Fahey Part 3

And once again, serendipity! Found a used copy of Fahey #3, "The Dance of Death and Other Plantation Favorites" at Everyday Music in Bellingham (probably the one I sold them a year or two ago...) It's great -- what was I thinking? DOD has more dissonance mixed into the traditional, so maybe I wasn't used to it at the time, and one or two songs sound like John's still tuning up, but still a good album. One thing I have noticed working through the canon is that to me, the early records were in black and white, and John slowly added color when he wrote his own material. Later releases added some studio refinements (echo) and uh, oh -- many more musicians. But that's further down the line. Now, back to our story..

"The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death" continues the awful record cover tradition, and oddly enough, it's not on Takoma, John's label, but Riverboat Records, John's other label -- huh? I don't get it, but it's considered John's 5th album, even though some sources say it was recorded before #4. I'll leave that to the scholars. Bottom line: to me, it's the last of John's 'traditional' albums, and one of his very, very best. (He'd still do trad, but he'd experiment more, and his songs were becoming more John than the source material.) Surrealistic moment: "Tell Her to Come Back Home" -- wait, that sounds familiar, where have I heard it before --- oh jeez, Andy Griffith sang it on the porch on "The Andy Griffith Show" where it was called "Get On Home, Cindy Cindy"!

#6, "Days Have Gone By", features so many of my favorites: "Night Train of Valhalla", "The Revolt of the Dyke Brigade" (he's since apologized for the title), "A Raga Called Pat - Part One". He gets more experimental here (or weird, depending on your perspective). "A Raga Called Pat - Part One" mixes in snippets from the railroad sound effects classic "Steel Rails Under Thundering Skys" (yes, that's how they spelled it). Then "A Raga Called Pat - Part Two" adds bird songs. No, not chirping, but squawking -- egrets??  Sounds like "Last Train to Okefenokee Swamp".  And here the traditionalists break camp...