Songs for Saturday: Bert Jansch

[mdlbear]

I was sitting around idly wondering what to do for my Songs for Saturday post when I got the news via min0taur that Bert Jansch had died last week. It doesn't even seem to have hit his official website yet, but it hit me hard. Bert was one of my heros.

The song that immediately popped into my head was Needle Of Death -- it was on his first album, which I bought close to the year it came out, 1965. I think it's still the only album of his I ever owned, but his sharp-edged songwriting and astounding fingerpicking left a lasting impression.

I could spend hours browsing through the recordings on YouTube. I probably will. For now I'll just leave you with Angie, from his first album, and this video of him performing Alice's Wonderland.

Comments

[septemberlilac.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting the Bert Jansch links - I hadn't heard and can't quite grasp the idea that he's gone. You and I must have bought that same album at just about the same time. It was the soundtrack that once saw me through a very bad winter - those intricate soothing notes of 'Angie' like morphine for the soul. And the songs never, ever got old. "Sharp-edged songwriting" indeed: I always thought the line "...but you don't give a damn, no reason why you should..." was a particularly fine twist of the knife. But still not half so cutting as the thought that Bert can be dead at 67.