TS: Roxy Music, For Your Pleasure, Stranded, Country Life, or Siren

Wow, did that not work. Anyhoo, poll still works.

Also, for my money, it's between Siren and For Your Pleasure with the former just eeking out a victory.

It changes depending on the drink (tonight it's a raspy, dry shiraz), but Stranded -- for "Mother of Pearl," "Psalm," "Just Like You," "Street Life," and the ridiculously underrated "Stranded" ("BOO-HOO willows weep AROUND you still!")

Siren by a country mile.

though Side A of the first album is pretty sweet too

you mean "by a country life."

for yr pleasure

Siren (perfect album for my money, best mix/production), followed by Country Life, followed by For Your Pleasure, followed by Roxy Music, followed by Stranded. The latter has some of their best songs, but for some reason the album has never held together for me as a whole.

How do I vote for Side A of the first album?

hard to choose, and stranded is a particular sentimental fave. but damn, the solo on "amazona" defines the record.

You mean "Serenade," Alfred -- and yes, great song.

Incidentally, I never got the CW that said Eddie Jobson's presence supposedly made Roxy "less experimental" on Stranded -- yes, Siren is less manic than the first two albums, but that was two years later. And yeah, "Amazona" gets pretty nuts.

BTW, I have a 1976 bootleg from Stockholm (that's mostly on YouTube, it seems) -- and the version of "Mother of Pearl" on there is absolutely amazing. Instead of the soft piano build, the second section comes crashing in with Jobson playing clavinet. It'd be great if someone released that concert on DVD.

st

Out of these, "Siren". I prefer "Avalon" though.

Avalon

Country Life.

Country Life just ahead of the 1st 2.

Difficult

For Your Pleasure, but Stranded would come a very close second.

for your pleasure just beats out the debut for me.

I'm exactly with da croupier, Side one of the first album is flat-out the best piece of music these sassy sickos ever cut, but Siren is, as a whole, their best all-around album. And it has "Whirlwind"!

There she blows
Tear me down tornado
Whirlpool
Drag me to the deeps below
Whirlwind
Will a wildcat strike be tame?
Earthquake
Shake me to my feet again
It's crosswords go you near
A fatal clue I fear
This case is closed
Elementary, my dear.

I know Siren is the most consistent of their early records, but I somehow or another love Country Life the most, because it has a bemused tone, as if Ferry was enjoying thoughts of country life out in some place like Texas (subject of one song or maybe that's Jerry Hall who's the prairie rose) or at least relaxing somewhere in his native land. Piquant bemused saxes. So I guess this one really sustains a tone, altho Stranded is pretty unified. And that one has "Amazona," which is pretty amazing. But my choice has "All I Want Is You," which is their greatest song, I think, and the only time they out-Bowied Bowie. Those first two records, I like some of it but find the first one a bit, er, gawky at times; the second one has a couple of their greatest rockers and a cool cover image but the slow ones drag, they were dragging their boots out of the '60s.

Oof, they have quite a few great songs, but "Virginia Plain" is the runaway bride, because they out-Bowie, out-Bolan, out-everybody. The lyrics to "Virginia Plain" are like Lord Henry dropping epigrams left and right in Picture of Dorian Gray

Throw me a line i´m sinking fast
Clutching at straws can´t make it
Havana sound we´re trying hard edge the hipster jiving
Last picture shows down the drive-in
You´re so sheer you´re so chic
Teenage rebel of the week

are we judging by content or cover?

By cover, For Your Pleasure.

But it's all about the music, man. So Stranded it is.

Very difficult. Perhaps 'Country Life' is the most solid of them all.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I think the first is one of the most stunning debut LPs ever, so crammed to bursting with off-the-wall ideas that even the stuff that slightly outreaches their grasp makes me love them all the more.

That said, the one I've listened to the most is Siren.

I have the Stockholm bootleg mentioned above (exact same show I saw them do in Minneapolis that year) but until now had no idea there was video of it on Youtube! DVD yes, please!

I know it sounds crazy,
But what can I do
I fallen head over heels
Over you.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

No surprise.

I'm way surprised given all the Siren love here (and elsewhere).

And can someone tell me (again?) once and for all if that is a man on the cover of the debut?

I always thought it was a man too! Look at that right leg, raised just enough to hide a telltale bulging crotch...

