the return of the repressed and

horsemouth may be repeating a canard here but allegedly fahey’s 1989 shanachie released album god, time and causality was (with the exception of one track recorded with terry robb in salem, oregon) originally recorded back in 1977 for takoma (his own record label) and rejected by them.

 it features a number of medleys of his established material and (by 1989) yet another version of red pony (a tune he had recorded numerous times under numerous different names since at least 1969).

fahey had been running an independent record label (one of the first) pressing them up in limited edition runs because he was (at the start of his career) unknown and short of funds. he would frequently lose the master tapes and be obliged to re-record the entire album (later, or maybe round about now, he would ask one of his disciples to do it and the odd track would sneak on to a CD reissue - another source of money - ). the independent had been a success and fahey had landed several albums onto other record labels as a result of it - but we are getting ahead of ourselves in our backwards storytelling of his ‘career’.

by 1989 fahey has moved to salem oregon - he has plenty of health problems - he needs the money -it will not be until 1994 that his ‘career’ will be relaunched by new wave aficionados with the compilation return of the repressed - so he’s busy selling his stuff all over town to keep those royalty cheques coming in. this record sounds great (if a little familiar) but (sorry designers) it looks terrible.

 "When I play the guitar, even when I am practising, I am besieged with images, memories, deja vu experiences, and emotions; and for every chord I play, for every tune I write, there is within me a distinct and unique image, emotion, or feeling. What made and continues to make guitar playing exciting for me, and what makes it bearable during long, long two-set jobs, is the continual show of emotions, images, memories, etc., that comes before me internally as I continue to practice or play... Where was I when I wrote this song? What is the name of this strange feeling I am having while I play this chord sequence or this song? Consciousness is in a constant state of flux." - John Fahey 

 there is a game with time that horsemouth is playing here, like philip k.dick’s counterclock world (or martin amis’s times arrow), where what was the resolution of the material becomes its opening statement, grows to fullness then disperses into its inspirations. there is an inversion both of the moral sense of things and their meaning in terms of causality. there is an opportunity here to see things differently.