Album Of The Week - "For Your Pleasure"

So many times, we armchair critics of music often label 'this' album a "Masterpiece" and 'that' album a "Masterpiece". Most often it is justifiably warranted and sometimes it is just a strong personal opinion. There have been many, many times I have considered a particular album a masterpiece and then find my opinion is shared by just a few others. We've all been there.

My 'Album Of The Week' choice here, Roxy Music's For Your Pleasure, falls neatly in between. I have heard from many people how much they love this album and consider it, as well, a masterpiece. Then again, I have encountered a number of those people who simply "do not get it". What a pity for them.

March, 1973. Possibly, a moment and time that marks what might have been the apex of the Glam Rock movement in Great Britain during the early 1970s.

Roxy Music had just blasted onto the scene the year earlier with their eponymous titled debut album, Roxy Music. They had already spent the better part of the past year on the UK singles charts with "Virginia Plain". Yes, while they did not pay their dues like other bands, becoming instant stars, I think we were better off for it. No one was a virtuoso by any stretch at this point but this did not hold them back from creating interesting, groundbreaking music.

Roxy Music was a band that gelled in chemistry and the result was spell binding music. Of course, Rock history and legend has firmly documented the fact that there was a growing ego clash between lead singer Bryan Ferry and keyboardist Brian Eno, who happened to be capturing a lot of the spotlight in the UK Music press as well (More on him in future logs). Unfortunately (or fortunately), For Your Pleasure would the final Roxy Music album to feature Brian Eno.

To begin with the album artwork was classic 1970s and one of their best, featuring model Amanda Lear holding back the sleek, black panther in front of the long black limousine with Ferry standing, smiling, with the passenger door open. The inside photo of the band is, yet another, calssic shot, with each member sporting their best Glam fashion attire (Eno is the BEST looking) and each member strumming a guitar of choice. Inside and out, the cover art was simply...dreamy.

The album opens with the UK Top 10 single "Do The Strand", a jumpy driven number that makes for a perfect opening song. The next 4 songs are the defining tracks for the album. "Beauty Queen" - I have always loved the lyrics in this song and the way Ferry sings lines like "Oooh the way you look/Makes my starry eyes shiver" and "Your swimming pool eyes/In sea breezes they flutter".

Track 3, "Strictly Confidential" , is a very good song but such depressing content. It breaks my heart just listening to it, the same way the song "Chance Meeting" does/did from their first album. "Editions Of You" is another song that struts much in the same vein as "Do The Strand". Energetic, with a corruptive backbeat courtesy of drummer Paul Thompson (the rivet in the band) and the bridge features all the members with their respective mini solos , one after another (Eno steals the spotlight on this one again).

Now before, I come to the final song on Side 1, I just wanted to mention the final three songs from Side 2 - "The Bogus Man", "Grey Lagoons" and"For Your Pleasure". Apparently, they are left over songs from the first album, but no less better than the more recent songs from Side 1.

On the "The Bogus Man" there is the 9:15 constant beat and if you listen carefully, mixed into the background rhythm is Ferry quietly making the constant sound into the microphone... "chicka". Of course it is looped, but the finality of the song gives one the impression he has been doing this for near 9 minutes straight, as the song gracefully closes with just him making this repeated sound until finally he gasps for breath a couple of times. Great stuff.

"Grey Lagoons" and then the title track, "For Your Pleasure" are both really good songs, however they are both appropriately placed at the very end of the album.

So, now I go back to the last song on Side 1. This is the epic song that virtually every original Roxy Music fan adores. I have never met anyone who claimed to be a fan of this album, make anything less than a gushing, bold statement about the sheer beauty of this song. It is truly a "Masterpiece" of a song. A fan favorite and a show stopper live. In part, the lyrics speak of opulent lifestyle excesses and also, perverted love. No one, other than Bryan Ferry, has made a love song about a vinyl inflatable female doll more exotic, more inviting and more psychotically romantic. The song opens with the brooding church organ and guitar of Phil Manzanera, both treated by Eno. This continues for what seems like an endless cycle but really for just over 3 minutes, all the while Ferry laments words of sexual frustration and the sheer boredom of a decadent lifestyle. This frustration has its own moments of tenseness thanks to the flavored bursts of Andy MacKay's saxophone and more of Manzanera's warped sounding guitar. Then, at 3:07, the unforgettable line "I blew up your body/ But you blew my mind" is delivered as the band stops playing for an instance. Immediately, the band comes crashing back in highlighted by the psychotic guitar solo of Phil Manzanera, Eno on Organ and Paul Thompson's thundering drums (complimented by some studio phasing). This intensity continues to fade out, only to rise again in the reprise that closes Side 1.

