Why is John Fahey So Boring?

he did a lot of xmas records so i guess i'm not surprised & obv in christ there is no east or west

haha, well, as those letters show he had his own orthodoxy

ha i fully accept fahey as completely nuts. some of the album art in voice of the turtle confirmed this for me years ago, along with reading some of his other writings.

also what kind of shape was he in in 1975 when those letters were written? pretty rough iirc? feel like he was in rough shape for most of the 70s, 80s, and 90s

There is a bio that's almost finished that is not by Byron Coley but I've promised not to say any more (not because it's some big secret, but because the book is still being edited and it's not my place to make such announcements). I got a chance to look at some early chapter drafts, though (author is a friend), and I think it'll be worth buying.

I like the Handbook, too. I was looking for info about Volume 2, but there's no indication it'll be along anytime soon. I'm really looking forward to that one, though, as the second half of his career (Of Rivers and Religion and Railroad 1 all the way up to Womblife and Red Cross) is more interesting to me these days, musically, than the first (which I also love).

Just bought the Handbook on Amazon -- sounds like my kind of book.

It's pretty intense scholarship. I mean, there's a section that analyzes the thickness - in fractions of an inch! - of the line on the center label that underlines the word "Takoma" on specific pressings. Seriously. But, I mean, read this book if you never again want to lose an argument on John Fahey minutiae.

Worth it for the photos of the actual handwritten Fonotone labels alone; also the story of the unique way (and frequency with which) Fahey changed his guitar strings. I've read a lot on the man, and this was new to me. I won't spoil it for you but it's consistent with everything else you know about the dude. Anyway, well worth buying. I've really been enjoying it.

Well consider me stoked. Fahey's music has never intimidated me -- tho I confess there is a world of music that motivates him that I do not know the slightest thing about. I wonder if the book will start to fill in some of the blanks. Or perhaps other blanks.

As for his condition in 1975...others will know if I'm venturing too far afield but I've always been under the assumption that Fahey was a somewhat well put together scholarly type through the first batch of records and then had some kind of mental break sometime in the early 70s -- perhaps motivated by his latent discovery of sexual abuse as a child (which puts that back sleeve of America in quite a different light).

As a result, most of the videos I've seen of him in the mid-1970s almost don't resemble the humorous, well-spoken musicologist we see in the 60s.

some of the album art in voice of the turtle confirmed this for me years ago

i was wrong, it was the america album art that made think of this! i thought it was voice of the turtle.

http://paperandvinyl.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/back-cover-to-America-1024x1016.jpg

haha, that one is awesomely terrifying. all of fahey's mythmaking strikes me as pretty conscious though (even if there is clearly a tortured soul beneath it all) -- he even says in that past comes back to haunt you interview that it helps sell records.

as fun as the fahey handbook is, i'm still shocked and awed by how badly designed the cover is! with the wealth of cool takoma labels and that amazing photo of fahey's wife holding the umbrella over him as he performs, surely they could've come up with something better. oh well.

Yeah, that photo is so great. I wish I had a framed version in my house. I agree the cover is abysmal.

Anyone know anything about Volume 2?

don't know about vol 2, but the author's email is in the book, iirc? he should come on this thread and tell us why john fahey is so boring! vol 2 will be where things get really interesting, I think...

something about his music itself sometimes feels a little been mentally "off" to me, the way he sort of gets lost in it sometimes

more like john failhey

also the story of the unique way (and frequency with which) Fahey changed his guitar strings. I've read a lot on the man, and this was new to me. I won't spoil it for you but it's consistent with everything else you know about the dude.

I probably won't read the book but I'm intrigued by the string thing. Can you spoil it for me?

Or is it just that when one breaks somebody else changes it for him?

i got an original pressing of America last year on vinyl...it's amazing, it's a gatefold and has this really weird ass full size 12x12 comic book of sorts in the middle....a bunch of like druggie turtles and vietnam type stuff

wk - ok, SPOILER ALERT! - he just took wire cutters and snipped the strings across the soundhole, without slackening or loosening them whatsoever! Maybe this isn't so fascinating if you don't play guitar, but this is wreaks absolute havoc on your neck and fucks up the tension something awful. From the quotes about this practice, it seems he enjoyed the sound - POP! Also, he changed strings constantly, even between sets. Said he liked the brightness. If I recall correctly, he favored GHS strings, which, to my mind, are already kinda bright. Anyway, I thought this was interesting because he didn't seem very discriminating about most things - food, guitars, places to live, etc - and so this constantly changing strings thing seemed a bit quirky.

I agree with tyler about the second half of his career being more interesting. I'll email the author and if I hear back I'll post here!

Also (and I realize there is probably a better place to discuss the man's music than on a thread with this title), I was listening to Live In Tasmania last night, and liked it less than I remembered. I recall it being one of my favorites from that era, but yesterday I noticed how rushed everything sounded, like Fahey was just running through stuff like Kottke would have done it, not wistfully or especially passionate. I also didn't remember the sound being so muddy. Maybe I should buy the reissue? I want to read Jim O's notes, anyway. I would also expect that the 'remastered' version or whatever is better at making these live tracks more seamless (the quick fades certainly shatter any illusions of a 'live' recording, especially considering the rumors that some of this is studio work with applause dubbed in. Maybe Volume 2 will address this, at last!).

Sorry, too much coffee today.

tyler could point you to a couple great fahey live boots that would probably be better

this one is my fave http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/21030078332/in-christ-there-is-no-east-or-west-john-fahey - looks like the link is still good.
digging around on delta slider is worth it too http://delta-slider.blogspot.com/

yeah that radio one is great just because the sound quality isn't that far off a studio album

was reminded by the handbook that fahey makes an appearance in clockwork orange
http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/897/10000000000001d30000011.jpg
alas, haven't found the 1968 playboy spread where his record is displayed.

