Roxy Music - Roxy Music POLL

'If There Is Something' is perhaps the best Roxy track ever. And kornrulez is right, side one is immense, side two is no so much.

Sea Breezes is probably the most absurdly bathetic descent from dead serious to completely and utterly ludicrous that's ever managed to keep a straight face in the history of music. It's completely transcendent; it explodes the artistic process and yet affirms it. Its balls are bigger than most bands'.

Barf

I think you're meant to be lulled into a state of placid unlistening neutrality by the first half of Sea Breezes; not that you're bored, just locked into place, not really engaging with the music. Thus when the second half kicks in, austere flute persisting beneath the chaos, it really does genuinely amaze.

Virginia Plain to my understanding was not on the original UK pressings, but was added on quickly thereafter as it was a top 10 hit in Britain at the time...something like that, anyways...

seems like voicing my worries abt VP dominating this poll (seems like every album poll I started lately has that one obv standout cut--or else has been completely given ILM's cold shoulder)* have been a sort of negative talisman, scattering would be votes for it onto the three songs before it...I mean VP is a great song, it deserves some votes...

*not true for Slates or White Light/White Heat

Does the recent remaster of this make it seem less flat and dry?

oh yes.

http://tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:PDgKoU7Lf4AG0M:http://images.tomshardware.com/2005/07/22/summer_cpl_2005/cpl-other-logo.jpghttp://media.peeron.com/pics/inv/setpics/5938-1.1121277958.thumb2.jpg

what's her name

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

"Would You Believe?" = hella underrated.

I'm surprised "Chance Meeting" got no votes -- I might have voted for it tonight. I used to own a bootleg from the mid seventies; it's just Ferry on electric piano and Manzanero on various effects boxes. Holy shit.

^i'm tellin ya as difficult as it is to vote for side 2 of this album is the shiznit...this is easily up there for me in the top 40 greatest albums of them all...

(the comma goes between 'for' and 'side', thereby shattering the rule that decrees that clauses shalt not be ended with dangling prepositions and suchwith etc blah)

*Manzanera

(gotta admit: i'm kinda filled with a warm gooey gladness somebody voted for bitters end...who was it? come forward. that's some challops w/ charm)

AHT LAST DA KHRIM-SHAN COHLD CAS-CADE...

I think I voted for "Re-Make/Re-Model." For the trademark stuttering Bryan Ferry vocal plus squealing horn and for the part with the song-quoting solos, which I guess they change up when playing live. When I saw them , instead of "Daytripper" the bass player, Zev Katz, played the James Bond Theme. The sax one on the record is "Ride Of The Valkyries," no?

The Bob is the worst Roxy song ever

I pretty much can't listen to any Roxy Music that's not on 'Roxy Music' and 'For Your Pleasure' (or early demos) except for a few singles and radio hits.
I dunno why, but that's just the way it is for me.

thats ok, it's like that for me as well.
the reason os called Brian Eno btw

anyone else hear musical similarities between the middle section of "If There Is Something":
"I would do anything for you/I would climb mountains/I would swim all the oceans blue/I would walk a thousand miles/Reveal my secrets/More than enough for me to share/I would put roses round our door/Sit in the garden/Growing potatoes by the score"
and the part of Joy Division's "New Dawn Fades" that goes:
"Different colours, different shades/Overreached, mistakes were made/I took the blame/Directionless so plain to see/A loaded gun won't set you free/So you say/We'll share a drink and step outside/An angry voice and one who cried/We'll give you everything and more/The strain's too much, can't take much more/I've walked on water, run through fire/Can't seem to feel it anymore"

^^^Yes, Paul. Good call.

i would have voted for "if there is something" had i known this poll existed. every time i hear ferry singing on that one i am amazed that he didn't drown in his own tears.

the middle section of "If There Is Something":
I would do anything for you/I would climb mountains

possibly my favorite Roxy moment ever

"Would You Believe?" = hella underrated.

Agreed -- it's my favourite thing on side 2, probably. The 50s-space-glam-raveup part is outrageous... I remember the first time I heard it being taken aback. Ferry outcamps even Ferry.

Not sure what I would've voted for -- probably "Remake" (for Phil Manzanera if nothing else) but I'm glad "2HB" got some votes also -- the instrumental break (with the layering of horns, submerged in delay/echo effects) might be the 20 or 30 most sublime seconds in their catalog. But shit, yeah, "If There is Something," too... and the castanets in "Ladytron"...

Still more goth than everyone on this poll, sorry.

