JEALOUS GUY

In 1981 Roxy Music made a tribute single for John Lennon who was tragically shot dead in December 1980. 'Jealous Guy' originally appeared on Lennon's album Imagine (1971). Bryan Ferry & co. are an excellent performer for this emotional song, and I have to say I prefer Roxy's version over the original, both for the vocals and the playing. The production is clean and sophisticated the same way as the Roxy albums Flesh + Blood (1980) and Avalon (1982) that sandwich this non-album single.

In my opinion Bryan Ferry is a whole lot better vocalist than John Lennon, and he really captures the passion of this regretful love song. His whistle solo is also fine. Phil Manzanera's elegant guitar solo is immediately followed by Andy Mackay's saxophone solo, both being very brief though. All in all the version remains pretty faithful to Lennon's somewhat weakly produced original. As a side note, I often feel a bit uncertain with my memory whether 'Jealous Guy' was a Roxy Music or a Bryan Ferry release. He released some solo albums already during Roxy's halcyon days, and concentrated on his solo career after the 1983 Avalon tour.

The B side offered a foretaste of the then upcoming final Roxy Music album Avalon: 'To Turn You On' is a good example of that album's finesse and charm. I've enjoyed Avalon since my youth and it's still much dearer to me than the 70's art rock output. Now, I'm faithful to my usual approach when reviewing non-progressive material and give a good rating for this single purely on the pop scale.