Blog Songs, episode 1

Speaking of religious zealots...I want to try posting music on this blog, as often as possible, so I thought I'd inaugurate what I hope will become a regular thing with some Bill Fay. Here are two tracks from his second and final album, Time of the Last Persecution, originally released on Decca in 1971. A couple of years ago Eclectic Discs reissued both of Fay's albums under the title Bill Fay Plus (I think), so go find that and buy it if it's still in print. Otherwise, his stuff is easy to find on the net. You guys know how to google.

Anyway, I really like Bill Fay's first (self-titled) album too. It's definitely over-orchestrated, but I'm a sucker for that kind of over the top shit, especially when the orchestration is a little bizarre, as is the case here. In Time of the Last Persecution, however, the arrangements are utterly wacked out. The album was produced by Ray Russell, and the dude just wails over Fay's somber tunes with heavy fuzz guitar solos, epileptic shredding, and multilayered, noisy orchestration. I really like how the orchestration just drops in out of nowhere on a lot of the songs on this album, just barfing all over the tracks. As for Fay, he's been compared to Roy Harper, Alexander Spence, Scott Walker, Nick Drake...you get the idea. Deep, depressed, kind of nutty British guys. And if you haven't guessed already, Time of the Last Persecution is totally apocalyptic. Get into it!

This first track, "Release is in the Eye," is pretty characteristic of the rest of the album, although it lacks the unexpected arrangements I mentioned earlier. Nice melody, weird Christian lyrics, flat singing, awesome fuzz.


"I Hear You Calling" is a simpler cut, but really compelling (in my opinion)


I hope you like it! Leave a comment if you do, or if there's anything in particular you'd like me to post on here. If that something happens to be out of print, expensive, or absent from the net, I'll try to make it appear.