love the live in tasmania set and after the ball too (listened to after the ball a hell of a lot more though). never noticed that the "live" set borrowed a track from the latter. lol.
― having taken an actual journalism class (contenderizer), Tuesday, 5 October 2010 08:15 (thirteen years ago) link
listening to both to check, and yeah. they sound quite a bit different for me, cuz i've only got after the ball on CD and live in tasmania only on LP, but it seems to be exactly the same performance. so, is the rest of tasmania, uh, "externally sourced" or what?
― having taken an actual journalism class (contenderizer), Tuesday, 5 October 2010 08:31 (thirteen years ago) link
...for me Hitomi was a less interesting album from that era.
certainly not one of my favorites. much prefer red cross and that "hard time empty bottle" thing.
― having taken an actual journalism class (contenderizer), Tuesday, 5 October 2010 08:36 (thirteen years ago) link
at the moment after the ball might be not just my favorite john fahey record, but one of my very favorite records period. i notice that whenever a track from it comes up on shuffle, i immediately want to hear the rest of it, the whole thing, from beginning to end, and usually more than once. so good.
― having taken an actual journalism class (contenderizer), Tuesday, 5 October 2010 08:40 (thirteen years ago) link
^ not highly regarded by fahey fans, i know. too close to arlo guthrie territory, maybe. but i love it to death.
― having taken an actual journalism class (contenderizer), Tuesday, 5 October 2010 08:41 (thirteen years ago) link
I think Tasmania is just two reels, the 14 minutes of Introduction by Stefan Markvitch/On the Sunny Side of the Ocean/Tasmanian Two-Step and then on side B, the 9 or so minutes of Fahey Establishes Rapport with the Tasmanians/A dissertation on "Obscurity" (spoken)/The Return of the Tasmanian Tiger/Funeral Song for Mississippi John Hurt. I have it on CD but I haven't listened in ages; "Beverly" is definitely the same recording, I suspect the rest of the stuff is studio catchall as well, filler to pad running time.
That said the performances on this slay me, the aggression and tension in volume, plucking, the tempo fluctuations, it's stunning expression. "On the Sunny Side of the Ocean"...[∞ hyperbole].
― cee-oh-tee-tee, Tuesday, 5 October 2010 15:10 (thirteen years ago) link
after the ball is awesome -- I think it's handicapped because it has some of the lamest album artwork of Fahey's oeuvrehttp://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41GPVJVM1BL._SL500_AA300_.jpg"Beverly" is top five Fahey for me ... and I dig the dixieland stuff on there, too.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 5 October 2010 15:14 (thirteen years ago) link
Yeah "Beverly" is way up there, his last-best in my view. "Sligo", "Sunny Side", "Princess" and "Catfish" would round me out on a Top 5 I think.
― cee-oh-tee-tee, Tuesday, 5 October 2010 15:18 (thirteen years ago) link
last two tracks on Live In Tasmania sposed to be studio efforts w/ dubbed applause. love the Approaching Of The Disco Void & jim o'rourke's description of it as 'ice cubes in a blender', and waltzing matilda is fantastic too.
the first two dixieland albums have really grown on me I love the enormous disco ball moon on after the ball&the gloss of hawaiian two step & om shanti norris, but of rivers & religion is my favourite, first true emergence of big drunk fahey playing big reverberating medleys w/ glacial syncopation & supreme relish, love Visits Washington DC, God,Time & Causality and Railroad for when the same thing shows up. maybe this was what old fahey was talking about more when he felt his earlier music was dishonest, idk, but it has Heft.
― ogmor, Saturday, 9 October 2010 19:04 (thirteen years ago) link
http://delta-slider.blogspot.com/2011/03/glenn-jones-on-john-fahey-fonotone.htmlwow, lots of info about the upcoming box set from glenn jones here. can't wait. crazy stuff about losing everything via hard drive failures. also, anyone know about the legal trouble that the ayler box set caused revenant, which jones refers to? terrible that it caused the label to cease functioning!
