# Couldn't sleep a wink last night
# Oh, how I'd love to hold you tight
# They say you have a secret life
# Made sacrifice your key to paradise
# Take a sweet girl just like you
# How nice if only we could bill and coo... #
I couldn't go wrong with anything
Bryan Ferry's ever done, or the Roxy.
The whole Roxy thing is just really cool.
It was really an enormous influence on Heaven 17's music.
I remember on the inside of the first album cover it said,
"Hair colour: blue-black."
There are few bands that can cross a period of decades,
always be innovative and always be ahead of the curve.
And yeah, Roxy Music are one of them.
People still name check them now.
People go back and listen to the albums now.
They oddly don't sound dated.
They are such an amalgam of past, present and future.
Virginia Plain, their first single,
wasn't even on their first album, which is quite interesting.
When it was played on the radio, when it was on TV,
it was just, I think, mind-blowing
and made everybody sit up and think, who is this band?
# Make me a deal and make it straight
# All signed and sealed
# I'll take it
# To Robert E Lee I'll show it
# I hope and pray he don't blow it cos
# We've been around a long time
# Just try to try
# Trying to make the big time
# Take me on a roller-coaster
# Take me for an airplane ride
# Take me for a six day wonder but don't you
# Don't you throw my pride aside besides
# What's real and make believe
# Baby Jane's in Acapulco
# We are flying down to Rio... #
There's something I really like about this.
He's almost not singing in tune.
It sounds at odds with the melody underneath.
And that sounds incredibly modern.
There's something about that sounds really punky as well, before its time.
# Throw me a line, I'm sinking fast
# Clutching at straws
# Can't make it
# Havana sound, we're trying
# A hard edge, the hipster jiving
# Last picture shows down the drive-in
# You're so sheer
# You're so chic
# Teenage rebel of the week
# Flavours of the mountain streamline
# Midnight blue casino floors
# Dance the cha-cha through till sunrise
# Opens up exclusive doors... #
I've become slightly entranced
by the whole thing of seeing what everyone's wearing.
You can see the glitter eyeshadow.
It's amazing to see rock stars dressed like that.
Roxy and Bowie actually both pioneered
the glam rock look and the sound.
They invented it.
It didn't exist before them
and they were real forerunners in a whole movement there.
I remember it so well.
I remember especially a friend of mine called Nick Dawson,
he would dress completely camply and we'd go to nightclubs
and he would just wait for that one moment when this came on.
# What's her name? Virginia Plain. #
# Far beyond the pale horizon
# Some place near the desert strand
# Where my Studebaker takes me
# That's where I'll make my stand
# Can't you see that Holzer mane?
# What's her name? Virginia Plain. #
Because of the age I was as well, you know,
I'm, like, ten, nine, ten... Yeah, yeah.
And when I first saw Bryan Ferry on Top Of The Pops
it was like, we're all watching Top Of The Pops
and he looked like my mam, Bryan Ferry.
He had the same haircut and he just looked like my mam.
But with us it was, again, that Roxy, Bowie sort of thing. Yeah.
Roxy were amazing.
They were the future.
Yeah. Getting glam. Yeah. So glam.
The record sounded great.
To me it was just one up on glam.
Do you know I mean? Yeah, it was. It was beyond glam.
On Ladytron you get the...
You really see the beginnings of Eno's genius, don't you?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can kind of hear a foreshadowing
of Here Come The Warm Jets, Music For Airports and all of that.
It's very soundscapey, isn't it? Definitely.
# You've got me, girl, on the run around, run around
# You've got me all around town
# You've got me, girl, on the run around
# And it's getting me down Getting me down
# Lady, if you want to find a lover
# Then you look no further
# For I'm going to be your only
# Searching
# At the start of the season
# And my only reason
# Is that I'll get to you... #
The early band, almost as if it's a mini war going on between them,
there are so many disparate elements
and they're all jostling for attention.
You've got Andy Mackay on oboe, and how often do you hear an oboe
in a rock record? Especially a glam rock record.
