FARE FORWARD VOYAGERS

This is Fahey’s non-Christian religious album. On the reverse of the sleeve there is this: “I respectfully dedicate this album to my guru, Swami Satchidananda”. Inside the first issue of the album there was a 4 page pamphlet entitled “Yogaville West”, which, we were informed, was “a growing spiritual community in the beautiful mountains of Lake County, Northern California”. Surmounting three pictures of the community was the following message:

“I would like to introduce you to this healthy, spiritually based concept of living. The 46 people living here follow the ideals of Integral Yoga as taught by Swami Satchidananda. To the extent that I have practised these techniques, they really seem to work. – John Fahey.”

JF in 1994: Probably the primary reason I got involved with them was that I fell in love with Swami Satchidananda’s secretary Shanti Norris. So I was doing benefits for them, hoping to score points with her, and along the way I learned a lot of hatha yoga.

JF in 1990 said that this record was in his opinion, his greatest guitar record, adding that it contained only one edit. He gave up playing the three songs as they were too demanding.

When the Fire and the Rose are One
Phrases from Requiem for Russell Blaine Cooper included right at the end.
Thus Krishna on the Battlefield
Includes a lot of When the Catfish is in Bloom. Note: I don’t think so. However the following track does.
Fare Forward Voyagers
This 23:42 song finishes with a slight return of Dalhart, Texas, 1967; Fahey’s interpretation of Jess Morris’ Goodbye, Old Paint. See America.
.

John Fahey and T S Eliot: A Literary Note

The titles on this record are from Eliot’s Four Quartets.

Fare forward
O voyagers, O seamen
You who came to port, and you whose bodies
Will suffer the trial and the judgement of the sea
Or whatever event, this is your real destination.
So Krishna, as when he admonished Arjuna
On the field of battle.
Not fare well,
But fare forward, voyagers.
All manner of things shall be well
When the tongues of flames are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.