What does it sound like?:
In 1972, Roxy Music spent two weeks recording their debut album. 1972. It seems like yesterday. Listening to it 46 years later, it still sounds phantasmagorically space age and deservedly gets the super deluxe treatment of three CDs and a DVD in a glossy box.
Even before hearing a single note, the gatefold sleeve is full of wonder, especially for an impressionable teenage boy. The glamour model, Kari-Ann, in her pastel blue and pink, her gaze bold and direct, appears to be snarling. Her luscious legs unfurl as the sleeve is opened out. Inside, the band are dressed in their stage finery. Phil Manzanera sports his bug-eye glasses. Eno and Ferry compete with big cat tops but Bryan’s scythe-sharp quiff wins the hair contest easily. Judging by his vampiric smile, he knows it, too. Paul Thompson looks sweetly innocent, Graham Simpson has wandered in from the seventeenth century and Andy MacKay evokes a fifties rocker. Simon Puxley’s florid sleeve notes are knowingly arch. Antony Price is credited with clothes, make up & hair and there is a dedication to Susie, their previous drummer.
The album itself starts with the clearest statement of intent for any band. A cocktail party is interrupted by a Little Richard style piano, then all the band crash in at once. In the tradition of rock & roll, dating back to Rocket 88, it’s a song lusting after a woman disguised as a tribute to a car. Ferry’s vocal is tormented (“I could talk talk talk talk myself to death”) and the chorus is the car number plate. Tenor sax and electric guitar are traditional rock & roll instruments (the oboe is a different matter entirely) but Eno’s use of a VCS3 synthesiser make them sound turbo-charged. Thompson’s drumming is spectacular. The skins are loosened on his kit so that he has to wallop it harder to create a satisfying thud. The musicians trip over one another in their rush for the limelight but they do manage a few seconds each to solo. The momentum is so powerful, it takes a full minute for the song to grind to a halt, the kick drum finally getting stuck in the squelch of the synthesiser. Re-Make/Re-Model takes elements of the past and refashions them with the latest technology into a vision of the future.
The rest of the album follows suit, the musicians breathing fire into Ferry’s romantic whimsy, each song a potpourri of styles and sounds. In Chance Meeting, it’s the guitar that splinters a broken heart. The oboe of Sea Breezes is suffocated with loneliness. There are mutations of rock, pop, jazz, country, doo-wop, honky-tonk, cabaret, electronica, the blues, even prog. The songs feature sudden rhythm changes, musical hand-brake turns and left-field lyrical tangents. The opening melody of Ladytron, following Eno’s introductory impersonation of a moon landing, resembles a Prokofiev piano concerto. Wagner’s Valkyries appear in Re-Make/Re-Model. Cinema and art feature on a number of songs: 2HB is a touching tribute to Humphrey Bogart, topped off with a sax variation of As Time Goes By, The Bob is an acronym for The Battle Of Britain, Chance Meeting is inspired by Brief Encounter, Re-Make/Re-Model’s title is a nod to pop artist Derek Boshier’s piece, rethink/re-entry, and the Virginia Plain lyric is based on one of Ferry’s own paintings. Side one flows beautifully, even with the inclusion of Virginia Plain, a song composed and recorded a full month after the album was released and added to the U.S. editions when it was a hit. Side two starts with a jolt and is much harder work for the listener. They take even more risks and delve into dissonance more often, but Chance Meeting and Sea Breezes are amongst the best tracks on the album. Bitters End is the funniest performance with its ornate language, lyrical puns, satirical barber shop quartet, strange percussion and vowel-mangling lead vocal “to make the cognoscenti think.” The production, by King Crimson’s lyricist, Peter Sinfield, has its peculiarities, so much so that Ferry re-recorded four of the tracks as B-sides to his solo singles. He did, however, coax from Ferry the best vocal performance of his career, alternatively bellowing, tremulous, icily psychopathic, anguished, tortured, and downright “bizarre!” He croons only the once and, then, appropriately on 2HB. The album, as a whole, is as cool and stylish as it is raucous and wild. It confounds categorisation, especially that of its era, Glam Rock. There has been nothing quite like it since.
