Bathed In Lightning: John McLaughlin, the 60s and the emerald beyond

by Colin Harper

On February 16 1969, John McLaughlin flew into New York, from London, in a snowstorm. The following day, Miles Davis, his hero, invited him to play on a record. Two years later, on the path of Bengali mystic Sri Chinmoy, John launched The Mahavishnu Orchestra--an evocation in music of spiritual aspiration and extraordinary power, volume and complexity. Curiously, it was also a huge success. John McLaughlin brought rock music to its pinnacle, the end point in an evolution from Mississippi blues through Coltrane, Hendrix and The Beatles. And then, in November 1975, he hung up his electric guitar and walked away from the stadiums of the rock world for an ongoing, restless career in music of other forms. To most of the world, John McLaughlin looked like an overnight success, with a backstory going back only as far as that February in 1969. Yet he had been a professional musician since 1958--a guitar for hire at the centre of 'Swinging London', a bandmate of future members of Cream, Pentangle and Led Zeppelin, but always just under the radar. Drawing on dozens of exclusive interviews and many months of meticulous research, author and music historian Colin Harper brings that unrepeatable era vividly to life. This landmark new work retrieves for the first time the incredible career of John McLaughlin before he conquered the world--and then chronicles how he did so.

Genres: Music

512 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2014

Reviews

[Ankh156 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been an admirer of 'Johnny Mac' since the mid 60s. The Graham Bond Organisation, the Jack Bruce's 1968 jazz-outing 'Things we Like', then the NYC period which saw JM collaborating with Miles Davis, Tony Williams, Carla Bley, Carlos Santana and ultimately forming his own band The Mahavishnu Orchestra (at the end of the 60s).

This book is meticulously researched. The movements and musical projects of Johnny Mac in the 60s were largely unchartered and seemingly innumerable. All the 60s London chapters I devoured greedily. I was born in 1954, so it was a period which interested me. Add to that that I started playing guitar myself at age 8 in 1963, so McLaughlin's early mixture of flamenco, blues, pop and jazz intrigued me strongly. All the stuff with Duffy Power, all his day-to-day session work, his collaborations with Georgie Fame (whom I loved at the time) and Herbie Goins and The Night-Timers is ably (and exhaustively) set out in the early chapters of this book, with acres of interviews and testimonies from people active on 'the scene'. His early solo albums (Extrapolation, My Goal's Beyond) are discussed in detail from the point of view of his collaborators (John Surman, Tony Oxley) and his relations with managers and record labels. The NYC period is fascinating too, and JM himself has a lot to say about Tony Williams and Miles Davis.

As we get into the period of his spiritual awakening, his guru and the formation of Mahavishu, I started to lose interest. Don't get me wrong, I bought up and listened closely and repeatedly to the first two Mahavishnu albums. After that I drifted off. JM became very self-seeking and pompous in his rôle of 'Great Redeemer' (Maha-Vishnu), and I couldn't get interested in his guru (who turned out to be a disappointment and a confidence trickster). Despite this, the book did get me looking at albums I eschewed during the 70s (Apocalypse, Visions of the Emerald Beyond, Inner Worlds). The biggest problem with the Mahavishnu band was JM's spiritual pride, and this is amply described in the book also.

Over all it's a fascinating look at an amazing talent and a personage who shows up as not always very likeable (I think I'd already guessed at this). If you're not a musician steeped in the 1950s/60s british jazz scene this book may bore you. It didn't bore me, until the end, and even then it wasn't the book I found tedious.

Excellently researched, minutiously detailed, overall well written, I glad I bought and read it.

[Ricardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meticulous research. Interesting not just to learn about the foundation of this master musician's career, but also to get a vivid idea on London's fascinating musical scene in the 60's. John's beginnings were full of jazz, rock and roll, R&B, soul, blues, free jazz & progressive rock. As the author says, he was "a hire guitar at the centre of Swinging London, a bandmate of future members of Cream, Pentangle and Led Zeppelin, but always just under the radar".

[Randall Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best John McLaughlin quote here: “You can do anything with work. If you are willing to spend hours dedicating yourself to the articulation and execution you go for it and discover what you are made of. Paying speed is all relative, really, if someone thinks I play fast they should hear John Coltrane – the notes fall out like a cascade.”.

I liked this book much more than “Power, Passion and Beauty” – I think this book got closer to explaining how John McLaughlin managed to do all that he has done and what we might learn by studying his journey. The only part Colin didn’t explain fully is how did John McLaughlin go stylistically from a Tal Farlow style to his strikingly different style in 1969? John kept Tal’s speed and facility but changed harmonies added aggression/volume and then in 1970 created a loose bending chordal/solo style that David Torn and Dean Brown does so well today. But why? Where did all this “outness” come from? Colin gives us some answers: his listening to Coltrane, his occasional 60’s acid trip, and pot binge, John practiced more than everyone else, squeezed squash balls to gain hand strength, and was frustrated that his guitar didn’t sound like what his new heroes – Miles, Trane and Rollins had created on tenor and trumpet and to a modern guitarist idiomatically that involved distortion the way Miles was headed (Miles was down to audiences of only 30-40 in places just before he turned to rock for inspiration) - et voila…

Other tidbits:
The one who is best playing the groove is often playing the least.
Paradoxically to achieve freedom in music you must be very disciplined.
Realize that Jack Johnson, one of Miles’s personal favorite records,
had almost no input from Miles - that is the power of Miles Davis.
A great drummer is the foundation of any band.

