Search and Destroy: John Fahey

http://importantrecords.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/product_node/apparel/fahey_tee.jpg

originals of those recs are really $20+ these days? jeez.

http://www.popsike.com/php/quicksearch.php?pagenum=1&searchtext=john+fahey&incldescr=&sortord=ddate&thumbs=&currsel=

fonotone box saving my life

Picked it up the other day as a birthday gift to myself!

happy birrrrrthday indeed.
box was mentioned ... on some other thread, can't remember now. but it is fantastic, really a beautiful thing. there are some recordings on there that are just curiosities (mostly anything where john sings), but also tons of magical sounds that can rank with his best stuff. it's funny, having dug pretty deep into the post-fahey acoustic guitar landscape, he still sounds the best, even if some of his followers are technically "better" players. not sure what it is -- fahey's compositions are often these monumental, impeccably constructed creations. hearing some of the early versions of some well-known tunes on the new box only drives this home.

I really wanted this before. Now want it even more.

some of the tunes w/ fahey's singing as blind thomas are A+

HERE COMES BIG JEAN PAUL SARTRE, HE'S GOT THE BLUES TOO

so what the hell is THIS box? Volumes 1-6 reissued?

"John Fahey - The Transcendental Waterfall: Guitar Excursions 1963-1967 6xLP box set $124.99 (4 Men With Beards)"

― sleeve, Friday, October 28, 2011 10:20 AM (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ugh. fuck a format fetishist. you can get all those records on CD for like half that much.

still want the fonotone thing though, goddam it's pricey.

not only can you get them on those Fantasy CDs, they all have a shit-down of bonus material

grr shit-TON, i mean (how did that happen)

that transcendental waterfall thing obv has awesome music but i happened upon all of those takoma lps at a store in l.a. (all in pretty pristine shape) and snapped em up for $40 total.

yeah, i bought the first four for $50 a few years back, they're around

I bought all of early ones except Days Gone By about six months ago used on Amazon as well as the single disc comp of Of Rivers.../After the Ball. I don't think I paid more than $7 for any of them and got most for, like, $2 meaning the shipping was more than than the CDs.

Quick note, the version of "Tuff" that appears on the Cul De Sac collab is indeed Fahey. The one that appears on the 1977-19whatever "Best of" is a Charlie Schmidt song that is totally different. I really do dig Fahey's version. Been awhile since I've listened to the other one.

Some of this live John Fahey (on Sea Changes and Coelacanths) reminds me a bit of Durutti Column. Does Reilly have any known (long-standing) admiration for Fahey? I suppose a guitar is going to sound a little like a guitar in general.

listening to this new to me concert from 1975 on wolfgang's vault: http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/john-fahey/concerts/great-american-music-hall-august-08-1975-1st-set.html
so great. the intro to "red pony" sounds like fahey's about to go full on metal.

IN SEARCH OF BLIND JOE DEATH: THE SAGA OF JOHN FAHEY
A documentary on folk, blues and beyond music legend John Fahey, native of Takoma Park, Maryland.

Two shows only! Oct. 26 & 27, 1:00 p.m. near Washington D.C. at the AFI Silver - 8633 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring

www.afi.com/silver

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2014/01/31/listen-john-faheys-strange-mixtapes-for-a-record-store-clerk/

yeah we were freaking out about those over on the post-Takoma thread

http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Death-Fahey-American-Guitarist/dp/1613745192

oh cool that's exciting!

Yeah, gonna check that out at some point!

Listening to "Vol. 6 Days Have Gone By" for the first time in a while by the way UMS, thanks for plunking that in my head.

anyone know steve lowenthal? how should i calibrate my expectations? days have gone by is def a transitional record, has the last of the really good old recordings on, he was turning professional about then, has his sound collage stuff, by the time he got to voice of the turtle that early takoma shtick had bulged to byzantine, ridiculous, self-parodying levels (yellow princess was a different thing). days have gone by is mb the best fahey though, first 6 tracks are pretty much all incredible classics.

looks like he is the dude behind this label: http://www.vdsqrecords.com/
so he'd probably fit in over on the ilx brigade thread

has he written much before?

his mfa? http://books.google.com/books/about/In_Christ_There_is_No_East_Or_West.html?id=86QppwAACAAJ

that looks interesting... i'm very curious about the format, how much will be stitched-together interviews, how much narrative there'll be...

Think Lowenthal might also be one of the people behind Swingset (which I have only read a couple of times, so not sure how much that means):

http://swingsetmagazine.com/about/

Issues of Swingset I bought were pretty cool, mostly just interviews and reviews of weirdo stuff, but he has been at "it" since 2001 at least if he is the same guy.

looks promising! will read.

Verrrrry late to the party here, but a good portion of this Fahey Fonotone Years box set is terrific. I was misled by an early listen to those, err, admittedly tough "Blind Thomas" tunes and a friend who referred to the box set as 'unnecessary,' but I'm finding most of it engrossing and much of it at least on par with a lot of Fahey's best early stuff.

haha, yeah, some of that vocal stuff is kind of rough going (though occasionally pretty funny), but there is more than enough amazing material to make up for it.

fahey week at delta slider is in full swing! i wrote up an interesting radio performance/interivew from the early 90s today. http://delta-slider.blogspot.com/

heard mixed things about this documentary, but so far the highlight has been seeing joe bussard play + interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p--IpvvFJ4A

i thought the documentary was pretty bland overall but the bussard bit was excellent. idk why they spent like 5 minutes talking to some dipshit from the decembrists who looked straight off a barenaked ladies album cover

I enjoyed the documentary. But I don't know enough about his life to take issue with what they may have left out.

