rock and roll musings by Tim Byrnes

 A Glimmer of Hope: Roxy Music Remakes/Remodels

     As promised this installment will have nothing (well, little) to do with my state of mind/being and once again focus on the music we all hold dear: rock and roll. Upon returning from work this evening I went to my favorite hate-metal website, antimusic.com to check my e-mail and while perusing their ‘Day In Rock’ ‘news’ report I read words that filled my black heart with something approaching joy, at least as close to joy as that night with the Polyphonic Spree. Anyway, the news that brightened my night is this: the original members of Roxy Music, INCLUDING BRIAN ENO, are going to be recording an album of NEW material and will be performing at the Isle of Wight Festival later this summer!
    For the unitiated, Roxy Music (Bryan Ferry, Phil Manzanera, Andy Mackay, Paul Thompson and Brian Eno) were perhaps the most interesting, forward thinking and downright stylish band of the halcyon days of ‘Glam Rock’ back in the early 1970’s. Along with David Bowie they were the frontrunners of the type of British art-rock that laid the groundwork for punk rock. Equal parts sci-fi futurism and retro elegance Roxy Music cut a swath of originality across a barren rock scene littered with the mindless, macho detritus of led zeppelins hanging out in bad company.
    Their self-titled debut record, released in 1972 was/is an avante garde masterpiece to which you can do the dog. Still light years ahead of it’s time, I’ve maintained for years that were it released today it would still go over the heads of many. Well, now we get a second chance. Later period, read: after Eno left in 1975 following their 2nd album “For Your Pleasure’, Roxy Music became a different, more sedate animal.Still exceptional, just different, like the Velvet Underground before and after John Cale's departure. Actually that's a very good comparison considering the wild, edgy sonics both Cale and Eno brought to their respective bands. Both bands were wellsprings for the rest of rock and roll. With Bryan Ferry, he of the white tuxedos and Draculaic (meaning he sounds like Dracula) singing voice firmly at the helm, their later records, while maintaining the elan and ennui of deathless romance, lacked the manic, scattershot experimentation that Eno, with his banks of primitive synthesizers, non-musician approach and real time sampling and manipulation of Manzanera’s guitar and Mackays woodwinds, brought to the party.
    And it was a party. I first heard Roxy Music live, having never even heard of them, when they opened for Jethro Tull at Madison Square Garden in 1973. I was so blown away by this stunning combination of Germanic Impressionistic cabaret blare and achingly beautiful doo-wop melodicism that I left the Garden after there set, foregoing the suddenly mundane minstrelry of Jethro Tull for a walk to the King Karol record store on 8th Ave where I purchased the first 2 Roxy Music albums. Records I’ve replaced many times over the last 32 years(!). Vinyl gave way to cassette gave way to CD gave way to DVD (the 2001 reunion show, sans Eno, at London’s Hammersmith Apollo, where the set set list ran heavily towards these  2 revelatory records) and I still play these records more than almost anything this side of My Bloody Valentine.
    To say that I’m excited at the prospect of this amazing group of men coming back with original (in every sense of the word) material is the understatement of the year. FINALLY a record worth setting my alarm for to get to Tower Records the day it comes out! Catch the new sensation............. again.
    Our crops are SAVED!!!!

Posted by: timbyrnes at 06:56 | link | comments (1)

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#1  21 March 2005 - 12:56

 

:)

Leigh

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