…In love with Roxy Music? I really think it is happening in the biggest way. And there are quite a few tracks from the first two albums that I have fallen for.
Tonight I was studying lyrics. I like words. Words are my thing. Tunes…rhythms, melodies…they may initially pique the interest, catch my ear…but it is always the lyrics that deliver the final stranglehold. The grip. The pull. Vicelike.
Ferry is, I have learned tonight, absolutely fucking MASTERFUL at wordplay. Geez, I thought David (Bowie) was good! Hell, I can really see now tonight why Jim loves him (Ferry).
I have been playing the first two albums pretty much non stop for the past couple of weeks, but because I tend to put Spotify on as I am settling down for the night, I’m usually asleep by the third song. I’ve heard the eponymous album and For Your Pleasure enough now to know them very well…but as I move on chronologically (and as the Spotify playlist I created of all the Roxy/Ferry stuff I want to sink my teeth into continues to play through my slumber), it means I am so far less familiar with Stranded and Country Life (let alone what lies beyond).
Tonight, after listening to the first two, I moved onto Stranded, giving it full attention. And, for me, Ferry’s wordplay reached new heights with this (the clip below). I just absolutely fell red hot in love with it. Just wow!
It also led me to do something I hadn’t really done so far, and that was to seek out a live performance of a track. Again…fucking wow!
I feel I am SO, SO late to the party. But without reading magazines that I have access to on a Spotify style subscription basis via an app/site called Readly, read The New European, and Sophia Deboick’s article on Roxy (and subsequently had my short discussion with Jim on the subject) … then I may not have ever arrived to the party at all.
Too easily dismissive in the past. “Oh, Roxy Music. EVERYONE loves them. *yawn* Are they even all that?” Yes, they fucking are! They are.
I’ll leave this to ring in your ears as it is currently ringing in mine. “Oh, mother of pearl / I wouldn’t trade you / for another girl”.