Roxy Music part 2

During the first part of the Roxy Music story there was a lot of talk, so we only got to listen to three albums. Today we'll talk less, so we can listen to their five remaining studio albums, plus a fair share of their solo work.

Their 4th album, Country Life, was released in November 1974. It peaked at #3 in the UK, and also made #37 in the US, their first record to crack the Top 40 there. The album is considered by many critics to be among the band's most sophisticated and consistent. My opinion: it's a great album, but doesn't really break new ground. There's a number of outstanding tracks, and we're going to hear as many as we can.

As was the tradition by now, the album opens in style with The Thrill Of It All:

All I Want Is You was the album's hit single, peaking at #12 in the UK:

Casanova was singled out for praise by a number of critics as a more cynical and hard-rocking number than the usual Roxy Music fare.

A Really Good Time was elegant, string-laced Pop:

Prairie Rose, the innovative final track, was an ode to Texas and one of its daughters, Jerry Hall, who was soon to appear on the cover of Roxy Music's fifth album, Siren (1975), and later in the video to Ferry's hit single Let's Stick Together. She was a super model who eventually received an engagement ring from Ferry, only to leave him for Mick Jagger.

The next album, Siren, released in October 1975, is one of Roxy Music's most critically acclaimed albums. The album was ranked number 371 on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. It peaked at #4 in the UK, and also made #50 in the US.

As usual, the album opened in grand style: Love Is The Drug was not only a great song, it was also their biggest international hit; it hit #2 in the UK and #30 in the US, their greatest hit there by far. They would eventually have a number one in the UK, but that single wouldn't chart in the US.

Sentimental Fool was a moody gem:

Both Ends Burning was the band's follow-up single: another classic, that peaked at #25 in the UK. It was the first Roxy album to produce two hit singles.

The album closes with another great track: Just Another High.

After the concert tours in support of Siren in 1976, Roxy Music disbanded. Their live album Viva! was released in August 1976. During this time Ferry released two solo records on which Manzanera and Thompson performed, and Manzanera reunited with Eno on the critically acclaimed one-off 801 Live album.

Roxy Music reunited during 1978 to record a new album, Manifesto, but with a reshuffled cast. Jobson was not present, and was reportedly not contacted for the reunion. (At that time, Jobson was touring and recording with his own band, UK.) The sleeve of Manifesto indicated that the revived Roxy Music line-up consisted of Ferry, Manzanera, Mackay, and Thompson, along with Paul Carrack (keyboards), Alan Spenner (bass), and Gary Tibbs (bass); despite this all other media pointed to Roxy Music being a quartet (and a trio following the 1980 departure of Thompson), with the latter three musicians being regular collaborators of the band.

The album was released in March 1979, peaked at #7, UK and #23, US, and was positively received by critics but not as well regarded as previous Roxy Music albums. It did contain two big hit singles however. Although the first single released, Trash, was a flop (#40, UK).

The second single however, was a big hit: Dance Away made #2 in the UK, #1 in Ireland, #8 in the Netherlands, #10 in New Zealand, and #44 in the US. Although it did not make number 1, it became the ninth biggest selling single in the UK in 1979

The third single was also a hit, peaking at #4 in the UK and at #13 in the Netherlands. The single was a Disco re-recorded version of the album track, which was more in a Rock vein.

Flesh + Blood was released in May 1980 without drummer Paul Thompson, who decided to leave the band. So, as far as musicians were concerned, the three core members of Roxy used the same three musicians that they used on Manifesto, plus Neil Hubbard on guitar, Allan Schwartzberg and Andy Newmark on drums, and Simon Phillips on percussion.

The album was an immediate commercial success peaking at #1 in the UK for one week in June and then returned to the summit in August for another three weeks, in total spending 60 weeks on the albums chart in the United Kingdom. The album also peaked at #35 in the United States and #10 in Australia.

Over You was the first single off the album, a great R&B-flavored song that reached #5 in the UK, #24 in the Netherlands and New Zealand, #31 in Germany, #45 in Australia, and #80 in the US.

Their next single, Oh Yeah, was also a #5 hit in the UK. It also made #14 in Germany, and #39 in the Netherlands. It was as good as, if not better than Over You.

