John McLaughlin: My Goals Beyond

This record sits next to Stanley Clarke on my shelf (though, strangely, not next to The Mahavishnu Orchestra). I got it around the same time — the first half of 1984 — and also from Our Price on Bridge Street. Odd now to think of how many records I bought in a time and place where I had no record player, just stockpiling them to take home, presumably to tape the ones I liked most, so that I could bring them back to university next term.

I wonder if I've listened to this record at all in the last 25 years? I doubt it. I'm still not quite sure what to make of it. Funny to hear a version of Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, from one of Miles' former sidemen, that's so unjazzy. I'm sure Bert Jansch and John Renbourn's take has more swing in its hips.

Some bizarre confusion over the proper title of this album, if you look across the web. My copy, a 1982 re-issue, is definitely called My Goals Beyond. But the album also came out in four different covers (1, 2, 3, 4), two of which have My Goal's Beyond as the title. Different versions also seem to have Sides 1 and 2 switched in different order.

Doncaster's most famous son? Come on, Jeremy Clarkson doesn't count — no one from Doncaster is called Jeremy.

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Comments

[JohnLW]

I think this is a great album, which doesn’t lose its lustre with time (see my review in the Guardian).

As for the title, I think you can put that down to bad punctuation in overstretched reissue departments. My two versions on the Douglas label (LP and CD) have the apostrophe in the right place.