|
“A star forever in waiting”
- UNCUT
“Extraordinary”
- MOJO
“Simultaneously fragile and powerful”
- SHINDIG!
“Stunning...Fabulous”
- RECORD COLLECTOR
Soon has been a long time coming. The new album from Scott Fagan, featuring songs originally drawn from the 1971 Broadway rock opera of the same name, has been some 55 years in the making and will finally see the light of day on November 6 via Fire Records. The final pre-release track is album closer “Please Be Well," an uplifting and empathetic plea to take care of oneself in a mixed-up, inside-out world.
"'Please Be Well' was the closing song from Soon," says Fagan. "It’s both an incantation and a blessing, as vital today as it was then to help soothe and re-energize tired and weary souls, crushed by the grind of life.”
LISTEN TO "PLEASE BE WELL"
PRE-ORDER/PRE-SAVE SOON
Soon's title track was released last month. The song is a masterclass in classic songwriting that could easily have slipped into Sinatra’s repertoire. A ballad about hope, faith, yearning, and the promise of a brighter tomorrow, Fagan wrote it at 24, and it feels all the more poignant and affecting sung by him now, in the autumn of his years. The album was initially heralded over the summer with the release of the song "Faces Names and Places," a rousing rocker calling for a thorough accounting of those responsible for the world’s ills, which is a near-perfect fit for the current moment.
LISTEN TO TITLE TRACK "SOON"
LISTEN TO "FACES NAMES AND PLACES
The story behind the album is remarkable. Soon was conceived as a radical call-to-arms against the complacency of the modern world, and a tone poem about art, radicalism, commerce, and corruption. The rock opera drew on Fagan’s own experiences in the music industry, and featured him in the lead role, alongside Richard Gere, Barry Bostwick (later the lead in Grease and The Rocky Horror Show), Joe Butler (of Lovin’ Spoonful), Vicki Sue Robinson, and Peter Allen. The original Broadway production, subject to creative meddling that compromised its creators’ vision, closed the day after its opening. A year later, it was restaged in Los Angeles for a brief two-week run. Then Fagan’s opus was lost to time. The album was shelved, never to be recorded or heard. Until now.
Recorded over seven days in July 2025 at Sam Phillips Recording Service in Memphis, a hallowed studio that has hosted Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Alex Chilton, and The Cramps among others, the sessions found the now 81-year-old singer-songwriter working with a crack Memphis rhythm section—drummer Terence Clark (Brandi Carlisle, Keith Urban), guitarist Steve Selvidge (The Hold Steady, North Mississippi All Stars) and keyboardist Rick Steff (Cat Power, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Lucero).
Soon is an album that feels like a collection of lost classics. Each of the 13 songs is a gem, showcasing Fagan’s extraordinary facility and range as a singer-songwriter of great sensitivity, passion, and humor. From its rousing opener, “Let the World Begin Again”, through fiery protest songs and tender, heart-wrenching ballads, the album is by turns uplifting, mournful, righteous, giddy, soulful, and anthemic.
| 
