Bill Fay’s Time of the Last Persecution
Title track of his second album on Deram, recorded in 1971
A record very much like Vashti Bunyan’s
In its history, anyway
Sonically, perhaps its polar opposite
Instead of arcadian ballads with vocals floating sweet and soft
This is fiery apocalyptic hellscape with wailing guitars (courtesy of Ray Russell) and Fay’s crashing piano
Who couldn’t be drawn (drowned?) into these lyrics:
I must stand by the side of the mountain
I must be where I know I must be
When you stand and face the gas masks and truncheons
You must know what it all really means
It is the time of the last persecution
And Caesar shall be raised
He will ask for his feet to be kissed by your sister
And your children will fear at his name
Do not avenge these deaths do not avenge them
You must know what it all really means
It is the time of the Antichrist know what I say
Make for your own secret place
And others will join you there
And you wait for the ships in the air
And you wait for a sign like a trumpet sounding
And you go out and walk to the Christ
Well, I suppose not everyone
Lili, whose vocabulary–I can assure you–does not yet include truncheon, persecution, or Antichrist, nevertheless says “this guy is scary, daddy, can we please skip this song”
Recent NYT article that does a nice job telling the story of Fay’s early production and its re-discovery:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/15/arts/music/bill-fay-countless-branches.html
But it leaves out a few dose-critical details
The entire Time of the Last Persecution album was recorded in one day
Fay wrote the title song specifically as a response to the vision of the Kent State massacre the year before
And he was literally gardening when he got a call in 1998 from a journalist, telling him his long-lost initial albums were being reissued
Quite like Vashti, after all