Sunday

Death Chants, Breakdowns, and Military Waltzes

The original 1963 release:






Circa 1965:






The 1968 release:




Circa 1970:




Circa 1972:









Circa 1973:





The 1972 'dragon' label came initially and very briefly claiming to be 'Monaural'; it wasn't of course. This appears to be the only dragon label that uses that moniker, despite many mono records remaining in the catalogue.

With the 1967 sleeve, the track listings for the two sides are reversed on the back. I suspect Takoma got a bit confused, meaning to do it on 'Dance of Death' instead (see my notes with the entry for that album). The track 'Take a Look at That Baby' is not listed on the cover at all. These mistakes were repeated on the 1968 cover.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello Stephen, many thanks for your groundbreaking work here. I really wish I'd knew it before I started buying records by Fahey in US (mostly from Ebay).
It would have spared me a lot of disappointment and trouble.
Anyway, its hard to understand the reason for all these pressings and different labels (as all this costs extra money). How many records were pressed? Not many I guess. Do you have an idea?
Thanks for your time.
A.

Anonymous said...

My vinyl copy of this from 1972/73 has odd discrepancies. The jacket reverses the songs on side 1 and 2 and doesn't list "some summer day" at all. The vinyl looks like the picture you have but when you play Side 1, cut 6, labeled as Spanish Dance, it is "Take a Look at That Baby". And vice versa for Side 2 cut 3. I've never understood why there were so many mistakes (or jokes) in the versions of JF albums. I have original issue Best of CD and every song is mislabeled.

Anonymous said...

Dear Stephen,

I recently bought my vinyl copy of "Death Chants" in the UK. I believe it is a 1965 pressing, though it has one alteration which is not found in your picture. It lists it catalog number as "C-1000" instead of "C-1003." What's the deal with that?

Best,
Ben

Elliot Knapp said...

Probably my favorite Fahey (the 1963 version), and that's saying something! I just reviewed this one on my blog. Great site!