Siren

"...Amazing to think that (Siren) came out in 1975 and yet the music is ageless. It remains an outstanding work by Roxy Music, for me...maybe their best..." Amazon reviewer Derek Pickett

Roxy Music: Siren

Jerry Hall, (previous album Country Life's Prairie Rose) crawls over the rocks as a siren, threatening to lure any listeners of the fifth Roxy Music album to a painful demise in the seas below her.

Yes, Siren is thematic, perhaps relentlessly so, which, ultimately, makes it less interesting than its predecessors for me. Gone is the breathtaking capacity to pick and choose 20th Century cultural influences like magical magpies and effortlessly blend them into the Roxy World.

Instead, Siren presents the band as lovelorn troubadors who play great, commercial pop music for contemporary adults e.g. the slightly robotic, opening track and dance hit single, Love Is The Drug, co-written with Andy Mackay...

"...Late at night I park my car
Stake my place in the singles bar
Face to face, toe to toe
Heart to heart as we hit the floor
Lumber up, limbo down
The locked embrace, the stumble round
I say go, she say yes
Dim the lights, you can guess the rest

Oh oh catch that buzz
Love is the drug I´m thinking of
Oh oh can´t you see
Love is the drug, got a hook in me..."

            Love Is The Drug

Love Is The Drug is a fine single and still something of an FM favorite in my part of the world. Given the candour of the subject matter, Love Is The Drug still sounds mighty funky and contemporary (in that it could easily be released today). It's not Roxy's greatest moment but it's not too bad, either.

However, by the second track, End Of The Line, it's evident that Roxy have metamorphosed into a new beast,once more, with Eddie Jobson providing a lazy, almost country music violin solo but Ferry providing his first lacklustre set of Roxy lyrics.

However, the creepy three minute intro to Sentimental Fool harks back to the glories of For Your Pleasure but instead of descending into weirdness, veers unexpectedly into heart-bruised romance, with Ferry whimpering...

"...Surely you cannot be leading me on?
Well if that's so, however can I love again?
How could I believe again?
How can I hold on?..."

As a stand-alone track, with Ferry handling all the vocals, Sentimental Fool is a bit of a mess...but if you can imagine it as a piece of theatre, Sentimental Fool  becomes really interesting.

Using Freudianism as a frame of reference:

• the first lyric is sung by the id, the primitive self, while
• the second lyric is actually sung by the ego, a more mature voice

"...Sentimental fool
Knowing that Fate is cruel,
You ought to forget it..."

...to which Ferry's id replies...

"...Yes, I know it's true,
I've seen what Love can do,
But I don't regret it..."

...the ego counters with...

"...Oh, you silly thing
Don't you see what's happening?
You're better without it..."

...but Ferry's id is resolute...

"...No, that's not the case
If you were in my place
You never would doubt it..."

the conversation continues, resolving nothing in the tug-of-war debate until a new voice emerges, the female side of the super-ego, spiritual, timeless knowledge...

"...A woman in love
Can make you feel good
You know what you're living for
She'll give you so much
And keep you in touch
With all that's worth living for
Oh, once she gets in
Through thick and through thin
She'll show you what living's for..."

...to which the male side of the super-ego adds...

"...The rhythm of Love
It must go on
Can't stop!

The beat of your heart
Is like a drum
Will it stop?..."

     Sentimental Fool

It's unlikely that you'll read a review like that of a little-remembered song but trust me, Siren is worth purchasing if only for Sentimental Fool, a superb piece of psycho-theatre!

Crashing out of Sentimental Fool, you immediately find yourself drowning in wild Phil Manzanera guitars and a panic-stricken rhythm section as Ferry the unlucky sailor-in-love yelps while the angered, cruel siren drags him to his doom...

"...Mayday!
Cut down to size again...

...Whirlpool
Drag me to the deeps below..."

