Time Of The Last Persecution [LP]

Bill Fay's second album, Time of the Last Persecution (1971), is a haunting and contemplative work blending folk, rock, and spiritual introspection With it's poetic lyrics and evocative melodies, the album explores themes of faith, doubt, and human vulnerability. His 180gm vinyl re-issue replicates the original UK pressing. As Fay's journalistic champion Rob Young wrote in 2005, "If Bill Fay was his songs of innocence, Time Of The Last Persecution collected songs of experience." Shorn of the lush orchestration of his debut, Time Of The Last Persecution, originally released in 1971 and produced by Fay's guitarist Ray Russell, is deep, pensive and philosophical. Working with a small band, songs like 'Til The Christ Comes Back and Release Is In The Eye are powerful statements, with Russell's guitar lyrically complementing Fay's sometime oblique words. One of the most prescient songs is Pictures Of Adolf Again, which looks aghast at the resurgence of the right-wing 25 years after the Second World War. Fay questions what the choice people will have to make "Christ or Hitler?... Christ or all the Caesars to come?" The title track was influenced by the Kent State University massacre; Come A Day suggests that at the day of reckoning, no nation will prevail. Of Time Of The Last Persecution, Ray Russell said in 2005, "I think it was apocalyptic. I think we were all waiting for the sky to open a bit. But, funnily enough, you know how these feelings kind of bring you through things, and it's interesting that people now find it very relevant to the situation again." Sadly, issues like this never seem to go out of fashion. With it's subject matter, the album's occasional discordance, and Fay's dishevelled look on the cover led to speculation that Fay was about to become another hippie casualty. Far from it. He got a day job and lived quietly, yet never stopped writing. "I've just simply accepted the fact that I wasn't an established artist and couldn't keep making albums. But the songs didn't stop... To be able to write songs is really a big enough plus." Thank heavens he could Time Of The Last Persecution is one of the best albums you've never heard.