Author:Michael Kulikowski, Opher Goodwin
In 1972, Roxy Music hit the music scene like a breath of fresh air. Their debut album sounded quite different from anything else that was around at the time. This trend continued with 1973’s excellent For Your Pleasure, and just a few months later by its follow up Stranded – three fantastic albums in less than two years. For me, the subsequent two records, Country Life and Siren aren’t as consistently strong although they still contain plenty of good songs – in addition to the hit singles there are fine songs such as Out of the Blue and Just Another High. After a four year hiatus they returned but as a quite different band, with a sophisticated and more mainstream sound that Ferry used as a template for his solo efforts in the following years. Although there were still some great songs, Dance Away, Avalon, Oh Yeah, the creativity and inventiveness had mostly gone, replaced by the dreamy almost world weary feel that became a new trademark. I really enjoyed reading this potted history of their career, which has been thoroughly researched and gives plenty of background detail as well as looking at each song individually, and I’d certainly recommend it to fans of the band.
I was never too sure what to make of The White Album, or The Beatles to give it its official title. A watershed record created at a turbulent time in the band’s ranks as they were beginning to drift apart, it was very much a record of diverse musical styles, often veering from the sublime to the ridiculous. In these days it’s easy enough to create a single album of the good stuff and filter out the experiments that didn’t always come off. For me, Dear Prudence, While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Helter Skelter are the standouts, but no doubt others will disagree. This all too short book looks at each song, and indeed at every facet of this divisive and extraordinary double album, as well as giving some interesting insights into its creation, and overall is well worth a read.
Length of Read:Short
Might appeal to people who enjoyed…
The work of these bands, casual fans wanting to learn more.
One thing you’ve learned
I wonder if we’ll ever see any more Roxy deluxe sets.
I think Siren is Roxy’s masterpiece. It’s like a sleek jet, but retains enough DNA of early Roxy to keep it interesting. While there is some sublime stuff after, I see it more as the end of the old Roxy rather than the start of the MOR years.
The White Album: When it is good it is very, very good but when it is bad it is horrid. As I get older I have less tolerance for the latter and firmer in my conviction that it would have made a brilliant single album.
Thanks for the review, Bargey, but I’ll have to take issue with you on this particular point with regard to the White Album:
“it’s easy enough to create a single album of the good stuff and filter out the experiments that didn’t always come off”
Erm … I’m with McCartney on this matter:
I’ve tried repeatedly to create a single white. I’ve never succeeded to my satisfaction
I think, based on the 50+ years since the White Album, that McCartney’s musical judgement could hardly be called impeccable.
I don’t think I’ve listened to the White album tracks from start to finish since I was at school. Let’s go through them, shall we?
USSR and Prudence: Good songs, but I detected the plodding drumming when I was a kid and only found out years later that it was Macca.
Glass Onion: OK, and would stay of there was room.
Ob-La-Di: Should have been left as a Marmalade single. Kill it.
Wild Honey Pie: Dreadful
Bungalow Bill: Disposable. Keep as a B side.
While my guitar: Fantastic, but I would have removed the Leslie speaker effect from Clapton’s guitar.
Happiness: I like
Martha: More twee McCartney crap.
I’m so Tired: Love it
Blackbird: Love it
Piggies: Disposable
Rocky: I quite like, but maybe better suited to solo McCartney
Don’t Pass me By: Kill me now.
Why don’t we: Harmless, but disposable
I will: Lovely
Julia: Lovely
Birthday: I suppose it has to stay.
Yer Blues: Wears out its welcome
Mother Nature’s Son: Inoffensive
Monkey: Love it
Sexy Sadie: Love it
Helter Skelter: Great
Long Long Long: Beautiful
Revolution 1: Replace with the single
Honey Pie: More twee crap from Macca. Surely nobody in the 70s could say they were surprised, could they? He gave them enough warning.
Savoy Truffle: OK but no better than that, especially given what Harrison had up his sleeve at the time.
Cry Baby Cry: Great
Revolution 9: The sort of track that gets put on box set, listened to once and then never again. I get it was a brave experiment, but that doesn’t mean I have to listen to it.
Good Night: At least it’s only the second worst Ringo song on the album.
So you’re implying that all of McCartney’s 70s output is “twee crap’…all of it? Really?
There are those who recognise McCartney is the true musical genius of our times and those who don’t
After I saw McCartney live four or five years ago I was determined to listen to his entire solo and Wings output and make myself a playlist. I made it to the mid 80s and had by then found one song I thought was great and 3 or 4 others I quite liked. It’s a cliche, but I think they needed each other to squash certain musical tendencies they each harboured. If it makes you feel better, I think McCartney smashed it out of the park with Abbey Rd (except for Maxwell, certainly the worst ‘worst song’ on the best ‘best album’).
