I’ve never been a big fan of crooners. Frank Sinatra, Tony
\nBennett, Harry Connick\u2026zzzzzzzzzzzz. But I’ve been converted
\nsince I first heard Roxy Music back in college when my then beau
\nsaid, “This is one sexy man.” Who am I to argue when your own
\nboyfriend recognizes a rock legend of sexuality and a smoky
\nbaritone barely contained within the body of Bryan Ferry?<\/p>\n
I’d read the gossip columns about Jerry Hall dumping the poor
\nbastard for Mick Jagger around the time that
\nSome Girls<\/i> came out, but being a youngster at the time, I
\nbarely knew who this English band was, much less this tortured
\nromanticist named Bryan Ferry. Let’s put it this way: was she
\nhigh??? You gave up this guy for
\nMick<\/i>? I love the Stones, but geez, Bryan is so\u2026.well,
\nto put it childishly, dreamy.<\/p>\n
\nFlesh And Blood<\/i> opens with the cover “In The Midnight Hour”.
\nFerry’s voice is his musical instrument which at once whispers and
\nseduces and by turns pleads and cajoles. His infamous vocal vibrato
\ntones are in high form on this tune along with some fairly
\ninteresting keyboard work. This combination paired with Phil
\nManzaniera on guitar and Andy Mackay on sax gives Roxy their unique
\nsound. Not really a rock band per se, yet not wimpy enough to earn
\nthe label they bore for years of an “art” band, they are without
\nequal. Plenty of people have tried to imitate or emulate their
\nsound, but it’s virtually impossible.<\/p>\n
Ferry’s voice is an emotional roller coaster through the entire
\nalbum from the lost love of “Oh Yeah” and the bone-rattling longing
\nof “Over You” to the absolute depraved sneer of “Flesh And Blood”,
\nwhich happens to be my favorite tune on the album. While Ferry can
\nbe the grand Casanova of singers, wooing his lovers and being ever
\nthe perfect English gentleman, he still expresses naivet\u00e9
\nand disbelief he’s been dumped. I find his strength, both as a
\nsinger and a songwriter, more in songs like “Flesh And Blood”. In
\nthis more world weary mindset, Ferry knows that the underbelly of
\nthe heart and soul are much more interesting than singing the blues
\nabout his broken heart. The edge to this song and “No Strange
\nDelight” have more depth and interest to me as a listener, whereas
\nFerry sings in the latter<\/p>\n
“so where’s your soul?\/In the field where every story ends<\/p>\n
and then how plain your obsession\/your strange delight<\/p>\n
so this is hell\/not so hard to tell”<\/p>\n
How’s that for a little light thought processing for the day?
\nFerry’s notorious drinking and drug problems at the time might have
\ncolored the mood of many of this disc’s songs. Or, perhaps the
\nremnants of his well-publicized obsession and bitterness with Hall
\nlong after their breakup added to the dark atmosphere throughout
\nFlesh And Blood<\/i>. Hey, it’s defintely not as pissed off as
\nThe Bride Stripped Bare<\/i> which came out right after they
\nbroke up and prompted many to wonder if Ferry would ever get over
\nher.<\/p>\n
Don’t get me wrong. I love Ferry’s love songs as well. How can
\nany woman say she wouldn’t want to hear a man singing something as
\ntragic and heartfelt as “My Only Love”? I’m a sucker for a man
\nwho’d admit that he cries and pines for me as he laments “does it
\nseem so funny for a fool to cry? Do you know the meaning of
\ngoodbye?” He continues to tell his ex-lover that words are all he
\nhas, his voice and backing strings emphasizing his loneliness and
\npermanent alienation from her. It’s interesting that the use of
\nstrings on this cut only add a sense of extreme sadness, their
\nresonance a chilling backdrop to our hero’s predicament.<\/p>\n
And it is the strength of his words that is the most powerful
\ninstrument in Roxy coupled with Ferry’s own persona of the debonair
\nman about town which is created through his voice. It’s funny that
\na contemporary American rock singer has not been able to pull off
\nthis type of sweeping romantic male figure. Sinatra did it; I’m not
\nreally convinced that Harry Connick, Jr. does it-he’s a poor man’s
\nversion of Sinatra in a lot of ways. But it’s the British Ferry
\nwhose timeless themes of love lost, tragedy and the world gone awry
\nthat seem to cut across cultural and class boundaries. I take issue
\nwith those critics who have always called Roxy elitist in their
\nmusical stance and approach. That’s like saying being in love and
\nthen having your heart broken is class selective. Sure.<\/p>\n
I was never fortunate enough to see Roxy Music live, but I did
\nsee Ferry on his solo
\nBete Noire<\/i> tour back in the late eighties at Chicago’s Arie
\nCrown Theater. It’s a religious experience, I’ll tell you. He
\nfairly glided out on stage, decked out in a tuxedo lined in red
\nsatin (an American guy would probably be called a fag, but not
\nFerry) and just started belting out the tunes, like all good
\ncrooners do. The sophistication of Ferry’s singing, songwriting and
\nstage persona, something so lacking in most of today’s bands, came
\nthrough to me like a thunderbolt. However, on this disc it’s fairly
\nmore discreet and slightly less jaded but nonethless just as
\npowerful.<\/p>\n
I don’t mean to underrate Manzaniera or Mackey’s abilities-they
\nare classic studio musicians who are extremely polished and
\naccomplished in their own right. Without their musical
\ncontributions and support, Roxy wouldn’t have that sound that is so
\ndifficult to categorize. It is just that Ferry is the overwhelming
\npresence which defines Roxy and its direction. His persona is so
\nintertwined with the music that the band becomes almost invisible,
\nthough definitely not disposable, in his shadow. The one drawback
\nof Ferry’s strong position within the band, and working as its main
\ncreative force, is that there is a certain repetitive sound to his
\nsongs and vocals after listening to more than one Roxy album. This
\nis even more evident within his solo work which I really like, but
\nit does tend to have a sameness in feel and tempo after awhile.<\/p>\n
That’s no reason not to like Roxy or enjoy this album. Even a
\nbad Roxy song is better than none. So if you’re in a funk and need
\na sympathetic observer, tune into this old classic from 1980 called<\/p>\n
Flesh And Blood<\/i>. Just make sure you’re pissed at your lover,
\nhave a good vintage of wine close at hand and plenty of Kleenex.
\nLike they say, misery does love its company, but what beautiful
\ncompany it is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":27854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5714],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-39241","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-roxy-music","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39241"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39241"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}