And you've got Brian Eno making the squiggly sounds with the synths
and then the drumming is very solid, very traditional in that way,
and somehow it works, but I think the tensions in the band,
the things almost shattering it, are keeping it together.
# I'll find some
# Way of connection
# Hiding my intention
# Then I'll move up close to you
# I'll use you
# And I'll confuse you
# And then I'll lose you
# Still you won't suspect me... #
It's amazing to think that Virginia Plain and Ladytron
were of the same moment.
They're so different.
Of course, there's still the huge inspiration and the glam rock look,
Ferry's got a completely different image.
His hair's grown, he's a little bit more...
I mean, it's much more out there as a song.
But what's interesting is the different textures
of everyone in the band. They have their own little image.
What makes it so special is how everybody complements each other.
MUSIC: Ladytron by Roxy Music
Listen to all this stuff. Come on. It's fantastic.
I loved the fly glasses. Whoever sourced them... Such a look.
A stylist would.
Really.
And, of course, Eno, you know, he's solely responsible for me
wanting to buy a synth.
Wow. I wasn't bothered about buying a synth to play tunes on,
I just wanted one that had a joystick. OK.
It looked so cool with the Lurex gloves. Mm-hm.
This is like this amazing, mad-scientist alien.
Yeah, yeah.
MUSIC: Ladytron by Roxy Music
Eno was kind of the futuristic bit, really.
What Eno's... What is Eno doing?
Look, look. What's that?! What's that he's doing there?
Some of the tracks on the Roxy Music album
are meant to sound like space landscapes.
Bryan Ferry would ask Brian Eno,
"I want you to create something that sounds like the surface of Mars."
They would be very interested in those sorts of concepts,
of sight, sound, taste and touch all fusing together.
And they also say they were surprised that they sold records.
They thought they were going to be really niche,
and suddenly the popularity comes and they embrace it.
MUSIC: Ladytron by Roxy Music
I think the reason that I loved Roxy Music
was the glamness of it all, because
Sheffield was in fact quite a dour place at the time.
The steelworks were on the edge of, you know, working and not working,
but the people of Sheffield loved to dress up Friday and Saturday night
and Roxy Music kind of took that to the next level.
You know, that kind of dressing up and craziness,
which was almost unattainable but just about attainable enough,
if you were willing to wear some ladies' clothes,
which we were at that time.
I remember meeting Martyn Ware one day.
We were going to see a band at the Student Union in Sheffield
and Martyn lived on the flats,
a slightly dodgy area that you might not like,
and I'd gone up to meet him and he came out of the house
and he was wearing white trousers and girls' silver platform boots
and a Fun Fair green jacket,
completely luminous, kind of, frog, Kermit, green jacket.
And I'm like, "Whoa! And we're going on the bus like that?"
And he's like, "Yep, we're going on the bus."
But that's what Roxy Music did to us.
It gave us that little...
..that little push to push a little further
and that outlet to be excited with fashion and with music.
I do think Do The Strand. Do The Strand!
"There's a new sensation."
# There's a new sensation
# A fabulous creation
# A danceable solution
# To teenage revolution
# Do the Strand, love
# When you feel love
# It's the new way
# And that's why we say
# Do the Strand
# Do it on the tables
# Quaglino's place or Mabel's
# Slow and gentle
# Sentimental
# All styles served here
# Louis Seize, he prefer
# Laissez faire Le Strand
# Tired of the tango
# Fed up with fandango
# Dance on moonbeams
# Slide on rainbows
# In furs or blue jeans
# You know what I mean
# Do the Strand
# Oooh... #
When we were going to nightclubs in Sheffield at that point, like,
we thought we were so glamorous because we liked Roxy Music,
and really we were just young kids with no money,
drinking watered-down beer for 10p a pint, you know,
but just for that brief moment of glamour, you know,
like Pyjamarama and Do The Strand, we would do all the moves,
throwing shapes and, you know...
We didn't know what any of it meant,
but it was like an abstract set of wordscape.
