''Glorious Fool'' is the ninth studio album by musician

John Martyn Iain David McGeachy (11 September 1948 – 29 January 2009), known professionally as John Martyn, was a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Over a 40-year career, he released 23 studio albums, and received frequent critical acclaim. ...

. After a long association with

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, anoth ...

, this was Martyn's first of two albums for

WEA The Wea were a Miami-Illinois-speaking Native American tribe originally located in western Indiana. Historically, they were described as either being closely related to the Miami Tribe or a sub-tribe of Miami. Today, the descendants of the ...

. The album was produced by

Phil Collins Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English singer, musician, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and lead singer of the rock band Genesis and also has a career as a solo performer. Between 1982 and ...

and engineered by

Nick Launay Nicolas Launay is an English record producer, composer and recording engineer. He is one of the most sought after record producers in the world due to his success with recent albums by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Anna Calvi, IDLES, Black Reb ...

and Steve Travell. The album is named for the title track satirizing

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

's ascent to the White House as the 40th U.S. President. The opening track "Couldn't Love You More" is a re-worked arrangement of the song that originally appeared on 1977's '' One World''. The original acoustic version is here re-recorded as a full-band track, featuring a guest appearance from

Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is often regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s list of ...

. Clapton covered Martyn's "May You Never" on his 1977 album ''

Slowhand ''Slowhand'' is the fifth full-length studio album by Eric Clapton. Released on 25 November 1977 by RSO Records, and titled after Clapton's nickname, it is one of his most commercially and critically successful studio albums. ''Slowhand'' produ ...

''. When Martyn was presented with a lifetime achievement award by Collins at the 2008

BBC Folk Awards The BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards celebrate outstanding achievement during the previous year within the field of folk music, with the aim of raising the profile of folk and acoustic music. The awards have been given annually since 2000 by British ra ...

, Clapton sent a message saying that he was "so far ahead of everything else it was inconceivable". "Couldn't Love You More", in its various forms, remained a fixture of Martyn's live performances. Irish Musician

Lisa Hannigan Lisa Margaret Hannigan (born 12 February 1981) is an Irish musician, singer, composer, and voice actress. She began her musical career as a member of Damien Rice's band. Since beginning her solo career in 2007 she has released three albums: ''Se ...

has described the song as one of her favourites, covering the song with

Faultline In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...

in 2006. In August 1981, "Please Fall In Love With Me"/"Don't You Go" was released as a single. More mainstream in production compared to Martyn's previous albums, and helped by promotion in the way of a 32-date UK tour, ''Glorious Fool'' charted at #25 on its release.

Track listing

All tracks composed by

. Side one #"Couldn't Love You More" – 3:59 #"Amsterdam" – 5:27 #"Hold On My Heart" – 4:39 #"Perfect Hustler"– 4:42 #"Hearts and Keys" – 7:33 Side two #"Glorious Fool" – 4:58 #"Never Say Never" – 4:56 #"Pascanel (Get Back Home)" – 3:48 #"Didn't Do That" – 4:20 #"Please Fall in Love With Me" – 6:07 #"Don't You Go" – 4:43

Personnel

*John Martyn – vocals, guitar *

– guitar on "Couldn't Love You More" * Alan Thomson – bass *

Max Middleton David Maxwell Middleton (born 4 August 1946) is an English composer and keyboardist who was originally a docker on the London docks. Middleton is known for his work on the Fender Rhodes Electric piano, the Minimoog synthesiser and his percussiv ...

– keyboards *

Dick Cuthell Dick Cuthell is a British musician and record producer. He plays flugelhorn, cornet, and trumpet, amongst a range of other brass instruments, including tenor horn and valve trombone. Cuthell is best known for his work with The SpecialsStrong, Ma ...

– flugelhorn on "Hold on My Heart", trumpet on "Didn't Do That" *

– drums, vocoder and additional vocals, piano on "Don't You Go" *Danny Cummings – percussion ;Technical * Phil Collins – producer *

– engineer *Steve Travell – assistant engineer *Bill Smith – cover design *Eberhard Grames – front cover photo *Andrew Douglas – back cover photo *Sandy Robertson, Paul Brown – management

References

External links

The Official John Martyn Website
{{Authority control John Martyn albums 1981 albums Albums produced by Phil Collins Warner Records albums