― tylerw, Tuesday, 1 March 2011 15:53 (thirteen years ago) link
just sent these guys an outlook calendar notice reminding them to back up their files
― your LiveJournal experience (schlump), Tuesday, 1 March 2011 16:08 (thirteen years ago) link
lol, yeah. can you imagine?
― tylerw, Tuesday, 1 March 2011 17:13 (thirteen years ago) link
have never heard the ayler story either. amazing box and it really comes off like a labor of love from those involved. to have it kill your label as a result... well, that just sucks!
― original bgm, Tuesday, 1 March 2011 17:15 (thirteen years ago) link
btw, backing up my files tonight. have been ignoring my google calendar reminders for about a month. :-o
The soundtrack to the game Diablo is pretty good (not really) and sounds kind of like Fahey. What I've heard of his stuff is dull, especially the record with Cul De Sac.
― adam, Saturday, July 20, 2002 12:00 AM (8 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
i have no idea what john fahey i had heard 8 1/2 years ago (besides the boring cul de sac one) that would have led me to write this. diablo sndtrk is totally faheyed out tho.
― adam, Wednesday, 2 March 2011 00:26 (thirteen years ago) link
can't wait for the next deepening in yr fahey/diablo thought in 2019
― ogmor, Wednesday, 2 March 2011 21:58 (thirteen years ago) link
what is the diablo sdtk?
― tylerw, Wednesday, 2 March 2011 22:07 (thirteen years ago) link
a little more infoDTD-21 : Late September / Early October 2011Edited by Glenn Jones 88 page book with 5 CDs115 tracks, most available on CD for the first time A co-production between Dust-to-Digital and Revenanthttp://www.dust-digital.com/fahey
― tylerw, Friday, 1 July 2011 21:53 (thirteen years ago) link
Apologies if this is mentioned elsewhere, but don't recall seeing it here, & they've got a lot of money still to raise in the next few days:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/963556219/in-search-of-blind-joe-death-the-saga-of-john-fahe
(I'm nothing to do with the movie, just interested in seeing it get made)
― Wandering Boy Poet, Sunday, 10 July 2011 00:16 (thirteen years ago) link
Hmmmm, just over 9 grand needed with 28 hours to go.
― Wandering Boy Poet, Wednesday, 13 July 2011 12:48 (thirteen years ago) link
I have probably heard it a hundred times but "Sun Gonna Shine In My Back Door Someday Blues" is probably my favorite thing by Fahey ever -- the perfect balance of blues, dissonance and rhythmic hypnosis.
― Naive Teen Idol, Sunday, 4 September 2011 13:47 (thirteen years ago) link
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-m1kvbphaBmw/TngYVLEY71I/AAAAAAAABiM/7gJlrIEzK2w/s1600/tumblr_lqr1p665z41qg4e4uo5_1280.jpg
― tylerw, Tuesday, 20 September 2011 17:12 (thirteen years ago) link
As I've always found Fahey to be particularly enjoyable when listened to on a record-by-record basis (as opposed to comps), I've now spent the last month buying every record of his used on Amazon that I didn't own already. I think the most exciting thing about it is listening to all the different renditions of songs at different points. Like, "Wine and Roses" on Dance of Death is revisited, raga-style as "The Approaching of the Disco Void" (from Live at Tasmania) and again, post rocked out as "The New Red Pony" (from The Epiphany of Glen Jones.
Or "When the Springtime Comes Again," which returns as part of the epic "Mark: IV" on America. And those are just his own pieces. Part of what's so interesting is that you really hear Fahey the Musicologist come out in Fahey the Composer -- see www.faheyfiles.com for a complete listing, but reading thru his career and seeing the connections and how all the strands, riffs, melodies and patterns become mutated and regurgitated is pretty remarkable. Given how zonked out Fahey was for so much of the 70s and 80s, I actually wonder how much of it was subconscious.
