Customer Reviews

Requia & Other Compositions for Guitar Solo

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

John Fahey has finally arrived at his (pre)destination - that of a cultural icon and purveyor of the lost sounds of yesterday. I bought this CD on impulse, being familiar with the man but not his music. They are both national treasures. His mastery of the guitar shines through, melding the traditional themes of the first two requia and "When the Catfish Is In Bloom" with the more modern, soundscape nature of the Requiem for Molly. Just as Fahey discovered and soaked in the music of this nation's blues forebears, so should you do the same with his own contribution to a unique musical heritage.

It's interesting that in the liner notes to the Fahey anthology, Barry Hansen writes of "Knott's Berry Farm Molly": "After hearing 'Rain' by The Beatles, John became interested in the sounds of music played backward and edited the master tape himself." So it seems Fahey was experimenting with musique concrete techniques a little before Requia. In terms of Fahey compositions with sound effects though, I think my favorite is "The Singing Bridge of Memphis, Tennessee" from The Yellow Princess. Fahey uses these wonderful samples of clanking noises from inbound and departing trains, all beneath his ringing guitar and some anonymous whistling. Whenever I hear it, I just sit back and sigh for three glorious minutes. Requia's "Requiem for Molly" does perhaps get a bit too psychedelic for some to handle, but I still consider it one of Fahey's important records. Of the difficult material from his older releases though, The Great San Bernardino Birthday Party (Vol. 4) is probably more rewarding.

Side two of the original record, mostly "Requiem for Molly Part 1-4" is, as the other reviewers note, "experimental" stuff with guitar played over (or under?) sound effects. It's interesting once in a great while, and both of its time (early psychedelia) and, like all of Fahey's music, not of its time at all. But what makes this a 5 star cd is side one of the original record, the first three cuts. Some of the greatest Fahey ever, a touchstone revisited much through the later years (in "Fare Forward Voyagers (Soldier's Choice)" for instance. Get this for that stuff, and don't let Requiem bum you out too much. The best of Fahey holds up as well as anything ever.

I didn't get it. I bought a cassette of "Requia" about the same time in 1986 that I got a tape of "The Best of John Fahey." In the car cassette deck heavy rotation contest, "Requia" didn't stand a chance. "Best" was full of catchy, short(ish), sometimes almost hypnotic tunes--"Sunny Side of the Ocean," "Sunflower River Blues," "Revolt of the Dyke Brigade," etc... all hum-able in their own way--and the other tape started off about the same, with "Requiem for John Hurt," but after the tape flip, it got menacingly weird, with the side-long guitar and special effects montage "Requiem for Molly." Fahey's fingerpicking and slide work cohabit with carnival music, sped-up matinee idol vocals, aerial bombardment, and Triumph of the Will orgiastic Nazi spectacle: it all seemed to be the penalty round after some twenty minutes of pastoral trance. "Requia" quickly went out of circulation in my Ford Escort, then MIA.

Years later I missed this odd, seemingly wrongheaded, Fahey adventure, and once I started absorbing the rest of Fahey's oeuvre in the early 21st century, I really craved this music. It overshadows the more self-consciously experimental "Yellow Princess," and it caps off a late-Sixties period of interesting exploration ("San Bernardino Birthday Party," "Voice of the Turtle") before a return in the early 1970s to memorable solo acoustic works ("America," "Fare Forward Voyagers") and a move to semi-pleasing big-band efforts ("Of Rivers and Religion," "After the Ball").

Fahey later disavowed this album as naive or immature, or whatever. He disavowed so many of his early works, particularly when he entered his old, electric, cranky, enjoying-the-adulation-of-Sonic-Youth-fans phase. But I would like to simultaneously take the late great John at his word and ignore him on this one. Yes, there are silly experiments with so-called "musique concrete" on "Requia," but guess what: I prefer these post-adolescent tape splicing experiments to almost all of the actual twentieth century avant garde experimentations one has to listen to in a music appreciation class. That is because I really, belatedly, appreciate this music. And if John Fahey has a problem with that, he can look me up. And the c.d. sounds great in my car.

Let me first say that John Fahey is one of my all-time favorite musicians and composers. This album, however, is a peculiarity. Long before Fahey started truly delving into the realm of avante-guard (I really hate that term), he took a first step with the 4 part "Requiem for Molly," (the rest of the album is Fahey in his usual style). It basically sounds like a bunch of weird random noises layered over an interesting guitar line. I never understood exactly where Fahey was going with that. I didn't until I heard Steve Tibbetts, anyway. Steve Tibbetts, like Fahey, is a highly skilled guitarist who uses his technical prowess not as a crutch for bad writing, but as an integral part of his compositions, which are among the most beautiful and complex pieces this side of Bach. Steve Tibbetts' first album, while it lacks the complexity of his later works, showed me the potential of combining the organic sound of acoustic guitars with seemingly inappropriate electronic sounds, and he made it work. I don't think Fahey pulled it off on this album, but he gets points for creativity. Requiem for Molly is more of an historical artifact than a piece that stands the test of time, but it is worth owning for that alone. Besides, the rest of the album is Fahey in top form.

I like and admire John Fahey's guitar playing, but the found noise or musique concrete or whatever you want to call it that drowns out a good portion of this recording is unlistenable. When I heard the first such slogged-up cut, I thought, 'oh alright, I can get through this' -- but then there were three more, comprising about half the record. Who can listen to this? I want guitar playing, not failed musical experimentation at my expense.