Yet another hit single was released from this album: Same Old Scene was as classy as the others, and it peaked at #12 in the UK, #29 in the Netherlands, and #35 in Australia.

My Only Love was not a single, but it's a lovely song:

Following Lennon's death in 1980, Roxy Music added a cover version of Jealous Guy to their set while touring in Germany, which they recorded and released in February 1981. The song was the only UK #1 hit for Roxy Music, topping the charts for two weeks in March 1981. It also topped the charts in Australia, and peaked at #3 in Ireland, #4 in Switzerland and New Zealand, #5 in Belgium, #6 in Austria and Norway, #7 in the Netherlands, #9 in France, #18 in Sweden, #19 in Germany, and #22 in Spain.

Avalon, their eighth and final studio album, released in May 1982, is one of their greatest, so Roxy left the same way they came - in style. More Than This was their first single, peaking at #2 in Norway, #6 in the UK, France, Australia, Ireland and Switzerland, #10 in Spain, #12 in New Zealand, #13 in Belgium, #17 in Sweden, #21 in Italy, and #24 in Germany and the Netherlands.

Avalon, the title track, was also a big hit: #8 in the Netherlands, #13 in the UK, #22 Australia. The song's distinctive backing vocals were performed by Haitian singer Yanick Etienne, whom Bryan Ferry encountered during the recording of the album.

The next single was a lesser hit (#20 in the Netherlands, #26 in the UK, #32 in the Canada), but both sides are worth listening to. First, here's Take a Chance with Me:

Then, here's The Main Thing:

To Turn You On was the B-side to Jealous Guy, and was then deservedly included in Avalon:

While My Heart Is Still Beating is one of the highlights of the album:

All the above tracks are immaculately crafted and subtle songs, where the shifting synthesizers and murmured vocals gradually reveal the melodies. It's a rich, textured album and a graceful way to end the band's career.

A final release from the band was a live Extended Play that was recorded in Glasgow, Scotland, in August 1982 and was released in March 1983. It peaked at #26 in the UK and contained a cover version of one of Neil Young's best songs, Like a Hurricane.

Now, a few words on the members' solo careers. Let's start with the drummer: Thompson played with Rock band Concrete Blonde. Together they recorded this lovely song, also a hit:

Eno's replacement, Eddie Jobson, worked with a number of bands after Roxy, more prominently with U.K. Here's their minor hit Nothing to Lose:

Saxophonist Andy MacKay made 4 solo albums, 5 albums with Manzanera, and two albums with the Rock Follies, essentially the soundtrack of a TV series about a three-piece female Rock band and their struggle to become famous. Among the three women was Julie Covington who sung the original Don't Cry For Me Argentina and had a #1 hit with it a year earlier. The first Rock Follies album went to #1 in the UK, while the second included this #10 hit:

Guitarist Phil Manzanera released 9 solo albums and collaborated with a variety of artists, from Nico to Godley & Creme, and from David Gilmour to John Wetton. He also worked on a number of albums with old bandmates Andy MacKay and Brian Eno. His best album is his first post-Roxy foray into solo albums, Diamond Head. From it, here's Same Time Next Week, sung by John Wetton and Doreen Chanter:

Bryan Ferry's first solo album was released in 1973, while he was still in Roxy Music. These Foolish Things consisted of cover versions of old standards, but some were actually great. He audaciously transforms the holy cow of protest songs, A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall, into a dance hit (#10, UK). It actually works!

He also ably updated the 1936 classic These Foolish Things:

His next album was also one of covers: The two hit singles were Ramsey Lewis' The In Crowd (#13, UK):

... And the Platters' Smoke Gets In Your Eyes (#17, UK):

In 1976 he had his biggest solo hit: Let’s Stick Together, (#4, UK), a cover of Wilbert Harrison's Let's Work Together:

From the Let’s Stick Together album he also released an EP containing four songs, which peaked at #7. One of these songs was the Everly Brothers' cover The Price of Love:

In 1977, This Is Tomorrow, a song that he actually wrote himself, peaked at #9:

In 1985, another self-penned song, Slave to Love, was his last solo Top 10 hit, at #10:

Ferry keeps making albums that enjoy both critical and commercial success. His last one came out in 2014 and is called Avonmore. The album closes with Robert Palmer's Johnny and Mary:

We now come to the greatest of them all. As a performer, and even more so as a producer, Brian Eno left an indelible mark in the history of music from the 70s till today.

