Superlatives
A Vulture series in which artists judge the best and worst of their own careers.
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Yes, the lyrics insist that its a danceable solution to teenage revolution.
Sure, composean odeto an inflatable doll.
Why not throw in that oboesolo?
More ofthismelancholicoutro, hey.
But this is an historic moment for the band, and so the perfect time to reminisce.
Ive never been quite as excited to say: Ferry is our newest Superlatives subject.
Its emotional, and yet it jumps around from one structure to another, which I like.
Yeah, its the only song I didnt write on the keyboard.
I took a bass guitar away with me for a couple of weeks to do some writing.
I had a small keyboard and a cassette, and I recorded it.
He wrote the sleeve notes on the first Roxy album.
It took some great playing on the actual record as well.
Great drumming from Paul Thompson.
John Gustafson, the bass player, was outstanding.
Yeah, I think it worked very well.
Its one of the highlights of Roxy.
The album before it wasFor Your Pleasure; thats probably my favorite album, overall.
But afterFor Your Pleasure, I did my first solo album, which was full of covers.
It was like being on holiday away from my own writing.
Most seductive song
I suppose Avalon has a seductive mood that people like.
Its one of our slow and atmospheric songs.
It was beautifully mixed by Bob Clearmountain.
We did that at the Power Station Studio in New York.
Yeah, it captured a mood; captured a moment.
I started writing the song when I was in Ireland.
Then we did some work on it in Nassau atCompass Point Studios,I remember.
So it has a kind of island mood about it.
But theres a sophistication to it, which, being in New York, must have played some part.
Most poetic song
More Than This.
It uses very few words, but it seems to get them in the right order.
Its great when that throw in of emotion strikes a chord with people.
The combination of when you get the tune and the lyrics that work together, its a great thing.
Thats what you want to do with music to make contact and to get an emotional response.
We madea music videofor More Than This.
That was never my favorite thing, making videos.
Being in the studio and making records was exciting for me and still is.
Quickest song you wrote
It would be Virginia Plain.
But the record company came to us and said, There isnt really a single on the album.
The albums doing great, but can you quickly give us a single?
There was a lot of pressure to do that.
It ended up becoming quite popular over here.
It was my first cover.
The first single from my first album,These Foolish Things.
I remember it was a very spontaneous way it was made.
The whole album was made really quickly.
I just felt like doing an album of other peoples songs for a change!
I thought,I must choose a Bob Dylan song.
Because he writes such great lyrics and really strong songs.
I chose that one, and I worked it out on the piano just pounding those keys.
It was very different from his version.
You dont venture to beat what the original version is.
Paul Thompson played drums on the record.
A friend of mine, John Porter, played on Roxys second album.
He helped me produce the record and played bass and guitar.
Oh, Eddie Jobson did a great string arrangement.
I remember I had really good background vocalists who worked with Dr. John.
Yeah, the whole record was done with such good energy.
So thats memorable for me.
Ive never heard backfrom Bob Dylan.
I dont know how he feels about the covers.
He might like some of them, I dont know.
Theyre all such great songs and such great lyrics.
As a singer, you always want to sing great words.
Such beautiful imagery and so on.
Ive found it quite interesting for me to do that.
How you define Roxy Musics manifesto
Its trying out different things experimenting and exploring sounds and textures.
Trying out combinations of instruments and so on.
But at its core, its experimenting with musical styles.
We didnt want to be a one-trick pony.
That made the record interesting.
It was the first record any of us had made in the band.
We were so excited just to do it!
Putting those songs together, it was a joy for us.
I think those songs on the album point in different directions that Roxy could have gone.
We followed some of those paths on subsequent records.
There are a lot of American influences.
Re-Make/Re-Model is very hard-driving and was influenced by the Velvet Underground, one of my favorite bands.
Whereas something like Ladytron, it starts off with this almost country-rock sound.
It was kind of an atmospheric, lunar-landscape soundtrack.
Then it goes to a wild guitar solo at the end.
It seems to jump from one thing to another.
So out of that comes a country-rock section of the record.
Same with If There Is Something.
2HB is a song that was inspired byCasablancawith Humphrey Bogart.
Its a great movie, and it was my tribute to Hollywood.
Most atmospheric album
Avalon.
That whole record had a very nice mood to it.
It has a very complete mood that people seem to like.
Its a dark, focused, and steady record.
Visually, glamour is so many things.
I went to art school when I was a teenager.
Its strange how you develop an aesthetic that you like.
Its trial and error of finding things that you find appealing.
I like a lot of old Hollywood movies, film noir in particular.
I like movies that are in black-and-white.
I find them very glamorous, all of the great musicals, films with Cary Grant or Humphrey Bogart.
People in suits thats a look that works for me.
I guess it was because Id seen all these great movies growing up.
Those were all in my mind while makingFor Your Pleasure.
Most endearing Brian Eno memory
Its the first time I met him, really.
He came to the place we were rehearsing and working, when I was putting together the band.
He came along to record what we were doing there.
There were only three of us in Roxy at that point.
So he came to my place where we were rehearsing.
He brought this huge tape recorder called a Ferrograph.
It was a reel-to-reel thing.
We got on immediately.
I still remember him coming through the door, carrying this huge recorder.
He recorded us and then officially joined the band that night.
