The Bride Stripped Bare

Bryan Ferry's 1978 album is named after the artwork by Marcel Duchamps, The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Suitors, Even (a.k.a. The Large Glass), now displayed at The Philadelphia Museum of Art. It's executed on two panes of glass, using materials such as:

• lead foil
• fuse wire &
• dust

Marcel Duchamp's The Bride Stripped Bare

Essentially it has a major section at the top (the bride) and disparate sections below (the suitors), all of which are cut off from the bride.

Critic Andrew Stafford writes that:

"...(It) is a picture of the unseen forces that shape human erotic activity...the realm of ego, desire, and other mysteries..."

...and that the chain of events is wholly initiated by the Bride's desire and actions, and its consummation or frustration takes place at her will as well.

Hmmm. Enough of the art lecture, already!

Anyway, it makes for fascinating background info when the goss is that while on tour with Roxy Music, Siren cover girl, Jerry Hall left our Brian for Mick Jagger...and Ferry subsequently licked his wounds in L.A., then headed off to Switzerland to record The Bride Stripped Bare with a slick band of America's top session men. 

Bryan Ferry: The Bride Stripped Bare

First the bad news:

Bryan Ferry is an absolutely crap R & B singer and the three standards that he presents here:

• Isaac Hayes' Hold On I'm Coming
• Al Green's Take Me To The River &
• Otis Redding's That's How Strong My Love Is

...are truly atrocious. To make matters worse, nerdy geek-boy David Byrne somehow nailed Take Me To The River with Talking Heads (produced by ex-Roxy Music member, Brian Eno) in the same year...and got a big hit single out of it. I'm not especially fond of Ferry's version of:

• Lou Reed's What Goes On

...either...but Ferry liked it enough to make it the single off the album. I think it's a personal message to Ms. Hall...

"...One minute up
One minute down
One minute fly
From side to side..."

  What Goes On 

...but Ferry's dark guitar boogie seems to detract from from a pretty good song, rather than bring you into it. Those precise guitars don't seem right and it's as if you're waiting for the band to let loose and get into some real Jack Daniels jive. 

What Goes On 

...Oh...that's not a good start, three dire and  one OK track...but believe me, things get better...in a while...:

There are two middling tracks:

Same Old Blues:  

"...I'm gonna find me a mountain, I'm gonna hide out. I ain't talkin' to you and I ain't comin' out...cos I heard that rumor, tell me where does it end? It's the same old blues, the same old blues again..."

&

When She Walks In The Room:  

"...All your life you were taught to believe...then a moment of truth...you're deceived. All the wine in your life's dried up..."

...both of which comment directly on his romantic shenanigans...and then four really quite special tracks. First up, there's Sign Of The Times, hands down one of the best thinking rock songs that I've ever heard.

The lyrics are perhaps a little obtuse for most...but they really are a wonderful piece of beat poetry...especially if you think of Ferry considering himself to be one of the suitors from The Bride Stripped Bare artwork, castrated by the whims of the bride...

"...Lipstick & leather
Wear and tear
Oh, another sign of the times

...We're chained and bound
Hard lines crack down
On stony ground

Here is a taste of Here and Now
Red is the bloody
Sign of the times

The Bride Stripped Bare
Of all despair
We're cut
And we don't care..."

          Sign Of The Times

Then there's Can't Let Go, arguably the most direct song that Ferry's ever written:

"...Well I rush out blazin'
My pulse is racin'
As the rain streams
Down my face

There's no turning back now
To fight with Fate
Outnumbered
Out of place

They said: '...Go west, young man
That's best
It's there you'll feel
No pain...'

Bel Air's O.K.
If you dig the grave
But I want to live
...I want to live again

...Can't let go there's a madness in my soul tonight..."

                                     Can't Let Go

Carrickfergus, an traditional Irish lament, is one of the most unexpected songs of his career and definitely a real stand-out with a genuinely powerful interpretation both vocally and sonically.

...And finally, This Island Earth the album's closer, hypnotic and really quite beautiful. It would have sounded superb on Avalon...in fact, it might have been one of that album's best tracks, adding a little bit of grunt to all that smoothness.

"...My spirit's bleeding
God knows where
A never ending stream
Tried to love
Tried to find my soul in shadows
Running blind
Restless as the sea..."

              This Island Earth

So, that's The Bride Stripped Bare,  a mixed bunch of songs, definitely...but certainly worthy of investigation.

Bryan Ferry: The Bride Stripped Bare

"...Simultaneously painful and uplifting, Ferry once again shows others how to express complicated emotions and still be immensely entertaining. Essential..." Amazon reviewer Phillip Thomas Powell

"...some of the lyrics are darker than usual for him...but the album still has all of Ferry's trademarks: meticulous production, unique arrangements, excellent musicianship and a prevalent sense of romantic longing...." Amazon reviewer Ahmed Kalifa 

"...Part of what makes Ferry so interesting is the fact that he always made records that sounded as if he didn't really care what anyone else thought..." Amazon reviewer Rob Damm

Incidentally, both Bride and Ferry's previous album, In Your Mind were guitar orientated and aimed at breaking the American market. With their commercial failure he never returned to that style...or even that style of music, especially with the success of Avalon. However, his love of guitars resurfaced unexpectedly in the superb, virtually unknown covers album, Taxi in 1993.    

For more info, see:

• wikipedia The Bride Stripped Bare
• NME interview with Bryan Ferry promoting The Bride Stripped Bare
• Excellent Melody Maker interview with Ferry, including about writing the songs for the album in L.A.   

Jerry Hall: Tall Tales

a memoir, including her time with Bryan Ferry