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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
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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.
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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.
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| 01. |  |
On Doing an Evil Deed Blues |
5:11 |
|
| 02. | |
St. Louis Blues |
4:56 |
|
| 03. | |
Poor Boy Long Way From Home |
3:15 |
|
| 04. | |
Uncloudy Day |
3:26 |
|
| 05. | |
John Henry |
3:24 |
|
| 06. | |
In Christ There Is No East Or West |
2:25 |
|
| 07. | |
Desperate Man Blues |
4:08 |
|
| 08. | |
Sun Gonna Shine In My Back Door Someday Blues |
3:35 |
|
| 09. | |
Sligo River Blues |
3:08 |
|
| 10. | |
On Doing An Evil Deed Blues |
3:59 |
|
| 11. | |
St. Louis Blues |
3:19 |
|
| 12. | |
Poor Boy Long Way From Home |
2:27 |
|
| 13. | |
Uncloudy Day |
2:25 |
|
| 14. | |
John Henry |
2:08 |
|
| 15. | |
In Christ There Is No East Or West |
2:47 |
|
| 16. | |
Desperate Man Blues |
4:01 |
|
| 17. | |
Sun Gonna Shine In My Back Door Someday Blues |
4:40 |
|
| 18. | |
Sligo River Blues |
2:36 |
|
| 19. | |
I'm Gonna Do All I Can For My Lord |
1:27 |
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| 20. | |
The Transcendental Waterfall |
10:39 |
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| 21. | |
West Coast Blues |
1:25 |
|
21 Total Tracks, 75:21 Total Length
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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
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