POLLed to Kill: The Roxy Music "Manifesto" Poll

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

Whoa.

Good result, one and all.

I'm a little disappointed to see Angel Eyes over Dance Away but both are great songs. Spin me Round would've been a nice choice though.

"Ain't That So" is so relaxed, the ultimate disco-inflected/New Wave-drenched A/C mid tempo single.

“still falls the rain” would’ve been my pick

Ferry was playing "Stronger Through the Years" in 2017.

Listening to all the alternate versions of the songs on singles and b-sides, you can hear how uncertain Ferry was when it came to apportioning the amount of glam, disco, art rock and New Wave (and maybe a little AOR) in the songs. I suppose you could also say that it was prophetic of how different mixes and recordings of the same piece would be created for different audiences. The version of "Dance Away" with the disco beat over the final choruses is the most hopeless act of pandering he's ever done (I think it was the original LP mix).
That said, I like every song on the current "standard" version! I might have chosen between "Still Falls the Rain" and "Ain't That So" (which is probably a better seductive/dance song than anything on Avalon or later).

Considering how much I lived/breathed Siren when it came out I really didn't like this record at the time. By 1979 I was all about the twitchy new wave of Talking Heads, Devo and B-52s, and only "Trash" and maybe "Angel Eyes" satisfied that urge. "Dance Away" sounded to me not too far removed from something like "Baby Come Back" by Player (I now adore both.)

This thread inspired me to listen to the album for the first time in a long time, and it all sounded pretty ace (save maybe "Cry Cry Cry," which is kind of a limp Stax pastiche that might have worked better on a Ferry solo album.) Love the droning opening and closing numbers of side one, great bass playing throughout. And "Spin Me Round" is a lovely way to end the record, if kind of a rewrite of "In Your Mind."

I'd probably give "Cry Cry Cry" a modest nod as Ferry's best "roots" original (unless "End of the Line" counts). "My Little Girl" doesn't have much to distinguish it beyond Manzanera's riff.

oh boy we don't agree about Roxy, I see

"Dance Away" yearns to be "Baby Come Back" but the dissonances work against it: the bass rumblings, Manzanera's guitar peals after each line.