When I started 1537 it was because I hoped I’d have a few moments like this, where I stooped to pick up a previously underappreciated, unsuspecting piece of plastic wrapped in colourful cardboard and was suddenly forced to grab onto its comet trail as it blasted off bound for the outer reaches of awesomeness and I was compelled to ride it into the stratosphere, Silver Surfer style, trying desperately to grok it’s greatness whilst simultaneously hanging on for dear life. Basically a wow moment. I just had one with Roxy Music*. Blam!
I knew them best in their louche late 80’s Avalon mode and then through various singles compilations. I bought Roxy Music because a) I’d heard it was 7 shades of amazing b) I felt a bit seedy buying their Country Life LP from the lady at the shop and c) I wanted to soak up a bit of their refined sophistication for my own act. What I got was wild, discordant skronking, no real tunes and a million elements all jumbled together AND they hadn’t put one of my fave singles (by anyone, ever) on the LP, ‘Virginia Plain’. I think I played it about once when I bought it in 2006, filed it under ‘M’ for misadventure** and that was that until yesterday. So what happened? maybe I’ve just got to the right place mentally, maybe it was a mood thing. Whichever/whatever I now acclaim Roxy Music as an act of divine genius. Blam!
Cue up ‘Re-Make/Re-Model’ and we’re in familiar territory, the buzz of a cocktail party and we wait for Bryan Ferry to happen along in a tuxedo, an untied bowtie raffishly still draped around his neck and seduce our lady companion, whilst remaining our best friend. Blam! Some in-yer-face piano and then the band kick in, all seemingly fighting to take control of the mix (easy, Manzanera, easy I say ! Down, Mackay, down boy!!) and then Ferry breaks in over the top wielding strangely arch pronunciation and phrasings like a battle-axe and sounds the most discordant and out-there element of it all. Sonically it’s astonishing, as wild as anything by The Stooges; easy! The closest there is to a chorus is when the band all chant ‘CPL593H’ several times*^, after rocking out for a few minutes more of squonking and yelping WE GET TO THE SOLOS! Oh Christ, this is so fucking great, each band member takes a solo ON THE FIRST TRACK OF THEIR DEBUT ALBUM! We get an accelerating drum solo, a bass solo playing ‘Day Tripper’, a strange sci-fi drop-out from Eno, a sax solo stolen from ‘Ride of the Valkyrie’, some rhythm guitar and finally some randomly plonked piano. THEN it all builds to the sort of finale not heard since Queen were closing their live set in their pomp. Blam!
That’s the first track. Please, please if you’ve never heard it before play it and if you have, play it again. It’s the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s all in one blast – in 19freaking72!! If they had split after cutting ‘Re-Make/Re-Model’ they’d have achieved more than any of their direct contemporaries. Blam!
You could easily spend weeks walking around inside Roxy Music without getting bored by it. You get the sci-fi seduction, essentially crooning filtered through ‘Telstar’, of ‘Ladytron’, which gets more and more inventive and wilder as it goes on, before it fades out way too early. We get the faux-country-isms of ‘If There Is Something’, the sound collage-bits of ‘Bob (Medley)’ (Bob = Battle of Britain), the rock out that ‘Would You Believe’ ends in^ and even the evil Genesis doo-wop croon that is the poisoner’s tale ‘Bitters End’. The only track that doesn’t make much of an impression on me is ‘2HB’, sadly not an ode to Bryan’s favourite pencil it stands for ‘To Humphrey Bogart’, which in theory should rock just by association. Blam!
May I just talk about one more song? ‘Sea Breezes’ is a 7-minute statement of, well I’m not sure, but it is definitely a statement. Three and a half minutes of gentle wave noises, electric piano, some sparsely gorgeous guitar and an almost medieval vocal, gives way to what amounts to a second movement as chaos and dissonance take over this tale of a fractured relationship. Blame!
Is it just me, or don’t bands make albums like this anymore where every track is entirely distinct from every other and could be in an entirely different style? Maybe it’s a 70’s thing, Queen certainly used to do it. People just seemed a little less constrained by genre back then. Roxy weren’t constrained by anything much at all. I really was shocked by just what a liberating blast Roxy Music is. Screw sweet melody, screw choruses, screw earnestness! You can hear Roxy inventing Kate Bush on the sublimely unsettling ‘Chance Meeting’, Eno going for broke in the dissonance creation stakes, you could slip it onto the soundtrack to Bladerunner easily; especially the bit where it picks up the pace near the end. That’s how good this is – this music just hadn’t been made before. Forget their super smooth 80’s (although I do have a soft spot for it) this was an art school band, shaking it up full pelt. No wonder all the punks loved them later on, David Byrne was definitely listening to Mr Ferry. Blam!