Great book…

[Jeremy Walton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tomorrow's story not the same
In spite of being a long-standing fan of guitarist John McLaughlin, I had only a hazy idea of what he'd been doing before the day he flew to America for the first time on February 16, 1969. It's better known that he'd made the trip at the invitation of drummer Tony Williams, who wanted him to play in a trio with organist Larry Young, and that Tony took John to visit his boss Miles Davis the next day. In the course of their conversation, Davis asked him to come along to the recording session for (what turned out to be his ground-breaking) In A Silent Way album. From that point on, it seems, McLaughlin was set on a musical journey of dazzling variety and virtuosity: playing on Davis's Bitches Brew and A Tribute To Jack Johnson albums, forming bands like the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Shakti, creating guitar concertos such as Thieves And Poets , playing with Al Di Meola and Paco de Lucia in The Guitar Trio , and creating electrifying music with a variety of bands, including The Free Spirits, The Heart Of Things and The Fourth Dimension. He's still going strong at the age of 72; the last-named is his current group, whom I'll be seeing at the London Jazz Festival next week.

This book does an invaluable job by filling in the gaps in this story, and shows that - whilst he appears to have 'risen without trace' - his appearance in the spotlight was the result of an immense amount of hard work and dues-paying on the London club circuit and session scene over a period of about ten years. In addition, it follows his career closely through his creation of the immensely powerful and pioneering Mahavishnu Orchestra, its fragmentation and re-formation in subsequent line-ups, and comes to a close when he's on the brink of dissolving it completely in order to form a completely different band. This was Shakti, which played acoustic Indian classical music (as opposed to the electric fusion of rock and jazz which was the stock in trade of the Mahavishnu Orchestra).

I greatly enjoyed this book. It's a hefty volume of nearly 500 pages (moreover, supplementary material has been hived off into an ebook ), crammed with detail and anecdote which paints a vivid picture of how quickly the London music business was changing in the 1960's, and McLaughlin's adventures in the midst of it, along with colleagues such as Georgie Fame, Jimmy Page, Ronnie Scott, Brian Auger, Danny Thompson and Big Jim Sullivan. This is a period which is rapidly receding over the horizon, and many of its denizens - most recently, Jack Bruce - have passed on, so establishing its history is a significant task which the author has accomplished skillfully. Other strands in the story include McLaughlin's spirituality, and there is a lot of new information here about McLaughlin's relationship with Sri Chinmoy, who was his guru for a few years. Finally, the author has unearthed some personal details about this enigmatic man (including his marriages) who appears to have given his life over to his music. What he's been able to create and share with us is of the utmost importance, but the glimpses of the personal sacrifices and efforts he's had to make along the way make that appear still more valuable.

Originally reviewed 14 November 2014

[Hibernian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those rare books you read and then draw breath to recognize as the product of a serious, committed writer engaged in a labor of love. In one book the author offers more detail and insight into the early career of John McLaughlin than most people will want or need, but for fans of the man and his music, it's an invaluable and fascinating text.

Every chapter is replete with the type of detail and supporting documentation you could require in a dissertation. Yes, it's a more scholarly work than the typical music bio but that only highlights how limited the form generally is and how many shortcuts others take. Colin Harper is exacting in explaining sources and evidence, and covers almost step by step John Mclaughlin's early days as an aspiring musician, from short tours and retail jobs, late night club sessions, and time in the studio backing a host of forgotten acts. For those longing only for the inside story of the Mahavishnu days, this might seem too much but if you want to know about the man and the times from which he emerged, this is a very rewarding read.

As the title suggests, the book is more about life before Mahavishnu but there are enough chapters on that band and its demise over several versions to reward you for sticking with it. By the time we get to John's days in New York, his conversion and evolution into the persona that many of us imagine as the Mahavishnu, you have a greater sense of his journey and development as a man and a musician. I am slow to give any book five stars but it's difficult for me to imagine a better synthesis of the early career or to find any fault in claims or interpretations here. Colin Harper is clearly a fan but he's not a fantasist, he explains and examines, and in the end has delivered what I consider a definitive work of musical biography.

There is surely room for another volume covering the decades after, but unless Colin decides to write it, I doubt anyone can match the depth of this book. Yes, it's primarily for fans of the man and his music, but it would be a satisfying read for anyone interested in the peculiarities of the the British music industry of the 1960s too, there's barely a name of the era not mentioned here somewhere, and quite a few others that only some will recognize. All told, it's a unique work, written with intelligence and perspective, as befits the subject.

