top 5 Roxy Music songs (or 10)

Angel Eyes is also a worthy tune.

Manifesto - 1979 - and still makes some risky moves by incorporating some avante-weirdness......
......definitely spear-heading the 'New-Wave' artsy contingent.....

Edited by Tom Ozric - February 24 2014 at 03:30

Tom Ozric wrote: Paul Thompson does an outstanding job, on Roxy S/T especially, no doubt about it.

A quick note on Paul Thompson. The Great Paul Thompson is easily, I repeat easily winner of the most underrated drummer in music!  Meaty, juicy, no sissy frills for this lad. Also , while on the drum topic,check out Andy Newmark on the Frejus 1982 version of My Only Love = utterly ridiculous! 

Edited by tszirmay - February 21 2014 at 21:15

Ferry never gets credit for 2 things 1- being a brilliant lyricist (ask Bono) and 2- getting out when punk reared its head and set about murdering established bands . After a brief lull for a slew of solo albums by almost all the members, RM returned with young bassist Gary Tibbs , who came straight out of punk school and gave the band an edge and a rejuvenated look (quote Manzanera) . It was a curious combination of pop, art, electronica and punky tendencies (trash) as well as two cool prog epics (Stronger Through the Years and Ain't That So) . I call it the survival effort , but remains my least favorite RM album. I actually liked Flesh+Blood , it has some amazing moments (My Only Love). 

For Your Pleasure
Bogus Man
Ain't That So
Both Ends Burning
More Than This
Love Is The Drug
In Every Dream Home A Heartache
Dance Away
My Only Love
Avalon

and a bonus for the ultimate cover Jealous Guy. Utter bliss. They di with that what Hendrix did with Watchtower - own it. Hurricane and * Miles High are excellent versions but Jealous Guy was made for Roxy. What a build up....

Their ability to be quite out there like the first album to the smooth later albums.
Vocals.
Manzanera's guitar work, tasteful use of reverb and delay and occasionally getting wild like on the somewhat The underrated but badly covered Heart Still beating live album.
Their rock band equivalent  of being David Bowie making challenging music appealing.
Beautifully constructed songs, nothing out of place.

... plus they are excellent in concert (from the albums that I do have anyway, such as Viva.

Seemingly pop in the visuals but really quite arty in the music.
Make a success out of rather non-commercial music (the debut and showing where it can go; the second.)
Make credible music out of melodic hooks (the dreaded pop in the world of prog).
Music that can function in the mind as well as the dance floor.
Making art rock for mainstream listening and in later years making mainstream oriented music for art rock listeners.

Roxy Music were great, but Bryan Ferry is an acquired taste for sure. Everything from For Your Pleasure to Viva Roxy, inlcuding Ferry's solo work, is worth hearing. Manzanera's Listen Now is good too.

^ That's a little harsh, Jean.  But RM is an acquired taste.  Damn it my original post took too long and didn't go through. 

Anyway to try to restate in short.  I think Avalon was a beautiful piece or prog/pop crossover if you will.  I'm not really a fan of RM's earlier albums but I am a big fan of the Enos (Brian and Roger).


Edited by Slartibartfast - February 16 2014 at 08:37

I remember being disappointed with the Resolving Contradictions album, but I haven't heard it for over thirty years! In Search of Eddie Riff, I haven't heard at all.  

^ MacKay also wrote the music for the Rock Follies TV series.