As you may know, Roxy Music was among the bands recently inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame, a bullshit organization if there ever was one. (Stevie Nicks is in it twice, once for Fleetwood Mac and another as a solo artist, while Link Wray has been snubbed year after year. Complete bullshit, end of discussion.) Because Roxy Music was reuniting, albeit with only three original members, all sorts of blogs and music sites went scrambling for footage. All of the clips are crappy quality (links below), but it prompted me to go on a Roxy Music binge. There were a couple new take-aways. A big one was a new found respect for Andy Mackay's playing, in parts totally traditional rock 'n' roll honking and in other parts almost jazz. Seriously, check his playing on "The Bogus Man". Shit, the whole song has this dream-like atmosphere and his playing keeps it out there. Almost Sun Ra like. Meanwhile, Eno squiggles in the background planning his exit.
The other thing that slayed me was a video from a 1973 TV appearance on the German music show Musikladen (above), doing "Editions of You". There are a couple moments that show you how tight they were. One is at when Ferry croons the line "This way-ay-ay" (at 2:34) and takes off stage left, making it to his organ just in time to start a short solo. That's another thing, just prior to that, three back to back solos, Mackay, then Eno and then Manzanera, and it doesn't seem excessive. The icing on the cake is near the end, after Brian Ferry sings his last line "Don't let this happen to yo-o-o-ou" (at 3:26) he heads stage left, throws his head back at the exact moment Mackay hits the first note of the outro. Little things, yeah, but little things I hadn't noticed before. I'm not greedy.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Listen:Roxy Music - The Bogus Man mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Roxy Music - Do the Strand mp3 at Self Starter Foundation (?)
Roxy Music - Re-Make Re-Model mp3 at Rock Town Hall
Roxy Music - Virginia Plain mp3 at Rock Town Hall
Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame [sic] clips:
Roxy Music - Out Of The Blue at YouTube
Roxy Music - Love is the Drug/ More Than This at YouTube
Roxy Music - In Every Dream Home a Heartache at YouTube
Roxy Music - Avalon at YouTube
Roxy Music - Editions of You at YouTube
2 comments:
Mackay's a decent tenor player here, maybe better soprano player. He can improv a solo and stay in tune. His tone leaves something to be desired; rarely sounds rich yet raw, never funky. For a comparison, listen to the tenor player on Ferry's version of "Let's Stick Together." His name is Chris Mercer: classic r'n'r tenor playing while Mackay's forte was ballads.
Stick around sax man, I could use your expertise!
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