Why is John Fahey So Boring?

So into Old Fashioned Love right now

finally
http://i59.tinypic.com/2j5m90w.jpg

isn't that an unofficial release?

I mean, all the copies of that record, not just this edition

DISGRACEFUL

?

Claiming it is from "Newbury Comics and Takoma". Who would Takoma be at this point?

Concord Music Group?

In 1979, Fahey sold Takoma to Chrysalis Records, owned by Terry Ellis and Chris Wright, which had artists such as Blondie, Pat Benatar, and Huey Lewis.[3] Jon Monday continued as General Manager of the label for Chrysalis until 1982 when Chrysalis sold the Takoma catalog. During the Chrysalis years, Takoma released albums by The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Maria Muldaur, Canned Heat, Mike Bloomfield, and T-Bone Burnett. The catalog was purchased in 1995 by Fantasy Records,[1] which in 2004 was taken over by the Concord Music Group. Fantasy has a handful of the Takoma recordings on the market as CDs as of this writing in 2007.

Howdy ILM, what record has Fahey at his most "slack key"?

Alternatively, his most "slack key" tracks in your opinion would be nice.

Note: I don't necessarily consider "Hawaiian Two Step" to be particularly slack key, would you dis/agree?

although he loved his tunings fahey was not of a v slack key disposition imo. hawaiian two step is a cover of Spanish fandango (i think fahey knew the john dilleshaw recording) which is probably originally euro-african. closest fahey gets to slack key in vibe might be on the sunny side of the ocean, which iirc he wrote on piano aged 14 & quite possibly totally oblivious to slack key

https://images.eil.com/large_image/JOHN_FAHEY_THE+BEST+OF+JOHN+FAHEY+1959-1977-416332b.jpg

underrated photo imo

TS: Sandy Bull w/ Squirrel vs. John Fahey with Stuffed Wolverine

some (I believe) never before seen footage cropping up around FB. seems there might be more of this to come. late 70s, filmed in his house. hopefully will make it to youtube...

yeah i was just watching that, i haven't seen it before

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dDs7UMy7Mo

very nice. late 70s/early 80s?

guess early 80s -- this is great
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV5bBvQfE1Y

also of the utmost importance

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hJWc2AwO_iE/WEwSSedkzZI/AAAAAAAAFZo/qBJ3gJOAZrAVzKeRT-_eBBkWQYm62JJegCLcB/s1600/gd1969-01-17.caption-el_gaucho-19690117p01.jgmf.jpg

check the caption -- that would be a tough choice.

oh! they are on youtube! i couldn't find them. awesome stuff. hadn't watched the steam engine train one yet.

i'd go check out fahey first, nothing to say you wouldn't be able to catch both in the same night especially given the predilections of both artists

Christmas has truly arrived.

first four a half minutes are great especially

what is that first four and a half minutes? just a typically big prelude/intro from that era? i recognize the last portion

full video is up- it's a joy. could honestly just watch him tune and bullshit with the crew for the whole video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vObBlcBn7UQ&t=2s

Is it down?

Lol "The Santana Blues Band"

hmmm not sure what happened with the embed, maybe they disabled. try adding this to end of youtube url

watch?v=vObBlcBn7UQ&t=2s

severely underrated/slept-on fahey is 'old fashioned love'

Yep. Phased production on some of those duets is pretty sweet too.

yep, tons of compression and phaser going on. and 'dry bones in the valley' is top tier fahey

air getting crisp, it's fahey weather

https://archives.library.illinois.edu/archon/index.php?p=digitallibrary/getfile&id=13212

https://i.imgur.com/Bbc0U3n.jpg

well played ogmor

fahey looking pretty healthy in that picture

nothing to add here, but yeah: fahey fucking owns.🤘

Worth noting that almost all of Fahey’s Spotify catalogue has fucked up audio that sounds like it’s partly underwater.

There's an excellent essay on Fahey by Ian Penman in Fitzcarraldo Editions' It Gets Me Home This Curving Track.

I slept on Days Have Gone By Vol. 6. This is so good.

Finally watched the doc in Prime last night – it left me wanting more. So I’m digging back into the first volume of the handbook and cursing the fact that Vol. 2 is $57(?!?!).

I think I heard there is a new edition of volume 2 coming out soon

Worth noting that almost all of Fahey’s Spotify catalogue has fucked up audio that sounds like it’s partly underwater.
― Naive Teen Idol, Saturday, September 14, 2019 12:56 AM (ten hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

these are weird comps with like corel 1998 clip art for covers. they applied some strange panning and reverb also, and some of them aren't even albums. one has studio outtakes i haven't heard anywhere else. not sure what bizarre publishing/licensing shenanigans went into those ending up there

if fahey had a 33 1/3rd book i think it should be about days have gone by

I think I heard there is a new edition of volume 2 coming out soon

Some days I wonder if “Funeral Song for Mississippi John Hurt” is the best thing he ever did. The transition to the B-section at 1’04” is just glorious.

On others, I feel like the man may have said it all with Blind Joe Death. I mean, those dissonances on “Sun Gonna Shine on My Back Door” ... or the melodic and rhythmic variation on “Sligo River Blues” ... in 1959? At twenty years old?

Fuck.

has there ever been a fahey albums poll? i have like, idk, fifteen albums and still kind of feel like i don't know THE DEFINITIVE one.

ahh, yes there has!

so, i see i have three of the top ten.

(sigh)

those results are demented. NTI are you thinking of running the big Fahey poll that you've had in the queue for years?

I'd probably vote Red Cross if this was tomorrow (and I had to pick *one*). Or America.

of the ones i know, i'm partial to the yellow princess. the version of america i have is the two disc vinyl reissue that is still somehow abridged i guess?? but yeah: it's pretty solid.

gonna have a relisten of transfiguration of blind joe death right now!

those results are demented. NTI are you thinking of running the big Fahey poll that you've had in the queue for years?

unpopular opinion: all fahey songs are the same song.

that song just so happens to be awesome is all.

but yeah, a fahey poll would be a gargantuan task.

uh you haven't heard Red Cross huh

or City Of Refuge

or The Mill Pond

etc

I would treat different versions, renamings and live versions as remixes: aggregate scores but note which version gets what. mb have a side poll for medleys (tho quite what counts is ambiguous so I'd leave it open) (a cpl of medleys wld probably/hopefully show up in the main poll too). wonder if it would be worth sending out the bat signal to the Fahey Yahoo list, would be v intrigued to hear the opinions of ppl who have heard like 25+ Fahey albums

as for fahey songs being the same, on one hand there is all sorts of disparate stuff being pulled together w/ fahey, even on the same song, that he normally doesn't get credited for & ppl will instead compare anyone who plays mellow alternating bass in an open tuning with notes played more or less at random over the top to fahey. on the other hand: i agree w/ austin and there's a good reason the first bit of guitar instruction in vampire vultures was to contemplate the notion of the eternal snake

lol i was just making fun re: nti's observation of how difficult a fahey poll would be because of the numerous guises he put song into.

I do agree that there is a certain contemplative, searching spirit that remains present in his work regardless of external stylings