Reportedly he gave them up in the mid '80s.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 10 March 2017 20:57 (seven years ago) link
To be fair, he's in his 70s, or was at least just about there at the time. He pretty much ... sounds his age.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 10 March 2017 21:38 (seven years ago) link
He does on the rest of the tracks; I just thought "J&M" was particularly Leonard Cohen-esque, but some of that may have been purposeful.
― You're going to see a lot of love. Okay? Thank you. (Dan Peterson), Friday, 10 March 2017 22:08 (seven years ago) link
"Which Way To Turn" is a gorgeous track
― Carlotta's Portrait (Ross), Saturday, 11 March 2017 21:20 (seven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PRJj73J-l8
― Carlotta's Portrait (Ross), Saturday, 11 March 2017 21:22 (seven years ago) link
agreed
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 11 March 2017 21:26 (seven years ago) link
On recording with Johnny Marr (and recording generally):"I did the keyboards and Johnny Marr's playing the guitar. Then you hear Nile Rodgers enter on the chorus. Marcus Miller's playing the bass. I'm very happy with the way it turned out. I tend to start the thing on piano first. I do the sketch on piano. Normally, at home. Then I bring it to the studio later and then start turning it into something. I give them a free reign normally, because I know how sympathetic they will play. Over the years, you get to form really firm musical bonds with people. And I first worked with some of these guys and boys and girls back in '83, so we go back quite a long way."http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/2014/11/04/361155023/bryan-ferry-shares-new-songs-and-stories-from-his-upcoming-record🔗
"I did the keyboards and Johnny Marr's playing the guitar. Then you hear Nile Rodgers enter on the chorus. Marcus Miller's playing the bass. I'm very happy with the way it turned out. I tend to start the thing on piano first. I do the sketch on piano. Normally, at home. Then I bring it to the studio later and then start turning it into something. I give them a free reign normally, because I know how sympathetic they will play. Over the years, you get to form really firm musical bonds with people. And I first worked with some of these guys and boys and girls back in '83, so we go back quite a long way."
http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/2014/11/04/361155023/bryan-ferry-shares-new-songs-and-stories-from-his-upcoming-record🔗
― Naive Teen Idol, Saturday, 11 March 2017 22:27 (seven years ago) link
lol. i can see how that could happen in transcription but someone should have caught it.
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Sunday, 12 March 2017 23:56 (seven years ago) link
also: "free reign"
What'd folks think of Avonmore: The Remix Album? I just noticed it on Spotify and while it seems to have the usual cast of characters—Leo Zero, etc.—I immediately tuned in the Prins Thomas mix of the title track and am enjoying it.
I will say: despite the fact that I'm still not sure what to make of the fact that Ferry fell back into his 80s studio sound for the umpteenth time for his albums proper, for a 70-plus year old man, his commitment to remix culture is fairly impressive.
― Naive Teen Idol, Monday, 13 March 2017 01:54 (seven years ago) link
I read an interview with Ferry a couple years ago where he said he doesn't listen to music at home, just like ambient soundscapes. Seemed like a Ferry thing to say.
― Carlotta's Portrait (Ross), Monday, 13 March 2017 02:36 (seven years ago) link
eh Avonmore doesn't sound like a Return to the Velvet Fog -- too damn sprightly.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 13 March 2017 02:47 (seven years ago) link
About half those songs would like a word with you, Alfred – esp. the title track, "Midnight Train," "Driving Me Wild"...
Big studio budgets are like Bryan Ferry's personal Death Star ... with the power of three interchangeable rhythm guitarists pulling him ever closer to certain, elegant destruction.
― Naive Teen Idol, Monday, 13 March 2017 04:50 (seven years ago) link
He had as many as three guitarists and four keyboardists on consensus pick Frantic. What I like about Olympia and Avonmore is how his decision to be solo keyboardist focuses the songs. Some song are nothings ("Midnight Train" and "Soldier of Fortune" would be duds on any album).
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 13 March 2017 12:13 (seven years ago) link
I find "Soldier of Fortune" to be nice change of pace on this record. "Midnight Train," OTOH, had been kicking around since Horoscope in the early- to mid-90s (featuring no less than NINE guitarists) for no apparent reason.
Truth be told, "Lost" may be my secret favorite on this album – and Ferry is listed as the sole keyboardist on that one. So your theory may not be wrong.
