The musician who made Vashti Bunyan give up music
During the folk revival that populated the 1960s and bled into the following decade, many artists tried their hand at the genre. Sadly, some fell to the wayside or never mustered the courage to release their music. Names such as Connie Converse, Sibylle Baier, Linda Perhacs and Vashti Bunyan are just a small selection of the women whose work only became popular decades later.
Bunyan, born in England in 1945, fell in love with folk music after she visited New York in the ‘60s. Here, she discovered Bob Dylan, who inspired her to become a musician. Yet, back in England, her efforts to find success were marred by a lack of understanding. Bunyan wanted to sing her own folk compositions, which often explored melancholic themes, but her encounters with producers, such as Andrew Loog Oldham, resulted in her singing tracks penned by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
The budding singer was unhappy with the direction that Oldham wanted to take her career, and you can’t help but feel like her gentle voice seems a little lost within these recordings, its natural tenderness struggling to hold its own over the pop-influenced instrumentals. However, give Bunyan an acoustic guitar and traditional English folk instrumentation, and she couldn’t sound more perfect.
In the end, Bunyan decided to explore life on the road, buying a horse and cart and travelling to a commune on the Isle of Skye with her then-boyfriend. On their travels, Bunyan penned songs that would eventually make it onto her debut album, Just Another Diamond Day, which features stunning low-key tracks like ’Diamond Day’, ‘Rose Hip November’ and ‘I’d Like To Walk Around In Your Mind’.
The album was made after Bunyan met the record producer Joe Boyd, who agreed to make an album with her once she had settled in the commune. While her plans ended up changing after her relationship crumbled, she gave birth to several children, and the idea of living on the commune became less appealing, Bunyan still made the record.
Unfortunately, Bunyan’s dreams of becoming a successful folk artist like her heroes faded in front of her eyes as the record sold poorly. Having recently given birth, she was hardly up to playing gigs and promoting the album, so it was eventually forgotten. Even Bunyan disowned the project, writing in her memoir Wayward, “My voice made me think of sorrow and confusion. I didn’t even sing to my children.”
However, in a 2014 interview with Pitchfork, almost two decades after her music was rediscovered and reissued due to the power of internet forums, Bunyan revealed another reason why she abandoned music.
She claimed that Joni Mitchell knocked her faith in herself – purely because she thought she could never compare. Bunyan said: “One of the reasons I gave up music so early was seeing Joni Mitchell on an old black-and-white TV. She was singing ‘Both Sides Now’, and I was so overwhelmed by her brilliance that I thought I could never come anywhere close to that. So I turned away from music altogether.”
Reflecting on the decision, Bunyan noted that this was “stupid,” adding, “I shouldn’t have compared myself to other people. But with Joni Mitchell, it was really hard not to.” The musician continued, “She was so clearly extraordinary, and she seemed to say everything that I’d ever wanted to say or do by bringing simple, acoustic music into the mainstream and have it be of value. I thought, ‘Oh, I can’t do that.’ And I didn’t for another 30 years.”
Bunyan’s music remains underrated, and it is a real shame that she abandoned a career as a singer – her incredible talents are evident on every track she’s ever released. Luckily, she returned to music with 2005’s Lookaftering and 2014’s Heartleap, which retain the same beauty and tenderness as 1970’s Just Another Diamond Day.
Never Miss A Tale
The Far Out Bob Dylan Newsletter
All the latest stories about Bob Dylan from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.