots John Renbourn, who featured on Jack Orion, (on guitar and vocals), Jacqui Mcshee(vocals), Terry Cox(drums), Danny Thompson(double bass) and Jansch, released their first album called ‘The Pentagle’ later that year.
Pentangle toured during the subsequent years, mainly only in the U.K., but that didn’t stop Jansch from recording more solo albums like ‘Rosemary Lane’ in 1971.
Jansch then parted ways with Pentangle in 1973 to pursue his solo career.
Jansch’s Complete Discography
Jansch retreated to his farm in Wales after the split from Pentangle, after finding all the touring a bit too heavy. He then separated from his second wife Heather which lead Jansch to a phase of alcoholism which began shortly after the release of his 1974 album ‘LA Turnaround’.
However, Jansch’s entire discography would span 25 albums spread across his longstanding career starting in the sixties right up to his final effort in 2006.
Jansch discography is an essential for any upcoming guitarist who is trying to learn finger-picking techniques or trying to perfect the art of playing the acoustic gutiar and also make for a delightful listen.
They’re filled with poignant and compelling riffs, licks and rhythms along with lyrics that don’t fail to touch and move you.
The arrangements and just the sound of all his albums are a rarity which no musician I have ever heard of in my life has ever been able to reproduce.
The Final Albums—Edge Of A Dream & Black Swan
Perhaps my favourite albums of Bert’s after his debut effort, which would be his last few, are surely ‘Edge of A Dream’ 2002 and ‘Black Swan’ 2006.
Both albums feature Bert’s distinct sound on guitar, in much more matured tones and composition while also embracing elements of the future but staying close to Bert’s folk roots which are the essence of his music.
The title tracks of both albums are perhaps my favourites which you must listen to, especially ‘Black Swan’ which is the first track from his final album, a melancholic melody reflecting on life and children and old age.
Here they are on Spotify:
I’d also highly recommend ‘It Don’t Bother Me’ (1965).
Appreciation & Legacy
Jansch came to pass in 2011 but although he would only reach humble heights of fame and recognition as a musician, which is far too tragic, but in his repertoire, he remains a eclectic genius and a master of the acoustic guitar.
As recounted in the Guardian,
To Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, Jansch was “the innovator of the time … so far ahead of what anyone else was doing”. Johnny Marr of the Smiths described Jansch’s effect on his musicianship as “massive … one of the most influential and intriguing musicians to have come out of the British music scene”. Other artists he influenced included Paul Simon, Donovan and Neil Young, with whom Jansch toured in the US in 2010.
While, I forget the exact interview, but Jansch’s co-collaborator Anne Briggs, remarks about Bert’s unique guitar playing style reflecting on the need for chords while playing the guitar, (with Bert’s playing), ‘you don’t need chords at all’.
You can check out Bert’s official website here:
Although live video performances of Bert are very rare, here is a rare performance of his of the song ‘Blues Run The Game’ on YouTube.
You can see how exquisitely he plucks the strings and sings the song, which is testament to his acoustic guitar brilliance and gift.
While his singing isn’t the most extraordinary, his guitar playing style & technique most definitely is.
Whether you’re into folk music or not, as an upcoming guitarist and musician influenced by Bert Jansch, I would highly recommend listening to Bert’s albums spanning the decades, which in their essence, are the left behind relics and masterpieces of a genius of the acoustic guitar and a guitar player like no other, before, or after him.
This is for Bert — In my opinion, the greatest guitar player to have ever emerged from the U.K.
*If you liked this post, you can buy me a cup of coffee by clicking the link below!*
