Roxy Music [Remastered] - Roxy Music

...-'Virginia Plain'

Roxy Music seemed to emerge out of nowhere in the early 1970's and were suddenly catapulted into superstardom and rock's premier league. The brainchild of art school graduate Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music in 1972 consisted of Ferry as vocalist and on piano, Phil Manzanera (guitar), Andy Mackay (saxophone/oboe), Brian Eno (synthesisers/tapes), Graham Simpson (bass) and Paul Thompson (drums). Conceived by Ferry as the perfect ...
...powerhouse drumming from Paul Thompson, Roxy were quite a band.

If ever an opening track were to signal a statement of intent or manifesto, then 'Re-make/Re-model' is such a track. Quite possibly inspired by the Derek Boushier painting 'Re-Think/Re-Entry', the song opens to the sounds of garbled conversation and cocktail glasses clinking before Ferry opens the song with some Jerry Lee Lewis-esque piano notes and mayhem ensues. The ... more

"Make me a deal - and make it straight
All signed and sealed - I'll take it"

-'Virginia Plain'

Roxy Music seemed to emerge out of nowhere in the early 1970's and were suddenly catapulted into superstardom and rock's premier league. The brainchild of art school graduate Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music in 1972 consisted of Ferry as vocalist and on piano, Phil Manzanera (guitar), Andy Mackay (saxophone/oboe), Brian Eno (synthesisers/tapes), Graham Simpson (bass) and Paul Thompson (drums). Conceived by Ferry as the perfect meeting point between pop and pop art, Roxy emerged like a bullet out of the blue, winning scores of fans and immense critical praise. Their rise to prominence was due in part to Ferry's keen eye for the aesthetic, as the band looked like nothing else seen before in rock music (this even during the 'glam rock' era). In particular, Ferry, hair immaculately coiffured and stalking the stage like a tiger, and Eno, dressed in the most outlandish gender-confusing garb and sporting lipstick and eyeliner, guaranteed that the band would earn quick media attention. In a short while, the dynamic between the two men would become unworkable, forcing one of them out of the band - but that's a story for another day…

And what of the music? The self-titled debut album, produced by Pete Sinfield of King Crimson (for whom Ferry tried out for as vocalist) fame, was something completely different to anything else around at the time. Far from a conventional vocalist, Ferry's bizarre, oft-strained vocal positioned him as a singer unlike any other. And then there's Eno, whose influence is stamped all over this debut album. By feeding all instruments, including Ferry's mannered vocal, into his mini-moog, Eno twisted and altered the band's already unconventional sound into something even more bizarre. When you add the stunning guitar work from Manzanera, sexy saxophone courtesy of Andy Mackay and the powerhouse drumming from Paul Thompson, Roxy were quite a band.

If ever an opening track were to signal a statement of intent or manifesto, then 'Re-make/Re-model' is such a track. Quite possibly inspired by the Derek Boushier painting 'Re-Think/Re-Entry', the song opens to the sounds of garbled conversation and cocktail glasses clinking before Ferry opens the song with some Jerry Lee Lewis-esque piano notes and mayhem ensues. The song is startlingly avant-garde, with its sax freak-outs, frenetic guitars and Eno's electronic treatments throughout, yet also manages to retain some back-to-basics rock appeal thanks to the unfaltering rhythm section of Simpson and Thompson. The band's penchant for the bizarre, the almost nonsensical in fact, is pushed to the fore, as Ferry leads the band into a chant of 'CPL 593H', at best guess a car number plate.

"You've got me girl on the runaround (runaround)/You've got me all around town/You've got me girl on the runaround (runaround)/And it's getting me down, getting me down". And so begins quite possibly the highest light of all the highlights on this gem of an album comes with but the second track, 'Ladytron'. Brian Eno's influence is quite obvious, from the eerie, lunar opening which backs a haunting refrain from Andy Mackay's oboe, before Ferry opens the song with a deliberately mannered, trembling vocal, complete with castanets and a murky keyboard noise, as the song builds in pace and each instrument sounds clearly audible, before it descends into a freak-out fade-out thanks to Manzanera's frenetic guitars and Eno's bizarre sonic treatments.

