John Fahey Dance of Death and Other Plantation Favorites Review

1965 studio album by John Fahey

The Trip the light fantastic of Expiry & Other Plantation Favorites
Studio album by John Fahey
Released	1965
Recorded	August 22–24, 1964
Studio	Adelphi Studios, Silver Bound, MD
Genre	Folk
Length	52:38 (Reissue)
Label	Takoma
Producer	ED Denson
John Fahey chronology
Death Chants, Breakdowns & Military Waltzes (1963) The Dance of Decease & Other Plantation Favorites (1965) The Transfiguration of Bullheaded Joe Death (1965)
Alternative Comprehend
Cover of the 1968 release of the LP

The Dance of Death & Other Plantation Favorites (originally issued equally Vol. 3: The Trip the light fantastic toe of Death & Other Plantation Favorites ) is the third album by American fingerstyle guitarist and composer John Fahey, released in 1965. The 1999 reissue contained iv previously unreleased tracks.

History [edit]

In the early 1960s, Fahey was enrolled in the graduate program in folklore studies at UCLA. In the summer of 1964, along with Nib Barth and Henry Vestine, Fahey visited the South where they "rediscovered" blues great Skip James.^[i] Fahey and ED Denson formally created Takoma Records in 1963. With increased distribution, Fahey'southward albums began to enjoy increased sales and popularity, though he had not as yet publicly performed on stage. As Matt Hanks stated in his commodity "Age Confronting the Motorcar" for No Depression, "For some reason, the hippies loved it."^{[2] [3]} For his part, Fahey stated in his liner notes for his 1996 release City of Refuge, "I do promise that nobody will try to brand me out equally a child of the sixties. I was playing what I play earlier and after the sixties. This catamenia had very little influence on me. I was never a hippie, and had no hippie friends."^[4]

The anthology was recorded at Adelphi Studios by Cistron Rosenthal. Rosenthal would later create Adelphi Records, naming his characterization after Fahey's song "The Downfall of the Adelphi Rolling Grist Mill". He also claimed iii other unused tracks from these sessions were used on subsequent releases by Fahey.^[two] Over 30 songs were recorded during the three-day sessions.^[v]

Of the sessions, Fahey recalled, ""Information technology was an interesting session. It was the but 1 I ever did on marijuana and whiskey. Information technology was kind of bouncy, you know. Another reason for that—I didn't actually own a good guitar at that time, then I was using Neb Barth's guitar, which was a big J-something Gibson and it had a real high action, then I couldn't concord the strings downward very well."^[5]

"The Last Steam Engine Train" was covered by Leo Kottke on his 1969 anthology 12-String Blues and again on his 1973 album Greenhouse.

"On the Banks of the Owchita" is a duet with guitarist Bill Barth which uses a musical refrain composed by Ravi Shankar (credited in the liner notes) for Satyajit Ray'south The Earth of Apu.^[six] The 1999 reissue bonus runway "Steel Guitar Rag" is based on "Guitar Rag", Sylvester Weaver's original version of the song. "Vino and Roses" was later re-titled equally "The Ruddy Pony". "Poor Boy" became a Fahey standard.^{[5] [7]}

Fahey connected writing liner notes in a similar vein equally his previous two releases, attributing them to "Elijah P. Lovejoy". The notes were extensive, pseudo-academic, and humorous — all included in a booklet, which would often be the case on early releases past Fahey. Andy Beta, of The Hamlet Voice described Fahey'southward liner notes in a 2006 commodity: "Doctoring loquacious, ludicrous liner notes for his cocky-released piece of work that tempered his arrogant self-mythologizing with hilarious self-effacement, he mocked the academic bluster of scholars and revivalists. He renames his Fonotone patron "Joseph Buzzard," records as Blind Joe Death, or else espouses his work as "expert" Elijah P. Lovejoy." and noise guitarist and writer Alan Licht noted that Fahey "did as much to take folk out of the hands of squares as his music did," and he suffered lightly those that pined for the by."^[8]

