Jim O'Rourke and John Fahey, photographer unknown, thanks to Susan Archie.

For an instrumentalist, John Fahey did an awful lot of talking, usually with a deadly intent. He loved to upset, outrage and subvert audience expectations and did so sometimes brutally (he occasionally stopped playing and sat there smoking a cigarette, staring at the audience) but most often playfully.

1) The Book Of Genesis By Charlie Patton

In November 1960 Fahey and Bill Barth recorded "Wissen Schaetlich River Parts 1 & 2" for Jolly Joe Bussard's Fonotone label. It's is a parody, of sorts, of Patton's "High Water Everywhere Parts 1 & 2".

It's a guitar duet, of course, but also something more. Here's a transcript:

JF: I remember the flood.

BB (with exaggerated drawl): Which flood was that, man?

JF: The flood.

BB: Was that the Yallaboosha flood?

JF: There's only one flood. When the water come down. I think I was in that flood.

BB: And on the ark was Noah?

JF: He had all the animals.

BB: He had armadillos, man?

JF: Yeah, he had armadillos.

BB (getting straight to the point): He had women, man?

JF (unexpectedly): He had women coral snakes.

BB (insistently): And women people, man?

JF (evasively): What women?

BB (changing tack): How long did it flood, man?

JF: Forty days and forty nights.

BB: Ain't never seen a flood worse'n that.

JF: [something about levees]

BB: How did it flood before they built the levees, man?

JF: You must be an old man. How old are you? [indecipherable]

BB: It washed away my whisky, man.

JF: We didn't have no whisky in the boat.

BB (fuddled): My whisky in what boat?

JF: In the boat I was in.

BB (clearly envious): All you had was animals and wine and women.

JF (again unexpectedly): And white men.

BB: Well what was you doin' there, man?

JF: I used to be white.

BB: You been transreincarnated since then?

JF: I been transre-enumerated.

BB: You been united with the Holy [indecipherable] yet?

JF: They took my blues away.

BB: Can't unite no more without blues?

JF: Not much.

BB (evangelising): Man, you can unite. All you gotta do is believe on the Lord.

JF: It'd help to have the blues too.

BB: If you go to church they give you the blues. It ain't much but they give it to you.

JF: Little blues ain't no blues. I want lotsa blues.

BB: You don't play like anybody else.

JF: Yallaboosha.

BB: Yallaboosha run into the Yamahoocha below the Amfavasca.

JF (sceptically): Might. I never been there but I guess it would anyway.

Note on Bill Barth: He formed the Insect Trust in 1966. Their self-titled album in 1968 featured a recording of The Singing Bridge of Memphis Tennessee. I never heard it.

2) That Part of the Show's Over

There's a notorious, well-loved bootleg concert recorded at Mr Brown's, Columbus, Ohio in June 1978. In the first half of the performance Fahey races through some splendid medleys lasting 20 minutes each. He does the business, he gets on with it, he delivers the goods. However, after the first half comes the second half. Here's a transcript:

JF: Now they must turn over the house, in other words all of you have to leave and pay to come back again regardless of whether only I play or both people play. This is the standard policy of the clubs on the circuit in the United States - I beg your pardon?

Audience: Encore, encore!

JF: I just played the encore, baby, you wanna hear me again you stay and pay your money for the second set!

JF plays six more tunes without a break and without talking. The rowdy student audience applauds.

JF: Woh, thank you ver' much, one more li'l drink of brandy [beginning to speak in a mock French accent] - I just wajnt to 'ave one more shot of the brandy but there was none 'ere... Unfortunately it is all GONE but what can one do...

He bums a cigarette from someone in the crowd then continues, still in the French accent.

