Levens Lament - Music

Jackie Leven 18 June 1950 – 14 November 2011 Was A Scottish Songwriter And Folk Musician. After Starting His Career As A Folk Musician In The Late 1960s He First Found Success With New Wave Band Doll By Doll. He Later Recorded As A Solo Artist Releasing More Than Twenty Albums Under His Own Name. He Also Recorded Under The Pseudonym John St. Field For The Album Control 1971 And Sir Vincent Lone For The Albums Songs For Lonely Americans 2006 When The Bridegroom Comes Songs For Women 2007 And Troubador Heart 2008 . Under His Own Name He Released 11 Albums Since 1994 Following A Break From Music One Of These A Duet With Author Ian Rankin Features An Exclusive Short Story Jackie Leven Said. In The 1980s Leven Released Two Singles - Love Is Shining Down On Me And Uptown - Under His Own Name. Unfortunately This Failed To Turn Into A Career As He Was The Victim Of An Unprovoked Attack In 1983. Strangled And Nearly Killed Jackie Lost His Voice For A Year And Became Addicted To Heroin. Conquering His Addiction He Set Up The CORE Trust A Charity Aiming For A Holistic Approach To Drug Addiction Whose Patrons Included Princess Diana. Jackie Returned To Music In The Early 1990s With A Series Of Live Shows Before The Release Of His First New Solo Album The Mystery Of Love Is Greater Than The Mystery Of Death In 1994. Since Then Jackie's Songs Have Followed A Dark Gloomy Theme - Jackie Describes His Songs As "saying Shit Happens" And Then Helping People To Deal With It. Leven Also Read Poems And Stories Set To Music On His Albums Examples Include The Poem "A Blessing" By James Wright On The Forbidden Songs Of The Dying West And The Short Story "Faces" By Rainer Maria Rilke On Shining Brother Shining Sister. During His Career He Collaborated With Many Poets And Authors Including Robert Bly On More Than One Occasion And Ian Rankin As Well As Avant-Garde Musician David Thomas Of Cult Band Pere Ubu. Jackie Leven Died On Monday 14 November 2011. He Had Been Suffering From Prostate Cancer. read less