Why is John Fahey So Boring?

But why, why do you like a nose shaped like that?

Maybe it is answerable in concrete terms but as with music it's going to be disappointingly mathematical and the qualia is going to slip right through your fingers.

Sorry, I'm kind of sudafed damaged.

re: dry bones, i prefer the fahey version, i think it's neater. the gastr one w/ conrad creaking along starts to feel like it's about to collapse under its own weight, but i love that album and it's a good closer.

i think i cld come up w/ a lot of perhaps hyperbolic-sounding reasons why i like fahey but idk. i was more tempted a while ago when i think hurting said something about fahey "not having enough tricks" or something, which struck me as so absolutely wrong that i was tempted to post a list of selected JF tricks. i don't care if ppl don't like him though, that's fine

Post away

Yeah ogmor, I really dug your post on after the ball & transfiguration above, feel free to get as hyperbolic as you like from my perspective.

dry bones is the ultimate fahey slow-motion jam

To that end, I can completely understand why by the 90s he may have found these records to be personally uncomfortable and maybe a little embarrassing.

otm. Some great writing on this thread!

I'm playing the Fahey and Gastr del Sol versions of Dry Bones simultaneously and it's freaking me out.

hopefully this bio will answer this thread title's question:
An early heads up on a biography of John Fahey by Vin Du Select Qualitite label head Steve Lowenthal, slated for publication next year. Dance Of Death: The Life Of John Fahey – American Guitarist will be published by Chicago Review Press im June 2014. It includes interviews with all three of Fahey's wives, plus Michael Chapman, Leo Kottke, Byron Coley, Glenn Jones, Jim O'Rourke, The No Neck Blues Band, Dean Blackwell and many others. More details to be announced at chicagoreviewpress.com
http://thewire.co.uk/news/26412/john-fahey-biography-on-the-way-in-2014

Now that looks like a good read, gonna go ahead and pencil that in for 2014 birthday/Christmas.

did we talk about this already? the talking heads don't look great but there's some new (to me) interview footage, so i'm excited!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=&v=3NoXyb9AjJw

i didn't know about that...did you see the basho doc got kickstarted?

knew about the fahey doc, think that might be a new-ish trailer?

xp yeah! i'm excited about that, basho is more mysterious to me. there is currently one known video of him playing though, so it's going to depend entirely on who they get involved. jack rose would have been so good for both of these

yeah i'm more excited for basho too, seems less documented.

i like that pete townsend is in both. cool someone of that stature would make time for both. i enjoy listening to pete talk about things. stephan grossman in the fahey - he's like the cat daddy of 80s fingerpicking instructional video tapes.

who's the guy who says "John Fahey was punk rock"? I hate that shit, not everything that is good or interesting or individual or challenging is "punk rock". Oh man "There's a Riot Goin' On" is PUNK ROCK. Bitches Brew is PUNK ROCK. Rite of Spring was PUNK ROCK.

copy of the handbook for 13 bucks if anyone needs one:

http://www.amazon.com/The-John-Fahey-Handbook-Vol/dp/0985302801/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377804503&sr=8-1&keywords=john+fahey+handbook

xp punk rockists! haha, yeah, you can almost see in that dude's face that he's like "oh shit why did i say that!?"

i think the people in this thread account for roughly 43% of the sales on that fahey handbook.

i think the guy who says he's punk rock is a member of ilx favourites the decemberists.

i like that pete townsend is in both. cool someone of that stature would make time for both. i enjoy listening to pete talk about things.

Me too. As a huge Fahey and Townshend fan, I'm pretty excited to see this doc.

i don't have it!

if i was making a fahey doc i would try to get ppl like joe bussard, dick spottswood, anthony lee, pat sullivan, ED denson, terry robb, barry hansen, his various wives & gfs, peter lang, david grubbs, jim o'rourke, glenn jones, keith from nnck, steffen basho junghans, byron coley..... all way before pete townshend or whoever. but it is cool he is doing it. laurie spiegel said some interesting stuff about fahey, she'd be in there too. might go and see stefan grossman when he tours in a couple of months.

This one was disappointing:

http://www.amazon.com/Lake-Chelan-Greatest-World/dp/193617846X/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377807743&sr=1-7&keywords=john+fahey

He divides his time between Lake Chelan, where he and his wife own and operate a vacation rental business, and Restlawn Memory Gardens in West Salem, Oregon.