     Whirlwind

Side 2 opens with the breezy, optimistic She Sells, co-written with keyboard player Eddie Jobson. It's always been one of my favorites on the album, with witty, impenetrable (nonsensical?) lyrics, such as...

"...Watch you walking in waltz time
A jigsaw puzzle in tune
Or are you faking a straight line
To suit yourself too soon..."

          She Sells

The ballad-like Could It Happen To Me? and the pumping dance beats of Both Ends Burning keep the romantic Ferry saga bubbling along, as does Nightingale, interesting mostly for its lyrical conceit. Ferry ostensibly sings the song to a nightingale bird. However, 

"...The male nightingale is known for his singing, to the extent that human singers are sometimes admiringly referred to as nightingales.

Only unpaired males sing regularly at night, and nocturnal song is likely to serve attracting a mate..." wikipedia   

...so, Ferry sings this song for a kindred spirit...

"...Now while the moon is high
Shall we, nightingale
Duet all through the night?
A pair of souls for sale..."

There is one difference, though. The nightingale sings through loneliness, while Ferry's loneliness is caused by choice...

"...Was it really Love I saw?
Oh, now I'll never know

What is this I hear?
I recognise that song
Sweet little nightingale
I knew you'd come along

Soon when the morning comes.
We will both be gone
So sing pretty nightingale
Lead, I'll follow on..."

         Nightingale 

Nightingale may have nothing to do with rock'n'roll but it's certainly a bridge to the poetry of several hundred years ago and stands, proudly, as a brave contemporary lyric.

The often highly regarded Just Another High, which closes Siren, is an epic, maudlin singalong which I sometimes like and sometimes don't, depending on how sorry I feel for myself...

"...Maybe your heart is aching
I wouldn't know, now would I?
Maybe your spirit's breaking up
I shouldn't care, now should I?

Maybe you're thinking of me
Well I don´t know, now do I?
If you only knew how I feel
Wish I could die, now don't I?

I'm just another crazy guy
Playing at love was another high
Just another high..."

      Just Another High

Roxy Music: Siren

"...Amazing to think that (Siren) came out in 1975 and yet the music is ageless. It remains an outstanding work by Roxy Music, for me...maybe their best..." Amazon reviewer Derek Pickett

"...Including stunners like She Sells, the heart-breaking Could It Happen To Me and just plain gorgeous Nightingale, SIREN is a treasure trove of some of Bryan Ferry's best tunes...(and)...has a kind of weird, polished desperation....Nonetheless the record demonstrates a band working in the context and confines of its era and (yields) a finely crafted album that was...recognized as a pop masterpiece..."  Amazon reviewer J. Gunning "Allhallowsday"

"...Siren...was effortless in its execution. At times it veers on perfection...(It's) certainly less spontaneous and inventive than those heady, madcap early efforts but very accomplished all the same..." Amazon.co.uk reviewer Magic Rat

And so ends the first phase of Roxy Music, in my eyes, one of the greats of Rock music. How much was Ferry and how much was Roxy Music as an entity is impossible to gauge but the legacy is there for all to hear. Trump that, world!   

Viva! Roxy Music

"...Having been born in the mid-seventies, it's safe to say that I never got the chance to see Roxy Music play at their zenith...VIVA is the next best thing to that, I guess. And what a charimsatic, intense and amazing LIVE performance this is. The band sounds tight and enthusiastic and Ferry's voice has never sounded more dynamic..." Amazon reviewer Jon M. De Benedictis

"...When I was 12 or 13 I saw pictures of Roxy Music in Creem. They seemed like a gimmick band, a circus troupe, a costume party, a joke band. Then I took a risk and bought Viva...I've been a fan ever since:

• Out Of The Blue combines everything great about The Doors, The Velvet Underground & King Crimson and yet is totally original to Roxy
• Pyjamarama is more funky yet relaxed than studio version & rocks harder
• Both Ends Burning is THE version of the song

Force this CD on Avalon fans, or people who think of Roxy as a mellow 80's Euro-pop band..." Amazon reviewer Mactavish

"...Viva! came out after Roxy Music's first hiatus in 1976 but...originated from recordings made in 1973 and 1974 when Roxy were in their prime, producing some of the most expressive, melodic and dramatic music ever seen...