Being the shallow sort I was also moved by their wardrobe too, their legendary Top of The Pops performance of ‘Virginia Plain’ was a fabulous shock of bacofoil, fur, leather and animal print and here the band are all dressed by Anthony Price on the gatefold, the band look like a riot. Ferry’s ultra-restrained spiky quiff and huge collared space-tiger ensemble vies with Eno’s elven prince in a leopard skin blouse number, which contrasts well with Andrew Mackay’s 22nd century greaser look and Phil Manzanera’s cosmic rock dragonfly. Sadly, I feel the rhythm section let us down slightly, Paul Thompson may have the hair but his cartoon tiger on the shoulder of his jumper doesn’t really scream sex panther at me and Graham Simpson’s nice pullover and shirt combo just isn’t in the same league, I’m afraid. Blam!
You know the most extraordinary thing about this extraordinary little album? the fact that 9 months later the band brought out an even better one. Blam!
Give now the host his claret cup
And watch Madeira’s farewell drink
Note his reaction acid sharp
Should make the cognoscenti think
425 Down.
*like all truly great things in this life, released in 1972.
**not literally, it’s under ‘R’ for Roxy – anything else would have stopped me sleeping.
*^the number-plate of a car Ferry used to own, he later saw a beautiful woman get out of it and included it here. File with THX1138.
^sounding uncannily like The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band ‘Tent’, strangely enough.
Time to dig it out from the pile. That’s a real nice picture of Brian. Phil looks like someone else you have featured in your takes
If Roxy had split up after only cutting the track ‘Re-Make/Re-Model’, they’d still be one of the bands of the 70s. Easy.
Yup! Andy does it for me.
Nice review sir – great finale with the ’72 line & the Eno/Hugo Weaving lookalike photo!
Made me revisit this album – in my house it was always , T-rex, Queen and Thin Lizzy ‘Live and Dangerous’ that rocked the stereogram. My dad took exception to Brian Ferry and Bowie. Apparently, they were both ‘not right’ in some way. ‘Poseurs and fakes’ I can remember him pronouncing. Although I wasn’t sure what a poseur was, I understood that compared to Phil Lynott, and Freddie, they wore less make up. Maybe that’s what he meant?
Anyway, childhood musings aside, it’s is a good album and I think its art-school jambalaya couldn’t have survived anywhere but the 70’s. And, yes, many thanks for the comparison – I cannot look at David Byrne again and not think of Sea France. Blammo!
That’s interesting because Freddie and Marc were pretty foxy creatures in their own right, maybe your old man could smell a future socialite a mile off?
It just feels so unconstrained by today’s standards. (shuffles off to allotment, later drinks bitter and plays dominos)
What a fantastic review of a truly innovative and brilliant album. Can’t wait for the working day (almost begun) to be over so I can race home to play it again. You’ve done the Art School punks full justice and I absolutely love the stinger of “nine months later the band brought out an even better one”. Too True.
Blam! (Whatever that means).
With unusually gushing admiration,
Vinyl C.
Aww thank you Bruce, that’s kind. I’ve just fallen for this one, hard. It’s so radical compared to what I expected from them. Someone wrote that Roxy looked and sounded like a 22nd century 1950’s revival at this point in time.
For Your Pleasure is even better I think, they were terrifyingly good back then.
Was that Bryan Ferry or David Cassidy? The rolling photos are a nice touch. Like you, I’m familiar with the schmaltz of ‘Avalon’, and I do like that. But this sounds like something I need to listen to. Like, NEED to listen to.
Sorry, a rogue shot from my extensive personal Cassidy collection must have got into the mix.
Thanks – I now have, as they say, mad skillz! You want rotating thingys, then I’m the go-to guy.
You really need this in your life, try ‘Re-make/Re-Model’ – it’ll change the way you walk. Trust me. I wouldn’t lie about this, much.
The way I walk? But I don’t want to lose my manly Midwestern strut. Can I still wear my chaps?
Chaps are positively encouraged, I assume they are silver tiger-striped ones? Best teamed with a bowler hat and one of your aunt’s chiffon blouses in this company.
You read my mind, good sir.
“File with THX1138.” Blam! I like it.
I actually don’t mind Roxy Music, even though that contradicts my headbanger public persona.
Thanks Mike.
Don’t worry, you’re amongst friends – there’s no way I’d ever ‘out’ you as a white tuxedo wearing socialite dandy. No sirree!
I loved THX1138 – saw it about 25 years ago late night after I came home from far too many beers and thought it was ace – never really wanted to see it again, just in case it wasn’t.