country life

Roxy Music explored the emotional landscape with bittersweet ennui, decadent romance, and monumental style for the thrill of it all with this tantalizingly textured trek.  The band had already broken new ground with their first three albums 'Roxy Music', 'For Your Pleasure', and 'Stranded' ; but with their fourth album, 'Country Life', they expanded their sonic pallet even further.  The sessions for 'Country Life' took place at AIR Studios, London with Chris Thomas, John Punter, and Roxy Music producing.  The album features Bryan Ferry on vocals, keyboards, and harmonica;   John Gustafson on bass;  Edwin Jobson on strings, synthesiser, and keyboards;  Andrew Mackay on oboe and saxophone;  Phil Manzanera on guitar;  and Paul Thompson on drums. 

Manzanera would express at the time:  "We're only just past the sketch stage at present, the tracks are gradually being built up with overdubs until the picture emerges complete. But with Roxy, the style or the sound is always very difficult to pinpoint. I mean, I'd love to be able to tell you that there's five uptempo rockers and four laid back country tunes, but it's never that easy...With Free music, basically, you have to accept what comes up for better or for worse, and at the outset, nobody knows exactly what's going to happen. All right, we arrive at the studio with our various demos, but it's never a case of 'Oh, if it doesn't work we'll try something else.' Y'know, this is it. No alternatives, and you have to make the best use of the material that you have. And you keep sifting, putting synthesiser here, or violin here, and it's just a continual growing process, until you realise you've finished."

Ferry had been pursuing a solo career simultaneously, beginning in 1973 with 'These Foolish Things' and continuing with 'Another Time, Another Place' just as the sessions for 'Country Life' were getting underway.  He would consider:  "As long as I'm touring, there'll always be a Roxy Music.  Before the tour started I was dreading it - all that travelling, all those hotels, it's not like being at home. But corny as it may sound, once you get onstage it all becomes worthwhile...But to make up for only having an ordinary single cover we've got two girls on it instead on one...['Country Life'] is much better than the last album...but then I say that with every album. I think, though, that the playing has showed a marked improvement and we've got some interesting textural collages. 1 think too that it's a more direct album than the last."

Eric Boman shot the cover photo that features Germany models Constanze Karoli and Eveline Grunwald, who also helped with the German lyrics on "Bitter-Sweet". The scantily clad ladies caused such a stir that a different cover was issued with the back cover image of only trees.  'Country Life' went to thirty-seven in the US and three in the UK.  








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









"Out of the Blue"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7HMeupNb8Y



"A Really Good Time"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MFn0A3oq80



Bitter-Sweet / Triptych / Casanova
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYrk-G_rTqE





'Country Life'
full album:

https://myspace.com/roxymusic/music/album/country-life-9635118




All songs written by Bryan Ferry except where noted.

Side one
1. "The Thrill of It All"   6:24
2. "Three and Nine" (Ferry, Andy Mackay) 4:04
3. "All I Want Is You"   2:53
4. "Out of the Blue" (Ferry, Phil Manzanera) 4:46
5. "If It Takes All Night"   3:12
Side two
1. "Bitter-Sweet" (Ferry, Mackay) 4:50
2. "Triptych"   3:09
3. "Casanova"   3:27
4. "A Really Good Time"   3:45
5. "Prairie Rose" (Ferry, Manzanera) 5:12




"Your Application's Failed" 
B-side to the singles for  All I Want Is You  and  The Thrill Of It All






"The Thrill of It All" live in Sweden
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K2UhrOAM0g






live on Musikladen

"Out of the Blue"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld6eeT_WzQc


"All I Want Is You"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kcIs5hJAIw


"If It Takes All Night"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY75i4Z_KS4

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

for your pleasure

Roxy Music worked through their creative tensions for the artsy luxurious decadence and obsessive nocturnal elegance of this fabulous creation.  'For Your Pleasure' was produced at AIR Studios in London by Roxy Music with Chris Thomas and John Anthony.  The sessions featured Bryan Ferry on voice, keyboards, piano, Hohner Pianet, Mellotron, and harmonica; Andy Mackay on Farfisa electronic organ, oboe and saxophone; Eno on VCS3 synthesizer, tapes, and backing vocals; Paul Thompson on drums; Phil Manzanera on electric guitar; and John Porter on guest artist bass.  

