stranded

Roxy Music weathered the storm of dissolution to land on their feet with the smooth and sophisticated survivalist adventure of this desert island delight.    After two groundbreaking experimental albums ('Roxy Music' and 'For Your Pleasure') Brian Eno left the band over differences with emerging bandleader Bryan Ferry. 

Ferry admits:   "I was cramping Eno’s style. Two non-musicians in a band is one too many ... We were young and foolish.  But at the same time we worked well together. I just didn't like being portrayed as the glamour-boy singer when I was writing this stuff. Back then I felt threatened, but that's changed. We felt that the chemistry was not exhausted. If we'd done 12 albums together, maybe we wouldn't have had that...It's impossible to say [if Eno left at the right time]. To Brian's credit, his favourite album is 'Stranded', which he isn't on. It is intriguing to imagine what he'd have done with the others...Maybe I should get him into my studio to play along with them ... 'Stranded' belongs to the first phase. It begins phase two, but there’s an overlap. Some of the songs were written earlier. 'Psalm' was one of the first I ever wrote. And 'Mother Of Pearl' relates to 'In Every Dream Home A Heartache'... it wouldn’t have felt out of place on 'For Your Pleasure', for instance.”

Eno was replaced by 19-year-old classically-trained multi-instrumentalist Eddie Jobson, formerly of  Curved Air.  Recorded at AIR Studios in London with producer Chris Thomas, 'Stranded' features Bryan Ferry on vocals, piano, electric piano, and harmonica; John Gustafson on bass guitar; Eddie Jobson on synthesizers, keyboards, and electric violin; Andrew Mackay on oboe, saxophone, and treatments; Phil Manzanera on guitar and treatments; Paul Thompson on drums and timpani; with  Chris Laurence playing string bass on "Sunset"; and The London Welsh Male Choir doing the chorus on "Psalm".  It is the first Roxy Music album to include compositional imput from other members of the group. 

Mackay says:   "I think 'Stranded' is a very cautious album, I don't think it breaks very much new ground. I happened to hear the first Roxy album a couple of months ago, and I was amazed at how naive it was, that we'd actually stuck things together and hoped for the best. Strangely, as you improve as a band - and we have - you do become more cautious, without noticing it. I start thinking about musicians listening to our work, rather than the general public. And the final product is always so very different from the unmixed one, that I think it would often be a good idea to issue albums in various stages of mixing so people could hear the difference." 

 'Stranded' found its way to number one hundred and eighty six in the US and became the band's first number one album in the UK.  The cover features Playboy Playmate of the Year Marilyn Cole.  

http://www.roxymusic.co.uk/

Mother Of Pearl

Turn the lights down
Way down low
Turn up the music
Hi as fi can go
All the gang´s here
Everyone you know
It´s a crazy scene
Hey there just look over your shoulder
Get the picture?
No no no no .......(yes)
Walk a tightrope
Your life-sign-line
Such a bright hope
Right place, right time
What´s your number?
Never you mind
Take a powder
But hang on a minute what´s coming round the corner?
Have you a future?
No no no no .......(yes)
Well I´ve been up all night again
Party-time wasting is too much fun
Then I step back thinking
Of life´s inner meaning
And my latest fling
It´s the same old story
All love and glory
It´s a pantomime
If you're looking for love
In a looking glass world
It's pretty hard to find
Oh mother of pearl
I wouldn't trade you
For another girl
Divine intervention
Always my intention
So I take my time
I´ve been looking for something
I've always wanted
But was never mine
But now I've seen that something
Just out of reach - glowing -
Very holy grail
Oh mother of pearl
Lustrous lady
Of a sacred world
Thus: even Zarathustra
Another-time-loser
Could believe in you
With every goddess a let down
Every idol a bring down
It gets you down
But the search for perfection
Your own predilection
Goes on and on and on and on
Canadian club love
A place in the country
Everyone's ideal
But you are my favorita
And a place in your heart dear
Makes me feel more real
Oh mother of pearl
I wouldn't change you
For the whole world
You're highbrow, holy
With lots of soul
Melancholy shimmering
Serpentine sleekness
Was always my weakness
Like a simple tune
But no dilettante
Filigree fancy
Beats the plastic you
Career girl cover
Exposed and another
Slips right into-view
Oh looking for love
In a looking glass world
Is pretty hard for you
Few throwaway kisses
The boomerang misses
Spin round and round
Fall on featherbed quilted
Faced with silk
Softly stuffed eider down
Take refuge in pleasure
Just give me your future
We'll forget your past
Oh mother of pearl
Submarine lover
In a shrinking world
Oh lonely dreamer
Your choker provokes
A picture cameo
Oh mother of pearl
So so semi-precious
In your detached world
Oh mother of pearl
I wouldn´t trade you
For another girl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cjR5QHFpEo

Street Life

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny5vAuJjFAo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arct2SuLcZs

'Stranded'

full album:

All songs written by Bryan Ferry except as noted.

Side one
1. "Street Life"   3:29
2. "Just Like You"   3:36
3. "Amazona" (Ferry, Phil Manzanera) 4:16
4. "Psalm"   8:04
Side two
1. "Serenade"   2:59
2. "A Song for Europe" (Ferry, Andy Mackay) 5:46
3. "Mother of Pearl"   6:52
4. "Sunset"   6:04