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Bill Fay Group, "Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow"
More than 35 years after Bill Fay's work first surfaced on DeccaRecords, the unique singer-songwriter is finally getting his due. Isuppose its inevitable that an artist who recorded two such singularlyidiosyncratic and intensely rendered albums—1970's Bill Fay and 1971's Time of the Last Persecution—andthen permanently disappeared off the radar screen would be the subjectof much speculation.
Durtro/Jnana
In Bill Fay's case, this speculation has oftentaken an unfortunately hyperbolic form, with many critics painting aportrait of a psychotic loner whose music was clearly the result ofdrug burnout and paranoia, a "mad bearded Rasputin" with a resemblanceto Charles Manson (a reference to the photograph of Fay on the coverhis second LP). This finally prompted Bill Fay to write an angry letterto The Wire last year, setting the record straight: that he was simplya songwriter who had long hair and a beard "as a lot of people didthen," and that he had never been heard from again only because he losthis contract with Decca after the poor sales of his two albums, andcouldn't get signed anywhere else. "I still continued to write andrecord but not with a label," Fay continued, and Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrowis the first evidence of that work. This album, recently released as adigipack CD by Durtro/Jnana (David Tibet has long been a champion ofFay's music), contains Bill Fay's third album, the follow-up to Persecution,recorded 1977-1981 but never released until now, 25 years later. BillFay Group is the name given to Fay's teaming on this record with TheAcme Quartet, a misleadingly named improvising trio of guitar, bass anddrums. These smaller arrangements create a more intimate backing forFay's intensely personal, soul-searching songs that provides aninteresting counterpoint to the huge, Scott Walker-style MOR strings(along with searing fuzz guitar and climactic passages of free jazz)that characterized the first two LPs. This is not to suggest that themusic on Tomorrow is simple, however. It is far from simple.The group utilizes a complex interplay of competently played jazz andpsych-rock elements with sudden left turns into areas of psychedelicabstraction, as well as vocal doubling, stereo panning and amultritracked backing chorus. At times the effect is very reminiscentof the mid-70s work of Pink Floyd, at others Soft Machine. Roger Watersand Robert Wyatt at their best, however, cannot equal the haunting,apocalyptic lyrics and intuitive chamber-pop songwriting that seems toflow so easily from Bill Fay. Over the course of 20 tracks, the artistnever misses a hook, creating haunting pop songs that recall theinstantly memorable melodies of a Paul McCartney with the chillingdoomsday prophesizing of a Current 93. If Time of the Last Persecution represented the songwriter's emotionally wrenching exegesis of Armageddon, then Tomorrowpoints to a doorway out of tribulation and purgatory. After climbing a"Strange Stairway" to "Spiritual Mansions," and confrontingunflinchingly the hypocrisies of life and man, Fay sings triumphantly:"We are raised/We sit beside Him now/We are raised." Bill Fay navigatesa symbolic world informed by Christian prophecy, but illuminated fromwithin by personal revelation. His weathered voice and unique musicalgenius are able to mediate these impossibly vast concepts straight intothe realm of the individual. It's outrageous to think that this albummight never have seen the light of day had it not been for the effortsof Durtro/Jnana and the Bill Fay Group, as it represents the inevitableand necessary third chapter to the trilogy and a sublime masterpiece ofmodern pop music.
Durtro/Jnana
In Bill Fay's case, this speculation has oftentaken an unfortunately hyperbolic form, with many critics painting aportrait of a psychotic loner whose music was clearly the result ofdrug burnout and paranoia, a "mad bearded Rasputin" with a resemblanceto Charles Manson (a reference to the photograph of Fay on the coverhis second LP). This finally prompted Bill Fay to write an angry letterto The Wire last year, setting the record straight: that he was simplya songwriter who had long hair and a beard "as a lot of people didthen," and that he had never been heard from again only because he losthis contract with Decca after the poor sales of his two albums, andcouldn't get signed anywhere else. "I still continued to write andrecord but not with a label," Fay continued, and Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrowis the first evidence of that work. This album, recently released as adigipack CD by Durtro/Jnana (David Tibet has long been a champion ofFay's music), contains Bill Fay's third album, the follow-up to Persecution,recorded 1977-1981 but never released until now, 25 years later. BillFay Group is the name given to Fay's teaming on this record with TheAcme Quartet, a misleadingly named improvising trio of guitar, bass anddrums. These smaller arrangements create a more intimate backing forFay's intensely personal, soul-searching songs that provides aninteresting counterpoint to the huge, Scott Walker-style MOR strings(along with searing fuzz guitar and climactic passages of free jazz)that characterized the first two LPs. This is not to suggest that themusic on Tomorrow is simple, however. It is far from simple.The group utilizes a complex interplay of competently played jazz andpsych-rock elements with sudden left turns into areas of psychedelicabstraction, as well as vocal doubling, stereo panning and amultritracked backing chorus. At times the effect is very reminiscentof the mid-70s work of Pink Floyd, at others Soft Machine. Roger Watersand Robert Wyatt at their best, however, cannot equal the haunting,apocalyptic lyrics and intuitive chamber-pop songwriting that seems toflow so easily from Bill Fay. Over the course of 20 tracks, the artistnever misses a hook, creating haunting pop songs that recall theinstantly memorable melodies of a Paul McCartney with the chillingdoomsday prophesizing of a Current 93. If Time of the Last Persecution represented the songwriter's emotionally wrenching exegesis of Armageddon, then Tomorrowpoints to a doorway out of tribulation and purgatory. After climbing a"Strange Stairway" to "Spiritual Mansions," and confrontingunflinchingly the hypocrisies of life and man, Fay sings triumphantly:"We are raised/We sit beside Him now/We are raised." Bill Fay navigatesa symbolic world informed by Christian prophecy, but illuminated fromwithin by personal revelation. His weathered voice and unique musicalgenius are able to mediate these impossibly vast concepts straight intothe realm of the individual. It's outrageous to think that this albummight never have seen the light of day had it not been for the effortsof Durtro/Jnana and the Bill Fay Group, as it represents the inevitableand necessary third chapter to the trilogy and a sublime masterpiece ofmodern pop music.
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