Exploring the life and music of Bridget St. John, the folk singer-songwriter who recorded some of the scene’s greatest records, before fading into obscurity.
By Ben Forrest
Earth is awash with injustices, and the music industry is certainly not short of them either. Over the course of musical history, there have been countless gifted, groundbreaking artists who have spent the vast majority of their lives under the radar while inferior artists and false prophets reap the rewards of mainstream success. The landscape of folk music seems particularly susceptible to producing these forgotten heroes in the form of figures like Bridget Anne Hobbs – better known as Bridget St John.
England, particularly London, during the late 1960s, was a particularly vibrant place to be for a myriad of reasons. The popular image of the city during that time was one of mods, mini skirts, and rock ‘n’ roll domination as the hippie counterculture movement slowly drip-fed itself over the Atlantic. A far too often overlooked aspect of the era, however, is the vibrant folk music scene which blossomed during this time. Although record companies did not welcome this wave of folk with open arms, artists like Vashti Bunyan, Nick Drake, and Bridget St John were creating some of the greatest music of that period.
Bridget St John had secured her start in music as a teenager, buying an acoustic guitar and playing folk music across the pubs and Universities of South Yorkshire throughout the mid-1960s. Soon, the bright lights of London beckoned her down south, where the vocalist and songwriter soon found a home among people like John Martyn and Robin Frederick. After continuing to hone her songwriting and performance skills, St John became one of the most promising young artists in the London folk scene.
This reputation, along with her newfound connections, soon led to the folk star crossing paths with John Peel. Like so many artists both before and after her, it was the radio DJ who gave her a proper start, inviting her to record four songs for a Peel session. Including renditions of original songs like ‘Ask Me No Questions,’ these first Peel sessions, recorded in August of 1968, did not have a huge impact on the musical mainstream, but the awe-inspiring quality of St John’s voice and songwriting could certainly not be denied.
These sessions with Peel eventually led to St John recording her debut album, Ask Me No Questions, with the radio presenter the following year. Again, this record would not storm up the album charts or earn the performer a primetime slot on Top of the Pops, but that was hardly her aim. Folk music has never been about commercial success or popularity; those qualities are directly contradictory to the roots and spirit of the movement.
Particularly on her debut album, you get the sense that St John was singing these songs because that’s what she was put on Earth to do; that incredible voice would have been wasted as an office clerk or retail worker. The songwriter always had something to say, whether that be a social comment, a musing on romance, or an ode to nature, and each of these would be delivered with an unparalleled level of beauty and grace.
Perhaps more so than any other folk musician of the period, St John’s voice seems to drown out every other sound around you, as though she is speaking directly to you, the listener. On Ask Me No Questions, the diegetic sounds of birdsong and nature culminate in a truly ethereal album experience that widespread audiences in the 1960s simply were not ready for, it would appear.
Bridget St John released four albums between 1969 and 1974, none of which made much of a commercial impact. The closest the vocalist came to mainstream notoriety was likely her stunning collaboration with the psychedelic hero Kevin Ayers on his 1970 track ‘The Oyster and the Flying Fish,’ one of the most endearing duets of the psychedelic period. Like many overlooked folk stars of the late 1960s, St John retired from music during the 1970s and lived much of her life in the shadows.
Thankfully, though, audiences soon caught up to the timeless quality of her material, causing something of a resurgence in her work. During the 1990s and early 2000s, St John returned to writing, recording, and performing, and at the same time, much of her early material began to be reissued and reappraised. She even got the chance to perform with Ayers once again, recording ‘Baby Come Home’ for the psych star’s final album in 2007.
It may have taken some time before Bridget St John witnessed the recognition she so richly deserved, but the fact that her music is still being discovered by music obsessives around the world is testament to the timeless quality of her recorded material. While much of the rock and pop recorded in the late 1960s has become outdated and, often, cringeworthy, records like Ask Me No Questions remain fantastically relevant and emotionally affecting within the present day.
Source: Bridget St John: The enduring quality of an iconic folk singer