As far as we’ve been able to discern, no one has ever asked the elegant Bryan Ferry if he concurs with the sentiments expressed by Saturday Night Live’s Fernando (Billy Crystal) in one of his Fernando’s Hideaway skits. It was Fernando who uttered the immortal phrase, “It’s better to look good than to feel good.”
Whether in a white tux, like on the cover of his second solo album, “Another Time, Another Place” or in a stylish suit somewhere, he even had a military—style outfit for one tour — he was all about style, which I think, was a delightful visual contrast to Roxy’s innovative, out-of-left-field style of rock.
You see him in a flawless tux, like on the cover of his second solo album, “Another Time, Another Place” or in a uniform in the Roxy Music Army (he had a patch on his shoulder that said “Roxy Music” and you expect stylish, smoky love songs, crooning and the like. And there is some of that, for sure. “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” is one he loves. “Help Me Make It Through The Night” “These Foolish Things” songs that you could have heard in a Paris cafe in 1948.
But he also, and I think this is where the visual irony really helps, can turn around and slam his way through “In Crowd,” with David O’List’s wild-ass guitar, some genuine crunch, the loud kind of rocking tune that’d instantly clear the room at a cocktail party. \
To me, it’s a kind of unstated apostasy, musically renouncing the fashion statement, if that makes sense. We might look like prep schoolers, rich and snotty, dressed to the nines, But we get DOWN…
Mr. Ferry has always made it a point to look good, something that has really appealed to the ladies of the Internet, apparently, something I’d never really thought much about. Looking at the comments from the ladies on just about any Bryan Ferry post, they evidently saw him as a hunk. That surprised me. Not that he’s not a handsome, well-dressed guy. I just didn’t see sex appeal as one of Roxy’s strengths.
In my experience with them, Roxy Music fans are quite diverse, intelligent, open to New Wave sounds and innovations, but also lovers of the great musical traditions that Ferry and company delight in upending every so often.
I should state that fashion is not something that has ever mattered or interested me. Not since when I was in 7th grade at Fairground Junior High for a single day that will live in infamy. More than a little unbelievably, my mother succumbed to the trends of the time — she remembered seeing Ken Harrelson in a Nehru suit — and bought me a bright lime green Nehru shirt - somewhat similar to this. And I wore it. Once.
Please forgive me. I knew not what I was doing.
Understanding that, it is surprising that I paid attention to Roxy’s look then. Here was Eno, the great Phil Manzanera and Bryan, looking like a Space Age Elvis. I’m surprised that their weird outfits didn’t faze me but they didn’t. Glam Rock was certainly not my thing.
I took those outfits as I think Bryan intended — to look AND SOUND - exotic. They certainly did that.
Though I don’t think his second album of covers was quite as successful and fun as his first, “These Foolish Things,” the opening and closing tracks on “Another Time, Another Place” are brilliant and as good as anything he ever recorded.
So, imagine you holding the album cover in your hand, here’s Bryan’s white tux staring you in the face and you drop the needle and WHAM!!
The idea of that crunching, raucous, batten-down-the-hatches guitar along with Ferry’s elegant phrasing, he never screams or even seems to break a sweat, just made for such a delightful contrast, as if what you’re hearing sure as hell isn’t what you’re seeing.
The album’s closing and title song, “Another Time, Another Place” is one of Ferry’s great unsung tracks. There are such great dynamics in the song, a gentle breezy opening, a driving, powerful beat along with I-mean-business, take-no-prisoners vocal from Ferry and some wild, soaring guitar and even a little Farfisa organ, it’s an exciting, innovative, explosive track that I’m surprised I didn’t hear more often on the radio.
Roxy Music was a band that assumed their audience had a bit of taste, knew the right way to dress, how to behave in a concert, picked up on the literary allusions Ferry threw into his lyrics, understood the whole picture, the album covers, the videos, everything. Not that kids didn’t get it, but it was unapologetic rock for grown ups.
It was rock with style, class and wit, borrowing and upending rock traditions all the way to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The album’s closing song - “Another Time, Another Place.”
A great album opener, Bryan Ferry’s hard rockin’ “The In Crowd”
Great piece John. I had the privilege of seeing Roxy Music at their peak on the Siren tour at the Orpheum. The encore was his incredible cover of A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall and it started to rain on the stage and I recall the drummer, Paul Thompson had a towel on his head. Eddie Jobson was one of the finest violinist in rock history. Many years later we saw Bryan Ferry at the ACL Moody Theater in Austin and he was still amazing. His vocals on In Every Dream Home a Heartache were just as powerful and evocative as ever. I have nearly all of the Roxy Music albums and I still enjoy listening to his well dressed songbook.