Just saw that Johnny Gustafson died a few days ago. He played bass on "Stranded," "Country Life" and "Siren," to me the best three Roxy albums and also featuring some of the best bass playing. That's him on "Love is the Drug." RIP.

Sad, just heard about that. Always struck me as odd that he was never a full member of Roxy, considering how much he contributed.

This is kind of the ultimate Side 1 > Side 2 album, isn't it?

But...Sea Breezes

For some reason I thought this was the general thread, not the first album thread.

RIP.

RIP.

Ferry is doing the top 4 from the poll on his current US tour

I was impressed he took a moment to note Gustafson's contributions last night.

Where did he play, Josh? How was he?

Chicago maybe?

He actually was interviewed here at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Nothing revelatory, save perhaps an emphasis on Eric Bowman's cover photography, and that Manolo Blahnik is loitering in the background of the "Another Time, Another Place" shot; Bowman is also in drag in the "Hard Rain" video, and drag and blackface (!) playing piano here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYUpq2dTnnY

Ferry plays a special gala show here for the opening of the "Bowie Is" exhibit Saturday night, and plays a proper concert Sunday. I'll be at that one and will report back.

That seems very cool to me that BF is playing at the opening of the Bowie show.

Oh yeah, thanks for your response! I've heard he is rather a cold interview, unsurprisingly

This one is kinda entertaining:

http://pitchfork.com/features/5-10-15-20/9076-bryan-ferry/

The debonair 67-year-old former Roxy Music frontman on the music of his life: Charlie Parker, Otis Redding, Arcade Fire, Billie Holiday, Dylan, and more.

Oh snap, almost forgot, he did say he finished his new album last week! It's called "Avonmore." Out in November. Apparently Nile Rodgers and Johnny Marr on guitar, again, but there are usually a million guys on guitar. As he joked last night, it's funny to call them solo records, because they typically feature 50 different musicians.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/tributes-merseyside-musician-john-gustafson-7800684

x-post re Gustafson, Roxy bassist for a bit

Phil sez Roxy Music more or less officially broken up, at least inasmuch as any band on hiatus is "broken up" until it tours or records:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/roxy-music-break-up-20141103

Sounds pretty much over, though.

listening to this album for the first time ever

It's pretty good, you heard it here first.

Aye, listen to yer man, Josh, it's no' half bad.

whoa thats crazy crut. what do you think?

it's great! crazy to think it was 1972. a lot of it sounds more like 1977. i guess the reasons for that are self-explanatory.

Because the band traveled back from the future to entertain us.

It isn't Gary Tibbs?

Alan Spenner. Played on some early Joe Cocker records and with Spooky Tooth, among many others. Died really young.

I think he was an old UK session lag who played with absolutely everyone.

This is obviously a joke, but everyone in the comments seems to be taking it seriously for some reason.
Anyway, made me laugh.

Whoops! pic.twitter.com/lYcVdDoLZ4

— Chris Frantz (@ChrisFrantzTTC) April 1, 2021

There is no reason I necessarily should have seen this photo, but I've never seen it and think it's cool:

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/196499509_10158402786553727_2093643259837767448_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=clEWq-ohnIUAX--wSJC&tn=ORcsky-MBznsY1T7&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=403446714dcdb53271e8d18631aed54b&oe=60E9E998

That was definitely one of my favorite Tiny Desk concerts.

Looool!

Sounding glorious tonight. Listening to the Peel Session version of If There Is Something and getting that weird timeslip feeling that this could, with some of the right drugs, been on Abbey Road and Fear of Music.

So ahead of their time. Still ahead of their time.

I'm really torn about shelling out for the tour. I've seen Ferry several times and Roxy once. I have no expectations this tour will be any better than those, but I also feel that it could be the final tour for, well, any of them, and I love them, so ...

They've been having trouble selling out here in NYC, so much that I have no doubt a lot of those seats will remain unsold, moreso than the Who show at the same venue 7 weeks ago. And if it's anything like that Who show, you could wait four hours before show time and grab a ticket for a fraction of the price.

That may be my plan. Market is oversaturated with big ticket tours right now, and not sure Roxy has what it takes to cut through the noise and fill an arena.

has the long july 1972 bbc version of "if there is something" ever been released officially? it is _so good_, one of my favorite roxy recordings ever, and they went and left it off the deluxe reish. i'd love to hear it in non-bootleg sound quality...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqtzZaXt89A

Wow!

It it the algorithm or is there suddenly a lot of new great footage their first phase turning up now?

The upload dates are all recent, though I noticed a few being taken down so it could be re-uploads of stuff that's been out there for a while.