The notes on The Dance of Death included an all-encompassing discography and the basic theme of the notes is the search for John Fahey and his musical legacy:

"Prior to his discovery in 1958 past a Takoma enquiry team Fahey had played as a guitarist for a bluegrass band; ofttimes actualization with Bill Hancock and Greg Eldridge, but no recordings are known from this period. Sometime in 1956 he was smote to the ground past a bolt of lightning. Upon awakening he heard Blind Willie Johnson singing and from that fourth dimension onward he ceased playing hillbilly and concentrated upon blues. His offset recordings were fabricated under somewhat mysterious circumstances for the Fonotone company—a pioneer in the folkfield.

Shortly before she met her tragic finish by impalement when a chair rung she was tuning slipped from place under terrific pressure, Mrs Petranick informed us that John had the knowledge to operate recording equipment and that he was a hypnotist. Plain, he would go to Fonotone with Bullheaded Joe Death and Blind Thomas. The next morn the A & R man would awaken with a slight headache and a stack of unidentified masters. Needless to say this has left some ambiguity in the records of the company. We have here listed all recordings made by any of these artists, regardless of the name used on the label. While doubtless some of them are by Death or Thomas or even Firk, all of them are of considerable merit and we felt information technology best to take the chance of including a few besides many, rather than risk leaving any out."^[ix]

Reception [edit]

Professional person ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[ten] [11]
Encyclopedia of Pop Music	('64)[12] ('67)[12]
The Great Folk Discography	seven/ten[13]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[14]
Tom Hull	A−[xv]

In the liner notes for the 1999 reissue, Lee Gardner comments "[Information technology] represents the first, all-time recorded declaration from Fahey that he was interested in transforming his music into a vehicle for personal expression that built on his influences but accepted none of their prosaic boundaries. Present this sort of concept is a given. Merely it didn't exist until Fahey took it on, and precious few of those who have followed him took it further than he did."^[5]

In reviewing The Trip the light fantastic of Death & Other Plantation Favorites for Allmusic, music critic Richie Unterberger called it "One of Fahey's less eccentric early efforts, featuring relatively straightforward instrumentals showcasing his deft finger work and occasional keening slide."^[10]

In his review of the 1999 reissue, Alex Henderson called the CD "...substantially a folk album, simply a folk album with strong country and dejection leanings... this anthology makes it clear that even back in 1964 Fahey was quite original."^[11]

Music critic Ivan Emke referred to the original album every bit "the 1 that helped to launch his reputation. Much of information technology is inspired by the country blues and Delta sounds that he had been drawn to, and yet it was obvious that Fahey [was] taking the tunes to places they hadn't been before... a classic; it provides a snapshot of a musician in transition."^[sixteen]

In 2013, Spin included the album on their listing of "The Top 100 Alternative Albums of the 1960s", calling it "a gorgeous, holistic, and wildly exploratory album, the reverberations of which go on to bubble up everywhere — from William Tyler and Daniel Bachman to Matt Valentine and across."^[17]

Reissues [edit]

• The original encompass of The Dance of Expiry & Other Plantation Favorites was simply a white encompass with black lettering of the title. It was reissued past Takoma in 1967 with new artwork similar in style to that of the 1967 reissues of Blind Joe Death and Death Chants, Breakdowns & Military machine Waltzes.
• The Dance of Decease & Other Plantation Favorites was reissued by Takoma in 1999 on CD with four bonus tracks.

Track listing [edit]

All songs credited to John Fahey unless otherwise noted.