If there was a competition for the weirdest Roxy Music track then 'If There Is Something' would surely be up there at the top. It shifts and changes and sounds like many different songs juxtaposed together, held together by a loose theme of lovelorn romance. For those more familiar with 'Avalon'-era Roxy Music, or indeed with Bryan Ferry's varied solo career, his vocal on this track sounds radically different to the norm, as he pleads his most anxious, passionate vocal: "I would do anything for you/I would climb mountains/I would swim all the oceans blue/I would walk a thousands 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". That brilliant, nonsensical last line a deliberate foray into the banal.

The next song is a contender for one of the best debut singles of all time. The immediate rush of 'Virginia Plain' sucks you in to something bizarre yet captivating, pure pop but with more than a touch of the avant-garde. 'Virginia Plain' was not originally included on Roxy's debut album when it was first unleashed on an unsuspecting world back in June 1972, but re-mastered editions have slotted the little beauty in. Thirty-three years later and it still sounds as though it has been beamed in from the future, a pop mutant from outer space come to invade your radio. The song itself seems to be a series of slogans and pop culture/art references. Effortlessly cool and profoundly kitsch, the roots of the song lie in a painting Ferry created at art school, exploring the name 'Virginia Plain' as a person, a locale and a brand of cigarette. Pop music does not get better than 'Virginia Plain'.

A paean to Humphrey Bogart (and a kind of pencil), the prog-ish '2HB' contains perhaps the most straightforward, yet heartfelt lyrics, on the album as Ferry sings "Here's looking at you kid/Celebrate years/Here's looking at you kid/Wipe away tears/Long time since we're together/Now I hope it's forever". Ferry sings with what can only be described as a quasi-Liverpudlian accent over a heavy, murky bass and cute saxophone touches from Mackay and steady, yet quirky, drumming from Thompson.

And from that moment onwards, things get even more insane as Roxy push their more experimental side to the forefront, noticeable on 'The Bob (Medley)', which demonstrates Mackay's considerable ability on the oboe, before the song descends into uncensored weirdness and overlapping instruments. 'Chance Meeting' continues the experimental vibe, this time constructing a song around Graham Simpson's pulsing bass, while Ferry's lyrics read like modernist poetry. The songs will come as a sharp shock for anybody expecting anything like 'More Than This' or 'Jealous Guy'.

The fifties pastiche 'Would You Believe?' sees an extremely strained Ferry vocal, and has a more conventional approach than the tracks that bookend it, though it does come across as somewhat slight. 'Sea Breezes' changes the format ever so slightly, as the mass confusion of the other tracks is pulled away to leave Ferry singing a sparse vocal over a lone oboe and some piano, before the rest of the band kick in for a song that seems all over the place and has echoes of Pink Floyd at their most self-indulgent. While not a bad track, it lacks the immediacy of the other tracks and seems too clever for its own good.

But then things pick up again for the tongue-in-cheek cocktail party parody of 'Bitters End'. The song has a doo-wop, almost barbershop quartet feel to it, and you have to raise a smile as Ferry closes the song with his most absurd vocal, affecting the accent of an upper-class toff as he sings "Give now the host his claret cup/And watch Madeira's farewell drink/Note his reaction acid sharp/Should make the cognoscenti think", as the cocktail party chatter than opened 'Re-make/Re-model' returns to bring the curtain down on the album.

And then there's the presentation of the album, a sign that Roxy Music were as media-savvy as they were brilliant at their art. The picture of model Kari-Ann reclining on a white background with only a gold record for company is as iconic image as there is in rock, an overtly campy image of the idealised fan and a small hint of the glamorous covers that were to become the Roxy trademark. The quasi-pretentious sleeve notes by Simon Puxley, a friend of Ferry's, are far from anodyne and have a searing intelligence combined with the banal.

There is a bizarre tendency among the media and rock enthusiasts to overlook Roxy Music in favour of other pioneering artists such as David Bowie, Lou Reed or Marc Bolan when it comes to influence, impact and importance. This is almost certainly due to Roxy's later, more 'easy listening' (and admittedly more successful) period, when their initial weirdness was heavily trimmed down in favour of a deeply polished approach. A major critical re-evaluation is necessary for the world to realise just how important Roxy Music are. Without wanting to enter into hyperbole, this fine debut album is truly a work of genius. While its rough outer edges may not be to everybody's tastes, its sense of style, innovation and ambition leave it an album to be deeply admired.

'Roxy Music' is available from Amazon.co.uk for £6.99 (a bargain!) 

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