From: owner-avalon-digest@smoe.org (avalon-digest)
To: avalon-digest@smoe.org
Subject: avalon-digest V9 #207
Reply-To: avalon@smoe.org
Sender: owner-avalon-digest@smoe.org
Errors-To: owner-avalon-digest@smoe.org
Precedence: bulk


avalon-digest         Tuesday, August 17 2004         Volume 09 : Number 207



                               Today's Subjects:
                               -----------------
  [AVALON] Buckley Book                              [LottieStreeter2@cs.com]
  [AVALON] Soundtrack.."Matchstick men"  ["S. Thomsen" <chemnitz@stofanet.dk]

To leave the list, mail majordomo@smoe.org with:
unsubscribe avalon-digest

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2004 16:20:50 EDT
From: LottieStreeter2@cs.com
Subject: [AVALON] Buckley Book

Richard writes :
............
The Rex Balfour biography of Ferry was a thinly veiled press release by Dr 
Simon 
Puxley 

Great to finally get THAT confirmed...thought so.  So worshipful, so 
unbearably saccharine, I thought "WHO wrote this?!?"  

and flimsily researched books by Johnny Rogan and Paul Stump have left a  
dissatisfied taste in the mouth

Well, I liked the Stump one, I liked the way he chronicled and annotated each 
and every article ever written about Ferry and the band.  But when he 
referred to Ferry's "daughter" Tara....I thought, "can this publishing house not 
afford a fact-checker?"  Glad to hear this book measures up where the others have 
fallen short.

The book is almost at pains to  demonstrate the work that went into verifying 
facts and allegations. 

Well, since Ferry is known to be a perfectionist and tends to be critical, 
and his fans by and large seem to be a critical lot as well (though not always 
in a bad way) I can see why this would be the case. 

In so doing, he also makes a compelling case for the opportunities that Ferry 
has failed to maximise in his professional life. 

A big surprise to all of us here.......(-;

One album alone has cost Ferry the best part of a million of his own  money, 
took 
five years to complete and he sold a home in New York ostensibly to finance 
the project.

This was "Mamouna", wasn't it?  Have always wanted to learn the details of 
this....

Clearly, when set against the careers of contemporaries like Bowie (or Eno, 
Elton and Rod, for that matter), Ferry himself is left openly wondering about 
the missed  chances. 

I think it's rare for an introvert, let alone a perfectionist (or the yes-men 
they tend to surround themselves with) to be successful at anything that 
depends upon interaction with the fickle public, with whom such a person would 
have little or no patience.  A music career and the public are invariably 
intertwined.  

Most introvert performers have an extrovert manager to smooth the way...but a 
perfectionist would try to control the whole process.  I think Eno's 
extrovert nature, had he stayed, would have given Roxy a shot at true international 
mega-success, assuming that's what they wanted.  Just look at what he did for 
arguably less-talented bands.  Of course, maybe Eno was driven to the heights he 
eventually attained as a producer by the ignominious nature of the breakup 
with Roxy.  Who knows?  
  
Roxy's early success should have jumped the pond but didn't, while Bowie mana
ged to do it with ease.  One can only imagine it had to do with more 
appropriate management and marketing....?  Have always wanted to read a meaningful 
analysis of this.  

I know this, I liked Bowie but wouldn't go so far as to put his poster up or 
dress like him, even as a young teen.  He was just a bit too "out there" for 
me. I liked Elton John but there was something that prevented me from really 
getting excited about him once I left puberty.....the problem was, he was a gay 
man singing a straight-man's lyrics, and somehow didn't seem quite sincere.  
But Bryan Ferry....mmm.....just what I was looking for.  The voice, the music, 
the look, the style, the lyrical content, the sincerity...he had it all over 
all three of these guys put together, I think!

The Thrill Of It All is upbeat too about the wonderful releases that have 
made up the Roxy canon with fascinating insights into the recording sessions and 
live shows. Buckley's access to musicians and producers who have worked with 
Ferry, as well as a wealth of informed journalistic sources who remain Roxy 
fans  first and foremost, brings alive the music and has the reader reaching for 
a CD  collection to relive this or that track.

Can't wait.....

The author has remained faithful to the memories of the figures that loom 
large in the Roxy story, even if there must be some doubt as to their complete 
accuracy. Both Eddie Jobson and Johnny Gustafson seem to have forgotten the 
aspect of collaboration that goes into a band like Roxy, each claiming to have 
picked up a disparate bunch of musicians following the harrowing split with Eno 
and holding it together through their own virtuosity and sage-like experience  
respectively. 

Excellent point, Richard, and how very well put!

It's not a glamorised version of the band and anyone overly protective of  
Ferry might want to steer clear of this warts-and-all portrait. But, as a  
long-time fan, I enjoyed the book enormously and put it down feeling I understood 
more about Roxy Music than I did before. A better than decent job and  a book 
that most Roxy fans have waited the 30 years it has taken their story to unfold 
to read.

And two more books on the way, too. What a great follow-up to the reunion 
tour!  Thank you so much for sharing it with us, Richard.

Lottie


___________________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with:  unsubscribe avalon

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2004 23:14:22 +0200
From: "S. Thomsen" <chemnitz@stofanet.dk>
Subject: [AVALON] Soundtrack.."Matchstick men"

Just watched "Matchstick Men" (Nicholas Cage)
"More than this" is part of the soundtrack.
Good movie, by the way...........
Stefanzanera


___________________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with:  unsubscribe avalon

------------------------------

End of avalon-digest V9 #207
****************************

========================================================================
For further info, mail majordomo@smoe.org with:
info avalon-digest