1. "Wine and Roses" – 3:28
2. "How Long" – 2:55
3. "On the Banks of the Owchita" – 3:52
4. "Worried Dejection" – 2:24
5. "What the Sun Said" – 10:xi
6. "Revelation on the Banks of the Pawtuxent" – 2:34
7. "Poor Boy" (Fahey, Bukka White) – 3:xix
8. "Variations on the Coocoo" (arr: Fahey, Clarence Ashley) – 4:00
9. "The Final Steam Engine Railroad train" – 2:18
10. "Give Me Corn Bread When I'chiliad Hungry" – 3:12
11. "Dance of Death" – 7:39

    1999 reissue bonus tracks:

12. "Tulip (AKA When You Wore a Tulip and I Wore a Big Red Rose)" (Arr: Fahey, Jack Mahoney, Percy Wenrich) – 2:43
13. "Daisy Bell (A Cycle Congenital for Two)" (Arr: Fahey, Harry Dacre) – ane:twenty
14. "The Siege of Sevastopol" (Arr: Fahey) – i:22
15. "Steel Guitar Rag" (Traditional) – 2:ten

Personnel [edit]

• John Fahey – guitar
• Bill Barth – guitar ("On the Banks of the Owchita")

Production notes:

• ED Denson – producer
• Gene Rosenthal – engineer
• Bill Belmont – reissue producer
• Joe Tarantino – remastering
• John Fahey – original liner notes
• Lee Gardner – reissue liner notes
• Tom Weller – original design
• Deb Sibony – reissue design
• Jamie Putnam – reissue art management

References [edit]

1. ^ Pouncey, Edwin (August 1998). "Blood on the Frets". The Wire (174). Retrieved March 15, 2010.
2. ^ ^{a b} Dunlap Jr., David (July 7, 2006). "The Cosmos Club". Washington City Paper. Archived from the original on June 27, 2008. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
3. ^ Hanks, Matt (1997). "Age Against the Machine". No Low (May–June). Archived from the original on September 28, 2012. Retrieved March 17, 2010.
4. ^ Fahey, John. "Liner Notes: City of Refuge". Retrieved Apr ii, 2010.
5. ^ ^{a b c d} Gardner, Lee, Liner notes from 1999 reissue
6. ^ Gardner, Lee. "CD Notes: The Dance of Death and Other Plantation Favorites". The haunting "On the Banks of the Owchita," another misspelled river tune worked up and performed on this recording with Barth, establish its inspiration even further afield. The melody came from a musical refrain composed by Ravi Shankar and used throughout Indian director Satyajit Ray's 1958 film The Globe of Apu. "I went to see that a number of times the year I was flunking out of Berkeley," Fahey recalls. "I was severely depressed considering I couldn't find a girlfriend and I couldn't laissez passer philosophy exams. Although it's very major-key and all that, my associations with it are very somber." {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
7. ^ "The Fahey Files - John Fahey - Notes on the Songs - The Dance of Expiry". Johnfahey.com . Retrieved 3 Jan 2022.
8. ^ Beta, Andy (January 2006). "Looking for Blind Joe Decease". The Village Voice.
9. ^ Fahey, John. "Original liner notes: The Dance of Death & Other Plantation Favorites". Takoma Records. Retrieved Apr 9, 2010.
10. ^ ^{a b} Unterberger, Richie. "The Dance of Death & Other Plantation Favorites > Review". Allmusic. Retrieved March 26, 2010.
11. ^ ^{a b} Henderson, Alex. "The Trip the light fantastic toe of Death & Other Plantation Favorites > Review 1999 reissue". Allmusic. Retrieved January 26, 2010.
12. ^ ^{a b} Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (fifth concise ed.). Motorcoach Press. ISBN978-0-85712-595-8.
13. ^ Strong, 1000. C. (Martin Charles) (3 January 2010). "The keen folk discography. Book ane, Pioneers & early legends". Archive.org. Edinburgh : Polygon. Retrieved iii January 2022.
14. ^ Sheffield, Rob (2004). "John Fahey". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). London: Fireside Books. ISBN0-7432-0169-8.
15. ^ Tom Hull. "Grade Listing: john fahey". Tom Hull - on the spider web . Retrieved September 10, 2020.
16. ^ Emke, Ivan (November 1999). "Review: The Dance of Decease & Other Plantation Favorites". Dingy Linen.
17. ^ "Photographic paradigm of album sleeve". Spin.com . Retrieved 3 January 2022.

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dance_of_Death_%26_Other_Plantation_Favorites

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