Yellow Princess

John Fahey | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 26, 1991)
• Label: Vanguard Records
• ASIN: B000000EKD
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #425,398 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Yellow Princess

2. View (East from the Top of the Riggs Road/B&O Trestle)

3. Lion

4. March! For Martin Luther King

5. The Singing Bridge of Memphis, Tennessee

6. Dances of the Inhabitants of the Invisible City of Bladensburg

7. Charles A. Lee: In Memoriam

8. Irish Letter

9. Commemorative Transfiguration and Communion at Magruder Park

Editorial Reviews

Reissue of the long out of print 1968 Fahey Classic The Yellow Princess. Includes three new bonus tracks 'The John Fahey Sampler, Themes and Variations', 'Fare Forward Voyagers,1965' and 'Steel Guitar Medley'. Also includes new and original liner notes. Vanguard. 2006. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No Better Introduction To Fahey's Music, March 21, 2006

By 

Michael K. Kivinen (Wyoming, MI United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Yellow Princess (Audio CD)

If I could own only one John Fahey album, it would be "The Yellow Princess," so this reissue is a real treat. This is at least the third time Vanguard has issued this album on CD-"The Essential John Fahey" and "Best of the Vanguard Years" couple it with tracks from Fahey's "Requia"-but this 2006 release restores the original cover art and Fahey's surreal, confounding liner notes. The addition of three previously unreleased tracks from 1965 would suffice to justify purchasing this version, even if you already owned an earlier edition. These include a rare example of his 12-string work, an early version of "Fare Forward Voyagers," and a lengthy slide guitar improvisation. For the uninitiated, I can think of no better introduction to Fahey's music than "The Yellow Princess." All the primary strains of his work are represented here: pre-WWII country blues guitar stylings; Indian raga; Episcopal hymns ("Commemorative Transfiguration and Communion at Magruder Park" quotes "Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones") and even musique concrete ("Singing Bridge of Memphis, Tennessee"). There is a more whimsical, evocative quality to the last-named track than one finds in Fahey's at times dissonant, abrasive later material. Reviewers elsewhere have remarked that "The Yellow Princess" features some of his best guitar work, and that the sonic quality of the recording is as if one is listening from inside the instrument. My friend Clark quotes John Fahey as having said something like, "I'm not the greatest guitarist, but I am the deepest." Let the "Yellow Princess" show you what he meant.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars more essential early Fahey, March 9, 2001

By 

stickymcbiscuit (Washington DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Yellow Princess (Audio CD)

"The Yellow Princess" has a lot in common with Fahey's other early stuff, especially "Death Chants, Breakdown, and Military Waltzes." Similar inspired mix of full-on fingerpicking, slow blues, dissonance and found sound. The title track can be found on a number of anthologies, but the rest of the record is excellent as well. There's drum and bass backing on a few cuts, an unusual set-up for Fahey but one that works well.

Suprising this is only available as an import, according to Amazon. You'd think Vanguard would get with the program and reissue this excellent CD, especially now that he's kicked the bucket. Let's hope so.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Yellow Princess, August 30, 2008

By 

Nathaniel E. Yielding "Natey" (Baltimore, Md) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Yellow Princess (Audio CD)

I remember I was cleaning my apartment when I put this CD in the player. I am very jittery and can't stand still for long periods of time so it means something when I say that I dropped whatever I was cleaning and sat in the midle of my living room and listened to this record in it's entirety. Now, one could hypothesize that the only reason I had such a religious experience with the Yellow Princess is because it was my FIRST John Fahey listening experience and that explanation holds water. There is no way to tell if I would have the same experience had I listened to Breakdowns, Waltzes, and Military Waltzes, Blind Joe Death, or America, or any of the dozens of recordings Fahey has put out first. I will say that none of those aforementioned albums do the same thing that The Yellow Princess does. There is an overall realxed mood of the album that transports the listener to the esoteria of Fahey's mind. Especially if you read the charming linear notes. I love the way he labels his songs as well. He's not afraid to use directions and place names and combine spirtuality with whatever he finds to be meaningful and moving in his life, instead of only what religion would tell him to. In short, this is an amazing album that is guaranteed to satisfy.