The demos from 1971 and the outtakes illustrate four things. Graham Simpson’s bass playing is soft and beautiful. Ferry’s piano is the bedrock of all the songs. He tends to play two notes, missing the middle note of the triad that normally sets the key. As a result, the band are free to take the tune in any direction they like. Eno is present throughout, an essential part of the creative process as opposed to simply adding colour at the end. Manzanera is the real cherry on top. He’s the youngest and joined last. He was often kept in the dark as to what was going on so that he could respond with improvised spontaneity. His virtual absence from the outtakes disc emphasises his achievement on the final product. The John Peel sessions, the first with David O’List on guitar months before the album’s release, are excellent, superbly played with top quality sound. The BBC In Concert recording is less good but no less well played. The videos are all a fascinating watch. There is the legendary Old Grey Whistle Test performance. Whispering Bob’s churlish introduction is edited out. The concert at the Bataclan and the other TV coverage are a feast for the eyes but there is a problem with their stagecraft. The two most visually appealing, the Brians, are wedded to their keyboards on either side. In between, MacKay blasts away with vigour and the bass player of the day tries his best not to look out of place but Manzanera’s air of insouciant cool steals these shows.
The big issue with this deluxe edition is Steve Wilson’s remix. Record Store Day in 2015 saw the release of a Steve Wilson stereo remix of an extended Ladytron and The Numberer. Neither track is anywhere to be found in this box nor any of his stereo remixes of the album as a whole, first completed in 2012. His 5.1 surround sound mix is on the DVD but, to hear it, you have to fork out the full asking price of nearly £130. That’s costly for three CDs, one DVD, a detailed booklet and a nice box. The master for disc one is Bob Ludwig’s from 1999, which every Roxy Music fan probably already owns. Disc one is paired with the BBC Sessions disc for a cheaper 2CD pairing, which means the average fan has to buy another copy of a product they own in order to obtain any extras of any kind.
This 45th Anniversary Edition consists of a beautiful deluxe box, an astonishing classic album, some tasty extras, especially from the BBC, great videos and a fabulous booklet, but it is a baffling, expensive product with no longed for Steve Wilson stereo remix.
What does it all *mean*?
Sometimes, the creators of deluxe box sets are beyond comprehension.
Goes well with…
An overflowing bank account and a completist mindset.
Release Date:
Might suit people who like…
“Like” isn’t anywhere near strong enough. This will suit people with a undying, non-judgemental, logic-defying, totally-besotted adoration of Roxy Music and their first album in particular.
Tiggerlion says
Ladytron from The Old Grey Whistle Test, 1972.
DogFacedBoy says
Whenever I see this nowadays I always hear Mark Ellen in the DVD commentary track pretending Eno is a switchboard operator
‘Oh yes caller, please hold just putting you through’
Moose the Mooche says
Top stuff as per. Here’s looking at you, Tigg.
Answer records to 4HB:
The Madness did a track called 4BF in 1988 (rubbish unfortunately)
Lloyd Cole did a track called 4MB (fans of the PSHM will know that it was a tribute to a certain glam rock star rather that Michael Bentine)
Tiggerlion says
Thank you, Moose. Long time, since we’re together. Now I hope it’s forever
Also, the Human League did 4JG (J.G. Ballard).
Moose the Mooche says
There’s also 2HB, which is a song that Joni Mitchell wrote about pencils.
Oho!
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Brilliant review! Now someone needs to explain why Roxy Music has always left me cold (aside from my cloth ears and poor taste obviously)
NigelT says
Great review, thanks! It is bloody expensive though, as you point out. I have always struggled with this album, and I do really like Roxy Music…it’s me, isn’t it?
dai says
Me too. Much prefer For Your Pleasure. Patchy debut for me. Very nice review though of a ridiculously overpriced item. Believe the main album is in the format of a somewhat reviled 1999 version rather than the one that appeared more recently on a much more reasonably priced box set. Think I paid about 30 quid for everything they released.
Tiggerlion says
Oh, I think the Ludwig remaster is fine enough. The 2012 studio albums box set (six years ago already?!) wasn’t remastered but ‘flat’ transferred from the original tapes, whatever that means. Some people thought the debut tinny but that would have been Pete Sinfield’s production.