To learn the meaning of the title of his debut solo album, 1973's Here Come the Warm Jets, here are parts from an interview with Chrissie Hynde in 1974. That was the time when she was a journalist for the New Musical Express, a few years before she would form The Pretenders, and a few more before she got married to Ray Davies of The Kinks, and then Jim Kerr of The Simple Minds. This part of the interview is about... pornography.

"There's something about pornography which has a similarity to Rock music. A pornographic photographer aims his camera absolutely directly, at the centre of sexual attention. He's not interested in the environment of the room."

"I hate the sort of photography in Penthouse and Playboy which is such a compromise between something to give you a hard-on and something which pretends to be artistic. The straight pornographers aim right there where it's at."

"Which is analogous to so many other situations where somebody thinks one thing is important, so they focus completely on that and don't realize they're unconsciously organizing everything else around it as well. I have such beautiful pornography - I'll show you my collection sometime. "

"Do you know what 'burning shame' is by the way? It's a pornographic term for a deviation involving candles."

"Ouch!"

"Very popular in Japanese pornography. They're always using lit candles because Japanese pornography is very sadistic, partly because of the Japanese view of women, which is a mixture of resentment and pure animal lust."

"In the traditional view, a woman is still expected to be at the beck and call of her husband, so that manifests itself in that kind of pornography. Of which I have a few examples, of course."

"Mexican pornography is an interesting island of thought because they seem to be heavily into excretory functions. The traditional American view is that anything issued from the body is dirty. It's incredibly puritanical and it resents bodily fluids, so if one is trying to debase a woman, you cover them with that and hence you get the fabulous term 'Golden Showers' - the term for pissing on someone, which some well- known Rock musicians are said to be very involved in . ."

"Here come the warm jets?"

"That's certainly a reference."

Now you know. Here are two amazing tracks from this album. The mischievous Baby's on Fire:

... And the dreamy On Some Faraway Beach:

From 1974, here's the title track from his album Taking Tiger Mountain:

From his brilliant album Another Green World (1975), here are three great songs. First, here's St. Elmo's Fire:

Here's I'll Come Running:

And here's Everything Merges with the Night:

From Before and After Science (1977), here's Julie With ... :

And here's my absolute favorite of his, By This River: it appeared in two great films, La Stanza Del Figlio and Y Tu Mamá También.

In 1981 he collaborated with David Byrne and together they made My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. Here's The Jezebel Spirit:

In 1990 he collaborated with John Cale and together they made Wrong Way Up. Here's Cordoba:

I won't even go to his enormous output of ambient music, because it's not my field and I won't do it justice. I will however discuss another prominent collaboration: The one with David Bowie. In Berlin they worked together on three of David's best albums. From Low, here's the luminously beautiful Warszawa:

What can one say about Heroes? Just listen to it:

And here's Boys Keep Swinging:

We will also visit some of his most important work as a record producer: Here's Ship of Fools by John Cale (1974):

Here's Penguin Cafe Orchestra with Penguin Cafe Single (1976):

From 1977, here are Ultravox with Wide Boys:

From 1978, here are Devo with Mongoloid:

Another highlight was his work with the Talking Heads. Here's Take Me to the River (1978):

Here's Life During Wartime (1979):

Here's another classic: Once in a Lifetime (1980):

Yet another highlight was his work with U2. Here's Pride (In the Name of Love) (1984):

Here's I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (1987):

Here they are with One (1991):

Here are James with Laid (1993):

Here's Emma's Song by Sinéad O'Connor (2000):

Here are Coldplay with Viva La Vida (2008):

Here's James Blake with Retrograde (2013):

I could go on for hours, but I'm both exhausted and famished. So here's the last one of Brian Eno's countless collaborations: here's Owen Pallett with I Am Not Afraid (2014):