
Rate it!
Avg: 4.5 (73 ratings)
- Date Released: January 1, 1996
- Genre: Country/Folk
- Style: Contemporary Folk
- Label: Fantasy / Takoma
Shattering notions of what an acoustic guitar should do
-
We Say...
Fahey pulled on disparate American strings, incorporating blues, noise and traditional folk into his acoustic visions, defining and then shattering notions of what an acoustic guitar should and shouldn't do. Fahey had been weirdly preoccupied with a self-fabricated hero, the nonexistent Blind Joe Death, repeatedly re-recording and reissuing his 1959 debut LP, a tribute to Blind Joe, with new renditions and sequencing in 1964 and 1967. This collection, released in 1996, collects nearly all the versions of this groundbreaking album in one place, and showcases Fahey's innovative guitar style, reminding contemporary listeners that Fahey understood the acoustic guitar as an entirely blank canvas. The Legend also captures Fahey's deadly grin — Fahey didn't consider his predecessors untouchable, and fought to keep the blues' usefulness alive, pilfering a variety of styles, coming up with a giggly composite and then taking a subtle shot ("Blind Joe Death" is still the very best faux-blues moniker around) at the genre's retroactively-imposed seriousness.
-
They Say...
The saga of Blind Joe Death is an extremely confusing one, for those listeners who haven't been following Fahey's career from the beginning. In short: Fahey originally recorded Blind Joe Death in 1959, in an extremely rare, self-released edition of less than 100 copies. Though few heard it, his debut album was a groundbreaker on the acoustic folk scene in its unusually experimental approach to blues and folk styles, though its innovations sound relatively tame when compared to the best of Fahey's subsequent work. Fahey reissued the album in 1964 on Takoma, re-recording some of the cuts, and dropping one selection ("West Coast Blues"). In 1967, when the album was issued for the stereo market, Fahey re-recorded the entire album from scratch, resulting in performances of the exact same new material, but with improved fidelity and technique. This reissue does us all a mammoth favor by combining the 1964 and 1967 editions of the album (which, to make matters more confusing, bore the exact same catalog number, Takoma 1002) onto one 75-minute disc. A previously unreleased 1964 version of "West Coast Blues," a song which had been on the 1959 edition of Blind Joe Death but was left off subsequent configurations, is added as a bonus cut. Completists should note that this is not the final word in the Blind Joe Death saga. Several of the versions originally presented on the 1959 album that were re-recorded for both the 1964 and 1967 remakes are still absent, for space reasons and because the compilers themselves feel that the later renditions are notably superior. Still, it's a near-definitive package of the important Blind Joe Death material, with extensive historical liner notes explaining the circumstances that gave rise to its various incarnations.
“ The indie iTunes — Hardcore music fans are migrating to eMusic, the iTunes Music Store's cheaper, cooler cousin.”
Rolling Stone
eMusic Tip
Paid downloads are counted towards an album discount but free downloads are not.
COMPLETE FOR FREE!
You can download the rest of the tracks from this album for free! Just click the Complete Album button.
We’re sorry this album can only be downloaded using paid subscription download credits.
We recommend you Save it for Later by clicking the Save for Later button shown just above this message. For a list of related albums you can download right now, check out these recommendations.
We'll give you 21 additional free credits to download this album and start your paid subscription.
Get 21 bonus credits on us if you download this album. Sweet!
21 Total Tracks, 75:21 Total Length
Loading...

![]()
Playlists If you like John Fahey, check out these member playlists
Explore music recommended by John Fahey fans
Credits
- John Fahey - Guitar // John Fahey - Guitar // John Fahey - Arranger // John Fahey - Arranger // John Fahey - Producer // John Fahey - Producer // John Fahey - Main Performer // John Fahey - Main Performer // John Fahey - Adaptation // John Fahey - Adaptation // Bill Belmont - Reissue Producer // Bill Belmont - Compilation // Bill Belmont - Compilation Producer // ED Denson - Producer // ED Denson - Liner Notes // Joe Tarantino - Remastering // Tom Weller - Art Direction // Tom Weller - Cover Art // Glenn Jones - Liner Notes // Chester Petranick - Liner Notes
Choose from over 7 million
music downloadseMusic features legendary and emerging artists in every genre: classic rock to classical,indie to international, soundtracks to spiritual, jazz to country and many more.
MP3 downloads work on any digital media player
With eMusic, you OWN your music without any restrictions. Burn music to a CD, play it on your computer, mobile phone or any digital media player - including iPod®, Zune® and Walkman®.
Songs available for 50¢ or less
eMusic subscriptions start at just $11.99 a month for 24 downloads - that's just 50¢ per song! And it gets better from there - our plans go as low as 42¢ per song!
Music Discovery
eMusic is about discovery. We make finding new music fun again with music recommendations from our award-winning team of music experts, member playlists and new music features.
Cancel anytime
With all the great music and site features we're pretty sure you will love eMusic. If not, no problem. You can cancel at any time and keep the music you have downloaded.


Post Album to Facebook