Roxy Music was my first exposure to Roxy Music the band and I fell in love with it. First love is the deepest, so it’s my favourite. I return to it often and enjoy its dissonance and its quirks. It’s jammed packed with so many ideas, more than any other album, perhaps too many. Over time, it seems like not enough.
Moose the Mooche says
Flat means that the tapes got crinkled up here and there when they got snagged in the tape machine. Ludwig presumably had to get his travel iron and a piece of damp kitchen paper to sort them out. Very precise technical work these fellows have to do.
fatima Xberg says
From Audio Preservation Lab: “Flat” transfer is encouraged in most cases. This means that the sound is transferred “as is” without correction or interference.
Arthur Cowslip says
Good review, thanks. Still too expensive for me though!
Artery says
Absolutely great review Tigger.
I saw Roxy twice in 1972 at Croydon Greyhound, supporting Bowie and then headlining. True they were very static visually but made a storming racket. Bought the album on release and like it a lot. My admiration for Pete Sinfield’s talent has gone up over the years too. He doesn’t do a bad job at all on this album.
The silly £130 price for the box is baffling. Not even a vinyl copy or blu-ray. It would sell shedloads at 30 or 40 quid. I need to hear the SW surround mix but not at that price.
Tiggerlion says
I them in 1972 in Liverpool, then again on the Country Life tour & finally in the noughties. The final one was an absolutely superb gig with almost flawless playing. The newer technology meant that the early albums sounded brilliant and songs from the first two albums dominated the setlist.
I’m desperate to hear the Steve Wilson stereo remix, especially after the RSD release. I feel deliberately teased. at £130 another disc would have made little difference cost wise but a big one in terms of desirability.
Vulpes Vulpes says
For me, For Your Pleasure is THE one, but I’ll still be buying the 2 CD set to get the BBC recordings. The 2012 box is a cornucopia of guilty delights, and belongs in every (dream) home, but like you, the full package here leaves me both puzzled and annoyed, and certainly unimpressed.
Mike_H says
I already have the BBC material (by nefarious means), the original vinyl, the Bob Ludwig remastered CD and I don’t have the equipment (or the desire or cash to buy it) for surround sound mixes, so not at all interested in this package, which seems squarely aimed at the Mug Punter.
Tiggerlion says
I realise it might not swing it for you, but I think you’d really like the booklet and the variations from the cover shoot for each disc. 😀
Moose the Mooche says
Fifty-odd quid for some pictures of a made-up floozy?
To paraphrase the Dagenham Dialogues, round our way you could get the real made-up floozy for that.
“Fancy a nice time growin’ potatoes by the score, dearie?”
Tiggerlion says
Ooh, show me.
Sniffity says
My Aunt Dolly would have done it for nothing.
Moose the Mooche says
She does a lot for nothing….
Enjoying that sandwich?
timtunes says
Much better value is the Fleetwood Mac Super Deluxe
3cds, LP, DVD with 5.1 mix and good booklet, all remastered – sounds fantastic and costs £45
deramdaze says
The completely random pricing policy of box sets is alarming.
In some the individual CDs average out at about £3, in others it’s nearer £20.
Tiggerlion says
The thing is Roxy Music have actually got it right in the past. As Vulpes Vulpes points out the Complete Studio Albums box set is an essential purchase. It consists of all eight albums, two CDs of extras, beautifully packaged and sounding wonderful for less than fifty quid when originally purchased in 2012. it will cost you five times that now for a second hand copy.
fatima Xberg says
The pricing may seem to be random, but you can’t generalize: sometimes extra studio time for remastering/restoring is involved, then there are booklets or books with new content and fees for photographers and writers (or no booklets at all: the Roxy box didn’t even have the original release dates, or any indication where the B-sides originally came from…), and the packaging or boxes can vary – from standard manufacturing (like those DVD-size hardcover books from the Jethro Tull series) to specially designed die-cuts like the Led Zeppelin sets. And of course the record company can ask for a higher price if they like. It’s a free world baby…
Lodestone of Wrongness says
And, of course, if they think there are enough mugs out there to pay over a hundred quid for a few glossy booklets and some “tasty extras”….