― Naive Teen Idol, Wednesday, 21 September 2011 04:19 (twelve years ago) link
rip
http://www.wowwee.com/static/images/PaulyD.jpg
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Wednesday, 21 September 2011 05:01 (twelve years ago) link
i think this is out now?, is up on the honest jon's site.
― fleetwood banc (schlump), Friday, 30 September 2011 13:02 (twelve years ago) link
Just got this. Looks amazing.
― Conan The Asshander (Doran), Friday, 7 October 2011 23:25 (twelve years ago) link
that kickstarter funded doc upthread is a go, apparently
― LaMonte, Friday, 7 October 2011 23:35 (twelve years ago) link
yeah the box set is out. kind of pricey but i'm going to go for it.
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Saturday, 8 October 2011 00:10 (twelve years ago) link
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, 28 October 2011 15:20 (twelve years ago) link
he Transcendental Waterfall - Guitar Excursions 1963-1967 is a 6-LP box set drawing from John Fahey's best, and most influential, period. Included in the set are Blind Joe Death, Death Chants, Breakdowns And Military Waltzes, The Dance of Death and Other Plantation Favorites, The Great San Bernardino Birthday Party, The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death, and Days Have Gone By, all reissued on 180 gram vinyl with deluxe tip-on jackets. Also included are a t-shirt, poster, and a postcard, all of which are housed in a deluxe box with stunning graphic design. An amazing package featuring some of the most important guitar solo recordings of the 20th century. Limited to 2000 numbered copies!
― Local Christian Blues (schlump), Friday, 28 October 2011 15:25 (twelve years ago) link
expensive times to be a fahey fan. hoping to get the dust to digital box for xmas. will shell out for it if i don't.
― tylerw, Friday, 28 October 2011 16:03 (twelve years ago) link
mmmmmm those are all great records. worth owning. cheaper and easier than trying to get originals.
― one dis leads to another (ian), Sunday, 30 October 2011 23:24 (twelve years ago) link
also a postcard
― Local Christian Blues (schlump), Sunday, 30 October 2011 23:29 (twelve years ago) link
i think i might feel weird wearing a t-shirt with john fahey's face on it.. any pics?!?!
― one dis leads to another (ian), Sunday, 30 October 2011 23:35 (twelve years ago) link
important records do a cool fahey t-shirt (all their shirts are next to nothing, also, so)
― Local Christian Blues (schlump), Sunday, 30 October 2011 23:37 (twelve years ago) link
http://importantrecords.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/product_node/apparel/fahey_tee.jpg
― Local Christian Blues (schlump), Sunday, 30 October 2011 23:38 (twelve years ago) link
originals of those recs are really $20+ these days? jeez.
― sleeve, Sunday, 30 October 2011 23:40 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.popsike.com/php/quicksearch.php?pagenum=1&searchtext=john+fahey&incldescr=&sortord=ddate&thumbs=&currsel=
― one dis leads to another (ian), Sunday, 30 October 2011 23:47 (twelve years ago) link
fonotone box saving my life
― ogmor, Tuesday, 6 March 2012 01:00 (twelve years ago) link
Picked it up the other day as a birthday gift to myself!
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 6 March 2012 01:40 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 6 March 2012 16:09 (twelve years ago) link
I really wanted this before. Now want it even more.
― Naive Teen Idol, Tuesday, 6 March 2012 20:23 (twelve years ago) link
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
― ogmor, Thursday, 8 March 2012 12:56 (twelve years ago) link
― 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.
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Sunday, 11 March 2012 03:14 (twelve years ago) link
not only can you get them on those Fantasy CDs, they all have a shit-down of bonus material
― Stormy Davis, Sunday, 11 March 2012 05:33 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― omar little, Sunday, 11 March 2012 05:53 (twelve years ago) link
yeah, i bought the first four for $50 a few years back, they're around
― Fozzy Osbourne (contenderizer), Sunday, 11 March 2012 06:55 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― Naive Teen Idol, Sunday, 11 March 2012 13:42 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― global tetrahedron, Friday, 29 June 2012 00:31 (twelve years ago) link