JF: Now I will play. I will conclude this evening's performance with the song we used to sing ice-skating in the winter going to see a girl-friend at McConnellsville [?] up the [indistinguishable] river.., and by the way if anyone whats to see me tomorrow night, when I am more sober or more drunk as I am, I will be in Dayton, Ohio, on June 20th - is that tomorrow night? Yes, ah, at Gillie's...can't read the address, yes, Dayton, Ohio but I can't read the name of the street, and then on June 22nd I am in Milwaukee. And now a sacred song from my youth skating up the [indistinguishable] river in midwinter to see my girlfriend Gretchen Hosenfat... I don't remember exactly what it was but for God's sake does someone have an ASHTRAY? I don't wanna burn the stage... ASHTRAY! Thank you, thank you, let us have a hand for the young man, the cute young man, ha ha ha ha... ah, but have you ever made it with an elephant? And now, the Ice Skating Song concluded by two spirituals - hey GANG!

JF: The first part of this song starts quietly, just gimme one minute of relative quiet, not absolute quiet, just a little bit of quiet, so that it can build up dramatically, so you can imagine skating up the [indistinguishable] river, ha ha ha ha haaaah!

JF plays "The Grand Finale".

JF: [Yelling now] You've got to sing "You've Got to Walk that Lonesome Valley'. I can't sing

He proves this by howling the first couple of lines. He exhorts the audience to join in. Howls out the rest of the song. The most painful recording in the whole Fahey discography. He slides into a frantic "Grand Finale". The crowd yells.

JF : [The ridiculous French accent returns] Thank you very much. I have enjoyed playing here this evening. I will not play any more, but if someone wants to sing a couple more hymns.., so I wonder if we could have a couple of requests for hymns we could sing together.

Audience: "Knott's Berry Farm" …"Oh Lord I'm Discouraged"!

JF: You wanna sing "Lord I'm Discouraged", you came up here and I'll play it and you sing it. Come on, come on. And where the hell's the bartender with the brandy? Come on, man, you wanna sing "Lord I'm Discouraged"?

Man in audience: I can't even remember the first line.

JF: I'm tired...

Flamboyant amateur in audience commences singing.

JF: That's not the first line, that's the verse.

Audience : "In Christ there is no East or West"

JF: No, no, let's sing spirituals. I have the American copyright on that. Come, come, let's sing some ooooold country hymns.

Audience [satirically]: "Onward Christian Soldiers"!

JF: Nah, corny, corny, corny. Country hymns, country hymns, man. Okay. We have a young man here who wishes to lead us in a hymn. What is the name of this? An old Negro spiritual, good one.., what are the words? Oh, oh yeah, it's called "I'll Meet you on the Other Shore". Now you must keep strict rhythm young man. Let us have the hand for the young man who is going to try to lead us in an old, a very very old Negro country spiritual.

Young Man (rather rudely): I don't know if I can keep it as strict as you. I haven't drunk quite as much.

JF: How's this key? What's your name sir?

Young Man : Masked Marvel.

They perform.

JF: No no no we gonna sing you some songs from way down south. We recognise that this is Southern culture up here. Let us sing you something REAL DEEP SOUTH. Do you know "Troubled Bout my Mother"? Well, what do you know?

Marked Marvel: I know a lot of Charley Patton. Blind Willie McTell. "Moon Goin' Down"?

JF: No, no, spirituals.

They are all looking blank. The audience is growing restive. Fahey is losing their attention.

JF: Do you do "Down by the Riverside"? It's kind of a little overdone, don't you think?

Someone suggests "The Other Side of the Jordan" but no one remembers how it goes.

JF: Do you do "Sone Day, Some Happy day"? SOME DAAAAAAAY, SOME HAAAAAAAPPY DAAAAAAAY... You don't know that.

Masked marvel: I could follow it.

JF: "Jesus Met a Woman by the Well"... "Lord, Lord, He's a Dying Bed Maker"...

Masked Marvel: Which one's that?

JF: Well you tell me, cause you're singing.

Masked Marvel: I'm drawin' a blank "I Shall Not be Moved".

A group of women in the audience break into "Will the Circle be Unbroken".