The legend:
http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/e1/80/d79086cff4280a7f02359d.L._V146557155_SY470_.jpg

Revelation on the Banks of Lake Chelan

it's weird if they didn't reach out to peter lang and leo kottke

guess it was shown in NYC w/ screenings in seattle coming up
USA Theatrical Release:
August 16-22 New York City, NY. Cinema Village, Manhattan.
September 6-12 Seattle, WA. Grand Illusion Cinema.
http://www.johnfaheyfilm.com

they should have talked to my pal doug decker. he worked at takoma for years and engineered/produced a bunch of fahey stuff. he's a wealth of info. then again maybe they did. i haven't seen the thing.

screened in portland last october, was serviceable

way more psyched about the book

xp can you resolve the hot issue of who they had as talking heads?

chris funk of the decemberists explains punk rock

xp not entirely, no. nnck dude definitely, decembrists guy gets a lot of time. b coley maybe? not too broad a cast. had heard that the filmmaker ran into some issues getting people on board for one reason or another. def works as a sort of primer for folks and is a net positive for that, but maybe not a lot for heads or whatever.

is there any particular reason the decembrists guy is even in there? does he make cool solo records we should know about? (not picking on him, i'm sure he is a good dude, just curious, seems like a random guy to interview).

hmm, jack cole review http://spectrumculture.com/2013/08/in-search-of-blind-joe-death-the-saga-of-john-fahey.html twitter https://twitter.com/JohnFaheyFilm director's twitter https://twitter.com/JamesCullingham

q&a

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdUAmzmHAr4

Chris used to live in Eugene and is a good guy based on my experience and friends in common, fwiw but I dunno why he would be in this - Fahey played in Eugene a fair amount near the end and released a record on a local label so there are some connections.

(I am really busy and have not watched the video)

sufjan stevens was on a fahey tribute album i reviewed for the Voice once. does HE make cool solo albums that we should know about?

who will chip in for my basho doc kickstarter if i get sufjan stevens to talk about how he was influenced by zarthus when making illinoise

sufjan stevens was on a fahey tribute album i reviewed for the Voice once. does HE make cool solo albums that we should know about?
not entirely sure what your point is, but i guess you're trying to be a dick? bravo!

And where I was once astounded by his machine-like precision, I am now driven mad by his machine-like precision.

So, why is John Fahey's music so boring?

― valdemar (nubbin), Tuesday, January 10, 2006 2:25 AM (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^this is kinda weird, from the original post....machine-like precision is not something i would use to describe fahey at all!

No definitely not.

if anything he's on the sloppier side compared to like kottke or lang or lots of players really, and he really goes in and out of tempos (in a cool way IMO but still it's not conventionally "correct")

If he's "boring" at all it's usually because he gets either droney or meandery, sounding like a stoned dude fucking around in his bedroom. But even his more boring moments have a certain charm to them.

I hate this fucking thread title.

I received a DVD of the Fahey documentary a few months back in return for supporting the project via Kickstarter. I was very much looking forward to it but found it disappointing. Somehow fails to get beyond uninspiring talking heads telling us what a pioneer Fahey was (I can't remember an example, but I cringed on a couple of occasions).

^ ^ I realise many music docs are like that, but I'd hoped for something more.

"not entirely sure what your point is, but i guess you're trying to be a dick? bravo!"

people were wondering why the decemberists guy was in the doc. when i got that tribute album i kinda wondered why sufjan stevens was on it. that's all there is too it.

which i didn't think would be that hard to understand. cuz as far as i knew back then sufjan made twee indie rock albums.

ok sorry

i think fahey is both mechanical & meandering. as the exemplar of extreme repetitive finger-picking patterns & alternating basslines, he has a mechanical quality, his right hand an unstoppable piston looping endlessly w/ minimal left hand work. cf. night train of valhalla, on the beach at waikiki, sun gonna shine in my backdoor someday blues, america... ppl like harris newman & leo kottke have extended this, but it's all from him.

he is also the consummate meanderer imo, a flaneur in his mental archive, recycling himself & others, inventing 12 minute intros to 4 minute songs &c. all that meandering is context tho, it ebbs, builds, & allows him to do things like slam down a rendition of camptown races as a triumphant, glistening, unstoppable finishing move.