Only One
Joan Armatrading
Walking Under Ladders, 1981

I’m going to switch it up this week. This is a tender, hazy, folky, simple piece of bliss. Warning: this is not going to sound good on work computer speakers combined with the hustle and bustle of an office. This song is best enjoyed in the quiet confines of your home late at night…on non-computer speakers, although I guess no one has stereos anymore, right?

This is from my pretty large folk collection that almost never makes it out of my apartment. I have 12 Joan Armatrading albums (you could call me a big fan). This album has two great songs on it (this one and “The Weakness In Me”) but I would actually recommend starting with Show Some Emotion (1977), followed by Bring Back The Night (1975) (which is apparently not available on cd!) and her self-titled album (1976), if you’re into the more mellow 70’s folk sound. In the 80’s she started using more electric guitar and developed a slightly more aggressive sound.

This song is actually not very representative of her style. Most of her 70’s work features her on acoustic guitar (with no synthesizers) and her songs incorporate elements of blues, reggae and jazz. That doesn’t sound so noteworthy now but she was a bit of a pioneer in the early/mid 70’s. She grew up in Birmingham, England (she was born in Saint Kitts in the West Indies) and she was, to quote 100 Great Black Britons: “first black female singer/songwriter to gain prominence on the British music scene.” She didn’t get “big” in the US until her 1980 Me Myself I album but her records sold enough here that I was able to find them somewhat easily so I think her impact was not only felt in England.

She gave the season-opening concert at Celebrate Brooklyn four or five years ago and I had a similar experience to when i first went to the Wonder-Full party; songs that seemed to only exist in my living were suddenly interrupted by the applause of 1000 people after their recognition of the first few chords.

I love this photo of her from the inner-LP-sleeve (click it to see the whole thing).

>> songs are available for two weeks (192 kbps) [5.7 MB]
>> songs are available for two weeks (320 kbps) [9.5 MB]

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 1st, 2008 at 2:56 pm and is filed under Music Appreciation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.