• ...Chance Meeting showed a mystical character to Mackay's and Jobson's playing that was totally absent from the studio version
• but the real treat here is a much-superior version of In Every Dream Home A Heartache on which the band's fiery playing...moved perfectly from the slow intro to the classic "Dream Home Heartache" outro...(and)... 
• If There Is Something...turned into a dark, psychedelic epic quite unlike the Eno-era studio version

Viva! stands as a must-hear, giving an even more expressive and epic take on the classic Roxy Music period..." Amazon reviewer Mactavish 

Excerpts from Jerry Hall's (Bryan) hired me from New York. He chose me out of English Vogue. I had all these great pictures and a cover by Norman Parkinson. It was the series I'd done in Jamaica with Antonio as the other model. They were some of my best pictures. And when Bryan saw them he decided to use me as the girl on the cover of the new Roxy music alum, Siren. He just picked me out and sent for me. I was so impressed. He picked me up at Heathrow Airport in London in this big old Daimler limousine - you know, one of those old-fashioned cars the Queen has. They're so nice. And Bryan put me in a nice hotel and then took me out to dinner. He was charming. He was a real gentleman and handsome and beautifully dressed and his hair was all black and shiny and slicked back and he smelled of Floris. I didn't have a boyfriend then and I really fancied him. I could see he liked me, too. The next day we took a train trip to Wales. I'd never been on a train like that - a beautiful old-fashioned train with old leather seats. That was great. And we had Anthony Price with us. He's a really good designer. He's a friend of mine still. He does all of Bryan's clothes and album covers. So they started telling me the idea of the picture. I was a bit apprehensive because a few weeks before in Paris I'd done a similar photo with Guy Bourdin, the photographer. He'd painted me all over with white body makeup and I'd broken out in a terrible rash. And the idea this time was that I was a siren like in Greek mythology. So when we got to Wales we found this cliff. And I put on this teeny little bikini and they painted my whole body blue with blue body makeup. I had long curly hair and false eyelashes and long blue false fingernails and this sort of mermaid-girl bikini and wings on my ankles. So we started taking the picture on the cliff and Bryan's there holding an umbrella over my head because it was summer and it was hot and the sun was melting my body makeup off. My fins kept popping off and the suit was glued together and the glue stuck to my bottom and the glue was melting. And it was getting late. And then just then these kids came rowing by the rocks in a yellow rubber raft and we were screaming at them, 'Get out of the picture!' They must have thought we were mad. It took them forever to get out of the picture. But we finally got it. But we were going to miss our train back to London, so we rush back to the hotel and they're trying to get this blue body makeup off me and it won't come off. It was a really funny scene. I was standing in the bathtub and Anthony's scrubbing and scrubbing trying to get this stuff off. And Bryan's there, too, and ... I still had on this little bikini thing. And Bryan was smoking and laughing and ... watching. I could see that something was happening. The train was about to leave and I couldn't put on my clothes because I had all this greasy blue makeup on so they wrapped me in towels andput me on the train with all these false eyelashes and these long blue fingernails and all this blue paint running everywhere. You can imagine the sight we made in a small Welsh town. And I went to the bathroom on the train to try to towel it off but I couldn't get it all off. So when we got to London Bryan asked me back to his place to take a bath. He had a really nice house in Holland Park.    Jerry Hall: Tall Tales   And when I came out of the bathroom wearing a robe he said, `Why don't you just stay here? I have a guest room.' So since it was late I stayed there. And that's the night it began!

For more info, see:

• wikipedia Siren
• Playgirl interview with Bryan Ferry
• Record Mirror interview with Bryan Ferry on tour with Roxy Music, promoting Siren
• see the original yellow Siren cover