John Fahey Again

First of all, a correction or rather an explanation: the mistakes in track listings I ranted about on "The Best of John Fahey" were evident on my old 1979 edition; it's since been remastered with 3 bonus tracks, so I assume the problem has been corrected. But still... 

So here's where it all started for most of us: "The Legend of Blind Joe Death" (hereafter referred to as BJD), the first in the true canon of John Fahey (Revenant Records resissued some of the fake 78s he recorded, but I think those were mostly hokum and novelties.) BJD was recorded in 1959, and John sold LPs from the gas station where he worked at the time, and he later re-recorded most of the tracks in 1963 and again in 1967. The CD version of BJD features both the 1963 version and the 1967 version, and they both have their charms, 1963 sounding dusty and a little tinny, and 1967 has better sound and more refined picking. These are all traditional (or traditional sounding, at least!) There's also a bonus track of the 10+ minute track from 1959 "The Transcendental Waterfall", but to me, it lacks the cohesion of John's later experiments in longer forms. BJD is a great album, and if you were going to limit yourself to 2 or 3 Fahey albums, this would certainly be a top contender.

"Death Chants, Breakdowns and Military Waltzes" is the second album, and the first of too many with awful covers (I seem to remember it having an altogether different cover, but that may have been another reissue.) This too contains 2 versions of the original, one from 1963 and the other from 1967. Again, the 1963 tracks gain in atmosphere what they lack in fidelity. This one's also trad, and another for 'must have' contender. Song titles continue John's whimsical/arcane references.



Sadly, Volume 3 is currently missing from my collection (but a lot of it ended up on "The Best of John Fahey"). When I had a copy, I never listened to it as much as some others, but I' guessing I was wrong in my assessment, so it may be time to reevaluate "The Dance of Death and Other Plantation Favorites".

I think this may be where I came in; my college girlfriend had a copy from an old boyfriend. John started experimenting more with Volume 4, called "The Great San Bernardino Birthday Party and Other Excursions". The title track is 19 minutes long, and there's some backwards guitar on "Knott's Berry Farm Molly", plus flute and organ (separately) on other tracks. This doesn't usually pop up on 'John's Best' lists, but I've always liked it a lot. Later I heard John's Christmas guitar album, and a collection with labelmates Leo Kottke and Peter Lang, and my collecting days began in earnest.