From: owner-avalon-digest@smoe.org (avalon-digest) To: avalon-digest@smoe.org Subject: avalon-digest V9 #38 Reply-To: avalon@smoe.org Sender: owner-avalon-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-avalon-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk avalon-digest Thursday, February 12 2004 Volume 09 : Number 038 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [AVALON] Bryan Ferry Aberdeen Nov. 16, 2003 reoffers [=?iso-8859-1?Q?Ole-] [AVALON] Aberdeen show re-offer ["Sjaak Versluis" ] [AVALON] black hole ["the bogus man" ] [AVALON] trade [Ferdinand ] To leave the list, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon-digest ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2004 09:51:49 -0000 From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Ole-Petter_Dr=F8nen?= Subject: [AVALON] Bryan Ferry Aberdeen Nov. 16, 2003 reoffers Hi! Thanks to 2HB who sent me a copy, I can now reoffer the Aberdeen-show. If anyone in Europe still needs that show, please mail me off-list. Ole ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2004 13:22:33 +0100 From: "Sjaak Versluis" Subject: [AVALON] Aberdeen show re-offer LeegThanks for the copy of this show, Mandy!! I re-offer this show to European Avalonians. (Dick....You are nr. 1) Please mail me off-list. Sjaak [demime 0.97c-p1 removed an attachment of type image/gif which had a name of Achtergr Leeg.gif] ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2004 16:09:04 -0500 From: KB Porter Subject: [AVALON] Gale's Narrative Biography of Bryan Ferry Below is a copy of "Bryan Ferry." Contemporary Musicians, Volume 1. Gale Research, 1989. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: The Gale Group. 2004. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC - "Ferry's artsiness expressed itself so much as style over substance that style itself became substantive," wrote John Rockwell. "As the ultimate self professed lounge lizard, he managed to take pop-rock's hoariest conventions (the love song, even actual oldies on his solo albums) and coat them with witty intimations of unspeakable decadence." Bryan Ferry was born the son of a miner on September 26, 1945, in County Durham, England. He worked as a teacher and sang in various bands (the Banshees and Gas Board) before forming Roxy Music in 1970. The group was described as "a driving rock band as well as an aesthetically pleasing manifestation of one man's neuroses," by Paul Gambaccini. During their first year, members included Graham Simpson--bass, Dexter Lloyd--drums, Andy MacKay--sax, Brian Eno--keyboards, and David O'List--guitar. By 1971 Paul Thompson and Phil Manzanera had taken over on drums and guitar, respectively. Their first album, entitled Roxy Music, was produced by King Crimson lyricist Peter Sinfield and was released in 1972. The LP was a major success in the United Kingdom, yielding a fairly big hit, "Virginia Plain". The album, wrote Robert Christgau, "celebrates the kind of artifice that could come to seem as unhealthy as the sheen on a piece of rotten meat." With the assistance of Eno on synthesizer, Ferry's vocals and lyrics laid the foundation for a whole school of music known as art-rock (or, as Robert Duncan calls it, chromium-romanticism). This trend towards slick sophistication, as opposed to the traditional raw rebelliousness of rock up to that point, would produce groups as talented as King Crimson and Flock of Seagulls. Roxy's second album, For Your Pleasure, was the only other on which Eno played. The personalities of Ferry and Eno clashed, unfortunately, but on songs like "In Every Dream Home a Heartache" their association is downright eerie. Nevertheless, Eno would move on to carve out his own unique slot in the techno end of pop music. As his replacement, Ferry brought in multi-instrumentalist Eddie Jobson, an addition that would add more of a rock edge to their next two LPs, Stranded and Country Life (which did manage to crack the American Top 40). "My musical image in America has been confused, whereas the visual aspect of my work has been quickly defined," Ferry told Rolling Stone, "and I think this lack of one total image hurt Roxy." Disappointment from the band's lack of success in the States led Ferry (Manzanera and MacKay, also) to pursue a solo career in 1974. "I think Roxy was too European to go over big in America," said Phil Manzanera. "We weren't raunchy enough." On Ferry's first solo effort, These Foolish Things, his interpretation of classics from "It's My Party" to "Sympathy For The Devil" was quite similar in style to David Bowie's Pinups LP a year earlier. Especially