Requiem for Russell Blaine Cooper

Friends:

It is a pleasure to see several of you back for another month of fantastic early finger-style repertoire. As many of you know, John Fahey's birthday was yesterday and I like to make a habit of dedicating the March 1st post to him every year.

"Requiem for Russell Blaine Cooper" was first recorded for a commercial album on either January 24th or 25th of 1967 at Hollywood Sound Recorders in Hollywood, California. I have always liked this recording, but I absolutely fell in love with the composition after the live from Reed College recording surfaced a couple years back. It's always exciting to find live recordings of Fahey from the 60s, but this was even more so because it was recorded in such close proximity to the studio version (not even 4 months later). He extends himself in the original, playing fast and loose in parts, and he stretches the form out into a 9-minute solo. The Reed College recording contrasts this by seemingly being stripped down to its essential elements, he takes his time with it. In the C section, which I like to think of as probably being borrowed from an old spirtual or hymn, there emerges this brilliant, brief bridge that is not a part of the studio recording. A testament to how Fahey can find such beauty in simplicity. His playing in this live recording sounds deeply emotional to me.

In the intro, or A section, take your time with the slides and bring out the melody notes that are played with the thumb (beats 1 and 3 of each measure).

In the B section, reming yourself that you only have to navigate two chords. Try to make sense of which direction the picking pattern is moving, pipm or pmpi, and take care in accurately placing and lifting the bar.

In the C section, familiarize yourself with the various positions of the moving octaves. Move in and out of positions gracefully, let the notes breathe.

In my YouTube recording, I omit one repeat of the C section as well as the quote from "The Cuckoo." If you want to learn the passage, go reference the lesson of "Variations on the Coocoo." I will likely be revising a small bit of that transcription at a later time based on what I'm clearly able to hear in the Reed College recording.

I cover all in detail in the patreon lesson video.
https://youtu.be/y_wjUt_U7SU

Transcription is attached below.