Why is John Fahey So Boring?

no.

there is massive internal struggle in the john fahey catalog, with sometimes gorgeous and sometimes disastrous results.

As for the other two things I learned about music, here they are:

1. Never trust a musician with any sort of beard

2. Stay away from anything Pitchfork says is good.

Props out to Mr. Roundtrouser: your winsome earnestness has warmed my heart and given me pause. Irony is the badge of the defeated!

#define NUM_VALDEMAR_HUGGLEZ 2112

tValdemarHugglez* pValdemarHugglez = new tValdemarHugglez[NUM_VALDEMAR_HUGGLEZ];

for (int i = 0; i < NUM_VALDEMAR_HUGGLEZ; ++i)
{

pValdemarHugglez[i].fBeard = g_BeardDatabase[BEARD_DATABASE_INDEX + i];

pValdemarHugglez[i].fPitchforkReview = g_PitchforkReviewDatabase[POSITIVE_REVIEWS][PFORK_POZ_REVIEW_DATABASE_INDEX + i];

printf("Valdemar loves the %s beard and thinks the %s review is groovy %lt;3\n", pValdemarHugglez[i].fBeard.GetStr(), pValdemarHugglez[i].fPositiveReview.GetStr());

}

for (int i = 0; i < NUM_VALDEMAR_HUGGLEZ; ++i)
{

printf("I <3 valdemar!!!! lol omg !!!!!1\n");
}

printf("Goodbye, world\n");
g_fucked = 1;
free(NULL);

...

i wonder if there are ILM trolls who just try to bait me sometimes, but i realize that would be impossible.

Then again Tom Lehrer wipes Malmsteen.

Game over, man.

I recorded him playing that in my 2-inch analog tape studio in Hawaii... we did lots of coke. It was rock.

(done spray-bottling Fahey fans' picnic yet? You've gotten the towels all moist now. For shame. I'm hardly even a huge Fahey fan here, so I found this all kinda funny.)

A friend of mine's mother told me the same thing while giving me a ride home from 9th grade.

And so I say to Big Loud Mountain Ape: If you don't like readin' my whingein', don't be readin' it!

Do you still listen to npr in your volvo? To this day, the pairing of the words volvo and npr makes me pleasantly drowsy.

That said, Fahey has a big messy catalog. Some of it is inspiring, and some of it is turgid. There's a lot of context that has to be in mind when you listen to the likes of Fahey and Kottke. They are both pre-New Age, but when listening to either of them with 2006 ears, there is a great deal of bleed/crossover. There's a lot of Fahey that sounds like the stuff your elderly Aunt would listen to on a Winter Sunday afternoon. And that taints our appreciation of their form.

I like the quote Dan Bunnybrain pulled out. That he saw himself as brilliant, but not a genius, lacking in composition skills, an emotive player who played in the moment. It all rings true. And obviously the man resonates with a number of players these days: Jim O'Rourke, Harris Newman, Jack Rose, OCS (plenty of others).

There's something enchanting about tuning your guitar to an open tuning and exploring disonance amongst the drone notes. That "Bartok meets the Delta Blues" thing is fun to explore.

this guy's got a cool 5-disc "Roots of Fahey" comp up for download here: http://grapewrath.blogspot.com/2008/04/roots-of-john-fahey.html
BUT IT IS PROBABLY TOTALLY BORING.

Wasn't there supposed to be a Revenant Fahey boxed set? Did that ever happen?

I love that link for this alone:

http://bp0.blogger.com/_Gun5Xkdl7TY/SBfs1Kbj-iI/AAAAAAAAApo/TmL0GQAqWQ4/s1600-h/fahey_house1.jpg

oh piss:

http://bp0.blogger.com/_Gun5Xkdl7TY/SBfstKbj-hI/AAAAAAAAApg/XoVP3j118zM/s1600-h/Fahey+and+Son+House.jpg

wtf

thx for the link tylerw

yeah i think there was supposed to be a revenant fahey box ... but is revenant still going? seems like they haven't put anything out in a long while -- the american primitive II thing in 04 or 05 was the last thing right? Or was it the Ayler box ... anyway, yeah, i'd heard about that fahey box but haven't ever heard anything concrete about it.

that roots of fahey stuff looks cool. i'm a big fan of the old time mountain guitar comp on county. for similar comps, check out "mr. charlie's blues" on Yazoo and "Mountain Blues" also on County.

Dust To Digital has a Fahey box scheduled for next year:

John Fahey: The Fonotone Years (1958-1962)

John Fahey
Release Date: 2009
Description: A 3 CD set to commemorate the 50th anniversary of John Fahey's first recordings for Joe Bussard's Fonotone Records. Remastered from the original reels of tape, this will mark the first time this music is available on CD.
Genre: Blues guitar.

http://dust-digital.com/forthcoming.htm

ooh that sounds cool ... the Fonotone things have never been on CD, right?

Never.
Four 12" acetates compiling (most of?) the Fonotone recordings were just sold on ebay. I think the cheapest one went for $300-something, the others were all $500+

oh i guess it says that right up there, duh: "the first time this music is available on CD." anyhoo, cool!

anyone hear the blind thomas stuff on the fonotone box? where he plays with a paint brush? never could bring myself to summon the money for it.

the vrootz style set above looks superb, full marks to all concerned. i'm going to have a listen right now.

not I. the fonotone box is oop, right? been looking around for it lately. no dice.

Darn, I didn't realise that. Sure enough Dust-to-Digital don't have it for sale themselves.

wonder where nubbin is today? that was some B+ trolling there.

I better jump on that Fonotone box, thankx for the tip.

Do you know somewhere that has it in stock?

I listened to the "Deathchants, Breakdowns, and Military Waltzes vol .2" LP the other day while eating lunch. The one with "America" and "Episcopal Hymn" on it. He's still and will always be great, I think.

I have a bunch of random mp3s and the Red Cross, one of my favourite albums of all time, where should I start, Fahey is a little daunting even though I love everything I've ever heard, which is a lot, but there's so much meta in the titles of things that its easy to get lost.

The Rhino comp, Return of the Repressed is a good starting point ... Also that live record, the Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick is killer. Don't know if there's really a "bad" Fahey album up until the 80s when it starts getting a little sketchy ...

fare forward voyagers is a real standout for me. if the idea of fahey sprawling out over three long songs sounds interesting, definitely check it out.