It was this really theatrical...
It was this sort of weird anomaly and amalgamation
of a whole bunch of different sounds, wasn't it?
They can have a bit of funk when they want to.
They're quite danceable and there's something about the glam, punk,
but also they can soul it up a bit, they can noodle.
MUSIC: Do The Strand by Roxy Music
# Had your fill of quadrilles
# The Madison and cheap thrills
# Bored with the Beguine
# The samba isn't your scene
# They're playing our tune
# By the pale moon
# We're incognito
# Down the Lido
# And we like the Strand
# Arabs at oases
# Eskimos and Chinese
# If you feel blue
# Look through Who's Who
# See La Goulue
# And Nijinsky
# Do the Strandsky
# Weary of the waltz
# And mashed potato schmaltz
# Rhododendron
# Is a nice flower
# Evergreen
# It lasts forever
# But it can't beat Strand power
# The Sphynx and Mona Lisa
# Lolita and Guernica
# Did the Strand. #
In Every Dream Home A Heartache. Oh, gosh, yeah.
This one is, like, amazing.
This is like a dystopian sci-fi novel.
And a lot darker, isn't it? It's a lot darker.
And I think that's why they've toned the look down.
And he's got a guitar now.
# 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... #
I love this tune.
I love his hair there as well. I know!
It's very... It's kind of '60s or '50s greaser.
Yeah.
And that jacket. It's so great.
So, this is off the second album, For Your Pleasure.
And apparently this song is a love story to a blow-up doll,
but also about the emptiness of modern life.
# I bought you mail order
# My plain wrapper baby
# Your skin is like vinyl
# The perfect companion
# You float in my new pool
# Deluxe 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
GUITAR SOLO
# Oh, those heartaches
# Dream home heartaches
# Oh, those heartaches
# Dream home heartaches
# Oh, those heartaches
# Dream home heartaches... #
Look, he's got a bigger keyboard now.
# Oh, those heartaches... #
Look at that. That's amazing.
And it was great that you could do Virginia Plain
and you could do stuff...
..like this, which was...
..very different. Very different to what anybody else was doing.
MUSIC: In Every Dream Home a Heartache by Roxy Music
There's a lot of characters in Roxy Music.
It was obviously going to come to a point, which was a shame
it came so soon after the second album, that there was just
too many personalities, and Brian Eno left the band.
I think the two Brians going their separate ways
because of the clashes of their personality
was quite difficult for a lot of the other band members.
I think they were really split with their loyalty.
I think Phil Manzanera secretly had to record both albums
he was recording - Stranded in the day,
and Brian Eno's album at night, and they both didn't know.
So, there are official reports of why Brian Eno left the band
and there seems to be... Everybody's got a different angle, I've heard.
Apparently they're still friends though, now, the Brians,
and do sometimes collaborate.
On the third album, which was the first album without Brian Eno,
there was a fantastic track called Street Life.
# Wish everybody would leave me alone, yeah
# They're always calling on my telephone
# When I pick it up there's no-one there
# So I walk outside just to take the air
# Come on with me cruising down the street
# Who knows what you'll see, who you might meet
# This brave new world's not like yesterday
# It can take you higher than the Milky Way
# Now I'm blinded I can't really see, yeah
# No more bright lights confusing me, no
# Don't ask me why I'm feeling blue
# Cos loving you
# Is all I can do... #
So, this album, without Brian Eno, went to Number 1 in the UK charts,
and Street Life gave them their first Top 5 hit as well.
# Hey, good-looking boys, gather around
# The sidewalk papers gutter-press you down
# All those lies can be so unkind
# They can make you feel like you're losing your mind
# Street life
# Street life... #
I think... It seems to me that Bryan Ferry just wanted to stand out
and if he couldn't stand out wearing, erm, sequins any more,
he had to do the opposite, and it's quite ironic that
he stood out by just putting on a suit.
And he's a young man, and young men didn't really wear suits then,
especially white suits with a bow tie,
but again, it's simple, but very glamorous and very sexy,
so it's creating a whole new image.
