THE NATURE OF REALITY


I am the Great Koonaklaster.

I created music, poetry, dance, painting, sculpture, all the arts. I am
the Great Koonaklaster.

I have performed the apple tree bit many many times in order to save the
human race from mediocrity and from

middlebrow.

From the Great Beast of public opinion.

From the Great Beast of the middle of the middle.

From the Great Beast of bad taste.

In short, I have performed the apple tree bit to save the world from evil.

What is evil?

Let me tell you.

It isn't me.

Oh I know what the Christian Church has said about me. I know it all too
well. And I say to them as I say to you, if you insist in believing in
dualism, that's your problem. If you think I have a tail and green
reptilian scaly skin and horns, that's your problem. The hooves, I
grant you, are a problem at times. I AM DARK KRISHNA. I ALWAYS
PLAY THE FLUTE OR THE PIPES OR THE QUILLS OR THE HARMONICA.
I AM HENRY RAGTIME TEXAS THOMAS.

I AM BIG BOY CLEVELAND.

A crazy visionary rant on The Nature of Reality by the late great guitarist John Fahey. It's in part a debunking of Greil Marcus's Invisible Republic and a meditation on the true meaning of Harry Smith's canonical Anthology of American Folk Music.

Fahey's book How Bluegrass Music Destroyed my Life is an involving grab bag of stories of growing up weird, going fishing with delta blues madman Skip James and punching out pretentious Italian movie auteur Michelangelo Antonioni.

Oh yeah, check out his records too....