In the months after the release of their eponymous debut, bassist Graham Simpson had been replaced by Peter Paul who had been replaced by Rik Kenton who had been replaced by John Porter.  Ferry muses:    "People make mountains out of molehills. You know, on... what’s that thing... 'For Your Pleasure' ... there’s a guy all over it called John Porter, who nobody ever mentions to this day. He rang me the other month; he’s moved to New Orleans and produces blues albums. His bass lines on 'For Your Pleasure' are so great, yet no-one ever says, ooh, when’s the reunion with John Porter?”

Eno considered:    "I think the first album stressed all the things about us that are esoteric, ethereal and spacey, but as far as I'm concerned those things don't come off unless they're anchored to a strong base, and they've generally gone deeper into more limited range of ideas than on the first record.  I think that one of the things that attracted people to the band before was that feeling of dilettantism - a lot of ideas being just touched on but I felt that nothing was really being taken far enough, and this album's got over that to an extent. But really an album's so short there's so many things we want to do, and 40 minutes, isn't a long time to do them. The album might be criticised for not showing enough ideas, but the ideas in there have been investigated much more thoroughly."

Ferry reflects:     "The music - I know everyone says this - is the most important thing. It seems to me that once you've got the music which you think is really good, comparatively speaking, you should try... if you try and produce it in the most attractive way possible, instead of looking embarrassedly at the floor, it's the whole theatrical thing of rock. Just because we've got a couple of bizarre and photogenic characters in the band it doesn't mean that we're a commercial venture. The whole thing is that we change from one record to another. We could have brought out a Virginia Plain Part 2 instead of Pyjamarama, which was very different. I think the first album tried too hard. There was more breathing space on the second album, and I think the standard of playing was much higher. I think it's improved so much in a year of hard slogging. I think the ideas were ahead of the musical ability on the first album ... Looking back, I think the second album was much better than the first: it's better produced - and better played." 

Eno elaborates:    "I suppose you could describe it as luxurious decadence. It upsets some people...they expect you to be pigeonholed, fully committed to one type of music like rock and roll. Well we certainly don't expect to spend the remainder of our musical days driving up and down the M1 in a van, living in rat holes. We plan to do it in style...It wasn't deliberate, but it was really inevitable considering all our different musical backgrounds.  Musically we are a mixed up bunch. I am interested in Fifties rock and roll, early Sixties pop, and electronics. Paul is interested in the Thirties style of music and so on. With all that experimentation going on at the same time something was bound to happen...We were even accused of cashing in on Gary Glitter and that syndrome, but really it was he who cashed in on us. We were around before him...We wrote a song called 'Bitter End' which is just about a cocktail ... that's all. All we are saying is at least enjoy the luxury before it's too late. Well, if the apocalypse does approach, at least rock music can now greet it in true decadent style."

'For Your Pleasure' hit one hundred and ninety-three in the US and number four in the UK.  Ferry's girlfriend Amanda Lear was the cover model.  After the album was released, Eno left the band:    "It's very hard to know just how honest I should be about the reasons for my demise from Roxy. The problem is that when it gets printed, it all seems to look much more meaningful and serious when unqualified by that chuckle at the back of the throat. My thirsting for revenge has died down somewhat over the last few days, anyway. People who do great hatchet-jobs on the members of their old band usually come out looking like losers when it all appears in print. I started off by wanting to call a Press conference so that I could state my case, but that's all so pointless. Another reason for my reticence is because I don't want to damage Roxy for the sake of the other people in it. I mean, I really like the other members, and I (pause) really like Bryan in a funny way...Actually the real truth is that Bryan Ferry and I are secretly breaking away, and we're going to form a duo called the Singing Brians. Does that sound like it could be true? I dare you to print it." An affected sigh. "I don't know. I think I'll probably just give up music altogether and become a full-time poseur."










