Jackie Leven (18 June 1950 – 14 November 2011) was een Schotste singer/songwriter,een man met een prachtige stem een uitmuntende gitarist.Ik zag hem twee keer"live" begin jaren 80 een keer in een wat rumoerige pub in Edinburg en een paar dagen later op een wat groter podium in dezelfde stad.Ik was hem eigenlijk een beetje vergeten tot ik het bericht van zijn overlijden tegenkwam.Ik ben wat van zijn muziek gaan verzamelen en kom er steeds meer achter wat een enorm talent deze man was.Zijn eerste succes had hij met de new wave band Doll By Doll ,later maakte hij platen onder zin eigen naam en onder een pseudoniem
Sir Vincent Lone. De onderstaande beelden zijn van een optreden in Kiel, Germany, Raeucherei,op 26 Maart 2000 (many thanks to the taper) Naar aanleiding van zijn overlijden verscheen het volgende artikel in The Guardian ,het toch wel tragische verhaal van een in mijn ogen zeer onderschatte artiest.
Jackie Leven R.I.P.
Stranger in town
Jackie Leven, who has died of cancer aged 61, was a brilliant outsider, a
remarkably prolific Scottish singer-songwriter who built up a devoted
cult following during his lengthy, wildly varied and often turbulent
career, but never achieved the level of success that he deserved. An
intense, passionate giant of a man, he first came to attention in the
late 1970s and early 80s, as leader of the highly praised but
commercially unsuccessful band Doll By Doll. He went on to found a
successful charity, the
Core Trust,
which treats "addicts of any sort", before continuing his musical
career as a soloist – still acquiring devoted fans, but never selling
many albums
Marble City Bar
Born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, of Romany descent, he began singing his own,
blues-based
songs in local folk clubs, but said he was forced to leave the area
because he was picked on by a local gang. He was first married at 16,
but began travelling, sometimes working as a labourer, although still
performing, now sporting orange hair and using the name John St Field
I Saw My Love In to The Cloud
His friend Joe Shaw, the guitarist with Doll By Doll, remembers meeting
him in a folk club in Bridport, Dorset, and finding that their common
interest was "not folk songs about young maidens, but Hendrix and Van
Morrison". He says that Leven was "very intense. He could make you feel
uncomfortable or the best ever – and he made me feel the best ever. He
was the best friend I ever had."
Universal Blue
They shared a squat in a farmhouse in Dorset, and met up again in
Hamburg "and spent all our time jamming on guitars". Later, when Leven
moved to another squat, in Maida Vale, London, he suggested they bring
in a bass player and percussionist to form a band, and they started
rehearsing "with mattresses around the walls to deaden the sound, but
still annoying the neighbours"
Single Father
The result was Doll By Doll, dominated by Leven, whom I described at
the time as "a mixture of Van Morrison and a psychopath", but who could
mix edgy, brooding rock songs, such as Butcher Boy, with stirring,
lyrical Celtic soul, including the exquisite Main Travelled Roads.
The
band recorded four albums between 1979 and 1982, including Gypsy Blood,
which would later be hailed as a forgotten rock classic. At one
memorable show at the London Venue, they were supported by the young U2.
Shaw says: "It's a mystery why we didn't make it, when all our
contemporaries did well. And our live shows were something else."
Medly
In 1984, Leven's musical career was brutally interrupted when he was
mugged as he walked home at night in north London. His ribs were broken,
and his larynx was "almost destroyed". With his career apparently
wrecked, he turned to heroin, and told me later: "I was spending £150 a
day, and found I had no money." He beat the heroin habit using
acupuncture and reflexology, and with Carol Wolf founded the Core Trust
to help addicts by using alternative medicine. He and Wolf recruited
other counsellors offering free treatment, and was helped by Pete
Townshend and Westminster city council. When I met him in 1988 he seemed
far keener to discuss Core than Concrete Bulletproof Invisible, the
short-lived band that he and Shaw had then started with the former Sex
Pistol Glen Matlock.
Slim Slow Slider (Van Morrison)
For the last 17 years, Leven worked as a solo artist, recording for
the independent label Cooking Vinyl. "It took me two years to sign him,"
according to Martin Goldschmidt, who runs the company, "and since then
we have released 26 of his albums. I kept telling him there were too
many, but he kept coming up with scams to get another album out." Some
of his albums were credited to Sir Vincent Lone.
His remarkable
solo output also included the 1994 album The Mystery of Love is Greater
than the Mystery of Death, which included contributions from the poet
Robert Bly and musician Mike Scott, along with one of his most
thoughtful, lyrical songs, Call Mother a Lonely Field. It was ranked by
Q Magazine one of the "best 100 albums of all time". On other albums he
was backed by former members of Doll By Doll, by his partner Deborah
Greenwood, and by David Thomas of Pere Ubu. After finding that he was
mentioned in one of Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus novels, he contacted
Rankin, and the result was the stage show and 2005 album Jackie Leven
Said (a parody of a Van Morrison song) in which a Rankin story is
matched against Leven's music.
My Philosophy
Leven was himself a great
story-teller, and delighted in teasing his followers. According to
Goldschmidt, his much-publicised whisky brand Leven's Lament was "a
complete scam – new labels on old bottles", and so was Leven's claim to
have written a song with Bob Dylan on a train to Moscow. He was a hugely
likeable, larger-than-life figure, with a legacy of more than 400
songs, and I suspect his music will reach a wider audience still.
Leven was married twice, and is survived by Deborah; his son Simon, from an earlier relationship; and his sister, Wendy.
(Bron The Guardian)
Doll By Doll - Main Travelled Roads(1981)
“Main travelled roads behind me
and a white bird in the sky
A secret sign to show me
where the ocean comes to die
I arose and left you
sleeping in your silent room
Eternal is the warrior
who finds beauty in his wounds”
RIP Jackie
Jackie Leven Website
http://www.jackieleven.co.uk/home.html
