The Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick

John Fahey | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 8, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Water
• ASIN: B00030CHI0
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #186,674 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Introduction

2. When the Springtime Comes Again

3. Joe Kirby Blues

4. Requiem For Mississippi John Hurt

5. When the Catfish Is in Bloom

6. Fahey Blows His Nose

7. Intro to Lion/Challenges to Quitting Cigarettes

8. Lion

9. Dance of the Inhabitants of the Palace of King Philip XIV of Spain

10. View East From the B&O Railroad Viaduct and the Riggs Road Intersection

11. The Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick

12. In Christ There Is No East or West

13. Announcement

14. The Death of the Clayton Peacock

15. The Revolt of the Dyke Brigade

16. Magruder Park

Editorial Reviews

One of acoustic music's true innovators and eccentrics drawing from blues, Native American music, Indian ragas, experimental dissonance, and pop, John Fahey was living in Berkeley, California in the late Sixties when this set at San Francisco's legendary Matrix club was recorded. Drawing the best material from his two sets at the club that night, The Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick shows the influential fingerpicker at the height of his prodigious technique. Deluxe package with detailed liner notes by Fahey expert (and Cul de Sac member) Glenn Jones.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fahey blows his nose, and there ain't no better thing., February 22, 2005

By 

Giovanni Parmigiani (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick (Audio CD)

I just bought this album, and I should probably listen to it and study
it for a decade or two, like I did with almost all the rest of Fahey's
amazing production, before pronouncing a verdict like this, but.... here
it comes. This could be the one Fahey CD to have if for some cruel and
unusual reason you were condemned to only have one. He was at the top
of his game in terms of creativity (though some of his early eighties live
guitar playing remains unmatched technically and is better recorded) and
chose a marvelous (marvelous!) set of compositions for these concerts,
including some of the more ambitious and complex symphony-like pieces,
as well as a handful of the more folksy and gospely arrangements that
made him a favorite of fingepicking gymnasts.

Live albums are my favorite of his, and this is inevitable, after seeing
him in concert. Live, he was shyer with kitch and gratuitous
experimentalism than he was on vinyl, but still visionary and
uncompromising. He communicated an energy, and a sense of complete
sincerity and meaning that where overwhelming and emotionally
exhausting. He also had a sound that was out of this world. I once hung
out with him for a couple of hours while he was warming up before a
concert. For him a warm-up was much like that of an athlete, because he
played strings that would have pulled a cable car and used picks that
could have been made out of the rails (ok, slight exhaggeration). But out of
all of that metal he managed to negotiate a rich, complex and
surprisingly warm range of tones, as well as a massive volume and
harmonic inhertia (check out the requiem for John Hurt). Most everyone
else on the same gear would sound like an old metal bridge swaying in
the wind.

So, listen to the beautifuly simple and profound melody of Joe Kirby
Blues. It is an elementary piece to play. If it does not get you to a
guitar store buying metal picks and steel strings (and the wood to go
with it) I don't know what else will.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential early Fahey, December 23, 2004

By 

George T. Parsons (Nevada City, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick (Audio CD)

The earliest live recordings yet released by the late and immortal John Fahey, find him at the peak of his powers. Veering between his vision and version of traditional playing that may ocassionally slow or speed up for emotional emphasis, to pieces of beautiful hallucinatory individuality and expression like "Dance of the Inhabitants of the Palace of King Philip XIV of Spain". Over 76 minutes long with excellent sound quality, and most of the audience noise thoughtfully edited out by producer (and liner note author) Glenn Jones (of Cul de Sac), making this sound more like an album than a "live album", though it has all of the charm of the latter, without having it's flow chopped up by waves of applause. Subtitled "Live at The Matrix San Francisco, California 1968/1969", this is essential for the already converted, and an ideal entry point for the novice.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fahey At The Top Of His Form, December 16, 2004

By 

HungryJack (West Coast) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick (Audio CD)

This set was recorded live in the late Sixties at San Francisco's legendary Matrix club (owned by Marty Balin of the Jefferson Airplane). The sound quality is excellent and Fahey, who was living in Berkeley, California at the time, is in top form on these 17 tracks. The packaging is out of this world and notes by Fahey scholar and Cul De Sac member Glen Jones are the very best. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!