Bryan Ferry picks the most under-appreciated Roxy Music songs
Even though Roxy Music are only one pillar of the lengthy and broad career Bryan Ferry has enjoyed, he’s always the first to celebrate the group. Decades on from their breakout as one of the leading lights of the 1970s glam-rock scene, he’s still flushed with pride over what the group accomplished, still listening to their own work with wonder and hoping the lesser-known songs might finally get their flowers.
When The Guardian asked Ferry what the band means to him now, he said plainly, “A lot”, summing up a world of emotions in a simple phrase. “Roxy Music were the first ten years of my career, so it’s a huge part of my life,” he continued.
For a lot of artists, when they cast off their band and go solo later down the line, their group efforts get pushed to the wayside of their achievements. They end up looking at their solo works as their ultimate releases, as if the shared efforts somehow watered down the music they made in the band. Luckily, Ferry doesn’t fall into that. “Some of my best work was done on those albums,” he said, considering his bandmates with real kindness and respect. He added, “I was lucky to be part of such a unique group”.
He’s right. Roxy Music was a beast of uniquely moving parts. Andy Mackay brought his classical training and dared to merge it with Brian Eno’s pioneering ear for electronic music. Their guitarist Phil Manzanera had his roots in Latin American music, while bassist Graham Simpson was a student of jazz. With Paul Thompson holding it all down on drums and Ferry delivering his unique vocals at the front, they had a lot going on, but somehow it worked.
It’s a feat to marvel at, which is precisely what the world did. When the band hit the airwaves in the early 1970s with their performance of ‘Virginia Plain’ on Top Of The Pops, music fans were captivated. With their glam rock look and their brand new sound, Roxy Music were a phenomenon.
But like all legendary acts where the world knows their name, but not everyone knows every song, some incredible tracks have been left in the shadows. Sure, ‘Love Is The Drug’ is timeless, ‘Avalon’ still sounds as good as ever, and their cover of ‘Jealous Guy’ rivals John Lennon’s own, but with eight albums worth of material, not every song could be a mega-hit.
Ferry would like to fix that, at least in some way. “Sometimes less obvious songs get overshadowed,” he said, discussing the track he wishes more people paid attention to. To help bring those songs into the limelight, Ferry provides instructions on where to start. “I thought the opening, title track of Manifesto – with Alan Spenner playing great bass – was very strong,” he said. To Ferry, the track marked a new moment where the band came back, bigger than ever, as they attempted to rejoin the cultural conversation of the time. “I’d done [1978 solo album] The Bride Stripped Bare with American musicians and was disappointed with how it was received,” he explained. “Punk had happened and I felt out of step, so I wanted to come back more in tune with what was happening.”
As the marching introduction bursts the song to life, ‘Manifesto’ is the band’s own take on the energy of punk that was still left swilling around the UK. But not in the way you’d expect. Rather than a roaring, raucous rock track, it has the same atmospheric, new wave feel you’d expect of the band but with a distinct, bubbling tension.
After that, he instructs everyone to check out two other songs. “‘Sentimental Fool’ and ‘The Bogus Man’ are also out-on-a-limb tracks that never got played on the radio, but are great if people have the time to listen,” he says.