Roxy Music

Roxy Music's first album

Roxy Music's self-titled two-sided first album sleeve

"...It is difficult now to imagine the impact of the first Roxy Music album in 1972. Roxy Music (the album) was not simply clever, glamorous, arty music. It was a look and feel. It defined a spirit, blurring the distinctions between high and low culture, fine art and popular culture, nostalgia and futurism..."

U.K. Independent On Sunday

from an article by Michael Bracewell on Roxy Music fashion consultant, Antony Price

Goodness, if I could even properly define any of those terms in the Michael Bracewell's article I might have a chance to comment, elucidate...or perhaps even contradict his statement...but I can't, so I'll just let it rush over me in a wave of wonderful sounding but vaguely-understood concepts.

However, there's enough that sticks, I'm sure, to give you a general idea of how Pop Music reacted to first seeing Roxy Music on the BBC's Top Of The Pops in August 1972:

Bryan Ferry's...greaser's quiff and lame jacket looking like something out of Sha Na Na
Brian Eno looked like something out of Dr Who, as did Phil Manzanera...
...Andy Mackay had, of all things a Teddy Boy hairdo and outfit &
good old Paul Thompson, the archetypal 'brickie in make-up' on drums

What a wonderful, awe-inspiring mix. Forget Ziggy Stardust, this lot truly took the biscuit..." Amazon.co.uk reviewer Magic Rat

Again quoting Michael Bracewell, who's talking of Anthony Price's input into Roxy Music's image (Price was credited with "clothes, make-up and hair" on their first album's sleeve):

"...He styled the group as time-travelling rock'n'rollers - they looked like the cabaret band for a space lab..."

But it wasn't just a look. Check out these kooky words:

"...Make me a deal and make it straight
All signed and sealed, I'll take it
To Robert E. Lee I'll show it
I hope and pray he don't blow it 'cause
We've been around a long time just try try try tryin' to
Make the big time..."

Virginia Plain

What the?

The British music press went mad over this crazy:

retro
futuristic
gay?
straight?
vampish
abstract

...dance band, whose lead singer, Bryan Ferry looked like an Elvis wannabe, sounded like Bobby Boris Pickett (of Monster Mash fame)...and who wrote strange, elliptical lyrics like the bastard druggy son of Noel Coward.

They also queued up for interviews with the synthesizer/noise player, Brian Eno, who brought a level of abstract thinking and conceptualization that in itself created its own fan-base (much to Bryan Ferry's eventual annoyance).

David Bowie, who was just breaking big-time with the Ziggy Stardust semi-transvestite thing was in some ways a little plodding in relation to what Roxy Music was doing...and many in the press knew it. However, Bowie was too smart for all of them, inviting Roxy Music to play support at his big London gigs and nurturing a symbiotic appreciation that was of benefit to both parties for many years.

"...I tried but I could not find a way
Looking back all I did was look away
Next time is the best time we all know
But if there is no next time where wil we go oh oh-oh oh-oh oh-oh..."

Remake Remodel

Roxy Music: Remake Remodel

Create a splash? Oh yes they did...but how does their first album stand up now? Well, in any era it would have been interesting. These aren't so much songs...as paintings with words. Occasionally theyeven make literal sense, like the superb, theatrical, movie-like Chance Meeting, about two ex-lovers bumping into each other...

"...I never thought I'd see you again
Where have you been until now?
Well, how are you how have you been?
It's a long time since we last met
It seems like yesterday when I first
Saw you in your red dress smile
How could I forget that day
I know that time spent well is so rare..."

Chance Meeting

& Sea Breezes, perhaps the prequel to Chance Meeting...

I've been thinking now for a long time
How to go my own separate way
It's a shame to think about yesterday, a shame

Sea Breezes

On other tracks, like

2HB, an ode to Humphrey Bogart, the lyrics are more for suggestion than conveying any particilar information...other than the chorus, which starts with Bogart's own "Here's lookin' at you, kid..."

Would You Believe hilarious, camp retro rock'n'roll &

Bitters End the album closer is one of the weirdest things I've ever heard, as if presented by a dyslexic translator from the Ancient Mongolian: "...At last the crimson chords cascade...to shower dry cordials within...too late to leap the chocolate gate...pale fountains fizzing forth pink gin..."

Huh?

The bottom line, though, is that this first Roxy Music album has some great tracks, its influences:

doo-wop
50s Rock'n'Roll
The Velvet Underground
American classic movies

...spill out everywhere and it has, in turn, greatly influenced English pop music. It's a wonderful piece of history...but the production, by Pete Sinfield then recently-fired lyricist from King Crimson stinks, dragging this well-loved but bizarre curio a couple of notches below what it really deserves. However, the remastering may have fixed a lot of those problems...

"...What you need to know...is the vastly superior sound quality on this CD compared to the original LP. I don't know what it was about the original LP...but it always sounded to me as though it had been recorded in a cardboard box...Anyway, this mix is much improved and polishes this diamond very nicely..." Amazon.co.uk reviewer Digger

Bryan Ferry went on to remake several of the tracks from this first album, using them as b-sides for singles from his solo career...and you can now find all of them on his Let's Stick Together album.

Roxy Music: the first, self-titled album

"...I never get tired of this album. It still sounds futuristic to me even though it is older than I am. Stunning, just stunning. Sit, stay, press play and give yourself a sonic dog treat. Good dog. ruff..." Amazon reviewer John

"...Walking past my local record shop in the early seventies I noticed the big Roxy window display. I'd heard the single, Virginia Plain and had time to kill so I thought I'd pop in and check it out. Standing there with the cans on this strange music came flooding into my ears...really different, excellently produced, full of wierd noises, great sax & clarinet and those Elvis-impersonator vocals...It's always a bit self-conscious being stood in a record shop listening to an album so I bought it on the spot, took it back to my bedsit and played the other side. A great debut album...groundbreaking in its time and arguably one of the first glam-rock albums. This CD captures it all perfectly..." Amazon.co.uk reviewer Moz "the madhatter"

"...Nothing before or since sounds like Roxy's debut effort. It lurches all over the map, including bits of loud rock, odd tape samples, heavily ironic takes on pop music, 50's rock-n-roll & some stuff you can't even identify, sometimes, all in the same song...Anyone with a taste for the unusual...should consider this a must-have. Amazon reviewer Michael Strom

This first Roxy Music album isn't a must-have but it's really genuinely interesting. Consequently, don't dismiss this album, because it really grows on you...and it sets up the next album, the still wonderful For Your Pleasure, beautifully.

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