Roxy Music was the ultimate party band. Pretentious art rockers, hopelessly in love with English high class, seductive European opulence, crystalline elegance and manners, and inhabiting a world of such expensive grandeur in such a relaxed way that they appeared to take it for granted. That Roxy's music was almost entirely about partying and romance or that they were stilted posers ( at least in the content department ) misses the point entirely. Roxy Music was about style, plain and simple.
When Bryan Ferry ( vocals ) , Andy Mackay ( reeds ) , Phil Manzanera ( guitar ) , Paul Thompson ( drums ) , and one Brian Eno ( synthesizers ) debuted in 1972, it was obvious they knew they had a mission. The First Roxy Music Album ( with the inclusion on the cover of a gold album labeled The First Roxy Music Album as a prop ) and the single, "Virginia Plain," went to the top 5 in the U.K., as did the follow-up albums, For Your Pleasure and Stranded ( Eno was gone after Pleasure, for better or worse ) . Country Life ( 1974 ) and Siren ( 1975 ) with a pre-Jaggerized Jerri Hall rising from the surf on the coverruled the U.K. charts. Ferry and company were front-page mega-celebrities in Europe. But in America ...
In America they were a critically acclaimed band with no sales. "Love is the Drug," "Siren's single, did crack the top 40 and gave them an audience, but the acclaim and sales they deserved didn't come until the early 1980s. 1982's Avalon"was a rarity in rock and roll. An album so sonically rich and beautiful, so disarmingly romantic, so seductively crisp and nuanced, that it defied almost all categories of pop music and culture. After Avalon there was no real need to go on as a group, and after a sell-out world tour, Roxy broke up.
But that's not the end of the story.
Roxy was as idiosyncratic and individual as Bowie, more eccentric than any band of its era, just asif not moreprolific than the Stones ( and they could rock just as hard when they wanted to ) , and closer to the real spirit of what rock and roll is about than they get credit for. After all, rock and roll is about getting down ( partying ) and getting off ( romance/sex ) .
Part of the reason for Roxy's failure to crash America in the early '70s was probably due to the fact that they were so sophisticated, quirky, and steeped in European glamour ( ancient and modern ) that they were too far over the top for our homogenized tastes. Moreso was the visual style. Glaring album covers so saturated the colors seemed to bleed on your hands, they made Fiorucci look good long before disco hit. In hindsight it could only be called gay culture before the fact ( check out the cover of Pleasure with Eno in drag walking his pet jaguar ) . The original cover to Pleasure, which opened, had the band dolled up and glammed outbut that's the twist. Where Bowie and T-Rex did it to convey ... something, some heavy meaning, Roxy looked like they dressed up for fun.
After the break-up, Ferry honed his appeal as a romantic idol, releasing a handful of near-great albums ( Boys and Girls, Mamouna ) , some good ones ( As Time Goes By, Taxi ) , and one flaming masterpiece ( Bete Noireso steeped in romantic voodoo the album is akin to a heavy narcotic madness ) . His solo work from 1985 to 2000 had a great deal more in common with Avalon than his previous solo albums did to Roxy ( "These Foolish Things," "Let's Stick Together" ) languid, sexy/ romantic, haunting, classy, and maddening.
For a rock band and artist ( Ferry ) so devoted to romance through three decades as a goal, concept, and ideal, at some point you would think they would become dated. Roxy's recordings have held up remarkably well, and as evidenced by the Chicago stop of their reunion tour July 30 at the Allstate Arena, so have they.
Looking fit and tight at 55, Ferry was remarkable, resembling a sly playful cat and smooth new age sophisticate at the same time. Even his costume changes were wittythree suits ( white, gray, and black ) all in a crinkly metallic material that was both classy and flashy ( Mackay and Manzanera wore waistcoats, black and white respectively ) . But the clothes and elegance were beside the pointRoxy dragged the entirety of the Allstate into its glitter ballroom and wouldn't let go.
As expected, the ballads had their magic; an extended "Avalon," Mackay's crystalline solo on "Tara," a moody "Song for Europe," a sly and rhythmic "Dance Away." But the rockers and show pieces answered the questions of artistic validity and relevance in a surprising fashion. "Virginia Plain," "Editions of You," and the opener, "Street Life" rocked far better than the studio versions ever let on. "Both Ends Burning"with the help of a chorus line of identical platinum haired white mini-skirted go-go girls ( who did a history of pop dances in the last 40 years in an energetic three minutes ) brought Roxy's classy trash retro allure crashing into the new century. And then there was "In Every Dream Home a Heartache."
As one of the best rock jokes and self-parodies recorded, "Dream Home" still has a lacerating bite, and as a wicked rumination on Roxy's ( and our ) infatuation with consumerism it still packs a punch ( what would American Psycho be without it? ) .
Rambling on for a good seven minutes with a droning organ line reminiscent of sordid and bad horror movies, Ferry mumbles on and on about ... possessions ( "penthouse perfection ... standards of living/they're rising daily ... you float in my new pool..." ) and his devotion to his ideal live-in lover. Then he starts dropping hints that something's not quite right ( "... your skin is like vinyl ... I throw you away now ... inflatable daahh-ling..." ) . And just when this morbid stifling stew of perversion gets unbearable Ferry delivers the punchline to his "plain wrapper baby""I blew you up and you blew my mind." Right then and there Manzanera crashes in with one of the most cutting/bombastic guitar solos ever recorded that pushes the very idea of romanticism into a realm of absurd depravity.
I have no idea how the song went over in 1973, but in 2001 it's still a wicked jolt, still a telling satiric snap at our perceptions and pursuit of "perfection."
Does Roxy Music still matter? Definitely. Is there a "Heartache" in "Every Dream Home?" Without a doubt, just so long as we desire.