Its use on the soundtrack of the movie Thelma & Louise only served to increase the songs cult status. Here is Marianne appearing on Top Of The Pops in 1979.

Marianne Faithfull – The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan

The film was shot over 20 concerts on Cohen’s 1972 European tour and represent a near mythical piece of music history featuring one of musics genuine geniuses.

The film will be premiered in the UK at the sold out Green Man Festival in Wales, where a 2,000 capacity cinema will be converted from the Far Out Tent.

Leonard Cohen  – Bird On A Wire  film trailer;

Bob Dylan – It’s All Over Now Baby Blue

The song is a painful reference to the phenomenon of morphine addiction among US war veterans as a result of its use to treat injuries in the Vietnam war.

This is John Prine performing Sam Stone in Dublin in 1989.

“There’s a hole in Daddy’s arm where all the money goes,

Jesus Christ died for nothing I suppose,”

John Prine – Sam Stone – Live 1989

Joni Mitchell – Big Yellow Taxi

In a career that spanned forty years he released no less than twenty-one studio albums.

John Martyn signed to Chris Blackwell’s Island Records label in 1967 and released his first album London Conversation, which includes a cover version of Bob Dylan’s Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright.

There is one album that is never far away from my CD player, even thirty-six years after it was originally released.  Solid Air is a beautiful album. Tracks based around one man’s beautifully haunting voice, his acoustic guitar and bass player Danny Thompson.  British folk music with a slice of jazz.  But the album concludes with a live track, I’d Rather Be The Devil where Martyn’s acoustic is replaced by a reverberating echo-chambered electric guitar – nice!

The title track Solid Air was written about his friend and Island Records artist Nick Drake, who sadly died in 1974 of an accidental overdose of prescribed anti-depressants; and nowhere more does John Martyn’s voice and guitar picking sound more like Drake than on Go Down Easy.  But my favourite John Martyn track is the wonderful, May You Never.

Solid Air was a commercial success, but John Martyn was continually looking for new paths to tread.  In 1977 he released the album One World including collaboration on Big Muff with legendary dub reggae producer, Lee “Scratch” Perry.

In February 2008 John Martyn received the lifetime achievement award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk awards; and to commemorate John Martyn’s 60th birthday last September, Island Records released a 4 CD compilation titled Ain’t No Saint.

Here’s John Martyn performing May You Never on The Old Grey Whistle Test from 1973.

They were picked up by Bono and released their first single through U2’s Mother Records label. A subsequent deal with PolyGram subsidary London Records bought the release of People in 1988.

This was a massive single from Hothouse Flowers, they never had it quite so good again.

Hothouse Flowers – Don’t Go

It was their third album This Is The Sea in 1985 that fused traditional celtic music with rock that broke the band in the UK. The single Whole Of The Moon reached number 26 in the charts but would have fared better if Scott had not refused to promote the track on Top Of The Pops because the band had to mime to the song.

Fishermans Blues was the Waterboys follow up album, and featured a more traditional Irish folk sound. It was released in 1988 but as the clip shows the album was already being worked on in 1986.

Here are clips from both albums, the Fishermans Blues clip isn’t the best quality but it is a very rare moment when The Waterboys turn up at The Galway Lark to play an unscheduled slot in 1986. Also an excellent live version of Whole Of The Moon from 1985.

The Waterboys – Whole Of The Moon & Fishermans Blues

Despite the geeky look Simon & Garfunkel were both inspiring and influential to later sixties singer songwriter boom.

Homeward Bound was famously written at Widnes station in the UK, by a cold and miserable Paul Simon, wanting to be back home. This a live version from US tv in 1966.

Simon & Garfunkel – Homeward Bound

In 1968 The Monkees tv show was prime time. In the UK The Monkees and Dr.Who followed Grandstand on Saturday early evening on BBC1.

It is therefore amazing that on one episode Mickey Dolenz introduces a little known singer/songwriter and friend, Tim Buckley.

This is breathtaking performance of Tim Buckley’s beautifully sombre Song to the Siren that was later covered by The Cocteau Twins under the guise of This Mortal Coil.

I cannot imagine what a bombshell it must have been for the show’s viewers amidst The Monkees slapstick tomfoolery, based on The Beatles‘ films A Hard Day’s Night and Help!,