Days Have Gone By

John Fahey | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 7, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Takoma
• ASIN: B00005N83U
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #48,161 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #16 in Music > Indie Music > Alternative Rock > Alternative Folk

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com's Best of 2001

When John Fahey recorded this album in 1967, he was at the peak of his considerable powers as a musician, writer, and composer. His fingerpicking is astounding; surely no stronger thumb ever struck a bass string than the one that drove "Night Train to Valhalla," no surer fingers ever plucked a melody than the ones that coaxed the epic sweep of "The Portland Cement Factory of Monolith, California" from six strands of steel and a wooden box with a hole in it. This album includes some of Fahey's best-loved tunes, including the aforementioned songs, the bluesy "Revolt of the Dyke Brigade" (Fahey was tweaking the sensitivities of folk music audiences before anyone knew what political incorrectness was), and the uncategorizable "Raga Called Pat." The latter isn't Indian music at all, but a sprawling two-part odyssey constructed from train whistles, bird calls, and dancing guitar figures. This well-mastered and lovingly packaged reissue includes two sets of liner notes; Fahey's originals are a hilariously obtuse parody of poetic, philosophical, and historical pretensions, while a new set by journalist and poet Monica Kendrick acknowledges his passing mere months before this record came out by paying homage to Fahey's enduring artistry. --Bill Meyer

Product Description

Digitally Remastered Reissue of the Classic 1967 Album by the Late Enigmatic Acoustic Guitar Legend. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fahey's best recording, December 14, 2003

By 

Dr Tathata (Omphalos, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Days Have Gone By (Audio CD)

I love this album. It is one of my favorite recordings of all time. When I had the lp, which I acquired from a little record store in Takoma Park two doors down from the gas station were Fahey used to pump gas as a teenager and sell his own pressed copies of his first recording, Blind Joe Death--I literally wore it out. By that time, his recordings were out of print, and I had to wait decades for a re-release on CD. Oh happy day! He achieved his creative zenith with this recording, and moved off in different directions, never as compelling as his earlier work. Night Train to Valhalla, The Portland Cement Factory, and others are so fully realized that it is as if he is speaking a long forgotten language, his guitar lines forming complete sentences. I last saw him perform in 1977, at the Cellar Door, and he came on stage wordlessly, sat, assumed a posture not unlike a Picasso painting, and played guitar for the next two hours without ever pausing or stopping. Hypnotic. Trance inducing. His Raga named Pat saga continues, as well. A fascinating concept to draw out a piece of music, like a Triptych, across many recordings. A must have. At the time this recording was released, one could never have imagined the sad manner in which his story would end.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THIS is Fahey at his very best., December 18, 2001

By 

Chris (NM USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Days Have Gone By (Audio CD)

After having heard most every other Fahey recording out there, including the epic "America", "Volume IV", "The Voice of the Turtle", and his first record, I thought I had heard the very best of John Fahey's output. "Days Have Gone By", in my view, surpasses all of those, and it's Fahey's most personal and most beautiful work. This record, first issued on Takoma in 1967, is unique in Fahey's repetoire for its gorgeous use of reverb, as well as for the subtle harmonic details evoked from Fahey's guitar. On "Days Have Gone By", Fahey created a landscape of sounds simultaneously intimate and vast, incorporating at points train calls and various abstract sampled sounds (sort of akin to what he did on "Requia", but more understated), and at others dipping into the eastern-tinged playing more familiar to "Fare Forward Voyagers". At the bottom of all of this is, of course, Fahey's fantastic blend of classical technique and love of blues/folk/mountain music, played not so much with the pyrotechnical fervor that can be found on some of Fahey's recordings as with the subdued charm of a guitarist quietly possessed. This may be thought of as "otherworldly" music to some, but I think of "Days Have Gone By" as a kind of testament to the beauty and mystery of this life, and I'm delighted to see it's been reissued for everybody to experience.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, December 16, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Days Have Gone By (Audio CD)

This is my favorite album of all time. I have never heard more beautiful or haunting music. I heard this album for the first time when I was five, and I must have heard it a thousand times since then, but it continues to be fascinating. My dad once said that this is the music you would hear after the world ended. And he's right. Fahey's music sounds organic, like it came from the earth, not from the hands or mind of a person.