― Naive Teen Idol, Monday, 13 March 2017 12:59 (seven years ago) link
My jams are the title track, "Driving Me Wild" (on which he plays piano and chintzy organ), "Lost," and "One Night Stand." Oh -Â "Loop de Li" too. So that's almost half the album.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 13 March 2017 13:09 (seven years ago) link
I don't think all the guitarists are indulgent in the way people think. Over the years Ferry enlists different combinations of players to tackle different songs slightly different ways, and in the end he cobbles together the various sessions into one final product. I think that's what takes him so long, not the tracking but the editing and reconfiguration. Like, I bet folks like Marr and Nile are rarely ever in the same room together, let alone the three (!) bassists on the title track. The irony is that the results are often so more or less similarly smooth, as opposed to, say, Eno's results with the same approach he pioneered. As early as "Warm Jets" Eno would take multiple stabs at the same song with different bands, and then pick and choose what makes it to the end, with gleefully chaotic results, like "Needles in the Camel's Eye," which are pretty clearly two bands playing the same song at once.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 13 March 2017 14:55 (seven years ago) link
I think that's what takes him so long, not the tracking but the editing and reconfiguration
oh he's admitted this
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 13 March 2017 15:37 (seven years ago) link
See also: Peter Gabriel.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 13 March 2017 16:28 (seven years ago) link
Nine Horses' (D. Sylvian, S. Jansen, B. Friedman) 'Snow Borne Sorrow' is the best '00s album Bryan Ferry never made.
― Max Florian, Saturday, 18 March 2017 01:14 (seven years ago) link
a jam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7UB_0AiLNU
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 5 October 2021 02:26 (two years ago) link
Elegant video, but it's the worst song on his worst album. I was so shocked when I first heard it that I imagined that if someone told me this was a parody, I'd think "how cruel, he'd never write a song this terrible!"
― Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 5 October 2021 02:58 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQxEYigj9eA
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 5 October 2021 03:19 (two years ago) link
6:45
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 5 October 2021 03:21 (two years ago) link
― Halfway there but for you,
Nah. It can't be the worst when "Soldier of Fortune" or "Midnight Train" exist.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 5 October 2021 09:34 (two years ago) link
Was this really released seven years ago? 😳
All this time on, the record sounds like what it is: a grab bag of leftovers from the Horoscope and Alphaville sessions, with a few new-ish things mixed on a 256-track Neve desk in his studio castle. Part of me wonders whether Alfred's dislike of "Soldier of Fortune" is that it is Ferry over a guitar a la Dylanesque, one of his least favorite--and most guitar-based--records. "Lost" remains pretty good. "Driving Me Wild" sounds like Dave Stewart may have had a hand in it (tho the credits don't reflect that). The title track is peak late-period Ferry, tho -- and while I'm less enamored with the dying-old-man "Johnny and Mary" and "Send In the Clowns" covers than others, I do enjoy them. The Mamouna retread twenty years on that no one was asking for.
― Naive Teen Idol, Friday, 8 October 2021 13:56 (two years ago) link
"Loop De Li" is a fun single too.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 8 October 2021 14:00 (two years ago) link
"Loop De Li" is good, the title track is almost good, the covers are adequately sung but conceptually corny, the rest is weak to terrible.
― Halfway there but for you, Friday, 8 October 2021 14:17 (two years ago) link
"Johnny and Mary" is conceptually brilliant.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 8 October 2021 14:19 (two years ago) link
Agreed, tho the version on Horoscope ("Your Love Has Died") is superior, largely bc of the comparative power of his vocal (Mamouna probably features his best late-period vocals -- you can hear a little smoke sneak in on Frantic). There are even a few achy "More Than This"-y moments which were stricken from the record around 1997. It's also mixed more skeletally, as was his wont in the early-90s.
Not sure if Trower was involved by that point, but both the voice and mix are superior on the Horoscope "Midnight Train," too -- which still isn't one of his stronger compositions but suits Ferry's urban funk era much better a la "NYC" than the heavy beated return to it two decades later.
― Naive Teen Idol, Friday, 8 October 2021 14:20 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9JW-NsXzPM
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 8 October 2021 14:27 (two years ago) link
I have no idea what led Ferry to Trower or even about Trower's sideline as producer, but he was the best collaborator outside of Eno that Ferry could've asked for.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 8 October 2021 14:28 (two years ago) link
I don't think it works as a dirge, all the pathos in Robert Palmer's version comes from the contrast of the downbeat words and the sprightly tempo.
― Halfway there but for you, Friday, 8 October 2021 15:41 (two years ago) link
I think it's ... fine as a dirge? But yeah -- I think the Ferry version is both more sophisticated but also less complex, if that makes sense.
Yeah, me neither. But Taxi was the first Ferry solo record I bought -- I picked it up when it came out. And even then, I was struck by how it was his simultaneously his Lothario Smoothie persona that shot him to superstardom as well as kind of weird, distant and not particularly commercial. It's still one of my favorites of his.
― Naive Teen Idol, Friday, 8 October 2021 17:04 (two years ago) link
yall hear this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U32k9zabDjE
― kurt schwitterz, Friday, 8 October 2021 17:19 (two years ago) link