portrait of this blog's author - by Stephen Blackman 2008

Thursday, December 22, 2022

For Martin Duffy - Died (55) 18th Dec 2022

  • Track Name

    Apple Boutique

  • Album

    The Pictorial Jackson Review

  • Artist

    Felt

guessimdumb:

Felt - Apple Boutique

I said where you going
with that halo stuck around your golden head?
You said what’s the point in talking
everything has already been said

Better known for his work with Primal Scream, Martin Duffy started out with Felt. R.I.P. 

MARTIN DUFFY R.I.P. 1967 - 2022

Martin Duffy, who played keyboards for Primal Scream and Felt, has died on December 18, aged 55. The cause of death was a brain injury due to a fall at his home in Brighton, his bandmate Bobby Gillespie said. “I’ve known Martin since he was a teenager in Felt,” Gillespie wrote on Instagram. “He played keyboards on every album of ours from the first to the last. Finally joining the band in 1991. Martin was a very special character. He had a love and understanding of music on a deep spiritual level. Music meant everything to him.”

The second side of the 1988 Felt album, The Pictorial Jackson Review, features two Duffy instrumentals. The Charlatans’ Tim Burgess cited the album as proof that Duffy was “actually the only musical genius I have ever met… me and [My Bloody Valentine’s] Kevin Shields sat up all night once with open mouths praising his natural ability,” he told the Quietus. Duffy had played on Primal Scream’s first two albums, 1987’s Sonic Flower Groove and 1989’s Primal Scream; he joined the band full-time at the end of that year.

Gillespie called him “the most musically talented of all of us… He could play piano to the level where he was feted not just by his peers in British music, but old school master American musicians such as James Luther Dickinson, Roger Hawkins and David Hood and producer Tom Dowd.

Mojo’s Tim Tooher described Duffy as “probably the purest musician in the band, bringing in echoes of Thelonious Monk, Johnnie Johnson, Jerry Lee and Cecil Taylor. His voice sounds like his throat was pickled in whisky before he was even born. Martin brings the blues to Primal Scream.” - theguardian.com

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Big O have posted a Primal Scream set too

Primal Scream The Netherlands 2019 - Big O



Bobby (Gillespie) said the most eloquent  response:

 
Hard to write this. We never know how to speak around death other than polite platidudes. All I want to say is that our soul brother Martin Duffy passed away on Sunday. He suffered a brain injury due to a fall at his home in Brighton. We in Primal Scream are all so sad. I've known Martin since he was a teenager in Felt. He played keyboards on every album of ours from the first to the last. Finally joining the band in 1991. Martin was a very special character. He had a love and understanding of music on a deep spiritual level. Music meant everything to him. He loved literature and was well read and erudite. An autodidact. A deep thinker, curious about the world and other cultures. Always visiting museums in every city we played or looking for Neolithic stones in remote places. Opinionated and stubborn in his views. He could play piano to the level where he was feted not just by his peers in British music, but old school master American musicians such as James Luther Dickinson, Roger Hawkins & David Hood & producer Tom Dowd. I witnessed a session at Abbey Rd in 1997 for a Dr John album where his record company had assembled a bunch of young Indie Brit musicians where Mac Rebenac ( Dr John ) seemed bored and uninterested in the session until Martin started playing, then suddenly the good Dr started knocking some funky piano chops and I instantly knew it was because his ears had pricked up when he heard Martin play and the session at last came alive. Martin was the most musically talented of all of us. His style combined elements of country, blues and soul, all of which he had a God given natural feel for. He never played the same thing twice, ever. He was all about 'the moment', better have that 'record' button on when Duffy was on fire. His timing was unique, funky and ALWAYS behind the beat. George Clinton also dug Martin. I remember a session in Chicago where George said to him " go to church Duffy !" , and he did. Martin was also in possession of a unique wit. He had a swift eye for the absurd, the surreal and the ridiculous. He lived to laugh and play music. He was loved by all of us in the Scream. A beautiful soul. We will miss him.
Bobby Gillespie

For Geoff Swapp who graciously posted the Bobby Gillespie quote that moved me so much on his Facebook page. . . . . the above are for you Geoff






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