By 1982, the year in which this album was first released, John Martyn had well departed the happy hunting ground of free-form jazz folk, the organic, woody sound, characterised by the input of bassist Danny Thompson, along with various others. That sound had won Martyn cult status on the UK touring circuit during the second half of the 1970s.
At this point in time, Martyn - or his record company, who knows, it's a moot point - was tilting at pop stardom with this second and final album for WEA.
At the time of release of Well Kept Secret, John had recently released two very fine studio albums, Grace and Danger and Glorious Fool. The former is regarded as his best by some afficionados, the latter is sadly neglected these days. Glorious Fool featured a guest appearance by Eric Clapton on guitar, and Phil Collins played on drums and sang backing vocals throughout. It was also produced by Collins, who had also contributed to Grace and Danger.
Glorious Fool was an adventurous record, with different shades and patterns in its highly experimental schtick. Well-Kept Secret was different, as though Martyn’s questing spirit had been reined in, with WEA specifically aiming for a radio-friendly album. The record was, in some ways, a conventional pop outing. While there was no great chart continuum afterwards, it was John's most commecially successful album, peaking at number 20 in the UK charts.
The opening track, Could’ve Been Me, revealed ethereal beauty as it progressed, while the album's first single, You Might Need A Man was a soulful, racy exercise in sophisticated disco, that, yes, got its due radio spins. (It would verily have gone to number one if Spandau Ballet had released it.)
Hung Up was a series of brilliant word pictures, saturated in saturnine shades of love, loss and jealousy. A version of the old Johnny Ace ballad, Never Let Me Go, featured the late Ronnie Scott on sax. The song remained a constant Martyn stage favourite for two decades afterwards.
However, some of the other tracks were not as strong - the loud, guitar-led Gun Money was tonally out of place, like something from an entirely different album. Taj Mahal would duly cover the excitable but somehow forgettable Love Up and, curiously,make it sound much better.
This welcome reissue contains two bonus tracks, including a US remix of Gun Money, which expand the original 38-minute duration somewhat. There is also an informative essay by John Hillarby.Whatever about the unexceptional tracks, Well Kept Secret is a John Martyn record which means that it is, at the very least, tinged with genius, mesmerising in its own mercurial way.
Paddy Kehoe
