by Colin Harper
CD: Plane (1989), Green Linnet (1990) [US-only], Park (1996) – the latter retitles ‘Gaea’ as ‘Gaia’.
Think of Tomorrow (Hypertension HYCD 200 112)
Released: October 1991 (CD & LP – vinyl pressing available only in Germany). Recorded: 1991 at O-TON/Oegenweide Studio, Hamburg. Produced: Pentangle Personnel: Bert Jansch (guitar/vocal), Jacqui McShee (vocal), Peter Kirtley (guitar/vocal), Nigel Portman Smith (bass/keyboards), Gerry Conway (drums/percussion) plus guest Frank Wulff (alto flute/whistle) O’er the Lonely Mountain / Baby Now It’s Over / Share a Dream / The Storyteller (Paddy’s Song) / Meat on the Bone / Ever Yes, Ever No / Straight Ahead / The Toss of Golden Hair / The Lark in the Clear Air / The Bonny Boy / Colour My Paintbook
CD: Hypertension (1991)
Note: Much to the group’s amusement, this non-Celtic album won an American music industry award as that year’s ‘Best Celtic Album’. A remixed and edited version of ‘Colour My Paintbook’ was released as a single in Germany, later available on the Anniversary (1992) compilation.
One More Road (Permanent PERMCD 11)
Released: March 1993 (CD & Cassette only). Recorded: 1992 (studio unaccredited). Produced: uncredited Personnel: Bert Jansch (guitar/vocal), Jacqui McShee (vocal), Peter Kirtley (guitar/vocal), Nigel Portman Smith (bass/keyboards), Gerry Conway (drums/ percussion) plus guests Mike Piggott (violin) and Paul Brennan (whistle)
Travelling Solo / Oxford City / Endless Sky / The Lily of the West / One More Road / High Germany / Hey, Hey Soldier / Willy Of Winsbury / Somali / Manuel / Are You Going To Scarborough Fair
Note: Permanent also issued 4-track sampler CD singles to radio stations (see ‘UK Singles’).
Live 1994 (Hypertension HYCD 200 152)
Released: June 1995. Recorded: At various concerts in Germany, October 1994, and mixed at Chiswick Reach Studios, London Produced: Pentangle (mixed by Nigel Portman Smith). Personnel: Bert Jansch (guitar/vocal), Jacqui McShee (vocal), Peter Kirtley (guitar/ vocal), Nigel Portman Smith (bass/vocal), Gerry Conway (drums)
Bramble Briar [aka Bruton Town] / Sally Free And Easy / Kingfisher / Come Back Baby / When I Was In My Prime / Meat On The Bone / Travelling Solo / The Bonny Boy / Chasing Love / Cruel Sister / Yarrow / Reynardine
Note: ‘Chasing Love’ had only previously been available as a Bert & Jacqui duet on Acoustic Routes (1993).
Singles 1984—1994
Dragonfly / The Dolphin (Spindrift)
Released: 1985
Note: Dragonfly / Taste Of Love was released, with a picture sleeve, in 1984 in Germany on Plane – specifically advertising Open The Door as a 1984 release.
Play The Game / The Saturday Movie (Spindrift SURF 107)
Released: February 1986
Set Me Free / Come to Me Baby (Spindrift SURF 121)
Released: 1986
Colour My Paintbook / Ever Yes, Ever No (Hypertension HYS 100 103)
Released: 1991, German-only single with picture sleeve and remix of ‘Colour My Paint-book’.
Somalia [sic] / Hey Soldier [sic] / One More Road / Oxford City (Permanent PERM CDS 10)
Released: March 1993 (promo only CD single)
Important Compilation and Archive Releases
Various Artists – Derroll Adams 65th Birthday Concert
(Waste Productions, 1990) [Belgium-only?]
Tracks: This concert saw a one-off reunion of Bert, John, Jacqui and Danny although the album only included one all-four track: ‘Tell Me What Is True Love’ – a 1971 Bert solo song previously undocumented in the Pentangle’s repertoire. The three other tracks were two Bert solos ‘Bonny Portmore’ and ‘Ever Yes, Ever No’ (a unique solo version of the Jacqui-sung Pentangle track) and John & Jacqui duetting on ‘Willie O’Winsbury’.
Pentangle – Anniversary (Hypertension, 1992)
Note: The only post-Transatlantic era Pentangle compilation, this includes tracks from all four 1986—1991 group albums plus the German-only ‘Colour My Paintbox’ single remix and a track each from Peter Kirtley (1992) and Bert’s Sketches (1990). It also includes all four Pentangle-related tracks from the Derroll Adams 65th Birthday Concert album (see above) plus another three tracks recorded that night. The extra tracks were: ‘The Trees They Grow So High’ (a John & Jacqui duet) and two Bert, John, Jacqui & Danny tracks, ‘Sally Free & Easy’ and ‘I’ve Got A Feeling’. Neither John nor Danny were consulted about the release of these tracks and the album may have been ‘withdrawn’ or discontinued after initial pressings as a result. Sleeve note by Colin Harper.
