greenideas

In the late 60s and early 70s, Fay was making some of the best records nobody's ever heard. Fortunately, his obscurity may be a thing of the past. Through the sheer force of kismet, he's more popular today than pretty much ever, thanks in large part to his cause being adopted by such luminaries as Jim O'Rourke and Wilco. Fay's song "Be Not So Fearful" is featured prominently in the Wilco movie, and the band has been known to cover it in concert. O'Rourke covered Fay's "Pictures of Adolph" (click through to vol. 2) as part of Thurston Moore's Protest Records project.

For the most part, though, the original recordings have been out of print for most of the last thirty years. Fay's two studio albums were reissued in the 90s, but those quickly went out of print as well. The new collection, the Bottom of an Old Grandfather Clock, consists mostly of previously unreleased demos and outtakes. While the sound quality of some of the demos is abyssmal, the collection is emanently listenable.

Fay's sound is characterized by seamless a seamless eclecticism that meanders from delicately maudlin British folk to Lennon/McCartney pop to reverb-soaked heavy psych that anticipates Spiritualized by a good twenty some years. It's baffling to think of how many of today's artists would have been influenced by Fay's music if only they'd heard it.

For anyone exhausted by the deluge of Friendster profiles that namecheck Nick Drake (we'd have to check, but we're pretty sure ours does, so don't get all defensive), run, don't walk, to your local purveyor of expensive imports and secure yourself a copy of this latest reissue. Do it before this one goes out of print, too.

If greenideas were Natalie Portman, and you were Zach Braff, we'd totally put oversized headphones on you and tell you to listen to Fay's "Brighton Beach." It'll change your life.