Of Influential Albums 4 - The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death by John Fahey

To my great regret I never saw John Fahey play live. I have several John Fahey albums, many of which I bought in the early 1970s. By 1975 I think I had nine of his albums. My friend, Simon J (who now presents "Simon J's Jazz Mash", weekly on Scotland's Radio 242)   also had nine John Fahey records, but he had a completely different nine.  Every so often I buy another John Fahey recording, but sadly he died in 2001 at the age of just 61. He also wrote and published books and he painted. Some of the books gave the impression of being autobiographical, but, being John Fahey, one could never be sure! His writing throws liberal doses of fiction among the facts and it is hard to tell which is which. He did write a definitive biography and study of the music of Charlie Patton, which earned him his master's degree. He was also responsible for tracking down and recording long-lost blues musician, Bukka White. John Fahey was a complete enigma. Despite considerable popularity among 60s alternative types, he despised the whole hippie culture. It was a connection that must have been hard to shake off because, like many, I first came across his music on John Peel's Perfumed Garden broadcasts from the pirate ship Radio London and his music was also played on the distinctly underground station, Radio Geronimo.

John Fahey mostly made his living buying and selling blues and old time records before he grew in demand as a performing musician. A few years ago I was able to find and buy his first album, which he released on his own label in 1959. It was a shock to realise how much better he became as a guitarist after that album. He sometimes described his style of playing as American Primitive, but that didn't tell the whole story. Listening to John Fahey one can hear a massive range of influences. It was through John Fahey that I first encountered Musique Concrète as well as the music of Charles Ives. Early on he was given the nickname, "Blind Joe Death" by fellow blues fans. The fictional Blind Joe Death featured on some of his early releases, including this record. 

My Uncle George loaned me a Zenith cello guitar in 1969 (now back in my possession fifty years later) and, every Wednesday night, my father drove me over to Luton to chug through pop songs from sheet music with two other guitarists and the bass player whom he knew through his church connections.  That was how I started to play guitar - the first song I chugged through was Procul Harem's "A Whiter Shade of Pale". We also played lots of early Beatles songs. One of our little group, D, became a very close friend and we are still friends to this day. D worked hard on his guitar playing and was soon far ahead of the rest of us. He was teaching himself fingerpicking technique through listening to Davy (or sometimes Davey) Graham, Bert Jansch and John Renbourn records. John Fahey became my guitar tutor of choice. "The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death" was the first John Fahey record I bought and I realised that I had a good enough ear to begin to pick up what he was playing on many of the tracks. I learned to play "Brenda's Blues" at first. Then I managed to pick up passably recognisable versions of "Beautiful Linda Getchell", "Tell Her to Come Back Home" , "101 Is a Hard Road to Travel", "How Green Was My Valley", "Old Southern Medley", "Come Back Baby", and "Poor Boy". My proudest achievement, though, was working out how to get my fingers to pick in 3/4 time and being able to play Fahey's version of "Bicycle Built for Two". I never really got into the multiple tunings except for managing to play the tunes that required a bottleneck. I suppose I was still working on being able to play these tunes as well as some of the others (particularly from later albums "The Yellow Princess" and "Requia") when I really should have been studying for my 'O' levels. I achieved somewhat modest results with my 'O' level exams. Guitar felt more important. I'm still learning and trying to improve after fifty years. Incidentally, D was responsible for my earliest performances in folk clubs when we wrote and played for a while as a duo. We were also best men at each other's weddings. He's still married and lives in the USA.

Side one

1. "Beautiful Linda Getchell" (Fahey, L. Mayne Smith) – 1:50
2. "Orinda-Moraga" – 3:55
3. "I Am the Resurrection" – 3:00
4. "On the Sunny Side of the Ocean" – 3:00
5. "Tell Her to Come Back Home" (Fahey, Uncle Dave Macon) – 2:45
6. "My Station Will Be Changed After Awhile [sic]" – 2:02
7. "101 Is a Hard Road to Travel" (Fahey, Macon) – 2:17

Side two

1. "How Green Was My Valley" – 2:15
2. "Bicycle Built for Two" – 1:10 (arrangement of the 1892 song, "Daisy Bell")
3. "The Death of the Clayton Peacock" – 2:52
4. "Brenda's Blues" – 1:45
5. "Old Southern Medley" (Fahey, Stephen Foster, Charlie Patton, Daniel Decatur Emmett) – 6:08
6. "Come Back Baby" – 2:15
7. "Poor Boy" (Fahey, Bukka White) – 2:25
8. "Saint Patrick's Hymn" (based on "Saint Patrick's Breastplate") – 0:55

😎Someone out there might recognise that I plagiarised the title of my essays on this year's Venice adventures from John Fahey's second album "Death Chants, Breakdowns and Military Waltzes" recorded in 1963 ...