!

there is a ridiculously nerdy but fun blog post about the record store in that movie here: http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2006/04/13/alex-in-the-chelsea-drug-store/

including this kinda mind boggling observation:
"Might there be a reason for placing Fahey’s not-at-all futuristic blues record next to the 2001 soundtrack? How about this: one of the songs on Fahey’s album is Bicycle Made For Two (aka Daisy Bell), the very thing that the HAL 9000 computer famously recites when it’s being shut down."

what the fuck is up with the robot voice at the end of the FFV track on that boot tyler posted? is that a watermark for some encoding program or is that Fahey indulging in some electronic voice manipulation? kinda freaked me out

haha, i think it's just a super groovy KSAN station ID?

constantly changing his strings does surprise me. cutting them all off at once is no big deal though.

Without slacking the strings? Seems like that's a great way to warp your neck! That said, given the way he played, maybe I should start doing it that way. :)

yeah, doing that seems kind of nuts to me. he should've done it onstage, that would've been a hit, i think.

maybe if there's no truss rod it might cause a problem but I don't think the wood would warp that quickly. and how else are you going to clean the fingerboard?

fahey did cut his strings on stage, i've heard accounts!

Just got this in the mail today -- and holy shit, the section on the label types.

Ha! I know, it's absolutely the final word on Fahey album pressings. Period.

Fwiw, based on Glen Jones' foreword and the way the biographical section extends through his whole life, it seems like Vol. 2 is at least well underway if not in the editing stage.

I agree that it should be an interesting read -- between the Vanguard era, the orchestra albums, the Tasmania controversy, the Epstein-Barr syndrome, and, of course, his comeback in the 90s, there's a lot of rich material to mine musically and otherwise.

Agreed. I wrote to the author last night, I'll post here if he replies.

My favorite Fahey records are Of Rivers and Religion, Railroad I, and Red Cross, so, yeah, I am eagerly anticipating the second book. By Tasmania controversy do you mean the tales of it being made up of at least a third 'fake' live recordings?

Somewhere I have a cassette I recorded of his set at the Hint House in the nineties. I should digitize that, especially since I've never seen any 'bootlegs' of it floating around.

Sorry for the abysmal sentences, my left hand is in a splint and I'm not quite awake yet, just can't resist the Fahey bumps

Yes -- it will be interesting to find out what was what in Tasmania. He definitely played "Disco Void" live with some regularity.

Ha! I know, it's absolutely the final word on Fahey album pressings. Period.

Also, Fahey would make for an awesome artist poll, jimmywine.

<hinthint>

http://danbachblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/john-fahey-live-at-mr-browns.html

I started this poll:

The Resurrection(s) of Blind Joe Death: The John Fahey Comeback Albums Poll

Not a lotta response though. Pretty sure we also did a thorough poll of the entire discography once, no?

LOL:

15th(!) pressing of Blind Joe Death in 1978 being pressed with Alan Parsons Project's I Robot because they shared a catalog number. That must've been a bit if a shock to the listener.

Also, while I'm still kind of blown away/put off a bit by the intensity of the label stuff in this book, it does demonstrate how Fahey's myth (and that of other artists) evolved in the music business. How his label images went from plain font to dragons (emulating classic 78s) to (briefly) a Hindu god (during his Fare Forward Voyager/Swami period), etc. Interesting stuff.

the fahey catalogue is v difficult to sensibly divide because there are myriad genealogies running through, multiple labels &c. the late period one has the clearest cut-off points & worked well despite the lack of interest. the giant poll of everything - In Christ There Is No East or West: The John Fahey Albums Poll - was too overwhelming & had a hideous victor.

there could be many viable or semi-viable possible fahey polls. the ones i'd be most interested in wld be a 'classic' 60s poll, poss just takoma & a 'wilderness' period poll of 80s/early 90s stuff. the end of the 60s & 70s gets to be such a mess, there are loads of sub categories: the vanguard records, the "& orchestra" records, america & FFV, the christmas albums & yes! jesus loves me, the beginning of the slightly manic elephantine-medley period (which runs into the 80s & has roots in the dixieland records)

Let's do them all!

Also, what do you have against The Transfiguration...? It isn't my favorite by a longshot but surely it's not a 'hideous' choice.

yeah transfiguration is great

of the classic period i might vote for the great san bernadino birthday party and other excursions just because the title track is so mindblowing to me

love the yellow princess so much

Of the classic period I am partial to Days Have Gone By just a notch above The Yellow Princess (which, on certain days, seems weirdly dense and impenetrable to me).

I just recently heard Let Go, one of the last remaining Fahey albums I hadn't heard - title track is fucking great! A revelation, that one. Gotta find it on vinyl.

i don't think i've ever head Let Go. I was just listening to the Cul de Sac collab over the weekend for the first time in forever (though it may have been the first Fahey I ever heard?). Pretty solid album, don't think I was ready for it way back when.

Somedays Transfiguration is my favorite of the early ones -- I feel in some ways it's the best example of what Peter Stampfel said about Death Chants when he wrote Fahey "used a traditional guitar style to play modern-based compositions in an extended way."

Other days it's San Bernadino -- I adore "Knotts Berry Farm Molly," the melodies, the backwards tapes, the way he recorded the guitar. And for all the sturm und drang over his final period, "Guitar Excursions Into the Unknown" sounds awfully similar.

Really, we need to do an artist poll. All his periods deserve reexamination.