MUSIC: Street Life by Roxy Music
# Back to nature boys, Vassar girls too
# Watch what you say, or think, or do
# Continental-style strasse girls might
# But you know exactly if it's wrong or right
# Education is an important key, yes
# But the good life's never won by degrees, no
# Pointless passing through Harvard or Yale
# Only window shopping It's strictly no sale
# Weekend starts Friday soon after eight
# Your jet black magic helps you celebrate
# You may be stranded if you stick around
# And that's really something. #
So what happened to Roxy is that they went slightly out
of the glam thing and into this classic rock.
Some of the songs are quite traditional in that sense,
when we get the third album and then onwards.
People seemed to be contributing a little bit more,
but they were stronger without Brian Eno at that point.
I think they would have exploded if he ever decided to stay in the band.
So after the third album, when they were at the height of their success,
Bryan Ferry decided to make a solo album,
which was a series of covers.
One of the first singles I ever went out and bought on my Jacksies
was Bryan Ferry, Hard Rain.
# Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
# Where have you been, my darling young one?
# I've stumbled on the side of 12 misty mountains
# Walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways
# Stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
# Been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
# I've been 10,000 miles in a mouth of a graveyard
# It's a hard Hard
# And it's a hard Hard
# And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall
# Fall
# And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?
# What did you hear, my darling young one?
# I heard the sound of thunder that roared out a warning
# Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world
# Heard 100 drummers whose hands were a blazing
# Heard 10,000 whispering and nobody listening
# Heard one person starve, many people laughing
# Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter
# Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley
# And it's a hard Hard
# And it's a hard, hard, hard Hard, hard
# And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall
# Fall
# Oh, what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son... #
What it feels like, it's just great, really,
when you've got such a defined sound as a band,
that you can cover something in your style.
I think it's really cool, because it ultimately shows
a lot of respect, that you don't try and, you know,
match any of the instrumentation or the stylistic approach,
you just do your thing but on an amazing song,
so, yeah, this is such a great version.
# Home in the valley meets the damp, dirty prison
# Where the executioner's face is always well hidden
# Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten
# Where black is the colour and none is the number
# And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it
# And reflect it from the mountains so all souls can see it
# Then I'll stand in the ocean until I start sinking
# But I'll know my song well before I start singing
# And it's a hard Hard
# It's a hard Hard
# And it's a ha-ha-ha-ha-hard Hard, hard
# And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall
# Fall
# And it's a hard Hard
# And it's so hard, so, so hard Hard, hard
# And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall. #
The solo albums kept coming,
and Bryan Ferry kept going back to these covers,
and he would cover songs by artists that were his heroes.
# They asked me how I knew
# My true love was true
# Oo-oo-oh
# I of course replied
# "Something here inside
# "Cannot be denied"
# They said someday you'll find
# All who love are blind
# Oo-oo-oh
# When your heart's on fire
# You must realise
# Smoke gets in your eyes... #
This is tongue-in-cheek, I'm assuming.
It's quite, like, kind of arch and knowing, I feel,
sending up that type of, um, lounge cabaret,
slightly cheesy music, kind of Copacabana vibes.
# Yet today, my love has flown away
# I am without my love... #
It was harking back to '50s crooners.
It was harking back to '40s film stars.
Bryan Ferry, in his heart, is Humphrey Bogart, I think.
That's what he'd studied at art school
and that's what he wanted to go with.
He wanted that crooner idol thing.
# Now laughing friends deride
# Tears I cannot hide
# Oo-ooh
# So I smile and say
# "When a lovely flame dies
# "Smoke gets in your eyes." #
APPLAUSE
My entry point to Roxy Music was...
..was the big record collection that my uncle left in our basement
when I was ten years old as he went off travelling.
And, yeah, so I think I found Siren in there somewhere,
flicking through them.
That was the first one I heard.
Love Is The Drug. Just look.
That's the essence of cool right there.
There was a club called the Crazy Daisy in Sheffield,
and they would play an interesting mix of music,
but this was the anthem.