noteworthy is the reworking of Dylan's "Hard Rain." Robert Christgau wrote, "By transforming Dylan at his most messianic into gripping high camp complete with sound effects, Ferry both undercuts the inflated idealism of the original and reaffirms its essential power." The same year, Ferry would also record Another Time, Another Place. While it contains some originals, it too was based on covers with only one real gem in the lot. "The In Crowd." In 1975 Ferry reassembled Roxy Music for the LP Siren and another shot at the American market. "I think of it in terms of pride in my work," Ferry told Rolling Stone. "I want to make it here because, after all, rock & roll started here." Ironically, his breakthrough came with a disco song, "Love Is the Drug." Ferry apparently ignored, or was ignorant of, the hatred between followers of rock and those of disco, stating only that "big disco records have better chances to spread." At the time he was right, but his 1977 solo album, In Your Mind, failed in its aim to cash in once again on a disco audience that soon vanished. "What Bryan Ferry sees is a more commercial way to bring a most unconventional pop perspective to a wider audience," wrote John Milward. "If In Your Mind doesn't sport the twin-edged blade of prime Roxy Music, that doesn't mean it doesn't bleed." After a while the label rock or disco didn't matter anyway. The key elements of each were borrowed by the other, and eventually drum machines were as prevalent in rock as distorted guitars were in disco. In the previous year, Ferry recorded Let's Stick Together, which consisted of flip sides to his singles and reworks of Roxy tunes. Slick L.A. session musicians provided a natural background for Ferry's smoky vocals on his fifth solo album, The Bride Stripped Bare. Ferry had put Roxy on hold after their live 1976 LP, Viva! (a showcase for Paul Thompson's drumming). He has continued alternating between solo albums after regrouping the band in 1979. Probably the finest example of a Ferry/Roxy collaboration yet is the LP Flesh and Blood. But, with many of the same musicians appearing on both solo and group albums, it's hard to separate the two. "Ferry, both in and out of Roxy Music, is one of the rank weirdos of rock & roll," wrote Robert Duncan. "In other words, a prize. And, though some choose not to notice, the man's accomplishments are enduring." The above biography dates to 1989 - apparently only BF may initiate a biographical update. KBP ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2004 18:12:20 +0000 From: "Christian H. Soetemann" Subject: Re: [AVALON] Gale's Narrative Biography of Bryan Ferry > With the assistance of Eno on synthesizer, Ferry's vocals > and lyrics laid the foundation for a whole school of music > known as art-rock (or, as Robert Duncan calls it, > chromium-romanticism). This trend towards slick > sophistication, as opposed to the traditional raw > rebelliousness of rock up to that point, would produce > groups as talented as King Crimson and Flock of Seagulls. Now that's a coupling! Just wondering how P. Sinfield of King Crimson could produce the debut album of a band whose influence itself would produce bands like King Crimson? Huh? > On Ferry's first solo effort, These Foolish Things, his > interpretation of classics from "It's My Party" to "Sympathy > For The Devil" was quite similar in style to David Bowie's > Pinups LP a year earlier. Especially noteworthy is the I guess if Ferry read this he'd seethe with anger... Thanks for sharing this bio with us, KBP - some very interesting and amusing quotes. CHS ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2004 18:24:37 -0000 From: "Mandy" Subject: [AVALON] TOTP2 Roxy Music on Vic and Bob's TOTP2 Thurs. BBC2 6.45pm Mandy ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2004 22:32:43 +0100 From: "the bogus man" Subject: [AVALON] black hole Hyy kids I just learned how to to download mp3 .-) looking for Roxy stuff I found Melissa Auf der Maur cover of LOve of the drug..... Hell I have no idea what to say about that looks just a big Hole :-)))) what do ya think about it?? the bogus Dan ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2004 09:36:53 +0100 From: Ferdinand Subject: [AVALON] trade Karin thanks for the aberdeen show, now it"s my turn to offer four copie to the dutch. Ferdinand ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ End of avalon-digest V9 #38 *************************** ======================================================================== For further info, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: info avalon-digest