VIVA! ROXY MUSIC

In 1980 I went to a record shop and I saw this live album there. I also saw other ROXY MUSIC albums there, and they had in common the presence in the covers of very glamorous female fashion models and backing singers. But in the back cover of this live album there were listed in the credits two famous names from other Prog Rock bands: John Wetton and Eddie Jobson. At that time I was listening to the band U.K. and both Wetton and Jobson were members of that band, so I became a bit interested in listening to or in buying this live album one day...a thing I that never did. Why? Some bands like ROXY MUSIC are represented very much in their style of music by only looking to the covers of their albums. I never have been a fan of Glam Rock and for me this style of music was more a fad from the seventies, another attempt to do different things musically, but more influenced by sophisticated or excentric looks, very based in the make ups, posings and fashions of those days. For me, Bryan Ferry based his musical career in these sophisticated looks, fashions, poses and lifestyles. And I confirmed all these "suspicions" when finally years later I listened to this band in the radio with songs like "Avalon" and others and I finally watched to them playing on TV, with or without Brian Eno. So, more by their looks and fashions I never have liked artists like Roxy Music, Brian Eno, David Bowie, Duran Duran, Adrian Belew, and other similar artists. It is curious, but sometimes one really can "judge a book by its cover", and if one does not identify (at least in some way) with some lifestyles, one does not like the music of some artists. In the case of Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music I don`t identify myself with their music and looks because they are "artificial" in many ways. After all, Glam Rock was, in my opinion, a very "artificial" fad in music and looks. Not very authentic for my taste. Sorry. Too much posing, in my opinion.

Well. I finally listened to this album recently. The songs are not bad. All the musicians are very good. And I think that Ferry as a singer is not a bad singer, but i think that he really does not have a very "great" voice. But he sings with a lot of "theatrical" inlfuences. In fact, I think that most of his merits in the music business were and still are to create a very characteristic and personal style of singing and for composing songs (he is the main composer of the songs in this band). He really is very original in all these things. Maybe all these things made him have success in his musical career. But he is the main "star" in this band. Unfortunatley, despite being very good musicians, Thompson, Manzanera and Mackay never have had the same success on their own without being involved in some way with Ferry or with Roxy Music (a similar thing that happened with the musicians in the band called VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR with respect to their singer PETER HAMMILL). So, ROXY MUSIC is mainly Ferry and his music and artistic vision augmented by the contributions of very good musicians which really as a whole define the sound of this band.

I don`t know what Wetton and Jobson were doing in this band, really. Both are very good musicians to be in this band acting as Ferry`s backing musicians. Maybe they needed temporal jobs and they agreed to play with this band. Both sound very well in this band but their talents sound a bit "diluted", acting more like session musicians, but anyway doing very good jobs. Together some years later they founded U.K., a more Progressive Rock band than ROXY MUSIC. I really could not find very much Progressive Rock elements in this album apart from some very good improvisations by Jobson on his electric violin and keyboards. For the most part, the music in this album in my opínion is Pop Rock and Glam Rock. I don`t consider this band as Prog Rock in style.

For collectors and fans only.