[John Ferngrove · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible depth of research to capture a period of living history that is passing into memory. I'm a lifelong fan of John McLaughlin, which is of course a prime motivation for reading this book. But this book is about so much more than McLaughlin, particular with regard the London years before he found success in the US, first with Miles Davis and then his own Mahavishnu Orchestra. Harper has re-created with vivid lucidity the rich and complex atmosphere of the London music scene from John's first arrival in the late 50s up until his departure in 1969. So many different musical phases came and went in this short period, populated by a vast cast of colourful characters of all tastes and abilities and being at the focus of all these fluid intersections makes John the ideal subject for painting a canvas so much larger than his own inimitable part. This is a book for Mahavishnu/McLaughlin fans that provides a very different perspective to say the Kowolsky book which features a lot of interview material with John himself. But John is not really the best of interview subjects with the deep conviction he has that the past is never worth dwelling on, at all. Instead Harper has conducted a huge number of interviews with the characters around the man to construct a magnificent picture of a uniquely open and optimistic period in Western musical history.

In construction, the book is actually a bit of a dog's breakfast. I suspect that Harper just surrendered with exhaustion from trying to marshal the huge amount of material he assembled and just decided to hand it all over for publication in a still disordered state. After the main text at about 50% through the book, we get several bonus chapters which I think were early writings, the essence of which were later integrated into the main text. Then we get appendices which, for whatever reason, appear to be verbatim repetitions of the bonus chapters. Then we get the exhaustively researched discography, which is voluminous because before emerging as Mahavishnu John worked as a jobbing musician with a veritable who's who of names in modern jazz, free jazz, R&B and 60s pop icons and future rock superstars. Something to watch here is the confusion caused by the fact that what seems like the bonus chapters are issued in a different edition under the same title and a barely distinguishable cover. The only hint as to what the difference might be is in the price.

This is the kind of book that is only going to become more significant as time moves one, because it is apparent that for many of the musicians whose lives and times are detailed here that there music is going to carry on beyond their lifetimes and fresh generations are going to want to understand how these epochal developments came about.

[MARTIN MCVEIGH · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being a fan of John McLaughlin, and particularly the Mahavishnu Orchestra, this detailed history kept my attention. However, much of the first several chapters strays away from McLaughlin to delve into the London music scene of the 1960's. Although that's not what I was expecting, it was an illuminating history not just of the London scene but of a musician's life in general. A lot of famous names pop up -- Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Donovan, Tom Jones -- but these are generally mentioned in passing and not a main focus. All in all, I thought these tangents to McLaughlin's life were worth reading about. I spent several YouTube sessions looking up old recordings mentioned in this book. And in the later chapters there is more focus on McLaughlin himself. A complex character, and not always making the best decisions despite his genius. It humanized one of my guitar-gods.

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was very disappointed in this book. The writer seems to be gathering information from John’s contemporaries. There is little here in John’s own words. I was hoping much of the book would come from interviews with John. Most of the book seems to be stories of other musicians who had some connection to John. I believe this should be considered an unauthorized biography.

[Russell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good detailed read but would really feel the session work details could have been condensed better with more details about JM beyond where the book finished ...

[Clifford Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic Book. Essential reading for any John Mclaughlin fans. Fascinating portrait of 60's London music scene.

[Sebastian · Rating 3 out of 5]

To my taste too much about other musicians than from McLaughing himself

[Marc · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're looking for a book about the Mahavishnu Orchestra, keep looking. This massive tome introduces the MO on page 388. Before that, there's a tremendous amount of detail about the London music scene, along with some interesting bits about John McLaughlin's early career; but the idea seems to be to describe the early 60s London music scene in excruciating detail.

In the hands of a better writer, this might have worked, but Harper's style falls just short of being smoothly readable. He spends long passages sorting out conflicting stories about who played at what club on what date, and dwells at length on obscure musicians who may or may not have played with McLaughlin as a session man.

I loaned this to a friend without comment, to get another unbiased reaction. She returned it soon after, saying basically, "Maybe some other time."

[Stewart Spaull · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read Walter Kolosky's book and you learn all about Mahavishnu Orchestra I; read this and you learn all about MO II and III - as well as McLaughlin's early life and musical career before he formed MO I.

It's thoroughly researched, and contains bonus chapters that are very detailed. It's an indispensable guide to all the parts of McLaughlin's musical life that haven't been extensively documented.

[David Strassman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much interesting history of early rock and British jazz but a relatively slow read. Anything about John McLaughlin holds my interest however and definitely a worthwhile read!

[Scott kuchler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good Book, Long Read....


Maybe a little longer than it needed to be, but very thoroughly researched. I'd recommend it, especially for a McLaughlin fan.