From: owner-avalon-digest@smoe.org (avalon-digest) To: avalon-digest@smoe.org Subject: avalon-digest V3 #287 Reply-To: avalon@smoe.org Sender: owner-avalon-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-avalon-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk avalon-digest Friday, November 27 1998 Volume 03 : Number 287 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [AVALON] Lucy's little poblem [Kicki Gustafsson Subject: Re: [AVALON] Lucy's little poblem >Oh gee don't you think that Jerry is past her prime? If _she_ is past her prime, then what is _Mick Jagger_? Decomposing, I'd say... /Kicki G - ------------------------ Kicki Gustafsson, Östersunds-Posten 063-16 16 51 http://www.op.se http://www.torget.se/users/k/KickiG (privat hemsida) - -------------------- To unsub, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1998 18:14:32 -0500 From: jspellma@techadvisers.com Subject: [AVALON] Trouser Press - History of Roxy Music (part 3) - --0__=FLIc0ywJbC4VUuYIuyYVDRy55aJ33QYaazTVl5vjlGp3AFamYPqlkfb4 Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Roxy Music ceased to exist after 1983. Ferry resumed his solo work with a new album in mid-'85; Manzanera and Mackay formed a new trio called the Explorers and have worked on numerous other projects. As big a long-term disappointment as Ferry's and Manzanera's extra-Roxy careers have been, Andy Mackay's individual efforts reached the blandness plateau way ahead of the pack. His mildly diverting first showcase, In Search of Eddie Riff is a mostly instrumental outing enlivened only by a sweaty saxual interpretation of Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" and several more-traditional covers. Otherwise, it's merely a display of his technical abilities. His next big project was to write and produce two albums' worth of pop music for Rock Follies, a neat '70s British TV show about a female singing trio. They're neat, but clearly work for hire. By the time of the Asian-oriented Resolving Contradictions, Mackay had banished any trace of wit: the record is a snooze. However, on a literary front, Mackay wrote a useful 1981 text (Electronic Music) on the development of electronic music. Initially braving waves of contemptuous reviews, Ferry began his solo career as an irregular aside, allowing it to become his primary work as Roxy Music faded out of existence in the early '80s. Although hardly the groundbreaking titan he once was, Ferry has had far-reaching stylistic influence; disingenuous claims of total self-invention to the contrary, many nouveau poseurs have let Ferry point the way for them to "be themselves." A shocking break from Roxy Music's hip glam-rock (with the accent on rock), These Foolish Things quickly established the difference between the group's utter originality and Ferry's suavely adult solo interpretations. (For a number of obvious reasons this gap closed over the years to the point of near indistinguishability.) With a backing group that included then-Roxy drummer Paul Thompson as well as future Roxyite Eddie Jobson, Ferry croons his way through such surprising '60s selections as Bob Dylan's "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," the Beatles' "You Won't See Me" and the Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil." Even years later, this warped '70s jukebox sounds weird but wonderful. Another Time, Another Place reprised the exercise, drawing on various epochs for material like "The 'In' Crowd," "You Are My Sunshine," "It Ain't Me Babe" and "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes." Only the title song is an original. For Let's Stick Together, Ferry reached into the vaults and selected five Roxy Music songs (four from the band's first LP) and did something with them: recut the vocals, presented alternate versions or simply re-edited/remixed the tracks. Some of these sound fine, but a funked-up "Re-Make/Re-Model" is too revisionist for words. The record is fleshed out with a brace of neat new covers, including the wonderful title track, "Shame Shame Shame" and the Everly Brothers' "Price of Love." A strange assemblage with some jarring contrasts; still, Let's Stick Together has more great tracks than any of Ferry's other solo records. (The CD-3 EP that followed contains four album cuts, including "The Price of Love" and "Shame Shame Shame"; the subsequent 12-inch has two substitutions.) In Your Mind, produced during a period of Roxy inactivity, is Ferry's first "normal" solo album--all of the material is new and original--but, bereft of a gimmick and lacking the involvement of his usual collaborators, falls short of Ferry's best work. Despite a few good tunes ("This Is Tomorrow," "Tokyo Joe"), the bland sound allows little of Ferry's brilliance to shine through, and the writing is not up to snuff. Inspired by his broken romance with onetime Roxy LP cover model Jerry Hall, The Bride Stripped Bare is Ferry at his most emotionally translucent. The hybrid approach--half new originals, half appropriate revivals--and backing by a new coterie of unstylish session pros (including Waddy Wachtel, Neil Hubbard and Alan Spenner) make it radically different in both construction and sound. Some of the tracks are intensely gripping ("Sign of the Times," Lou Reed's "What Goes On"); others are subtler and less rewarding. A mixed success. When Roxy Music finally ceased to exist, Ferry's solo career took on new significance. Unfortunately, his own music is not that different from end-time Roxy Music: perfectionist studio technique and seamless production of songs that are at best bland and frequently lifeless. Despite its extraordinarily sleek veneer, Boys and Girls (dedicated to Ferry's late father) is so short on tunes that several of the numbers rely on fatiguing one-note vamps to carry them along. Exceptional lyrics might allow one to overlook such inadequacy, but there's nothing much happening on that front, either. It's impossible to dislike the album with any enthusiasm--considerable care, thought and effort obviously went into its creation--still, the lack of even a trace of extremism or subversiveness is unforgivable. The similarly restrained B - --0__=FLIc0ywJbC4VUuYIuyYVDRy55aJ33QYaazTVl5vjlGp3AFamYPqlkfb4 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-9 Content-Disposition: inline Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable ?te Noire confirms that palatable adult music is Ferry's future. That wonderful voice has become the only important ingredient; what he's singing doesn't seem so important anymore. But this record's better melodic development and a wider variety of danceable tempos than on Boys and Girls are palpable signs of life; the involvement of ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr as a player and the co-writer of one near-exciting song ("The Right Stuff") is another positive touch. All things considered, "Limbo," "Kiss and Tell" and "Day for Night" are coolly inviting and likable enough, given the diminished expectations one now brings to Bryan Ferry albums. With no new music forthcoming, Ferry's British label began issuing old/retrospective items. The Let's Stick Together EP is available as a remix on CD-3 and CD-5 (with totally different accompanying tracks) as well as 12-inch vinyl (also different); the Price of Love, another remix, comes on CD-3 and 12-inch, both with alternate mixes of "Don't Stop the Dance" and two additional items. Street Life is a poorly annotated two-record career retrospective: 20 songs drawn from Roxy Music as well as solo releases, stretching from "Virginia Plain" to Boys and Girls' "Slave to Love." Also combining Roxy and pre-B?te Noire Ferry tracks, Ultimate Collection adds a new mix of "Let's Stick Together" to a skimpier overlapping selection. The 1989 release entitled Bryan Ferry is a boxed set of These Foolish Things, Let's Stick Together and Boys and Girls. (Ira Robbins) = - --0__=FLIc0ywJbC4VUuYIuyYVDRy55aJ33QYaazTVl5vjlGp3AFamYPqlkfb4-- - -------------------- To unsub, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ End of avalon-digest V3 #287 **************************** ======================================================================== For further info, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: info avalon-digest