I honestly think there should be a law passed – “Box Sets of music over 20 years old no matter how large, no matter how beautiful shall be sold at no more than £9.99 cos all those ageing rockers and all those bastard record companies have made enough money out of all us fools what bought vinyl, then cassette, then CD then deluxe CD, then remastered by Steve Wilson, then with rare outtakes, then with historic concert of the Dog & Duck Walthmastow 1978 then cos somebody died yesterday”. The exact wording may need a bit of polishing up …
Moose the Mooche says
But that Dog and Duck show is genius!….
…. no wait, I’m confusing it with Budokan. Tchuh!
Tiggerlion says
I get all that, fatima.
My problem with this box is that the studio cost is likely to mainly be Steve Wilson’s contribution, yet his stereo remix is inexplicably left out. Ludwig’s remaster is already available and I can’t imagine the BBC material, the demos, the outtakes and the videos involved gallons of polish. The booklet is very nice but doesn’t justify bumping up the price to £130. Half that might be reasonable.
I WANT STEVE WIlSON’S STEREO REMIX!!!!
*Wails, stamps feet, gnashes teeth & pulls out remaining hair*
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Gets out calculator, taps keyboard. Switches calculator on and tries again. And again. £130 divided by 2 is £11, no hang on it’s £65.
You’d fork out 65 smackers for something you already have, a remix of something you already have, some outtakes and demos you’ll play once and some nice photies and DVD?
Shakes head and shuffles off muttering….
Tiggerlion says
Might. I said ‘might’.
I tell you what though. If there was a fourth disc of the Steve Wilson stereo remix, I’d probably pay £130 for this box.
dai says
As stated above I got it for 30! Don’t believe that second hand price though.
fentonsteve says
Chris Difford’s book gives some insight into Byron Ferrari’s working methods. Basically he thinks about BF a lot, and nothing ever gets done.
I think it was the right choice to issue the CD box without the high-resolution discs. 50 quid for 10 well-mastered CDs is OK. It tends to go out of print, prices rocket, and is then repressed and back on the market for 50 quid.
What gets my goat is that you could only buy the hi-res stereo on limited-edition SACDs from Japan. There are enough hi-res download websites around, but Roxy are not available on any of them (presumable BF is unaware of their existence). So I had to download illegal SACD rips instead.
The pricing of that box is nuts, even more so than the previous insane heights of Macca’s most recent example.
Junior Wells says
Ive got all the Roxy pre reformation but only on vinyl.
Should I really go to the expense of getting remastered versions?
fentonsteve says
The Complete Studio Albums box set uses flat transfers and sound like the original vinyl (the vinyl box was even half-speed mastered).
The turn-of-the-century Bob Ludwig CD remasters did not sound as nice.
If your vinyl is still in good nick, I wouldn’t bother.
Junior Wells says
Thanks Steve – they are so I won’t.
Vulpes Vulpes says
I think that’s right. My original vinyl copy of For Your Pleasure still sounds – and this is a technical term – fucking fantastic.
I bought the all-albums box to fill in a couple of gaps, but still prefer to spin the vinyl FYP, if only to have the gatefold sleeve open in front of me while I listen.
My two-disc CD of the first album arrives tomorrow. Hurrah!
Vincent says
Sounds like a great package once it reduces in price. I felt that bri didn’t quite get his look right until he got the tux, though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwT_SbBtX8U
I recall this being rather radical at the time, and i loved how it would wind up the double denim-swathed hordes. Still like that whole smart evening wear look. he never bettered himself in style, IMHO.
Moose the Mooche says
The simple black t-shirt on the cover of These Foolish Things is defiantly un-glam. One cooool-ass mofo.
Ainsley says
Now a bargain £120 on Burning Shed.
Tiggerlion says
Cor!!!
Lodestone of Wrongness says
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/feb/01/bryan-ferry-roxy-music-invented-new-pop-game-for-anything
Tiggerlion says
Excellent article, well worth reading. No mention of the Steve Wilson remix, though. 😉
Sniffity says
Bryan Ferry is one of those people I could never visualise putting the rubbish bin out on the footpath the night before collection day.