And it was a really weird club.
It had a kind of low roof, and because I'm quite tall,
I could only dance in one place on the dance floor,
because if I moved to the left or right, I would cut my head.
And in fact, that was where
Phil Oakey met the two girls from The Human League.
And they were dancing exactly like that.
They were the kind of Roxy girls.
# T'ain't no big thing
# To wait for the bell to ring
# T'ain't no big thing
# The toll of the bell
# Aggravated, spare for days
# I troll downtown, the red light place
# Jump up, bubble up, what's in store?
# Love is the drug and I need to score
# Showing out, showing out, hit and run
# Boy meets girl where the beat goes on
# Stitched up tight, can't shake free
# Love is the drug, got a hook on me
# Oh, oh, catch that buzz
# Love is the drug I'm thinking of
# Oh, oh, can't you see?
# Love is the drug for me
# Oh... #
This is the song where apparently,
everything was recorded apart from the vocals.
So the band didn't even know what it was about
until Bryan Ferry came in with his lyrics and sang over the top.
And I think increasingly,
he would sing over the top of the backing track,
which is interesting in that they weren't jamming or doing anything.
They weren't fusing it, it was quite separate.
And this, again, is a song that doesn't have a standout chorus,
it's part of the verse.
# Lumber up, limbo down
# The locked embrace, the stumble round... #
Why did he wear that patch?
I mean, there was one rumour that he was hit by a tennis ball.
But he's done quite an un-slick patch, because you've got the patch
and then you've got cotton wool hanging out,
which is not as glamorous,
but then I guess you've got the safari suit
and the moustache to go with it, so it makes up for it.
This is Let's Stick Together,
and I can't believe Bryan's really playing that mouth organ.
Again, it's sometimes difficult
to tell a Bryan Ferry solo from Roxy Music,
because they have a very similar musical aesthetic
from that '76 period onwards.
# And now the marriage vow is very sacred
# The man has put us together now
# You ought to make it stick together
# Come on, come on, let's stick together
# You know, we made a vow not to leave one another, never
# But now you never miss your water till your well runs dry
# Come on now, baby, give our love a try
# Let's stick together
# Come on, come on, let's stick together
# You know, we made a vow not to leave one another, never... #
This actually is a cover of a 1962 soul classic,
but what I like about this song
and I like about a lot of Bryan Ferry songs
is the fact that the lyrics are so honest.
You feel his pain. He's really good at conveying emotion.
"We made a vow not to leave one another."
I mean, could we not all say that, you know?
"You made a vow! Stick to it. Let's stick together".
# Well, if you're stuck for a while, consider our child
# How can it be happy without its ma and pa?
# Let's stick together
# Come on, come on, let's stick together
# You know we made a vow not to leave one... #
And there she is.
There's Jerry Hall.
That's unbelievable, isn't it? How cool is this video?
Yep.
I mean, he's always had...
..quite attractive females around him, hasn't he, Bryan?
Which is not surprising, because he's a very good looking guy.
I'm not sure about the moustache, there, Bryan,
but it's almost working.
And also, if I'm to be brutally honest,
his dancing always left a little something to be desired.
But other than that, he styles it out very well indeed.
# You know, we made a vow not to leave one another, never. #
Bryan Ferry loved his covers, but also,
he liked to be inspired by different things,
and this song is original music of his
and it was inspired by his former art teacher.
He looks kind of a little bit Miami Vice or something, with the shades.
It's very laid-back, isn't it?
He's just always cool.
# Layin' in my hotel bedroom, feelin' ceilin' blues
# Wall to wall a TV's twitchin', clearly not a muse
# Then flashin' through the interference beams a thousand tunes
# This is tomorrow callin', what have I to lose? #
I'm not sure why Bryan Ferry goes off and he does the solo career.
It may be that he just felt he needed to strike out
and be 100% Bryan Ferry
rather than 95% Bryan Ferry and a bit of Roxy Music in the background.
But again, it's his vision.