I quite like Don’t Pass Me By
I quite like “Good Night”
John wrote it, means a lot to me for personal reasons
This is how all album reviews should be.
I love Long Long Long, but it seems really quiet in the mix – you can barely hear the bloody thing. It reminds me of Seems So Long Ago, Nancy by Leonard Cohen, in the sense that it’s great but seems to have been recorded in order to induce one to book a hearing test.
White Album could have been a triple! But no need to touch anything, in its way it is perfect as it is.
* Sides 1-3 as is:
Side 4
Hey Jude
Lady Madonna
Junk
Child of Nature
The Inner Light
Side 5
Sour Milk Sea
Goodbye
Not Guilty
Step Inside Love
What’s the New Mary Jane
Side 6 is the old side 4
Roxy Music never made a bad album. I love them all and struggle to pick a favourite. I was stunned by the debut, delighted with their comeback, Manifesto, and felt Avalon was a perfect farewell. Stranded is the one I listen to most. Fabulous group.
First one is a bit half baked in my opinion.
I’m with you on that summation, @Tiggerlion – I’ve been on a jag of listening to the first album recently, never fails to impress (on another thread I suggested that the opening of The Bob might have been an influence on PF when they came to write Welcome to the Machine – a leap too far?).
But the one I listen to the most is Country Life…
I agree that Roxy never made a bad album, but I think Bryan got even better as a solo artist. His later albums in particular are terrific. Whether it’s more of the “dreamy almost world weary feel” that Bargepole mentions in his interesting review, or the fact that BF had longer to spend on the fine details in his own studio, I much prefer Boys & Girls, say, or Mamouna to most of Roxy’s albums.
Roxy, especially with Mackay, Manzanera, and the Mighty Paul Thompson, laid the groundwork for BF’s unique style, but solo is where he really shines.
Ooh, controversial! The guys in my Roxy Facebook group would be apoplectic at this analysis!
Boys and Girls is the pick of his solo work for me, but I get the impression he’s someone who gets lost in a maze of multi tracks, paralysed by the plethora of possibilities in front of him.
I read a Roxy/Ferry biography where the author was very critical indeed of Bryan’s tendency to record and record and record, using increasing numbers of top sessioneers, until he got what he wanted. (And looking at the sleevenotes, I do occasionally wonder why you might need, say, four guitarists and two bassists on one studio track.)
But I think that method is what makes his solo work so good: every note, every sound, is precise and specially chosen and placed.
Does he rawk, with a loose, spontaneous sort of passion? No. Will anybody call him Mr Prolific? No. But do the albums – when they finally appear – sound deep and multi-layered, with little bits and pieces in the mix that reward repeated listening? I think so.
If a BF song were a person, I fancy it would be a tux-clad ladies’ man leaving a casino/swanky restaurant in Paris/Milan with a nubile lovely (probably a model or minor European princess) on his arm, ready for a night of adventure. You need a lot of multitracking to pull that off (as it were).
Seems to be acceptable for the Dan record like this…
When was the first time Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da was roundly criticised?
I’m not talking about Marmalade’s alarmingly lame cover, I mean the Beatles’ version.
I can find no evidence of anyone in the 60s condemning it, contemporary reviews of the White Album label it a highlight, scores of artists (mainly black) rushed to record it, and it appeared on the ‘Blue’ compilation five years later.
Anyone know?
Dunno, but in the 70s it was one of those Beatles songs like Yellow Submarine and Octopus that seemed to be endorsed for primary schools. I can’t remember not knowing them and they always had that goofy feel (awesome guitar work on Octopus, not withsranding)
Lennon Remembers interview possibly
Love all the Roxy albums up to and including Manifesto although not so keen on what came after. Also enjoy the Ferry solo albums up to Bride Stripped Bare but not a fan of the sophisticated’ stuff that followed. I prefer the version of Bryan Ferry that has the eccentric , off key vocal stylings rather than the crooner version. The way he sings on his early solo albums makes me laugh, but in a good way! Sometimes I think it would have been a great artistic statement if Roxy released Re-make/Re-Model as a single then immediately broke up, although I’m glad they didn’t! So much craziness packed into one song.
I have always struggled with the earlier Roxy albums for some reason – I think it may well be because I never heard them at the time. I love all the singles though! I much prefer the later ones, and have a lot of Ferry’s solo work.
As for the White album…do we really need that discussion again!?! It works entirely because of its faults and foibles (which are very debatable – see above) – would a single album be ‘stronger’? Probably, but I love it as it is. I still stop it before Revolution 9 though….