John Fahey
1968-01
Second or third generation audio cassette: tape>aiff>flac (audio quality deteriorates significantly and becomes muffled in track 4 "Commemorative Transfiguration and Communion at Magruder Park" -- the other songs are pretty much ok... background noises and tape artifacts, but listenable)

Exact venue unknown, equipment unknown... not to be confused with "The Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick" http://tinyurl.com/9cl6w (amazon.com) which is longer than this set, recorded at a different time (later in 1968 and early 1969) and place (the Matrix in San Francisco), and superior in many ways; if you don't have it yet, it is well worth the purchase price.

1. The Yellow Princess (8:07)
2. Requiem for Molly Part Five (8:31)
3. Requiem for Lion (5:58)
4. Commemorative Transfiguration and Communion at Magruder Park (11:53)
5. Irish Setter (9:58)
44:27 total time


The following is excerpted from "The Fahey Files" created by The International Fahey Committee http://www.johnfahey.com/pages/music2.html

"January 1968: LIVE IN SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA

A wonderful tape of a crackling performance which one day must be released as part of a Fahey "Bootleg Series". Not technically perfect by any means, but bursting with a manic vitality and a missionary belief in the healing properties of the alternating bass.
At this point in his career, Fahey was selling his own albums during the intermission.

The Yellow Princess
JF: "This'll be number one on the record." (Meaning the new record, not out yet.)
Remarkably, this is the only live version of one of Fahey's greatest compositions. Has extra sections and is therefore two minutes longer than the released version.

Requiem for Molly Part Five
JF: "This is 'Requiem for Molly PartÉoneÉtwoÉthreeÉfourÉFive' without - I just play it straight, without sound effects. And see what happens. There's more on this record. This is what's going on underneath all the noise. So on the next [unintelligible] I'm gonna make 'em issue it without any noise."
This clearly indicates that pretty soon after the release of "Requia" Fahey became disenchanted with it.
After close analysis using most of the techniques afforded by the modern sound laboratory, the IFC report that what Fahey actually plays here in this so-called Part Five is substantially different to what he plays on Parts 1-4, so it's really a New Song, and a unique item in this discography.
¥ It sounds much like Part IV to me: same key, same chords.

Requiem for Lion
Exactly as recorded on "The Yellow Princess".

Commemorative Transfiguration and Communion at Magruder Park
Contains sections later omitted on the official version.

Irish Setter
JF: "This is called 'Irish Setter' which I think should go on about number three on the first side probably employing the sound effects department. See all of these things are gonna be cut real short. So this is called 'Irish Setter'". Before he starts the song Fahey changes his guitar, saying "The action's too high on this one. I'll never get through the song." Perhaps one of those guitars was the Bacon and Day, pictured on the cover of "Requia" and currently (1999) residing in the village of Manea in Cambridgeshire, England.
Note JF is still enamoured with the sound collage concept, even though he doesn't like the ones on "Requia" any more. Also note that at this time he was playing unreleased material, a practice later abandoned as he claimed that guitar players in the audience would rip him off."