When A Good Thing's Gone

Roxy Music were a very different band after their reformation in 1979: slicker, smoother, more machine tooled, rarely creating the weird sci fi soundscapes of their previous incarnation. That said, they were still pretty good, but gradually easing their way into a comfortably mainstream middle age.

'The Main Thing' is from their last and most commercially successful album 'Avalon', which is in many ways the aural equivalent of the sort of magazines you can imagine Bryan Ferry having on his coffee table. This track is slightly different, however - yes, it has glossy 80's production and a virtually meaningless lyric, but it has a quality lacking on the rest of the record: it sounds really sleazy.

What Goes On? What To Do There?

Stupendous live performance of one of my favourite songs, 'In Every Dream Home A Heartache'. There is no more sinister and vivid song in the Roxy Music back catalogue, or indeed in any back catalogue.

Eno is still in the band at this point and can be seen here doing a little Richard III dance and encouraging Phil Manzanera during the hairy one's amazing guitar solo. This - band - rocks.

A Mantle Most Fine

'Psalm' was apparently the first song that Bryan Ferry ever wrote, but it had to wait until the third Roxy Music LP 'Stranded' before making it onto vinyl.

This live version, as performed on the German Musikladen show in 1973, lacks the Welsh Male Voice Choir of the studio recording, but slowly settles into an amazing groove. Bryan pulls his usual faces, but seems to be enjoying himself. I particularly like it when someone off camera throws him a tambourine and the revivalist / snake oil salesman look is completed.

Throwaway Lines Often Ring True

I like Roxy Music. At their best, they were one of the most inventive groups that ever stalked a stage; at their worst, they are absolutely ridiculous, and I like that too. There’s still something very contemporary about them, perhaps because they consciously set out to make 21st century music when they started some forty years ago.

'Out of The Blue' is one of their most complex and enigmatic songs, with some interesting violin and oboe interjections and a tight, insidious rhythm that prefigures their later excursions into Eurodisco. Oh, and nice 'tache, Bryan.