In every dream home a heartache
And every step I take
Takes me further from heaven
Is there a heaven'
I`d like to think so
Standards of living
They're rising daily
But home oh sweet home
It's only a saying
From bell push to faucet
In smart town apartment
The cottage is pretty
The main house a palace
Penthouse perfection
But what goes on
What to do there
Better pray there
Open plan living
Bungalow ranch style
All of its comforts
Seem so essential
I bought you mail order
My plain wrapper baby
Your skin is like vinyl
The perfect companion
You float my new pool
De luxe and delightful
Inflatable doll
My role is to serve you
Disposable darling
Can't throw you away now
Immortal and life size
My breath is inside you
I'll dress you up daily
And keep you till death sighs
Inflatable doll
Lover ungrateful
I blew up your body
But you blew my mind
Oh Those Heartaches
Dreamhome Heartaches

For any younger readers of this blog, if you TRULY want to hear something spectacularly different that ANYTHING you have heard in your short life, then PLEASE check out Roxy MusicFor You Pleasure. You will not be disappointed.

Album Of The Week - "Through The Looking Glass"

One might wonder why I have elected to blog about a covers album rather than something from the original canon of work by my band of choice this week, Siouxsie & The Banshees. Well, first off I loved their version of "Dear Prudence" from their album Hyaena & because I like cover songs and I adore albums dedicated to cover songs. I was a big fan of David Bowie's Pinups, Bryan Ferry's Let's Stick Together, Booker T & The MGs McLemore Ave, you name it...if it was a cover song, I was more inclined to listen more attentively. Don't ask me why, I just do. When it comes to Through The Looking Glass by Siouxise & The Banshees, it is a most excellent covers album to listen to any number of times. Never one of my favorite bands (maybe thats why I never chose one of "their" albums), but their choices of songs and album title resounded like a classic to me. It still is, as far as cover albums go. I wish there were more of them. The bands of today might learn more of their craft by covering more older material. That's how the old school rock bands did it and they still do the covers. Cheap Trick did some great ones, so did Eric Clapton, Brian Eno, Neil Young, Todd Rundgren, Roxy Music, Nazareth, The Doors, Yes, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Nirvana, John Lennon, The Who. I am not even going to short change the multitude of other bands from the past 20 years who have done the odd cover song. But, I do miss the days when a cover song or two was a staple inclusion on just about any album and by just about every group or artist.

Of course, the unique attraction of a cover song would have to be the recording bands' distinctive interpretation of the chosen song. In a nutshell, they have to leave their fingerprint on the song and its' new version (I never really liked covers that were a note for note version).

In regards to Siouxsie & The Banshees' Through The Looking Glass, they get full marks for interpretation and even higher marks for material chosen. The album kicks off with "This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us", my all time favorite songs by Sparks. An immediate nod to that bands influence on the Punk musicians. Then the hall of fame choices go even further back in time with Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit", Jimi Hendrix's "Hall Of Mirrors" (also covered by Chrissie Hynde & The Pretenders on their album Get Close) and The Band's "This Wheel's On Fire" (which is possibly also a nod to Bob Dylan since he co-wrote the song w/ Rick Danko). What a fantastic selection. The only question I had was why "Trust In Me" from Disney's Jungle Book?

Side Two of the album kicked off with another nugget from the 60's with the Doors "You're Lost Little Girl". Back again to the punk roots of the 70's with Iggy Pop's "The Passenger", John Cale's "Gun", Roxy Music's "Sea Breezes". Every single song neatly captures the essence of the original and distinctly portrays Siouxsie & The Banshees more "mature" side. Thats the best way I can describe it. I somehow had more appreciation for the band and their musical capabilities when I first heard this record. Their showed respect and earned it, in one fell swoop with me. And that was before I heard the last & final track.

The song that proved that Siouxsie, Budgie, Steve Severin had some serious underground tastes in their circles - Tom Verlaine & Television's rare 45 rpm single "Little Johnny Jewel". For me, their version comes pretty close to capturing a similar angst to the original and yet able to take the angst to another level. Slightly more disturbing, too. Through The Looking Glass is one album to check out if you are into cover songs like me. (4/5)