And honestly they didn't spend very much time with the Decemberists guy. I really didn't find his presence that annoying, and I'm not going to otherwise complain about him just cause I also don't like the Decemberists.

he is probably a cool guy.
the zabriskie point tapes are interesting! very meandering, but in a good way for the most part. all solo, wonder if there are any tapes floating around w/ various collaborators (fahey mentions bringing in other musicians).

i didn't mind the decemberist guy or even townsend but it was a little weird to reach out to them and not, say, Peter Lang or Leo Kottke who were close associates to Fahey and might have a had a little more to add other than "I like John Fahey a lot"

yeah opening on townsend was really weird, i was struggling to draw a line between their respective playing

True! Was hoping Glenn Jones would show up too.

Either way, if you can get Townsend to say meaningful things in your documentary, it's probably worth including, if for no other reason but to get Fahey material more attention through association.

To that point, maybe they had him appear immediately to hook any casual viewers mostly unfamiliar with Fahey.

I wonder if there is pressure for documentary makers to pepper in star-power for that reason, like from a marketing stand point you need some percentage of star names to call out in promotional materials.

yeah actually townsend is townsend so i'm cool w.him overall & he was a big fan I know Fahey kinda patted him on the head when Pete wrote him and had him listen to Tommy haha

i mean i get it definitely, both are in there for interest, i just thought it was kind of lazy not to have leo or peter in, as i think both are pretty accessible and i dunno, it's like they were so close to him

Hey, maybe they tried who knows.

kinda want a 9-part ken burns doc on the american primitive scene through the ages. what are the odds!?

maybe dave grohl could narrate

I think the topic would make a better 1 of a 9 part series about traditional blues

or rhythm and blues, pace pete townsend

At a friend's urging, I've finally checked out some Faheytronica: part 1 of my first-listening notes:

after googling started with Requia, "Requiem For Molly," in four parts.
Part 1 turns out to be very handsome, perhaps courtly but not genteel solo guitar,
the other three parts include "sonic collages." as online sources put it ( with which he is assisted by music writer Barry Hansen, AKA Dr. Demento, maestro of the syndicated novelty radio show). "Collage" is especially appropriate because the news reel etc. bits sound like animated newspaper clippings, maybe wiggling envelopes sometimes, and mainly I like the way their contours and the pacing of placement---also the cadences and intonation of spoken word and other sounds, Hitler and bombers and so on, go with the guitar sound. Fahey said later he didn't like the results, though did consider this experiment a valuable "learning experience." It's not that different from other "underground" tracks you find on LPs of that era, '67 or so, in terms of choosing what we'd call samples, but I haven't heard any other American artist from that neck of the woods--the rock folk weirdo neck---who made it all work as this kind of ambient experience, social commentary and hipster humor aside, although I guess those might be in there too (first listening)

Probably better though--not as dependent on my own quirks/glosses of hearing----is "The Singing Bridge of Memphis Tennessee," from The Yellow Princess: much more sophisticated, in terms of no newsreel, newspaper clippings glued on, just what does indeed sound like a singing bridge---of steel guitar strings, various other metals used in constructing a bridge over a body of water, maybe some water effects pulled in, vibrations and whistles and other nice things (incl vocal?), all layered and merged, just attached and distinct enough. It's based in part on "Quill Blues" by Big Boy Cleveland, and may incl. some of that original recording (think I saw that statement or speculation somewhere)

The Epiphany of Glenn Jones is all over the place,
Conceptually I totally dig the opener, "Tuff, " right away, although the glacial zen groove trek had me nodding a bit, so it turns out even good drones can do that, h'mm.
"Gamelan Collage" different enough to keep me awake, but lost me sometimes,
"Maggie Campbell Blues" quite splendid courtship again,
"New Red Pony" is heavy smokey red rock, awright,
"Out Puppet Selves" is UFO Bebe Barron dub plate equiv of op art, which I like: if you're gonna go this way, bear down on the basic texture FX, awright again.
"Gamelan Guitar" like a real good dream I forget right after it's over (but I can go back again to this dream, yay).
This version of "Come On In My Kitchen" is discreetly tweaked, also tweeked, just enough to enhance it in ways prob unnec but v enjoyable.
"Magic Mountain" is back to the science fiction soundtrack, but much more varied than "Out Puppet Selves," and a little too soft-focus for me, so far.
The spoken word-based closers go on very long, though I like that, even though Fahey keeps ending up with nothing, even when the pretty lady persuades him to board the bus to scenic Exstinkyville, he eventually (very eventuallly) remembers "the basic dialectic of life," or some kind of dialectin and sings a hearty "No-o-o," then an equally hearty "Ye-e--e-s," continuing while the band makes noise around him.
Next will be City of Refuge, Womblive, The Mill Pond EP, located here and there, mostly posted track by track on YouTube. The albums I'm talking about above are all on Spotify, at least the version we get over here. (Meaning America; guy I was responding to is in Europe.)