Neil Young recently announced a
solo tour in the States, and has personally picked none other than Bert Jansch to be his support act. Consider yourselves lucky, American fans of the old Dinosaur, as Jansch is the real deal. If you´ve never heard of this Scottish folkie before, you just might be amazed. A founding member of the band Pentangle, and an extraordinary guitarist and songwriter, Jansch is a typical musician´s musician. Not a big star in the public eye, but much admired by such diverse players as Nick Drake, Jimmy Page (who nicked one of his songs once), Johnny Marr and Thurston Moore.
Neil Young has been a longtime fan, too. As he told Rolling Stone back in ´92: "Bert Jansch is on the same level as Jimi Hendrix. That first record of his is epic. It came from England, and I was especially taken by Needle Of Death, such a beautiful and angry song. That guy was so good… And years later, on On The Beach, I wrote the melody of Ambulance Blues by styling the guitar part completely on Needle Of Death. I wasn’t even aware of it, and someone else drew my attention to it." Check.
Bert Jansch - Needle Of Death MP3
Neil Young - Ambulance Blues MP3
2 comments:
Hey! This is news to me.
That Jansch is supporting Neil Young on tour is outatanding.
It never occurred to me, despite playing "Needle of Death" into the groove, that "Ambulance Blues" was styled on it.
Wow!
Talk about a great night out... and props to Neil for bringing Bert to the ears of a lot more people!
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