Takoma
1977
The Best Of John Fahey 1959-1977
About This Album
The title of this compilation is a little misleading. Although it is indeed an anthology, and the most recent two tracks were recorded in 1977, nothing was recorded as early as 1959. In fact, nothing was recorded before the mid-'60s. If you believe the track notes, nothing was recorded before 1967, though it should be pointed out that the two tracks from The Dance of Death & Other Plantation Favorites, given a recording date of 1967 on this CD, are given a recording date of 1964 on Takoma's reissue of that very album. Anyway, although this is fine music, as a survey it's not exactly balanced, with the 15 tracks on the original LP coming from just five albums, though John Fahey had released more than a dozen LPs by the time of this collection. So it's essentially the best, as determined and selected by Fahey himself, from these albums: Death Chants, Breakdowns and Military Waltzes, The Legend of Blind Joe Death, The Dance of Death & Other Plantation Favorites, and John Fahey/Peter Lang/Leo Kottke. That is, with the addition of two pieces ("Spanish Two-Step" and a re-recording of "Dance of the Inhabitants of the Palace of King Philip XIV of Spain," originally cut for the 1963 version of Death Chants, Breakdowns and Military Waltzes) that Fahey cut specifically for this best-of compilation.
Track List (try tracks 1,5,12 and 13)

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