Dear Friends & Fellow Travelers:

Good grief, I thought I put all of this to rest last February, but alas, like a bad penny it keeps re-appearing! :-)

So once more into the breech/breach?

Interestingly enough, finally there are posts asking and stating even demanding the truth, sad as it might be..... and it is a great, sad and even epic story, although it's the story of the story that's the most interesting!

I think it was Bobert who posted sometime in May something to the effect of "...when are we going to hear from or interview people who really knew Fahey? And another saying something to the effect that John was a really "rude", un-dependable, jerk, etc. and another to the effect that he was a drunk, etc.

Well folks that barely touches the tip of the Fahey Iceberg.....but it gets even better, or worse, depending upon whether you want to hear and know the truth, or whether you just want more self agrandizing, history changing, easy to swallow pap.

If you want the truth, start out by printing out EVERY article that you can find on the web about John......then circle ONLY the things that Most of those articles agree on, and DISREGARD everthing else.
It's pretty skinny!!! :-)
(Particularly with regard to the early/mid years 1958-1978!)

Let me start out by busting some urban myths, um no let me lay some groundwork first:

John was born in Washington, DC (Not Takoma Park, Maryland)
Oops, did you know that there's also a Takoma Park, DC? Hmmm!
(There's only an imaginary border seperating them, Blair mill road for one)
Did you know that John's parents were seperated?
Has anyone told you where his Mom might have lived? (remember, born in DC)
Would it surprise you to know that there are/were distinct advantages to claiming to be a DC resident, and similarly claiming to be a Maryland resident? Well for example, if you were a Maryland resident, your tuition at MD Univ. right down the road, was just about nothing, for a "po' Boy)! Oops, I don't want to give it ALL away yet! :-)
(except to add that I grew up about 8 blocks away from where John grew up and know those neighborhoods like the back of my hand)

So, Myth number One-

"All of John Fahey's Liner Notes, are total fabrications, or at best crazed allegories having little or no relationship to reality, etc. Ad_nauseum..." - Well good folks nothing could be farther from the truth, seriously!

John's Takoma liner notes, at least through 1977/8 or so, are actually a "coded" almost poetic biography of his life...I'm wanting to note Nostradamus, but not exactly a perfect fit!

Again some background- Any one of you Fahey addicts will certainly recognizes the name Pat Sullivan (note- she was neat, good looking and played a MUCH BETTER guitar then did John, but I digress)- In various articles you'll find John speaking well of her, someone he could "play" with, etc. a soul buddy sorta, now it gets wierd, what you won't find is the fact that Pat Sullivan became the "love object" in a menage'...a battle to the death for her affections between Fahey & Denson, a battle that Denson won, and drove off with her, in her Audi into the sunset heading to California. How do I know? I was there and said goodbye to both of them- noting with some consternation
that Audi Hubcaps that year were held on by one bolt through the middle, or was the whole wheel?
Anyway, Urban legend would have you believe that John set off for California with an agenda other then the real one... which was to chase after his "love object" and try to win her back, unfortunately when he finally arrived she was already Pat Denson!!!

Which brings me to Liner notes, before Pat ran off with ED, Fahey refers to her as Pat, then she suddenly becomes "Evil Devil Woman"!! The only way that the notes are decipherable, is IF YOU WERE PHYSICALLY IN THE VICINITY OF JOHN DURING THE EPISODES THAT IMPACTED HIS LIFE AT THE TIME!(In our release you'll get from me and others an actual biographical translation of various of the more poignant notes!)

So, has anyone recently, or at any time after 1965 interviewed Ms Sullivan/Denson?
What about Flea, John's long time friend and organist? Here in MD
What about Jan Fahey, John's First wife? (Takoma Records)
What about Kerry Fahey? (Takoma Records)
What About Fat Carol? (Takoma Records)
What about Grubby? Rob Garder- Baltimore (Duets w/John Dance of Death)
The above are examples of people that REALLY knew John and will and have told the not so pretty side of John's life. Nope, guys & gals, most of the time, when John performed, it was a bottle of Bourban in his hand- the bottle of coke was as a chaser! (great anecdotes later)

Another Urban legend- In some stories you're lead to believe that John hung out in the "pool hall" and drank beer with his buds! LOL
Um, well for the record, Takoma Park, MD, at that time, had no pool hall, nor even a bar....ya see Takoma Park, MD was entirely controlled by the seventh day adventist population, Duh, NO ALCOHOL AT ALL ANYWHERE IN TKP, MD! Also, drinking age 18....very strictly enforced..... are you getting it yet?

Another history changing urban legend- John Fahey's music is or should be known as "Primitive Guitar", term coined by Fahey! WRONG!
The term coined by Fahey to describe his Takoma releases beginning with Dance of Death was "Contemporary Guitar" as you've surely noted on the Takoma LP releases.... Then Ackerman began calling it "New Age Music" and noted John as the "founding father".
The term primitive guitar came from Fahey years later (1990s) when he was describing the garbage that he recorded for Bussard's Fonotone label....quote "...I just played anything for him so that he'd let me listen to his 78's, it was pretty primitive.." you bet it was!!! LOL

OK, one more, or maybe two before posting this opener--

John has been called the great innovater, the coneptualist of this "new" artform expressionism-
OK, let's examine the reality, in the beginning John was a pretty bad guitarist (Fonotone), he quickly figured out a way to do better, play primarily in "open" tunings.....and then he actually came up with "Genius" (unsung as it were)... As John's first REAL recording engineer John had to teach me a couple of VERY necessary idea/lessons, first he told me/ demanded of me that I can and will learn how to edit in and out "single notes" with a razor blade!! You gotta be kidding John, I said---he wasn't, and I learned how to do it transparently....the reason why?
Oh dear, well because john's genius was in understanding that if you make a mistake in studio performance, and then repeat the mistake, it's NO LONGER A MISTAKE!! Sometimes he would repeat the mistake two or three times (thereby the need for editing)continously before moving on to the next verse!! NOW THAT IS GENIUS! (Dance of Death)
As a final anecdote in this part one-
In those early halcyon years 1964/5 through 1977 or so, I got hornswagled by Denson into being Takoma's "Official" DC area Distributor (After he let for Calif.), so follows my over-hearing the following in the Montgomery College Student Union Crash Area-"...Betty, you won't believe this, my Dad went nuts last night, I was Playing Fahey's Death Chants, Breakdowns & Military Waltzes...and my Dad came crashing into my room and said when is that guy going to stop practising? And then pulled the plug out of the wall...!"

Outta the mouths of Babe's!

Vol. 2 to follow

Respectfully submitted
Gene-Peace