IT'S BOWIE

Ok, one Kari-Ann Muller appears on the debut cover. Not a drag queen: http://moo.vivaroxymusic.com/1123

And that's Amanda Lear on the cover of For Your Pleasure! Probably born male. Fascinating bio:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanda_Lear

american critics loved siren, i think the reputation in the uk is pretty mixed, even now

The Siren dispute goes on. Conceptually the best, even if Country Life is more consistent. But Roxy were never about consistency.

As for Amanda Lear, she wasn't born male. Don't have a source, but Wikipedia probably isn't the best place to go to refute or confirm rumors.

Wiki wasn't my source(s). Just said "fascinating bio."

Reviving just to say how much I love that crazy tremelo rave-up in the middle of "Beauty Queen." Otherwise I approve of these results.

You'll like this then: http://rockcritics.com/2010/01/19/roxy-rollin-with-alfred-soto-scott-woods-i/

You'll like this then: http://rockcritics.com/2010/01/19/roxy-rollin-with-alfred-soto-scott-woods-i/

― Blue Fucks Like Ben Nelson (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

This is amazing! Thank you for the link and great, great stuff, Alfred.

You'll like this then: http://rockcritics.com/2010/01/19/roxy-rollin-with-alfred-soto-scott-woods-i/

― Blue Fucks Like Ben Nelson (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

This is amazing! Thank you for the link and great, great stuff, Alfred.

― iago g., Thursday, January 28, 2010 4:00 AM (14 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Except that, during the long discussion of 2 H.B., y'all didn't seem to pick up the pun on the 2HB pencil! It is kind of mash note / love letter to Bogie so it makes weird sense

Weirdest line on any of them "Back to nature boys, Vassar girls too"
How the f--k did BF know about Vassar?

A common enough signifier (Mary McCarthy, etc).

Really? For a Brit? Huh...I was guessing he probably met some hip college girls when passing thru NYC

anyways, thanks for your response. i noticed you said "interesting" some in the podcasts, but it just sounded like you were being polite. i wish you guys had given a shoutout to pyjamarama tho!

Yeah -- it's a tic. I improvised most of my thoughts.

Look for the eighties portion published tonight or tomorrow.

The remainder of Alfred's podcasts on Roxy are up and running at rock critics.com...

Also, does anyone have the chords/tabs for "a really good time" that they could email me? i would appreciate it so much (iagogalds✧✧✧@ya✧✧✧.c✧✧), thanks in advance

don't know why it covered up my email add, but it's iagogaldston at Yahoo

nevermind about the tab, figuring it playing alone, really simple

playing along (to the record)

We're not done yet! Bryan Ferry 1985-2007 is next.

The beginning of "Strictly Confidential" really makes me think of the Dracula musical from "Forgetting Sarah Marshall."

Wow, loads of people liking Siren the most in this thread (if not in the vote), voices of sanity at last

I'm surprised Country Life won this, it's always been my least favourite of these five. The second half lets it down slightly.

The debut gets my vote, one of my top five albums ever.

I always loved Siren, it seems like the most underrated of these albums despite containing maybe their biggest hit. Both Ends Burning is just so good.

Awesome that Country Life won this. Always found For Your Pleasure overrated - not trying to challop here, it's just it feels like a refined continuation of their debut, and their debut is much more ecstatic and fresh to me. "Grey Lagoons" is one of their top tracks though.

I think "Country Life" and "Stranded" both sound much more like fluid evolutions of their sound.

Country Life is my favourite of the pre-Avalon albums.

Or my second favourite after Avalon, I should say.

I know it's heresy, but I don't own any of their albums other than the eternal "Avalon", rather I've got "The Thrill Of It All" box set and don't feel I'm missing anything.

Well, that's not true, I've got an incredible Musikladen bootleg that fills in a few missing tracks like "Psalm".

I'd like Avalon better if it didn't have the words "Roxy Music" on it.

on a real roxy kick for the first time in years rn

god does ‘mother of pearl’ ever get old

is that a statement or a question?

yeah

Nope! Perfect song, one of the best stream of consciousness styled ferry lyrics

^^^

thanks lads, glad we got this sorted

lol iirc mother of pearl topped the roxy poll.

If you'd written this about "In Every Dream Home...," I might have agreed.

both never get old, though Dream Home probably doesn't get older juuuuust a bit more than MoP

No way. Mother of Pearl never gets old much faster than Dream Home. Dream Home never gets old, yet ages at a faster pace than Mother of Pearl.

ffs we just sorted this

:D