"Let's Stick Together"

by

Bryan Ferry

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From 1971 through 1976 Roxy Music changed rock 'n' roll, recording an exciting , original body of work that countless younger - and more commercially successful - bands (Duran Duran, Simple Minds, etc) remains audacious and not the least bit dated. Roxy Music in their prime were remarkably prolific, issuing six classic albums (1972's "Roxy Music" through "Viva!") in four years, plus worthy single sides ('Pyjamarama', 'Hula Kula' etc), and more than a dozen essential outside projects. I'd include Eno's great records from the same period, which like Phil Manzanera's excellent "Diamond Head" and "801 Live", Bryan Ferry's solo discs ("These Foolish Things", Another Time Another Place", "In Your Mind" and "The Bride Stripped Bare"), Andy Mackay's uneven but entertaining "In Search Of Eddie Riff", as well as classic albums by John Cale ("Fear") and Nico ("The End..."). All these side projects feature several band members - perfoming, composing or producing - together, but outside the confines of Roxy Music, which despite Manzanera, Mackay, Paul Thompson, Eno, and Eddie Jobson's obvious originality as musicians and contributions to shaping the music, from the start it had been Ferry's vision,

and (mostly) songs, those classic album covers, down to the font in which "Roxy Music" appeared on the album covers. Ferry was a visionary, but his leadership became increasingly rigid, and the delicate balance that was this great band (greater than the sum of its parts) led to the defection of Eno first, and later Paul Thompson; Mackay and Manzanera were by 1980 at least somewhat marginalized.

It goes without saying given the band members' histories that Roxy Music could fairly be called 'art rock'; they embraced and successfully integrated an impressive range of musical, literary, cinematic, and iconic influences, and their great records were often dense, challenging, sometimes 'inaccessable', at the same time crafting glorious hit singles. RM made infectious, great 'pop' songs for teenagers. Their best work is as radical as the Velvet Underground, hitting the studio and stage with a fully formed sensibility and sound of unusual wit and sophistication. With Bryan Ferry leading the band the group was very much in control of every aspect of their presentation (image and music) from the 1972 debut. Ferry's deliberately mannered voice and phrasing subtly made his 1973 solo debut "These Foolish Things" a more subversive statment than similar 'cover' albums issued that season (Lennon's "Rock and Roll", Bowie's "Pinups"). Recall how Ferry recast Lesley Gore into surprisingly high camp and great pop, not least by not changing the gender of Johnny, the boy the narrator addresses. Ferry may have been sincere on those eight minute ruminations about God ("Psalm"), emptiness, and longing in the modern world, but that voice allowed him to function as dazzling modernist cutting everything Roxy Music made with layers of ambiguity, distance or irony. The band, each member essential to the originality of the music, were superlative, original musicians, and Roxy presented with its first records their own carefully thought-out and wildly eclectic 'sound'. Roxy Music's accomplishments between 1972 and 1976 (band and 'solo', or rather side-project) - at first (perhaps deliberately) off putting, with dissonent passages and fruity vocals - remain startling. But imagine how they seemed in the early 1970s, against the grain of post-'60s rock and roll, as we witnessted the ascent of 'Southern Rock' (lesser children of the Allman Brothers Band), plus Eagles, Jim Croce, and Loggins & Messina. By '76 however the bloom had begun to wear off....Ferry had announced his desire to break up the perfect setting for his songs and vision, and along with his bandmates focused on solo projects. After promising records like "Diamond Head" abd "801 Live" Phil Manzanera's work became confused, unfocused, thanks to unsympathetic collaborators. Mackay issued the excellent "Resolving Contradictions" after travelling through China. Jobson joined Zappa briefly, then formed the prog-rock supergroup UK. Roxy returned with "Manifesto" in 1979.

"Let's Stick Together" isn't bad, in fact I enjoy much of it. It is a patched together collection that never coheres - half decent (if never revelatory) covers, half remakes of early Roxy classics. The remakes are less challenging than the originals, listenable if pointless. Even the cover art is less striking than usual. This 1976 collection should be the set to complete a Roxy Music/Ferry collection, certainly not the one with which to start. The lack of cohesion, purpose is partly due to the fact that most tracks were recorded as singles during a three year period.If you already have the 1972 - 79 RM albums, and Ferry's other solo works, the first four Eno albums, and "801 Live" you'll enjoy this. But I doubt you'll play it very much.