Return Of The Repressed: The Anthology

John Fahey | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 4, 1994)
• Original Release Date: October 4, 1994
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Rhino / Wea
• ASIN: B0000033C2
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #37,999 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Desperate Man Blues

2. Dance of the Inhabitants of the Palace of King Phillip XIV of Spain

3. Sligo River Blues

4. Sun Gonna Shine in My Back Door Someday Blues

5. On Doing an Evil Deed Blues

6. I'm Gonna Do All I Can for My Lord

7. Some Summer Day

8. Worried Blues

9. Tell Her to Come Back Home

10. Poor Boy

See all 22 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. The Yellow Princess

2. Lion

3. The Revolt of the Dyke Brigade

4. The Portland Cement Factory at Monolith, California

5. Steamboat Gwine 'Round de Bend

6. Lord Have Mercy

7. Beverly

8. Hawaiian Two-Step

9. Candy Man

10. Jaya Shiva Shankara

See all 20 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

This is the first comprehensive collection of the master acoustic guitarist's best work spanning nearly 30 years.
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: FAHEY,JOHN
Title: RETURN OF THE REPRESSED-ANTHO
Street Release Date: 10/04/1994
Domestic
Genre: FOLK

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars essential, in two senses, December 26, 2000

By 

C. H Smith (Bowling Green, Kentucky United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Return Of The Repressed: The Anthology (Audio CD)

Rhino Records has done the music world a great service over the years in resurrecting old classic works, and here's another of their successes. Fahey's approach has not changed very much over the span of his 40 year plus career, but because he is such an original this is not necessarily a bad thing. The essentials of his music can thus be reasonably succinctly listed: (1) the leading American fingerpicking style guitarist of his generation, with strong influences on Leo Kottke and many, many others (2) a quirky sense of humor, evident both in his play and choice of subject material (3) a straightforward, almost brutally direct fingerpicking style (he calls 'American primitive') influenced by American blues and a slew of other elements (4) a singular lack of popular (i.e., sales) success (with the exception of his brilliant Christmas album, "The New Possibility") (5) a concentration on solo, vocal-less 6-string play, but with occasional excursions into bottleneck guitar, tape-looping, dog barks, and whatever else might suit him, and (6) the occasional educational element (Fahey has a Master's degree as a musicologist, and spent a good deal of time in the field collecting material by old masters). This collection is excellent and representative of it all; there are 42 cuts on the 2-cd package, including, among others, 'Sligo River Blues,' 'On Doing an Evil Deed Blues,' 'Knott's Berry Farm Molly,' 'In Christ There is No East or West,' 'The Yellow Princess' (my personal favorite), 'The Approaching of the Disco Void,' 'Rain Forest,' etc., etc. The best place to start for an overview of the musical world of this unconventional but fascinating instrumentalist.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thirty Years Of John Fahey, December 15, 2000

By 

Steve Vrana (Aurora, NE) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Return Of The Repressed: The Anthology (Audio CD)

The John Fahey of the Nineties tends to pan much of his early work. In a recent article for the British music magazine "Wire," Fahey says, "A lot of what I did is embarassing to me now, because it was pretentious and stupid." His legions of fans--myself included--disagree. Over the past forty years and as many albums, Fahey has created an impressive body of work which explores what the artist dubbed "American primitive" guitar.

The forty-two tracks on this album are culled from twenty albums beginning with the original recording of Blind Joe Death in 1959 (although it is the 1967 rerecordings that are used) through 1992's Old Girlfriends and Other Horrible Memories. Since only a handful of Fahey's albums are still in print, this compilation offers an opportunity to hear many songs that are otherwise unavailable.

Fahey's unique blend of blues and folk music make for some of the most arresting finger-style guitar playing you'll ever hear. Fans of Leo Kottke, the late Michael Hedges or countless other guitar players influenced by Fahey, owe it to themselves to listen to this generous sampling of songs from the master. Highlights are too numerous to mention, but I especially enjoy "Desperate Man Blues," "I'm Gonna Do All I Can for My Lord," "On the Sunny Side of the Ocean" and "In Christ There Is No East or West." ESSENTIAL

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Solid Retrospective Of An Essential Atrist, March 12, 2000

By 

Michael Strom (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Return Of The Repressed: The Anthology (Audio CD)

Surprising to see so few reviews of this set (so far). Fahey was hugely influential in the boom in acoustic guitar music that followed his recordings of The Legend Of Blind Joe Death in 1959, 1964 & 1967. It's doubtful that we ever would have heard Leo Kottke or any of the Windham Hill guitarists (Ackerman, Hedges, De Grassi, et al) if not for Fahey's playing, recording, producing and advocacy of this genre of music.

It is hard to get your arms around such a sprawling body of work, but this 2 CD anthology does a pretty good job. On the plus side, it includes a generous 6 cuts from Blind Joe Death. On the other hand, there is only 1 cut from America -- an inexplicable shortcoming fortunately remedied by the subsequent release of an extraordinarily expanded version of America. Anyone interested in Fahey should at least supplement this anthology with America.

Fahey went many places with his acoustic explorations and, frankly, one is unlikely to enjoy all of the songs here. However, the overall batting average is high (more so on disc 1 than on disc 2).