You can see how fastidious he was.
The cover art was important with Roxy Music,
and he continues that theme.
You could easily mistake a Bryan Ferry later record
for a Roxy Music record.
They're not musically that different when we get to that late '70s.
# When steamin' through on cue I hear that wailin' whistle blow
# If this is tomorrow callin', oh, what a way to go
# Day to day you live old-fashioned, hi-toned, fancy free
# A double take, an image-spittin', tailored to a T
# While history is tellin' you the same old thing
# This is tomorrow callin', let's stick a new oar in
# This is tomorrow callin' y'all and come on in
# Oooh. #
The whole of Glasgow liked commercial Roxy Music.
The Roxy Music we were talking about in the beginning was, like,
you know, really out there, like In Every Dream Home A Heartache
and stuff like that, and Ladytron.
Those were weird, out there records.
But by the time they got to Dance Away,
the whole of Glasgow
and probably the whole of Manchester liked Roxy Music. Mmm.
# Yesterday
# Well, it seemed so cool
# When I walked you home, kissed goodnight
# I said, "It's love," you said, "All right"
# It's funny how
# I could never cry
# Until tonight and you pass by
# Hand in hand with another guy
# You're dressed to kill and guess who's dying?
# Dance away the heartache
# Dance away the tears
# Dance away the heartache
# Dance away the fear... #
I mean, this song is definitely slicker and more sophisticated.
He had such a sort of way about him, just the way he carried himself,
the voice, even the slightly kind of over-affected performance.
# Turned to stone
# All together, all alone
# All at once
# My whole world had changed
# Now I'm in the dark, off the wall
# Let the strobe light up them all
# I close my eyes and dance till dawn
# Dance away the heartache
# Dance away the tears
# Dance away the heartache
# Dance away the fear
# Dance away
# Now I know
# I must walk the line
# Until I find an open door
# Off the street, onto the floor
# There was I
# Many times a fool
# I hope and pray, but not too much
# Out of reach is out of touch
# All the way is far enough
# Dance away the heartache
# Dance away the tears... #
There isn't one member, apart from Phil Manzanera, of Roxy Music
that wasn't brought up in a working-class household.
So, something about this playing with the idea of aspiration
and elevation and another world
is very close to them, and they lived it.
And, you know, they did go on and marry supermodels
and have incredibly posh children.
So they did it in some form.
They really understood that
and it was what Bowie understood and what pop music can do.
# Oh, angel eyes
# Am I deceived or did you sigh?
# For all I know, you let your love light
# Shine on me
# Oh, angel eyes
# You never close, who's got the time?
# Well, I can wait until your love light
# Shine on me... #
Roxy, sounding slicker, late '70s, '80s,
is a progression of just the form,
is getting more and more polished, like a pebble,
and becomes something without edge, which happens to most bands, really.
It's very hard to get that edge back.
Maybe it's that natural inclination
to smooth everything over. Production values go up.
# Oh, angel eyes
# On the wing and open wide
# No matter now how high the moon
# Shine down on me... #
He could be really tender, you know.
I love the way he was really kind of tender with his vocal,
as well as kind of theatrical and slightly, you know,
absurd and surreal at times.
# Some expression in your eyes
# Overtook me by surprise
# Where was I, how was I to know?
# Oh-oh
# How can we drive to a movie show
# When the music is here in my car?
# There's a band playing on the radio
# With a rhythm of rhyming guitars
# They're playing Oh Yeah on the radio, oh... #
It's so interesting how you see, like,
some bands kind of start off subtle and get more and more crazy,
and he's gone the other way.
It's so easy to become a cliche of yourself
when everyone else is emulating you.
Songwriting was his ultimate talent,
and his ballads and the way he could hook you in.
# It's some time since we said goodbye
# And now we lead our separate lives
# But where am I, where can I go?
# Oh-oh
# Driving alone to a movie show
# So I turn to the sounds in my car
# There's a band playing on the radio
# With a rhythm of rhyming guitars
# There's a band playing on the radio
# And it's drowning the sound of my tears
# They're playing Oh Yeah on the radio
# Oh-oh-oh
# Oh-oh-oh... #
I think it always is inspiring when you're a big fan of an artist
or a band and you realise where they've come from
or what they've gone through
or the changes that have happened around them.
