[Jandek] re: a letter from Jandek

[BlackMonk]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "rangoon" <rangoon at ntlworld.com>
To: <jandek at mylist.net>
Sent: Friday, June 17, 2005 6:15 PM
Subject: [Jandek] re: a letter from Jandek


>> A couple weeks ago, I sent a copy of an LP I released last year
>> (Jeff Fuccillo with John Fahey, "Disturbed Strings") to
>> Corwood Industries. Byron Coley had reviewed it in Arthur &
>> noted Jandek's influence, among others, on Fuccillo's playing,
>> and I was curious to see what Jandek's reaction to it would be.
>> I got a package from him today that included a full-page
>> letter of his comments on the record (or, more accurately, his
>> thoughts on the stylistic comparison), a mention of his own
>> contact with Fahey ("We received communication from John Fahey
>> some 10 years ago or more. He sent "The Legend Of Blind Joe
>> Death" along with personal correspondence...")
>
> This is fascinating - I've always considered there to be at least a
> superficial parallel between Jandek & Fahey, specifically in that
> a) they both recorded and released self-produced albums into a critical
> vacuum (Glenn Jones' notes for the CD issue of 'The Legend of Blind
> Joe Death' says that "in retrospect not even the earliest Sun Ra
> records on Ra's El Saturn label or the self-produced albums by Harry
> Partch on Gate 5 seems as hard pressd to find an audience as John's
> first effort...", easily as applicable to Corwood releases) and
> b) Fahey's obfuscation of his own biography (especially his 'Blind Joe
> Death' guise), as well as his consistently deceptive sleevenotes served
> the same purpose of distracting and deflecting the listener as Jandek's
> consistent absence of sleevenotes or information...I'm certainly not
> trying to hammer this point (despite my earlier post about a parallel
> between 'Later On' & a few Fahey albums), nor that Jandek is a 'serious
> blues musician', but without ever really expecting any kind of reciprocal
> 'influence', the fact that this acknowledges that both artists were even
> *aware* of each other's work feels really important (if only to me...) -
> thanks for the information (and I need to track down the Jeff Fuccillo
> album as well!)
>
>

I asked about this on a Fahey list, and Glenn Jones expressed some surprise 
at this because a) he didn't think Jandek was the kind of thing Fahey liked, 
and b) it was odd that he'd send a copy of his first album in 1994 since he 
had a negative opinion of it at the time.

My guess is that Fahey might have heard some common ground between the two 
of them. Someone once burned me a CD of Jandek material and filled it out 
with Legend of Blind Joe Death. The transition wasn't as awkward as some 
might think.

I wonder which Jandek album Fahey heard. If the 94 date is a little off and 
he heard White Box Requiem, that would make sense.  The guitar on WBR 
strikes me as a dissonant version of blues playing.

It's also possible that Fahey had a contrarian streak (well, he definitely 
did that), and thought "hey, no one could possibly like this guy. He's a 
genius."