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









    

"Editions of You" 



    

"In Every Dream Home a Heartache" 





"The Bogus Man" 



    
"Grey Lagoons" 


    


"For Your Pleasure" 



For your pleasure
In our present state
Part false part true
Like anything
We present ourselves
The words we use tumble
All over your shoulder
Gravel hard and loose
There all night lying
With your dark horse hiding
Abhorring such extremes
You're rubbing shoulders
With the stars at night
Shining so bright
Getting older
But you'll wake up soon
And fight
In the morning
Things you worried about
Last night
Will seem lighter
I hope things
Will turn out right
Old man
Through every step a change
You watch me walk away
Tara Tara


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





'Pyjamarama' was released as a single to promote 'For Your Pleasure'; but was not included on the album.  It rolled up to number ninety-six in Australia and number ten in the UK.  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnXD6VWsbIw

'For Your Pleasure' 
full album:






All tracks written by Bryan Ferry.


1. Do The Strand (0:00-4:03)
2. Beauty Queen (4:04-8:44)
3. Strictly Confidential (8:45-12:32)
4. Editions Of You (12:33-16:24)
5. In Every Dream Home A Heartache (16:25-21:53)
6. The Bogus Man (21:54-31:14)
7. Grey Lagoons (31:15-35:27)
8. For Your Pleasure (35:28-42:20)

roxy music

Roxy Music recorded the innovative and influential hybridized electronic rock of their primal avante-pop glam entree in little over a week with no record contract.  The sessions at Command Studios in London were financed by EG Management and produced by Peter Sinfield, who had just quit King Crimson.  The sextet featured Bryan Ferry on lead vocals, piano, hohner pianet, and mellotron; Brian Eno on VCS3 synthesizer, tape effects, and backing vocals; Andy Mackay on oboe, saxophone, and backing vocals; Phil Manzanera on electric guitar; Graham Simpson on bass guitar; and Paul Thompson on drums.   

Graham Simpson went to art school in Newcastle with Ferry before they started the band.  He remembers Ferry's creative process: "I heard them as works of art, so I played along with them as works of art. Bryan used to spend hours and hours every evening just playing and composing, and writing the lyrics."

Paul Thompson answered an advertisement to join the band:  
“The ad said ‘wonder drummer wanted for avante rock group’ so I rang the number and a bloke with a posh accent and a slight Geordie twinge answered. It was Bryan Ferry. We met up and we got on really well. I think it probably helped that we were both from the north and we both had similar ideas. I auditioned, got the job and I suppose the rest is history.”

Mackay came next, bringing Eno into the group with him. Manzanera failed his first audition; but accepted an offer to be a roadie.  Later, he became the guitarist when  David O'List quit.  He says: “The reason I got into music was I always envied families with lots of kids and when I was nine or ten it was 'please send me to boarding school'. I just want to be with people and I formed a band at at school and it was the social side I enjoyed as well as the musical conversations with people.  With Roxy it's the songs. It does all come back to music every time, whatever grievance or disagreements you might have about anything, it gets you the minute you start playing some of those songs...You think, 'Actually this has a world and life of its own and its very nice to play. And it's ours'."

Andy Mackay considers: "We certainly didn't invent eclecticism but we did say and prove that rock 'n' roll could accommodate - well, anything really"



Eno remembers: "Rock music was only fifteen years old when Roxy began – for the first time, it had started to reflect on its history. There was the sense of a palette you could play with. We thought: 'Here's a form – we can take it apart and put it back together again.'"

Ferry admits:  "We were young and foolish," says Ferry, grinding his fists together to illustrate the relationship. "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."

