Bill Fay is a singer-songwriter and pianist from London.

Fay began w… Read Full Bio ↴Bill Fay is a singer-songwriter and pianist from London.

Fay began writing songs in the early 1960s while attending university and in 1966 cut a demo using a mobile studio belonging to a man named John Boden. Impressed by the demo, ex-Them drummer Terry Noon helped Bill to sign a recording contract with Decca. In 1967 the label released the single "Some Good Advice"/"Screams in the Ears", produced by early Donovan co-manager Peter Eden. The single "introduced [Fay's] characteristic downbeat melodies and scrambled impressionistic lyrics", according to allmusic reviewer Richie Unterberger. The self-titled Bill Fay was released in 1970 and was followed by Time Of The Last Persecution in 1971. Neither records sold well and Decca decided to end Bill’s contract shortly after the release of Time Of The Last Persecution.

Bill had returned to the studio in the late 70s, but these sessions weren't released until January 2005 through Durtro/Jnana records as Tomorrow Tomorrow and Tomorrow under the moniker of the Bill Fay Group. In 2004 Wooden Hill records released From the Bottom of an Old Grandfather Clock, a collection of demos recorded between 1966 and 1970, plus one song recorded in 2000.

Bill has since contributed "It's the Small Things Now" to the Not Alone charity compilation and "Pear Tree Tomorrow" to Bill Fay Group guitarist Gary Smith's Supertexture project.

American band Wilco have played Fay's song "Be Not So Fearful" in live performances and the band's singer Jeff Tweedy can be heard singing it in the documentary "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart: A Film About Wilco". Fay joined the band onstage for the rendition of the song at a show at the Shepherds Bush Empire in London in 2007. A cover version of Fay's "Pictures of Adolf Again" by producer and musician Jim O'Rourke and Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche can be heard in the movie from Koji Wakamatsu "United Red Army". The track "Time of the Last Persecution" became a live standard of British Apocalyptic Folk group Current 93.

A double album entitled Still Some Light was released on the Coptic Cat label in 2010. The first CD, ‘PIANO, GUITAR, BASS & DRUMS 1970–71’, consists of studio recordings sourced from archival 7 ½" tapes and cassette from 1970 and 1971, with Ray Russell on guitar, Alan Rushton on drums and Daryl Runswick on bass. The 1970 tracks are prior to the recording of Time Of The Last Persecution, and contain alternative versions of songs on that album, two tracks from Bill's first album Bill Fay as well as previously unreleased songs. There are also previously unreleased songs from 1971. The second CD, Still Some Light, is a home-recorded studio album from 2009.

NPR’s show 'All Songs Considered' premiered Bill Fay’s new single, The Neverending Happening on June 26, 2012.

Bill Fay's new album Life Is People was released on August 21, 2012 on Dead Oceans. It featured guitarist Matt Deighton (Oasis, Paul Weller, Mother Earth), drummer Tim Weller (Will Young, Noel Gallagher, Goldfrapp), and keyboardist Mikey Rowe (High Flying Birds, Stevie Nicks, etc). In addition, Bill is reunited on several tracks with Ray Russell and drummer Alan Rushton, who played on Time Of The Last Persecution.

City of Dreams
Bill Fay Lyrics

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I’m a street sweeper
In your city of dreams
Yeah I’m a street sweeper
In your city of dreams

Sweeping off the paper cups
Between the limousines
Street sweeper, in your city of dreams

Thousands of windows
I’m scared of what I see
Thousands of windows
I’m so scared of what I see
People wired up to telephones
Plugged into tv screens
Thousands of windows
I’m so scared of what I see

Looking at the sky above
Higher than these neon names
I’m looking at the skies above
Higher than these neon names
You can buy and sell the clouds
They ain’t among the commodities we trade
Looking at the sky above
Higher than these neon names
I’m waiting for
The city of god
Yeah I’m waiting for
The city of good
When worries will be
What was, waving for
The sea I’ve got

I’m a street sweeper
In your city of dreams
Yeah I’m a street sweeper
In your city of dreams

Sweeping off the paper cups
Between the limousines

Street sweeper, in your city of dreams
City of dreams, city of dreams.

Overall Meaning

The song "City of Dreams" by Bill Fay is a commentary on the contemporary urban society and the dangers it poses to individuals. The lyrics open with the declaration that the singer is a street sweeper in what can be interpreted as a metaphorical 'city of dreams', which is the urban society. The street sweeper here could be seen as a metaphor for someone who is not part of the metropolitan elite, someone who is not living the high life, but instead is tasked with the mundane and often dirty job of keeping the city clean.

As the song progresses, the lyrics shift to a commentary on the human condition in the city. The thousands of windows mentioned in the lyrics represent the countless people living in their own isolated bubbles, wired up to technology and consumed by their own personal worries. The street sweeper expresses fear and uncertainty about what he sees. He longs for the unattainable "city of God" or "city of good", where worries no longer exist, and the waves of the sea are the only thing he needs to carry him through life.

The song paints a bleak picture of urban life, where people are trapped by their routines and disconnected from each other. The street sweeper's job symbolizes the reality that exists below the surface of the city's glamorous facade, and the song suggests that the weight of this reality is heavy on the street sweeper's mind.

Line by Line Meaning

I’m a street sweeper
I'm just a common worker

In your city of dreams
In this place of great expectations

Yeah I’m a street sweeper
Yes, that's all I am

Sweeping off the paper cups
Cleaning up the trash

Between the limousines
In the midst of the wealthy

Thousands of windows
So many people

I’m scared of what I see
I'm afraid of what I observe

People wired up to telephones
Individuals connected through technology

Plugged into tv screens
Engrossed in television

Looking at the sky above
Gazing at the heavens

Higher than these neon names
Beyond the flashy lights of the city