Why is John Fahey So Boring?

I like the album with Cul de Sac from 1997, but suspect this could be rather dire.

Fahey shambled onstage with a Strat, sat down next to an amp, plugged in, and thenceforth seemed to be completely unfamiliar with not only how to play an electric guitar but, more importantly, the basics of how you manage playing an electric guitar through an amplifier. He plinked away feebly, while the amp fed back, and not in any way that you would say "that's such a fucking great noise, goddamn!" It was pitiful. He kemp complaining that it was the soundman's fault, "doesn't anybody know what they're doing here," and a tech came onstage to help him, but there was no question exactly who in that room didn't know what they were doing.

― veronica moser, Friday, April 21, 2023 10:55 AM (sixteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I must say that very late period Fahey always had me wondering whether it was the perfect example of someone whose brand is so strong in the experimental scene that they can get away with almost anything. "Has he totally lost it or is he exploring a new approach" can be applied to almost all avant-garde art out of context. An artist's credentials both support and contradict either side of the debate so there's never an easy answer.

*clearing*

That would be hilarious if that were true, but it's too silly to seriously consider...

(O'Rourke pushes Fahey onto stage)

Jim: "Now do it the way like we talked about, m'kay?"

John: "But I still don't fully understand... are you sure today's serious music fan prefers it? I mean I can play all of my classic piec-"

Jim: "NO! ...sorry, no, John - I explained this already. When you play like this 'intentionally' it's actually good and challenging and forward thinking, ok? They will stroke their chins and respect you again for your fresh perspective on ~what music is~ so late in your career. This will cement your legacy. This type of audience is offended by "greatest hits" pandering, do you understand? Give me the acoustic."

John: "But..."

Jim: "Now. Hand it to me. ...thank you. See, not so hard right? You got this buddy!"

John: "You know, someone told me you were making an acoustic album that apparently sounded a lot like mi-"

Jim: "SSSSHHH JohnJohnJohnJohn go on stage now we can talk about this later. Everyone's waiting"

(John walks on stage and Jim runs around into the back of the audience. John starts playing)

Jim (whispering to random audience members one by one): "Boy, I thought this guy was supposed to be a 'seminal' guitar player... what happened, right? Hey I heard this other guy is about to put out an album that blows this washed up hack out of the water, you should check it out. Here's my- I mean his flyer about it. It's got the release date and everything. Boy am I excited to hear THAT, right?"

Audience member: "It says right here: 'Way better than legend John Fahey?'"

Jim: "Wow that's bold right? Man, that sounds great. Wow."

(Jim then makes eye contact and gives a thumbs up to John as he hesitantly un-tunes an electric on stage)

lololol A+

hahahaha

lol it only took 17 years, but we finally cracked the case of why john fahey is so boring ... it was jim o'rourke's fault!

Ha, that’s brilliant. Yeah, as I said, it wasn’t a fair assessment on my part. Jim O may have been guilty of many sins—including luring a lot of his heroes out of retirement in the mid-90s to make boring, kind of similar sounding records—but tanking those releases to make his own music sound better isn’t one of them.

I believe in Dance of Death it was intimated that Fahey, due to health issues, wasn't capable of playing his old material very well at that point.

More on xpost Proofs and Refutations---from Drag City, so adjust your shades and brains accordingly---at least they start with a track (hearable via several links, but I'll go w this)
https://thejohnfahey.bandcamp.com/track/evening-not-night-pt-2

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3766545716_10.jpg

Recorded in 1995 and 1996, mostly in John Fahey’s room at a Salem, Oregon boardinghouse, the performances on Proofs and Refutations prefigure the ornery turn of the page that marked Fahey’s final years, drawing another enigmatic rabbit from his seemingly bottomless musical hat.

Right out of the gate, Fahey re-materializes before us, somewhere between Oracle of Delphi and Clown Prince at Olympus. Portions of this material appeared on obscure late ‘90s vinyl in the 7” or double-78 rpm format, but as a “session” it has lain dormant more than a quarter century now. Taken together, we can now see these tracks as secret blueprints to latter-day Fahey provocations, several years prior to records like 1997’s City of Refuge and Womblife. Proofs and Refutations is cloaked in the language of dogma -– what is he proving? refuting? –- this is Fahey dancing a jig in the Duchampian gap, jester cap bells a-jingling. True believers? He’s got something for you: an uncompromising vision that you can sneer at or embrace as evidence of his genius. Skeptics? He’s there with you, too: sending up the fallacy of certitudes altogether. Institutions, systems, accepted wisdom. Heroes. Alternative facts, indeed.

Atop lost and found plucks and pickings from the final decade of Fahey’s legendary career sits "Evening, Not Night (Pt. 2)"– sounding as ruthlessly iconoclastic as ever. Here, he wrestles the ghost of Skip James, perhaps to finally force the “bitter, hateful old creep” (his words) back into the grave. He plays with a sense of freedom, aiming for the formative mists beyond the piece at hand, and finding them with ease, in an expansive, unhurried performance.

Proofs and Refutations will be available on LP/digitally on September 8th.

John Fahey Online:

Drag City -https://www.dragcity.com/artists/john-fahey

Pre Order -https://www.dragcity.com/products/proofs-refutations

Stream "Evening, Not Night (Pt. 2)”-http://lnk.to/proofsandrefutations

ah so it's basically a reissue of The Mill Pond 2x7", I actually like his noise pieces esp those on City Of Refuge

When do the lost ‘77 sessions get their proper release? I can’t remember what the story was with them but at least one track was issued on Red Cross.

https://freshairarchive.org/guests/john-fahey

???

whoa, weird

👀👀

Ok, he is so wrong about the SF Symphony. At time of this interview the new symphony hall was less than one month from opening (due to the $5M gift from Louise Davies), but the symphony itself absolutely existed, sharing space with the opera/ballet at War Memorial. But with John I suspect facts are more of an illusion.

the transfiguration of terry gross

I Remember Blind Daniel Schur

wow, anyone heard this Finland-only release from 1968?

https://www.discogs.com/release/12204209-John-Fahey-Finlandia