CD: BMG-Ariola ARIS 883 890–907 / Hypertension HYCD 200 123 (1992) [German-only]
Postscript: Jacqui McShee’s Pentangle
After releasing the album About Thyme – jointly credited to ‘Jacqui McShee / Gerry Conway / Spencer Cozens’ – on her own label, GJS Records, in 1995, and touring under her own name, Jacqui signed to Park Records and reverted to using the name ‘Jacqui McShee’s Pentangle’. Essentially, this Pentangle is a wholly new group – largely comprising players associated with John Martyn’s touring group. Albums as ‘Jacqui McShee’s Pentangle’ thus far have been Passe Avant (Park, 1998), At The Little Theatre (Park, 2000) – the latter a fine live recording featuring several ‘original Pentangle’ tunes, including the rarely performed ‘Once I Had A Sweetheart’ – and Feoffee’s Lands, reverting to an own-label situation (GJS, 2005). While Jacqui has Bert’s blessing to use the group name, none of these albums have any musical involvement from him.
Discographical Update
A handful of items released between the 2006 version of this book and its December 2011 reprinting are worthy of note. Bert’s final studio album The Black Swan (Drag City) was released in late 2006, on CD, LP and MP3 format. In June 2009 the ‘lost’ trio of Charisma albums – LA Turnaround, Santa Barbara Honeymoon and A Rare Conundrum – all made their CD debut, supervised by Bert, with the addition of previously unreleased and/or rare live and studio tracks from the period. LA Turnaround also came enhanced with a rare promo film on CD-Rom, and all three were available on CD, LP and MP3 format. A 2006 Jansch concert recording was released in 2007 on both 2CD and DVD format as Fresh as a Sweet Sunday Morning (Secret Records). And finally, The Guitar Artistry of the Bert Jansch Conundrum is the unwieldy title of a 2011 DVD release from Quantum Leap (UK) and Rounder (US) which apparently combines the mediocre 1980 Conundrum concert for an Ohio cable TV station (previously released on VHS) with the more remarkable (and previously unreleased) 1975 Danish TV documentary ‘A Man & His Songs’ and three (also unreleased) live tracks from Swedish TV in 1977. Four late period Pentangle albums also received overdue attention on CD: in August 2006 straight remasters of the long unavailable Open The Door and In The Round were released by Talking Elephant; and in July 2007 Hux Records coupled the final two Pentangle albums of the 80s/90s era – One More Road and Live 1994 – together on one CD with refreshed packaging.
A Note on the Author
Colin Harper was born in Belfast in 1968 A professional
writer on music between 1994—2001, contributing
regularly to Mojo, the Independent and the Irish Times, he is
currently a librarian at a Belfast music college. Recent
projects have included co-authoring, with Trevor Hodgett,
Irish Folk, Trad & Blues: A Secret History (Collins Press,
2004) and creating two wildlife charity albums
for the benefit of the WWF
and Ulster Wildlife Trust.
‘Bert Jansch is a living legend and an utterly unique guitarist. If you want to know how beautiful and strange folk music can be, and why it endures and continues to live and breathe even in our throwaway age, this book might just be the best place to start’ Beth Orton
‘One of the most influential musicians of all time’ Guardian
‘As much of a great guitar player as Jimi [Hendrix] was, Bert Jansch is the same thing for acoustic guitar … and my favourite’ Neil Young
‘At one point, I was
absolutely obsessed with Bert Jansch. When I first heard that LP [1965], I couldn’t believe it. It was so far ahead of what everyone else was doing. No one in America could touch that’ Jimmy Page
‘He revolutionised the guitar … I don’t think anybody has ever been revered as much as he is’ Dick Gaughan
‘If you didn’t know he was a guitar hero to many – including Jimmy Page and Keith Richards – your ears might tell you’ Evening Standard
‘Jansch – whose credibility and lasting importance has never diminished – remains a potent and significant musical figure’ Time Out
‘Bert Jansch is a legend for our times’ Metro
‘Without Bert Jansch, rock music as it developed in the sixties and seventies would have been very different. You hear him in Nick Drake, Pete Townshend, Donovan, The Beatles, Jimmy Page and Neil Young. There are people playing guitar who don’t even realise they’ve been influenced by him one step removed’ Johnny Marr
First published in 2000
This electronic edition published in 2012 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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