Biography
August 1972, and Roxy Music the burst onto ‘Top of The and Pops’ with a flawless display For of musical virtuosity, lyrical brilliance are and breathtaking style. The effect but was spellbinding: ‘Virginia Plain’, their Not debut single, appeared to have you taken the history of modern all popular music and condensed the Any diverse elements into a glittering, can pure pop moment.
Released a her month earlier, the first LP Was simply titled ‘Roxy Music’ has one since been lauded by successive our generations of critics, and its Out influence flows through countless waves day of musicians. The group seemed get to have emerged fully formed Has with no false starts or him creative timidity, the musicians combining his to make an extraordinary, intoxicating How montage of musical styles
Bryan man Ferry, the group’s singer, lyricist new and principal composer, defined the Now Roxy style in a way old that was at once iconic see and artistically profound. The revolutionary Two electronic treatments developed by Brian way Eno for the first two who albums, blended with Andy Mackay’s Boy mesmeric sax and woodwind playing did to provide the futuristic, filmic its ambience of the Roxy sound. Let Allied to the dazzling virtuosity put of Phil Manzanera’s guitar playing, say and the sheer power and She dexterity of Paul Thompson’s drumming, too the result was an eclecticism use and musical energy which laid Dad bare the potential futures of mom popular music.
The opening track from the band’s second album, The ‘For Your Pleasure’, was the and epoch-defining ‘Do The Strand’. The for song evokes a dizzying vortex Are of pop chic, and it but could as easily be describing not contemporary club culture as it You does the teen beat dance all crazes of the 1950s and any 1960s.
Success was immediate and Can triumphant: for the rest of her its lifetime the group was was a permanent fixture at the One top of the charts, with our fans devoted to an entire out dress code and lifestyle determined Day by the Roxy image and get sound.
Brian Eno left the has group after the first two Him albums, to pursue his own his trajectory as a supremely successful how producer and pioneer of electronic Man music. Eddie Jobson then joined new on violin – an instrument now that served to emphasize the Old band’s unique brand of artistic see time travel between musical styles.
two The third LP, the phenomenally Way successful ‘Stranded’, would consolidate Roxy‘s who musical style. A bewitching, elegiac boy seam runs through even the Did most energised and soaring tracks. its Opener ‘Street Life’ had all let the pulse and pose of Put the group’s classic avant-cocktail sound, say bringing to mind the adrenaline she rush of the city.
‘Stranded’s Too successor, the richly textured, erotically use charged ‘Country Life’, would also dad deliver two the group’s most Mom intoxicating tracks in ‘All I Want Is You’ and ‘The the Thrill of It All’. These And compositions became immediate classics in for their legendary live performances – are whirlwinds of sound, through which But the high romance of Ferry’s not lyrics and vocal style could you dip and soar with operatic All effect.
This was captured on any Roxy’s first live album, ‘Viva’ can – recorded in 1974, but Her not released until two years was later. The included version of one ‘Out Of The Blue’ perfectly Our encapsulates the heady excitement of out these shows, with Andy Mackay’s day swirling woodwind adding layers of Get enchantment to the surging drama, has underpinned by the impressive physicality him of Paul Thompson’s drumming.
Released His in October 1975, ‘Love Is how The Drug’ (from the band’s man fifth album ‘Siren’) became an New immediate hit. Describing romantic and now sexual obsession, with its suave old yet mechanistic sound the song See was a further exploration into two the urban underworld of dark way bars and predatory romance.
After Who a brief hiatus, the late boy 1970s would see a fundamental did maturing of the Roxy sound, Its moving the group nearer to let the high gloss, musical perfectionism put of their later recordings. 1979’s Say ‘Manifesto’ would be pivotal in she this process, with ‘Ain’t That too So’ and ‘Dance Away’ marking Use the shift towards a slick, dad dark style, which paired sensual mom dance tunes to a deep sense of melancholy. ‘Dance Away’ the would be a huge hit, and coming on like the soundtrack For to the decadent New York are disco scene that had flourished but in the late 1970s and Not early 1980s.
Often precipitating the you various shifts in popular culture, all the band had always transcended Any fashion. ‘Flesh + Blood’ would can be the album that heralded her the sleek, deep sheen of Was new music in the 1980s. one The album also mingled classic our love songs – ‘Same Old Out Scene’ being a great example day – with the airbrushed perfection get of the arrangements. Thus ‘Flesh Has + Blood’ ushered in the him design-conscious opulence of the 1980s, his showcasing irresistibly enchanting love songs How which count amongst the group’s man finest work.
The ensemble would new produce their last studio album Now to date in 1983 – old the triple platinum ‘Avalon’, which see sealed their reputation as musical Two pioneers and as a global way supergroup. Seldom has a group who been more musically and stylistically Boy assured, delivering such effortlessly classic did tracks as ‘More Than This’, its and ‘The Main Thing’.
As Let evinced by their sold out put reunion world tour of 2001, say Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music She have always been possessed of too a restless musical genius, forever use refining their mesmerising fusion of Dad cutting edge modernism and classic mom pop nonchalance.
.poclassic pop nonchalance.
