THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,892) Bill Fay — “Goodnight Stan”
British cult folk rock singer-songwriter Bill Fay (see #774, 953) passed away almost exactly a year ago. Here is a beautiful and haunting song from his first LP, possibly inspired by an uncle of his who was poisoned by mustard gas in World War I.
Robert Leeming writes:
Bill says “My Uncle Will was poisoned by mustard gas in the trenches, I can remember him just sitting there, in his chair, while my Aunt May played ‘Sunshine of your Smile’ on the piano for him.” He is inspired still by that 1915 generation. “They were not confronted with the same things I was in the 60’s.” Like many men and women of the time, the relatives he recalls from his formative years gave up jobs, love and a fuller life, to care for kin scarred by war. The ghosts of these people dwell within Bill’s music, his grandfather writing music hall songs on his guitar, his aunts and uncles singing around the piano. In the song “Goodnight Stan” he sings about an ‘old boy’ coming home from his allotment, with nothing to defend himself against a drastically changing world but a watering can and a weary knowledge. An ode to an aging man, who couldn’t comprehend a new age.
https://robertleeming.com/2010/08/18/still-some-light-bill-fay/
As to the LP, Bill Fay recalls that:
[T]he first album was recorded in one day and mixed the day after. I had been to [album musical director] Mike Gibbs’ house and played him the songs on piano, which he recorded on a cassette tape recorder. Mike then went to work on arranging them. I recall arriving at the studio slightly late on the morning of the session, and upon opening the studio door I turned to go, thinking I’d entered the wrong studio, until I spotted a nervous Mike Gibbs standing in the midst of a 27-piece orchestra. It was his first arrangement session and he confessed that he’d added various things to my songs and had been awake all night worring, unsure if the arrangements were going to work. Apart from one song . . . his arrangements did works and it was a very moving experience to sing and not know what you were going to hear next. . . . The variety and augmentation makes the work more interesting and meaningful now. I value it a lot.
liner notes to the CD reissue of Bill Fay
As to Fay, Grayson Haver Currin writes:
[He] stumbled into music in the ’60s. As a college student in Wales, he began to forsake his electronics curriculum for writing songs featuring piano and harmonium. His demos found their way to Terry Noon, briefly Van Morrison’s drummer and a budding music impresario, who helped Fay secure a contract with an imprint of Decca Records and assemble a sharp studio band.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/15/arts/music/bill-fay-countless-branches.html
Richie Unterberger gives Fay’s post-single and pre-rediscovery history:
British singer/songwriter/pianist Bill Fay cut two albums for Deram during the early ’70s that became bona fide cult classics. His self-titled debut appeared in 1970 and was linked by comparison to recordings by Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, but Fay’s songs were more cosmic in scope lyrically and featured pop-orchestral arrangements. 1971’s Time of the Last Persecution . . . won the lion’s share of media attention because of its rather dire and apocalyptic subject matter. There was even speculation by music journalists about the decaying state of Fay’s mental health that proved to be nonsense. Fay’s records fell into obscurity, and he virtually vanished from music for more than two decades.
Fay issued . . . his lushly orchestrated self-titled debut [album] in 1970. While critical notice was favorable, there was precious little airplay, and the label’s marketing department had virtually no idea how to place his work. Though Bill Fay sold poorly, the label chose to record a follow-up in hopes of building interest. . . . Given its gaunt, haunted-looking cover photo of the artist, as well as the deeply pessimistic spiritual subject matter about the world coming to an end, journalists speculated Fay was a hopeless drug addict and/or mentally ill. Some even claimed he was homeless and raving on the streets. None of it was true. . . . Due to poor sales of both albums, Fay was released from his contract and Deram eventually deleted both recordings. They subsequently became cult classics and were reissued in 1998; they were finally greeted with nearly universal acclaim.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/bill-fay-mn0000073553/biography
Fay graciously reflected that:
Decca . . . wasn’t too sure what was going on musically — what musical styles might become successful, and therefore rewarding to them, or not. Someone once said that Decca’s policy was to throw many pieces of musical mud at a wall in the hope that some of it would stick. I was one of those pieces that fell off the wall, along with others, but I had a chance before, my contract expired, to make a single and two albums that featured a lot of musical contributions from others and a lot of diversity in content. I’m thankful to Decca for that and for the freedom . . . to do it.
liner notes to the CD reissue of Bill Fay
Album producer Peter Eden later reflected that “Bill’s an appreciative guy who genuinely didn’t mind if he had a hit or not. He never wanted or craved success — the songs were all that interested him.” (liner notes to the CD reissue of Bill Fay)
Here is the Bill Fay Group (recorded sometime between 1978 and 1980 (https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/albums/bill-fay-group-tomorrow-tomorrow-and-tomorrow-charts-humane-compassionate-songs)):
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