JF: Oh, man, everybody's tired of "Will the Circle be Unbroken". God damn, come on ladies. Come on ladies, cool it, cool it. We're tryna do spiritual songs that you ain't never heard before. You can hear those songs any day of the week... If you don't like what we're doin' you can kick us out, but what they're doin' you can hear anytime up here. Now you had a song there, "I Shall Not be Moved", but the original, not the Martin Luther King stuff.

They perform "I Shall Not be Moved".

JF: Hey, you know what we got, we got a problem. I am in a weird tuning in which I can only play in one key.

Masked Marvel: Yeah, and it's a little too high for me.

JF: So I am gonna change to standard tuning... Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to attempt to recreate in our diminutive manner a song which A P Carter wrote many years ago called "I'm Going Down to the River of Jordan Some of these Days". Give me perhaps fifteen seconds more to tune my guitar, cause I am just not as good as Maybelle Carter to whom I did dedicate my new book which isn't coming out by the way. Y'all will forgive me for my lack of hot guitar licks, like Maybelle Carter maybe, but I don't have a capo. Never use one. Sing.

They perform.

JF: You know folks, we are amateurs at doin' this gospel singin' but, by God, you know I was brought up in Maryland, near the Appalachian Mountains, and, er, I happen to believe all this stuff we're singing... [collapses in laughter]. If anyone wants to sit around and sing a few more gospel songs... I ain't gonna sing nothing too sentimental, cause I don't believe in that... "Horses"? I wrote a song called "Horses" but it ain't got nothin' to do with this stuff man... Well, you're from Ohio and - hey, Canada's same as Ohio. Better place than where I live. I have to live in that damn place California and I hate it. Let us not do "Gospel Ship" because Joan Baez did it and I hate her... Look, I want songs that didn't come out of the God damned folk boom. I want songs that came out of these hills just like I did. Yeah, that's what I'm looking for, man. Songs that come out of my heart didn't come out of this Joan Baez Pete Seeger crap. Beg pardon?

Audience: "Requiem to John Hurt".

JF: No, no, that part of the show's over, we're just singing a few gospel songs... If we do this song "Will the Circle be Unbroken" which you've all heard, we're gonna do it really nice...

3) John Fahey As Jim Jones

And finally, from the mid 70s, a less rambunctious Fahey stops playing and decides to speak to the audience directly from his heart:

"Oh, I just want to take a cigarette break...mumble...it's this dissolute, horrible, disgusting, nauseating guitar-playing, travelling around, picking up girls...after a while it gets to you. One day.., er, what the fuck is that? It sounded like a toilet.., my life is bad enough without having to listen to...mumble... I think I'll take up a different line. I don't know how to do anything except play the guitar and be sinful and lead a dissolute life and travel around and be nauseating... and get people to feel sorry for me. Yeah but who wants to go to a gym and... I mean I used to do that. Oh there must be some way out of this awful life. In fact I tried suicide and it won't work, I really did, sixty-five [?], thirty-forty valium, I woke up in intensive care. You know...three days and three nights in a motel room. Doctor said, well if that won't kill you nothing will. There's no way OUT. Got a gun but my psychiatrist took my gun away. He won't gimme any more sleeping pills. He's got my gun in his closet. I wonder what else is in that closet, what he's got from his other patients...I mean it's been six years and I'm still sweating, leading a dissipated sinful nauseating disgusting life, playing guitar, picking up girls, sleeping, playing guitar. Surely there must be a better way to live. If I could only find it. I could go to sleep. We could all go to sleep. Why don't we all go home and - why don't we go out back and have a joint suicide? Let's all go out back and commit suicide. Every one of us. The neat thing would be when the newspapers come they won't know what happened. Nobody will be able to figure it out. Ergh......noisy places, fulla cigarette smoke. Well, I got through that cigarette..."

Incidentally, Fahey was wrong. They would have figured out what happened because there was a tape running.