rock and roll musings by Tim Byrnes

Gold In The Silence: And The Gods Pushed 'Mute'

     It all started w/the Roxy Music video I special ordered from our quaint little vidstore in our quaint little town. I ordered Roxy's 2001 Reunion Concert on DVD back in August when the job was going well and I felt a little flush. It was an indulgence.

     Fast forward to last week where I felt flushed, having been laid off w/no warning and thrown headfirst into a cooking job I was totally unequipped to perform. Seriously, there's a lot more to it than you'd think. Anyway, being between jobs again's not such a big deal, been there, got out of that, y'know?  But it had been like 2 months of story after story as to why my DVD wasn't in yet. Had to be ordered twice (the guy was buying it off of ebay, fer Lester's sake). Anyway, being down on my heels I figured I'd just cancel the order and get my money back.

    So, of course the DVD came in that morning.

     "Roxy Music Live at the Apollo" is a thing of wonder, dear readers. Impeccably played, presented, filmed and recorded, it made this old man very happy. Ferry misses a high note or two, but the band is feaking on. Manzanera, MaKay and the great Paul Thompson prove once again what an incredible backline they were and are. Augmented by keyboardists Colin Good, Julia Thornton (also percussion) and Lucy Wilkins (also violin and what look like Eno's origanal Moogs) the original Roxy run through one of the most thrilling and varied catalogues in all of what we'll call rock and roll.

     The opening segment finds the band drawing from it's 1st three records, the quirky, stilted bebop of 'Re-Make/Re-Model', the swiftbeat slink of 'Street Life', the cracked grandeur of 'Ladytron". The crowd loves Roxy Music, it being London and all. It breaks my heart that even w/this kind of evidence Roxy Music are still denied their place in the rock pantheon.

     I mean Pink Floyd, my ass. Have you seen the Pink Floyd cover band they've been showing on PBS during Pledge Week? It's not enough they they gotta play the actual Pink Floyd concert overandoverandoverandover, now they gotta trot out the Australian Pink Floyd, as if w/all those smoking planes and mirrors it actually matters who's playing 'Comfortably Numb'. Please write yr PBS station and demand that they show the Roxy Music Live at the Apollo DVD or at least puhleeeeze stop running Orbison's Black and White Night show. At least for a full 6 months, OK?

     Yeah, I'm a little disjointed. Kids getting shot in schools. Senators hitting on pages and then blaming alcoholism and the Church. I'm a lapsed Catholic/Alcoholic and I've never molested anybody. Woodward hipping us to this State of Denial like it's actually news. Iraqi Police squads going over to the other side. Winter setting in, nights slowly getting longer. Old age creeping in on all fours, all scissor steps and shadowlike, giving perspective as it takes yr eyesight. Alla sudden it's like yr at the bottom of a deep, deep well looking up into the pitiless glare of the oncoming train, the dark a little darker every day.

....and that's the type of crap that's been running through my head the last few hours so I decided to come to the Library and type howdy into the cybervoid, hype Roxy Music a little (seriously it's great, even the poppier stuff like 'Oh Yeah' and 'Dance Away'), diss Pink  Floyd, gotta love dissing the Floyd. REST IN PEACE, SYD!!!!! And maybe to just type that as slick and snotty as I like the sound of my own voice to sound, recent events have stunned me into silence. Never have the words "I don't know" carried such weight, or held it so heavy on my soul. The world's gone mad and me along w/it but here comes a big so what?!  Sometimes when there's nothing you can do, the best thing to do is nothing. At least for a while.

"Dance away the heartache, dance away the tears"

                                                        Bryan Ferry, 'Dance Away'

Posted by: timbyrnes at 20:48 | link | comments (3)

Comments:

#1  05 October 2006 - 14:48

 

more than this - you know there's nothing
more than this - tell me one thing
more than this - no
there is nothing
more than this

Bryan Ferry, 'More Than This'

limine

#2  05 October 2006 - 16:00

 

Yo tim,

Funny: I have a CD of the best of the 1st Roxy album/For Yr Pleasure/Stranded spinning as we speak (hey CDs DO spin too).... And y'r right -- along with Bowie, Roxy spent the entirety of the '70s inventing the '80s.

And right again about "Floyd". Although that "special"s been on a heck of a lot longer than pledge week, trust me.

Not to mention the politics. Amazing how we agree on almost everything except the ONE thing, innit? :D

"God bless the Indian summer" -- Pedro the Lion (and trust me, the rest of the song's way more dour than that implies....)

burninglight

#3  05 October 2006 - 18:20

 

Hey all. Thanks limine, I've always loved that song. Did you see 'Lost in Translation'? Beauty - and thanks for reminding me of it's existence. And to Ye The Light That/Which Burns (hey maybe we ARE related!) a hail and hearty howdy from a soul (probably) not as lost as he (likes to) think he is.
Bring on Winter, I'll eat it alive! And that wolf at the door, too!

timbyrnes

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