Moose the Mooche says
He has a man for that, shirley?
Sniffity says
Not a man – a majordomo.
Mike_H says
He has “People”, most of whom he never even sees, dealing with the things he doesn’t wish to bother himself with. Such as putting the bins out.
Black Type says
He used to have Chris Difford. Everyone should have a Chris Difford.
fatima Xberg says
So, the deluxe set then. I got it on Friday and it’s worth every penny (it’s not as expensive in German shops, BTW). First of all – it doesn’t come in “a nice box”, it’s actually a sturdy slipcase with an LP-size coffee table book. And the book is a great documentation of the band in 1971/1972: the liner notes chronicle the preparation and recording of the album with great detail, and the sessions are described day by day, track by track, based on interviews with all involved. Accompanying this there are loads of pictures of the band in the studio and at early gigs, plus a treasure trove of foreign picture sleeves, promo stuff, and reproductions of dozens of articles from the UK music press. As for the famous cover – you get nearly 80 alternative shots of Kari-Ann in all her glory, from contact sheets to full-page color pictures (and a few Anthony Price sketches). The book also includes Bryan Ferry’s original lyric sheets, pages of Doctor Puxley’s amusing “lyric footnotes & annotations”, and a full-size reproduction of the album’s gatefold (slightly doctored, as the original LP didn’t include “Virginia Plain”….).
As for the music – the Steven Wilson mix is fabulous (as expected). It still sounds (like the original album) somewhat detached, but it now has a clarity that’s quite exceptional. All those distant rumblings, Eno-sounds and hidden harmonies and soundscapes are there, without changing the overall familiar sound and punch. (Plus there are a couple of nice little additional surprises here and there that Bob Ludwig apparently didn’t hear…) A shame that Wilson’s new mix of “The Numberer” isn’t included (it was on the Record Store Day 10″ with an extended “Ladytron” mix). Also exclusive to the big set is a disc of demos & outtakes: the 1971 demos are interesting because they curiously sound a lot like King Crimson ballads (they’re all slow songs, and remind me of Crimson tracks like “The Letters”). They also – with their prominent woodwind melodies – remind me of early Residents tracks, having listened to “Meet The Residents” a lot in the last week. The “outtakes” from the album sessions are not so much alternative versions, as session reels: the tracks have lots of false starts, studio chatter and guide vocals, and it’s a fascinating glimpse on how they worked on the arrangements.
All in all – a very rewarding package, with plenty of future listening, comparing and reading to come.
Tiggerlion says
Thanks, Fatima. You are always quick to get your hands on these objects of desire, you love a good book(let) and you comment with perspicacity. Bryan loved American music, jazz, soul, etc, but wanted to write with an English voice. He saw King Crimson as being a very English band, so the likeness is actually very logical and probably explains Steve Wilson’s attraction to the album. Your description of his remix has me salivating.
eddie g says
Bought the 2-CD set as I felt I somehow ‘ought’ to have it in my collection, largely because I remember seeing ‘Virginia Plain’ on TOTP when I was a kid and loved it. Too young to bother much with albums at the time I taped it off the radio and did the same with every other Roxy single up to ‘All I Want is You’ (after which I discovered girls). Have to say that I found this album rather dull apart from ‘Virginia’ (which, I’m told, wasn’t even there on the first pressing!). Maybe it’s the victim of it’s own power as all the bands who came in its wake have made it sound rather bland. For me I think Roxy may well be one of those bands- much like 10CC or REM- whose singles I can cope with but whose albums tend to drag.
Tiggerlion says
Interesting, I don’t actually think of REM as a singles band and 10cc’s first three or four albums still sound fantastic in my ears, at least. As for Roxy Music’s debut, I’ve heard it described as lots of things, both good and bad, but never ‘dull’.
Moose the Mooche says
“RM” is definitely an “album” isn’t it? And “VP” is definitely a “single”. It’s almost like those crafty sods planned it like that.
…er…
eddie g says
…and the “single” turns out to be by far the best thing on the, er, “album”…
Bargepole says
Interesting interview with Andy McKay over at SDE.