With Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music I’m never sure where to start, there’s so much, and I keep discovering more.
I mainly know some of their songs from the late Seventies and early Eighties, but I’ve also taken some of their work from the early Seventies here.
In the early years Brian Eno was in the band, but he left after the second album, “For Your Pleasure”. From then on, Phil Manazanera and Andy Mackay began co-writing, but Bryan Ferry continued to write most of the material.
The first single, which went to No. 4 in the UK in 1972, was “Virginia Plain”:
Also in 1972, album track “If There Is Something”:
Some of the guitar on this makes me think of the Beatles “Abbey Road” album. I like it. In fact, the more I listen to it, the more I like it!
From the 1973 album “Stranded”, here is “Psalm”, quite a bit different from some of the later stuff:
Also from 1973, Roxy Music’s second single “Pyjamarama”:
A major single in 1975 that peaked at No. 2 in the UK was “Love Is The Drug”:
Here is a somewhat later live version of “Love Is The Drug”:
Also from 1975, “Both Ends Burning”:
“Still Falls The Rain” was a track on the 1979 album “Manifesto”:
“Dance Away” (UK No. 2 in 1979, also from “Manifesto”) just makes me melt away….
I also quite like “Over You” (No. 5 in the UK, from the next album, “Flesh + Blood”):
And this has got to be my favourite Roxy Music song ever…. “Oh Yeah” from 1980. I love it! I still remember hearing it on a stormy night in a pub in Broadford on the Isle of Skye off the west coast of Scotland. And in a small bar in Nuremberg below the castle, while waiting for a concert (might have been Led Zeppelin, not sure). “Oh Yeah”:
“Same Old Scene” was the third single from the “Flesh + Blood” album:
Shortly after John Lennon was shot, Roxy Music sang a tribute version of one of my favourite Lennon songs, “Jealous Guy”, taking it to No. 1 in the UK and Australia:
They followed it with “More Than This” (No. 6)…
… and “Avalon”:
I’d better stop now…
Paul