The Day We Lost Bill Fay - Remembering A Cult Icon
A voice that has echoed through the spiritual speaker with grace and complicated character contemplation for the last half century, North London-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist William “Bay” Fay captured the intricate imaginations of his audacious audience with his monumental sophomore album, “Time Of The Last Persecution.” It is a spellbinding effort that, like most of its time, transcends the poetic perimeters of popularity and chart success by showcasing a masterful collection of songs and tremendous titles that cast a lyrical light into the epic darkness. A well-known cult classic among underground peers and cryptic collectors far and wide, Fay’s legacy is as legendary as it is legitimate in the vast world of transcendental sounds and mythical melodies. A colleague among the cosmic greats like Judee Sill, Jackson C. Franke, F.J. McMahon, and Karen Dalton, Fay’s oscillating orchestration into the arts began in the mid-1960s while attending the university. Having sent early demos to future member of Mannheim Steamroller John Boden, Fay’s story begins and ends under the same waning gibbous as most of the decade, but where his tonal tale places its fundamental fingers on the sonic skulls of society, its radiating reverb still inspiring today, his influence still occupies a bardo someplace sacred and serene for contemporaries to pull from. With a helping hand from ex-Them drummer Terry Noon and his critical connections to Decca from the band’s early days, Fay wrote and recorded the 1967 single “Some Good Advice / Screams In The Ears,” and from there set the building blocks for his 1970, self-titled debut and its confident glow.
“I recall arriving a bit late to the session and thought I’d entered the wrong studio at first. There were about 30 musicians assembled and a nervous Mike in the middle of them. It was his first arranging job and he admitted he’d kept adding this, and adding that, and had been up all night worrying if it was going to work. John Surman was on sax and John Marshall on drums. On electric guitar was Ray Russell, an innovative and much under-acknowledged guitarist and writer, who had albums out himself. It was recorded in a day, with tea-breaks, and mixed the following day. No 2nd takes. I sat down at the piano about 10.15 in the morning with Richard and George nearby, and Ray and the orchestra all around and we just started playing.”
With the release of 1971’s “Time Of The Last Persecution” on Deram, shortly before being let go from the label, Fay gathered a strong suite of musicians to help bring his melodic masterpiece together, such as Alan Rushton, Ray Russell, Bud Parks, and Soft Machine’s Nick Evans. The album’s quick evaporation into the ether of distance and mystery holds no candle to its atmospheric allure and sophisticated status among collectors and the generations of admirers to come. Throughout the 1990s, Fay’s soulful status increased in such an iconic way that it began reverberating through the feverish fields of the contemporary climate of songwriting like nothing he had ever experienced before. Having stated in the early 2010s, “Up until 1998, when some people reissued my albums, as far as I was concerned, I was gone, deleted. No one was listening. But then I got the shock that people remembered my music. I was doing some gardening and listening to some of my songs on cassette, and a part of me thought they were quite good. I thought, "Maybe somebody will hear them someday." That same evening, 14 years ago, I got a call from a music writer telling me that my two albums were being reissued. A shock is not gonna get much bigger than that, David. It was astonishing to me. I won't ever really be able to believe that it happened. That's how I feel about it. I had come to terms with the fact that I was deleted but that I had always kept writing songs anyway, and that was good enough.” With tracks such as the album’s epic opener, “Omega Day,” “Release Is In The Eye,” “Plan D,” and “Dust Filled Room,” granting generous access to the late legend’s marvelous mind, “Time Of The Last Persecution” is a groundbreaking testament to the tonal tenacity of Fay’s musicianship, and complex career. Spiraling into the ancient sun at a spiritual speed like no other, the late musician’s legacy is carefully carved into sediment stone with irresistible instruments, perfectly preserving the poet’s melodic memory for all eternity. Fay was 81.