A few weeks after the sessions, the band was signed to Island Records.  The 'Roxy Music' album and iconic cover, shot by photographer Karl Stoecker and featuring model Kari-Ann Muller, were already finished.  The music was a journey through different styles and sounds with flamboyance and sophistication.  'Roxy Music' went to number ten on the British album chart and went on to inform numerous musical movements that were to follow.  

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












"Virginia Plain" went to number six in New Zealand and number four in the UK. It did not appear on the original UK release; but was added to later versions.  







"Re-Make/Re-Model"  






"Ladytron"  

'Roxy Music' 
full album:




All songs written and composed by Bryan Ferry.

Side one
1. "Re-Make/Re-Model"   5:10
2. "Ladytron"   4:21
3. "If There Is Something"   6:33
4. "2 H.B."   4:34
Side two
1. "The Bob (Medley)"   5:48
2. "Chance Meeting"   3:00
3. "Would You Believe?"   3:47
4. "Sea Breezes"   7:00
5. "Bitters End"   2:02

avalon

Roxy Music sailed confidently off into the sunset with the
smooth and seductive soundscapes of their swansong.  'Avalon' was recorded at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas with Rhett Davies co-producing with the band.  The result is a lush, synthesizer-driven pop music with Andy Mackay's saxophone and Phil Manzanera's guitar create sophisticated and cinematic moods that go down easy.  Bryan Ferry's lyrics evoke Arthurian romance and a sense of finality.    The album also included Neil Hubbard on guitar, Alan Spenner on bass, Andy Newmark on drums, and  Jimmy Maelen on percussion; with session work from Neil Jason on bass,  Paul Carrack on piano, Rick Marotta on drums, Kermit Moore on cello, Fonzi Thornton and Yanick Etienne on vocals.  

Shortly after its release, Ferry married Lucy Helmore, the model pictured on the cover of 'Avalon'.  Roxy Music broke up after an extensive tour for the album.  Ferry explains:  "Splitting up Roxy just seemed like the right thing, the creative thing to do.  I did a couple of weird things around that time. I think it comes under the heading 'artistic indulgence'.  Maybe I was wrong...I got fed up with it all.  And I got married, of course. I'd never wanted a family, I'd always seen myself as a career person, but I suppose it all made me feel very different. I didn't want to be part of a group any more, so I started my own group, a family group. And that happens all the time - look at the Beatles. Generally, groups split up because they start getting their own lives as individuals."  

'Avalon' went to number one in Australia and the UK, and even sold platinum in the US, although it only peaked at number fifty-three on the US album chart.







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









"More Than This" hit number one hundred and three in the US, twenty-four in the Netherlands, twelve in New Zealand, and peaked at number six in Australia and the UK.  

"I could feel at the time
There was no way of knowing
Fallen leaves in the night
Who can say where they´re blowing
As free as the wind
And hopefully learning
Why the sea on the tide
Has no way of turning"

"Avalon" went to number thirty-seven in New Zealand, twenty-two in Australia, thirteen in the UK, and peaked at number three in the Netherlands.

"When the samba takes you out of nowhere
And the background's fading out of focus
Yes the picture's changing every moment
And your destination, you don't know it"

The single of "Take a Chance With Me" with a remix of "The Main Thing" on the flipside hit number one hundred and four in the US, thirty-two in Canada, twenty-six in the UK, and peaked at number eighteen in the Netherlands.  

"Heaven knows, I believe
Won't you take a chance with me
Sometimes I get so blue
People say I'm just a fool
All the world, even you
Should learn to love the way I do"

'Avalon' 

 full album:

All tracks written by Bryan Ferry, except where noted.

Side one
1. "More than This" 4:30
2. "The Space Between" 4:30
3. "Avalon" 4:16
4. "India" 1:44
5. "While My Heart Is Still Beating" Ferry, Andy Mackay  3:26
Side two
6. "The Main Thing" 3:54
7. "Take a Chance with Me" Ferry, Phil Manzanera 4:42
8. "To Turn You On" 4:16
9. "True to Life" 4:25
10. "Tara"   Ferry, Andy Mackay   1:43