In Your Mind

Bryan Ferry In Your Mind

Bryan Ferry: In Your Mind

I caught Bryan Ferry's In Your Mind tour back in 1977 and lemmetellya, that band was awesome...and I don't use that term lightly!

Chris Spedding...guitar super-hot session guitarist
Phil Manzanera...guitar Roxy Music
Paul Thompson...drums Roxy Music
John Wetton...bass ex-King Crimson

...plus keyboards, brass and backing vocals. Spedding was simply incredible and Wetton was and is, on that performance, the best bass player that I've ever heard. Unfortunately, the band overshadowed Bryan Ferry, who seemed ill at ease in all that slick rock'n'roll.

And therein lies the problem with In Your Mind, it's trying to be something that Ferry is not. Don't get me wrong, there are some nice tracks...and if smooth rock'n'roll is your thing, you might want to give it some attention.

This Is Tomorrow was the big single with a music video shot in tour rehearsals in Japan...but the b-side, still unreleased (as far as I know) on CD, As The World Turns was something truly remarkable. Written with Roxy Music's Eddie Jobson and featuring a sublime guitar solo by King Crimson's Robert Fripp, it sounds like the theme song to a great, tragic French movie. Incredibly European...and perhaps my favorite Bryan Ferry track, ever.

N.B.: As The World Turns was available on CD for a short while on the Mamouna E.P. which was released (confusingly) as a companion to the album of the same name.

The release collected together a number of hard-to-find Bryan Ferry tracks:

1. Mamouna Single Edit (ex: Mamouna)

2. The 39 Steps - Brian Eno Mix (ex: Mamouna)

3. As The World Turns (co-written by Roxy Music member Eddie Jobson, the b-side of This Is Tomorrow single)

4. She's Leaving Home (written by Lennon & McCartney from the album All This & World War 2, a double album of Beatles cover-versions by various pop stars of the mid-1970s)

5. Four Letter Love (ex: The Bride Stripped Bare sessions)

6. Broken Wings (ex: The Bride Stripped Bare sessions)

7 Is Your Love Strong Enough? (ex: the soundtrack of Ridley Scott's movie Legend)

8. Jealous Guy (written by John Lennon) LIVE, Glasgow 1988

Thanks to www.vivaroxymusic.com for some of this INFO

With As The World Turns unavailable, you may wonder I'm bothering to write about it. Good point! Actually, why I'm doing so is to stress that Ferry is so quintessentially European...and with In Your Mind he was attempting to become... American. Bad move.

Tokyo Joe was the second single off the album...and if the gods at Youtube are in fine spirits, you can see it below...

Bryan Ferry: Tokyo Joe

In Your Mind has its fans though I'm not really one of them, only because the preceding Roxy Music albums were so strong and in relation to them, it's a bit of a let down with pleasant but not particularly memorable songs. Still, it's worth a spin once in a while...

...but you really should have seen that band LIVE!

Bryan Ferry: In Your Mind

"...This is probably my all-time favorite album from the '70s. I've listened to it many, many times and it never ceases to blow me away. Wonderful songs, brilliant playing and a very LIVE-sounding production. It's certainly up there with Bryan's best..." Amazon reviewer William L. Gordon "Librarian"

"...In Your Mind - Bryan Ferry's fourth solo...escapade from Roxy Music could be described as muscular, meat and potatoes effort. Ferry doesn't "doll-up" the songs with his usual multi-layered stylings. I'm sure...Chris Spedding's contributions moved the music towards the album's road-house rock feel. I was lucky enough to see a "In Your Mind" tour show at the Santa Monica Civic, L.A. California, way, way back when - Let me tell ya -that band KICKED ASS..." Amazon reviewer steve french

'...musically, this is one of Ferry's finest. There are, of course, better Ferry solo albums out there, but IN YOUR MIND is definitely enjoyable, and it's sounds as though Ferry had some fun making this one! Don't let the silly album cover scare you away - give it a try..." Amazon reviewer Jon N. De Benedictis

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