John Fahey - "When The Springtime Comes Again"

John Fahey's project was not to unite classical guitar playing with American roots music, rather, that union was one of many ingenious tools he devised in his tireless and brave efforts to realize and perfect his own unique aesthetic.

Fahey started recording music near the end of John Coltrane's life, and, perhaps, there was a cosmic purpose for that. Most restless artists are untrustworthy; they'll take as many steps in the wrong direction as in the right one. But Fahey, like Coltrane, pushed, approached from different angles, increasingly oblique angles, but always successfully, without exception, brilliantly. Don't be afraid of a John Fahey Christmas album. Listen to it. He knows what is good in a very deep way.

"When The Springtime Comes Again" is simultaneously a Bach Concerto, a Joplin rag, and a Spanish folk song. But it transcends all classification when, at 2:33, (the bass note missed slightly) the mist clears away and we're left with a bright cold day. What was merely lovely and impressive starts to ache. His syncopated playing presents a question. What now? This is what we've been waiting for, but what now? The question is repeated until it becomes its own answer, until it is no longer asked, but asserted confidently. And then we start again. It is the springtime after all, and what should we do in the springtime, if not start again. [Buy]

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Al Green - "Simply Beautiful"

Shhh. All right.

"Simply Beautiful" is an unfocussed, unstructured self-directed monologue on love. Green is organizing his thoughts, getting ready to discuss his situation, maybe call his girl, maybe write a song about it. His attempts at expressing his feelings in words are abortive, he often resorts to 'mmm's and 'aaah's, 'baby'. His words fail him again and again:

"What about the way you love me and... the way you love me"

"When you get right down to it..."

What? He doesn't know. There are no words.

Finally, he's so emotional, so overcome by the power of his love that he's ready to talk, ready for his song to start. He squeals, "When you feel the love..." (the drums come in (you thought the song was over, but it's just beginning)) "all you've got to do is call me."

"There are so many good things I could say about you, girl. I could say that you really, really..."

And he's said it all. [Buy]