In the Small Hours

It sounds stupid, but when I listen to the album version of this song I can feel my heartbeat, like when you're quietly waiting for something with butterflies fluttering around your stomach.

There is a good reason I'm writing about John Martyn, not only is he one of my favourite musicians, but he died in February of this year and this has sparked another bout of obsessive listening amongst three members of my family. However, this still isn't the reason I'm writing about him, the reason is that when I was in sixth year I wanted to do a project on dyslexia based on the first song of Martyn's I ever heard.

When I was a kid my parents used to play a song called 'Fairytale Lullaby' to me and my sisters, on my dads guitar and for years we all thought it was something my parents made up. Of course it wasn't, but I can still see my mum's handwritten version of the song with little illustrations all over the page. This is an image which always made me want to make a children's book out of the song using the imagery of lyrics such as:

"If you want to catch a rainbow come with me, and I will take you to the magic purple sea, maybe we will catch a 100 sugar fish, if you eat them they will grant your every wish, and if you want your friend to come, then bring them all along."

In my head it would have been perfect, I started researching the idea, wanting to add in the elements about dyslexia as well and turn it into my sixth year Advanced Higher Art project. Needless to say I never actually did it, I chickened out and decided to do a project about theatre and textiles etc.

In the back of my mind it's always been there, waiting, wanting to come back out and find a new way to incorporate it into my designs, however, it's taken me another 5 years to find the right application. All my work up until now has been based on poetry, on prose and sometimes on music, always have done and there will always be a little space for a bit of John Martyn somewhere in my sketchbooks. Or even a blog.