C or D: Robbie Basho, "Basho Sings"

been a while since i read it, but fahey wrote his thesis on charley patton, and patton is the king of irregular tempos/bizarro rhythms. as well as being the king of the delta blues.

yeah duh, of course, tons of those delta dudes had way fucked up phrasing and meter, so i guess that's only natural

My God, how was anyone able to enjoy music before drum machines were invented? (What's amatta with you people?)

i wasn't saying it was bad, just notable.

I'm surprised at the number of people here do dislike Basho's singing, A North American Raga is one of my favorites of his, and all of Song of the Stallion. I especially love the songs where his voice comes in after 5 minutes of beautiful guitar. What I dig about Basho is how serious he was, his mysticism and all.

― JacobSanders, Monday, October 29, 2012 3:49 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

EXACTLY

The phrasing/timing variations are definitely intentional, warping time/space to get into your subconscious.

fahey version of waltzing matilda makes a good case study imo

just got into him for the first time because myspace, of all places, suggested him after i listened to the only HQ version of Gene Estribou's "Eeee Minor" on the internet.

it's been a day, and all i've done all day is listen to him, and holy fuck.

sooooo have we all checked this out yet? http://archive.org/details/RobbieBashoLiveAtTheDeliNaturalRestaurantCedarRapidsIowa

actually a bunch of live basho on the archive (and the same stuff here: http://www.bluemomentarts.de/bma/rbasho_archives/en/special.html)

:D thx

listening to this early 80s interview/performance now - pretty sweet: http://archive.org/details/1.RobbieBashoLiveFromStudioOneKuni

all of this stuff is amazing fyi

When Robbie says at the beginning of the California Raga, "well he knows where the vibes are" it was because a large dog had climbed on stage and laid his head on Robbie's foot, where he remained staring up at him throughout the rest of the song

:D

Thanks for this! Gonna enliven a dull day at work

Also that Basho doc doesn't seem like it's gonna hit its Kickstarter goal. Dunno why but I find that a bit sad :(

lol:

Basho lashes out at Americans for their " degenerate moral standards and lack of manners " which he says are evident in comtemporary music. " Punk rock is demonic, degenerate ". He advocates a " back to basic melodies "

I agree and disagree with that.

haha, well he was signed to windham hill...can't imagine any of those dudes would be like oh yeah i love the dead boys.

the syntax on that is pretty fucked but if i'm reading it right, he's advocating going back to basics? and yet, as awesome as his music is, it is pretentious and obtuse and overstuffed in so many myriad ways, and punk would fulfill a 'back to basics' to a much greater extent imo?

it's fun hearing his chatter on these boots, he seems ever more like a big weirdo, i love it

And he never lost the Baltimore accent, which I find awesome.

i couldn't really imagine any of those guys loving punk rock really

Blue Crystal Fire... Oh man... I don't know much by this guy but that song is incredible...

new visions of the country reish sounds great. the vinyl rip i had was not doing the album justice.

just picked up bashovia and guitar soli comps after learning about him. really excited to dig into it.

fahey's liner notes to bashovia are fucking excellent. i love that he came back to basho and got into it. didn't know there was a visions of the country reissue, that's great! the twilight peaks reissue a year or two ago was great, highly recommend it.

yeah here's the info - http://www.gnomeliferecords.com/robbie_basho.html

everyone I've ever played 'Blue Crystal Fire' to has loved it, it's a massive hit in some parallel universe.

btw the documentary Kickstarter that looked like it was gonna fail managed to creep over the finishing line at the last second - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/326705872/voice-of-the-eagle-the-enigma-of-robbie-basho. Could be v interesting.

think i've pretty much come around on basho's vocals. this dude is magic.

fahey's liner notes to bashovia are fucking excellent.
― ogmor, Wednesday, August 21, 2013 1:37 PM

are those online anywhere

i don't think so. fahey says there is a tiny robbie basho shrine in tokyo somewhere. he draws a map!

listening to pavan hindustan, it is an awe-inspiring bit of music imo, glistening, regal & so expansive, like galloping across the steppes towards the altai mountains

soooo visions of the country is pretty much the best album ever

did it get reissued on CD?

sure did - http://grasstopsrecording.bandcamp.com/album/visions-of-the-country

i had a great moment with a friend of mine recently where i discovered she's a huge robbie basho fan. she didn't know about VotC but now loves it.

Alright, I'll buy the reish lp that is at the local shop.

Do it!!! And listen to it at a spot with a dramatic view of the countryside.

this is so great

Yeah I played it on a hill we were on while camping this summer and it was just one of those moments where music and environment go hand in hand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCnPiMM0tIU

gorgeous song from Rainbow Thunder.

this show is the perfect companion to Visions of the Country, so beautiful - https://archive.org/details/RobbieBashoSinclairAuditoriumCedarRapids1stSet7221978.mp3

Reissue of the year. Is it eligible for eoy?

not really. i may have voted for the twilight peaks reissue last year tho.

I just got the Voice of the Eagle reissue cd - really crazy and joyous and funny stuff! There is just the right amount of madness in his method. Sounds great. Some of it is very Ennio Morricone. Hopefully they will reissue Zarthus, too!

met a fellow in MPLS (Kyle Fosburgh, a great guitarist in his own right!) who is reissuing a bunch of Basho stuff via his company Grass Tops records- he's a nice dude and the remasters sound amazing (he said 8 reissues are in the pipeline) this CD version of Visions of the Country is the first CD version of the album, actually. This song absolutely floored me, made me cry in my car on the way to work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lFzu74gtQo

oh, well, i need to read the thread, you were all talking about the VotC reissue like 7 months ago. Oh well, got to bump a Basho thread.

You can never say enough good things about Visions of the Country though. That record is not of this earth.

yeah it is pretty amazing.

Don't know if I mentioned this already but one of my all time favourite memories from last year was camping in the Peak District and sitting on a hill playing VotC.

When corn is ripe
I light my pipe
And smoke the peace of the world