And I think for me, it just shows freedom of expression.
It goes back to that art school kind of beginning
where you're not closed off to anything.
# Now the party's over
# I'm so tired
# Then I see you coming
# Out of nowhere
# Much communication in a motion
# Without conversation or a notion
# Avalon
# Ooh
# When the samba takes you
# Out of nowhere
# And the background's fading
# Out of focus
# Yes, the picture's changing
# Every moment
# And your destination
# You don't know it
# Avalon
# Ooh, ooh
# Dancing, dancing
# When you bossa nova
# There's no holding
# Would you have me dancing
# Out of nowhere?
# Avalon... #
Again, just a brilliant, fantastic tune, so effortlessly cool.
No matter what happens with the band with Roxy,
because the members seem to change almost weekly,
you know, they were in, they were out.
But the music always hit the same level. Didn't ever falter.
# Avalon
# Ooh, ooh... #
And of course, there's that kind of iconic vocal at the end,
which, as far as I'm aware, happened quite by happenstance
when Bryan Ferry was in a recording studio in New York
and heard this kind of celestial voice from the next booth
or from a booth that was close by, and went in to investigate
and found, I think, a pretty...
..I don't know that she was a very well known Haitian singer,
and just asked her if she would do a guest vocal on the track.
It was recorded in one take and it made it onto this huge hit.
# Avalon
# Ooh
# Avalon... #
To me, it seems like it was all-conquering.
I feel like when I was very little, it was everywhere.
And, yeah, to me, this is Roxy Music.
This is my association and memory of them.
# I could feel at the time
# There was no way of knowing
# Fallen leaves in the night
# Who can say where they're blowing?
# As free as the wind
# And hopefully learning
# Why the sea on the tide
# Has no way of turning
# More than this
# You know there's nothing
# More than this
# Tell me one thing
# More than this
# Ooh, there's nothing
# It was fun for a while
# There was no way of knowing
# Like a dream in the night
# Who can say where we're going?
# No care in the world
# Maybe I'm learning
# Why the sea on the tide
# Has no way of turning
# More than this
# You know there's nothing
# More than this... #
This actually seems less ironic to me
than some of the earlier kind of playing with,
um, that kind of,
I guess, kind of cabaret-type singer look.
This actually seems more genuine. Like, this is what they are.
# More than this
# Nothing
# More than this
# More than this... #
I think they're enormously influential,
and I don't think that will stop.
There is something about that concoction.
They are a concoction and a confection
that people really adhere to.
And musically, they're so interesting
that musicians will be listening to them in ten years' time.
Roxy Music will have an everlasting legacy for me.
Yes, they had style, but more importantly, they had substance,
and I think they will live on for ever and ever.
# I'm in with the in crowd
# I go where the in crowd goes
# I'm in with the in crowd
# And I know what the in crowd knows
# How to have fun
# Any time of the year, don't you hear?
# How to have fun
# Dressin' fine, makin' time
# We breeze up and down the street
# We get respect from the people we meet
# They make way, day or night
# They know the in crowd is out of sight
# I'm in with the in crowd
# I know every latest dance
# When you're in with the in crowd
# It's easy to find romance
# And we work out
# At a spot where the beat's really hot
# And we work out
# If it's square, we ain't there
# We make every minute count
# Our share is always the biggest amount
# Other guys imitate us
# But the original's still the greatest
# We got our own way of walkin'
# We got our own way of talkin'
# Gotta have fun
# Any time of the year, don't you hear?
# Gotta have fun
# Spendin' cash, talkin' trash
# Girl, I'll show you a real good time
# Come on with me and leave your troubles behind
# I don't care where you've been
# You ain't been nowhere till you been in
# With the in crowd
# With the in crowd. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE