The term ‘karma’ had been no stranger to John Lennon following his famous trips to India with The Beatles earlier on in the 1960s. During their travels, the group would meet Maharishi Mahesh Yogi who guided the Fab Four through sessions of transcendental meditation while teaching them the boons of spirituality and mindfulness. Among the teachings were many of the strong values held in Hinduism, including karma. Karma, for those who aren’t aware, is the ultimate sum of one’s actions, if one acts in a good manner, then they can expect good things to come to them, but if they act badly, then bad things will await them in the next life.
On the morning of January 27th, 1970, Lennon wrote ‘Instant Karma!’ in a spur-of-the-moment idea to create a song that would bluntly teach people that they must take responsibility for their actions. The lyrics are particularly spiritual for Lennon, on a level that would be more synonymous with his friend George Harrison.
Lennon would later say of the idea in a 1980 interview with David Sheff: “It just came to me. Everybody was going on about karma, especially in the Sixties. But it occurred to me that karma is instant as well as it influences your past life or your future life. There really is a reaction to what you do now. That’s what people ought to be concerned about. Also, I’m fascinated by commercials and promotion as an art form. I enjoy them. So the idea of instant karma was like the idea of instant coffee: presenting something in a new form. I just liked it.”
After writing the song at his piano in the morning, Lennon began to obsess over the “Instant” element of the title and decided that it would be fitting to get the track recorded as quickly as possible while the creative ants were still very much in his pants. He wasted no time in calling ahead to book Studio Two at EMI Studios, Abbey Road, and the session began at 7pm that evening with Phil Spector as the producer on George Harrison’s recommendation.
George Harrison remembered the day: “John phoned me up one morning in January and said, ‘I’ve written this tune and I’m going to record it tonight and have it pressed up and out tomorrow – that’s the whole point: Instant Karma, you know.’ So I was in. I said, ‘OK, I’ll see you in town.’ I was in town with Phil Spector and I said to Phil, ‘Why don’t you come to the session?’ There were just four people: John played piano, I played acoustic guitar, there was Klaus Voormann on bass, and Alan White on drums. We recorded the song and brought it out that week, mixed – instantly – by Phil Spector.”
As Lennon recalled: “It was great, ’cause I wrote it in the morning on the piano, like I said many times, and I went to the office and I sang it. I thought, ‘Hell, let’s do it,’ and we booked the studio. And Phil came in, he said, ‘How do you want it?’ I said, ‘You know, 1950 but now.’ And he said ‘Right,’ and boom, I did it in just about three goes. He played it back, and there it was. I said, ‘A bit more bass,’ that’s all. And off we went. See, Phil doesn’t fuss about with fuckin’ stereo or all the bullshit. Just ‘Did it sound alright? Let’s have it.’ It doesn’t matter whether something’s prominent or not prominent. If it sounds good to you as a layman or as a human, take it. Don’t bother whether this is like that or the quality of this. That suits me fine.”
Four stereo mixes were made in total that night at Abbey Road Studios, the final of the four was used for the UK single pressing. A fifth mix was also created by Spector a few days later in Los Angeles and was released for the US single version.
Phil Spector indeed was the perfect fit for the session with his honest and straightforward talent for mixing records. Harrison and Lennon would be so pleased with Spector’s work on the record that they would ask him to work with them on the final Beatles album “Let It Be” later that year.
In the evening of the 27th, the track was recorded in ten takes between 7pm and midnight. With the ideal of urgency prevailing, for the next three hours until 3am, the overdubs were added to give the record its final flare and texture. The overdubs consisted of three backing vocal tracks that were also hurriedly (or instantly) produced at the will of Billy Preston who gathered up anyone who happened to be loitering in the studio as well as a few people from the local nightclub.
Just two weeks after its recording, Lennon performed ‘Instant Karma!’ on the BBC’s ‘Top Of The Pops’ in a strange production that saw Yoko Ono sat to the side of Lennon, blindfolded, while he played the piano and sung. Both Lennon and Ono were wearing armbands that read ‘People for Peace’. While in one of the four filmed performances, Ono would hold up signs bearing instructions, in another, she opted instead to get on with her knitting. The imagery of the set was clearly intent on supplementing the agenda for world peace set out in the music.
‘Instant Karma!’ was released, and it wasn’t long before it peaked at number five, spending a total of nine weeks on the UK singles chart. For the B-side of the record, Yoko Ono’s song ‘Who Has Seen The Wind?’ was used; it was recorded and produced by Lennon himself in a private session.
While Roxy Music are generally thought of as being a new wave act, they actually got their start in the early ’70s as an experimental glam outfit that were one of the first rock bands to create a carefully crafted look and style across every aspect of their presentation, from their stage performances and music videos to their album art and promotional materials. Famed solo artist and record producer Brian Eno was part of the group in its early years but after his departure in 1973, singer-songwriter Bryan Ferry took creative control and shaped Roxy Music into one of the most quietly influential rock bands of all time.
Roxy Music very quickly became the epitome of art-rock following their genesis in the early 1970s. The band was originally formed by vocalist Bryan Ferry and bassist Graham Simpson in 1970 after Ferry had failed an audition to join King Crimson as a replacement for Greg Lake. Despite liking Ferry’s voice, Robert Fripp and Pete Sinfield had decided it wasn’t a good fit for their band. They recruited saxophone and oboe player Andy Mackay and synth player Brian Eno (who “treated” the other players instruments through his synth). Paul Thompson was welcomed as the drummer, chosen for his energetic style that would suit their arrangements perfectly. Shortly before recording their debut album, they became complete with the addition of the Latin American classically trained guitarist Phil Manzanera.
Each member bought their individual background to the band; Manzanera grew up in Latin America, Mackay was classically trained, while Mackay, Ferry and Eno all came from art school backgrounds. One common thread for all the members was an appreciation of the avant-garde experimentation of the Velvet Underground, while Eno’s experiments with synths and tape effects were unusual for a song-based rock record. Roxy Music sought to blur the lines between high art and pop art, making postmodern pop music.
Roxy Music went through a succession of bass players, while Brian Eno was replaced by Eddie Jobson after 1973’s “For Your Pleasure“. After touring behind “Siren“, the group disbanded in 1976. They reunited in 1978 to record “Manifesto”, but the core band was reduced to a three-piece of Ferry, Mackay, and Manzanera, after Paul Thompson quit in 1980. The band’s reunion albums were smoother and less experimental than their earlier work.
Roxy Music were phenomenally successful for a band with experimental tendencies – all eight of their studio albums made the UK top ten. Their sole number one single, a lovely take on John Lennon’s ‘Jealous Guy’ released on 1981, isn’t featured on any of their albums.
Flesh and Blood (1980)
The singles from Flesh + Blood are misleadingly strong – the torch song ‘Oh Yeah’ and the funky falsetto of ‘Same Old Scene’ are great songs that promise a great album. Elsewhere, “Flesh + Blood” is disappointingly bland – although that doesn’t apply to the album’s nadir, a bizarre remake of The Byrds’ ‘Eight Miles High’.
As influential as“Avalon” but immediately so, “Flesh + Blood” was the real sales monster: No#1 for three different spells in England. Released at the peak of press fascination with the Blitz kids and New Romantics, the album captured Roxy in an uncomfortable transition: should we luxuriate in sound or should we sway, gently? They don’t answer the question, resulting in an album of gobsmacking highs and bloodless lows.
Playing all the keyboards for the first time on record, Ferry shows impressive range on “Same Old Scene,” the catchiest and weirdest old guard answer to New Wave; “Over You,” a sharper skinny tie Wilson Pickett homage than the “In the Midnight Hour” cover; and the pissed-off title track, in which Ferry, on guitar (!), for once doesn’t mind playing (being?) a creep. But “Rain Rain Rain,” “No Strange Delight,” and “Running Wild” remain.
Manifesto (1979)
In 1975, Roxy Music entered a hiatus as Bryan Ferry and Co. parted ways to work on solo projects and other obligations outside the band. Upon their reunification, a reshuffled incarnation of the group set about recording the first of their more commercially orientated run of albums, “Manifesto“. This new chapter in the band’s path saw them ditch the edginess and creative poetry of their previous work in favour of more predictable dance-friendly material.
Their first studio album in four years, they’d updated their sound for the disco era. They were still weird, but the 1970s art-rock facade was replaced with a dance-pop sound. It mostly works – the singles ‘Angel Eyes’ and ‘Dance Away’ were both successful, while ‘Manifesto’ and ‘Trash’ retained hints of the art-rock of Roxy Music’s earlier phase.
Roxy’s attempt to record an L.A. studio rock album steeped in disco — an anomaly in their catalogue, self-produced, still too underrated. Also their comeback after four years of middling solo careers, so they confused fans on both sides of the Atlantic. After all, who or what were they supposed to sound like during the apogee of punk and the Gibb brothers? The triumph of “Dance Away” we know — their second biggest hit in England and America, as it turns out — so check out “Still Falls the Rain,” “Ain’t That So” (Roxy going Boz Scaggs and liking it), and the pained, modest closer “Spin Me Round.”
Avalon (1982)
Roxy Music’s final album is gorgeously smooth, a refined version of the dance-pop they pursued in mark II. It’s less invigorating than the experimentation of their earlier releases, but it’s often beautiful. The melodic pop of ‘More Than This’ is a lovely opener, while guest vocalist Yanick Étienne adds colour to the languid title track. The closing pair of ‘True To Life’, and the synth and oboe duet on ‘Tara’, is gorgeous.
1979’s Manifesto and 1980’s “Flesh + Blood” were tangibly weaker than Roxy Music’s 1970’s catalogue, but the group rebounded for 1982’s elegant swansong “Avalon”. The sleek ‘More Than This’ is a perfect piece of pop.
You may be wondering where “More Than This” or “Avalon” are? The most commercially fruitful period in Roxy Music’s career came from 1978 to 1982, after an enforced sabbatical. Ferry had only really reformed the band because his patrician image was at such odds with punk and his career needing galvanising with the brand that had once so exemplified cool. The West Sussex manor and the hobnobbing in high society was bound to have some bearing on the Thomas Cromwell of pop and his music, and it was fortuitous that as he was enveloped into the bosom of the aristocracy that he hit on a formula to write the same oleaginous ballad over and over again to handsome remuneration (play “Dance Away” and “Slave toLove” back to back and you’ll see what I mean). They’re still good songs, especially compared with the output of lesser mortals, but they belong to that other Roxy Music, the one owned by the mainstream that has no perception of the abrasive musical insurgency of the past. The first era ends in 1975, and the final trace of the “orchid born on a coal tip” as Ferry described himself once, the last remaining sign of the fuliginous grit of the north-east, can be found in the battle cry of Whirlwind and that opening “Maaaydaaaaaaay!” line that so emboldens.
“There she blows!” he howls a bit later in this nautical adventure perhaps inspired by Moby-Dick, though Ferry would see himself less a Captain Ahab and more a Captain Cook, a derring-do nobleman originally born a commoner. When Roxy Music got together again in 1978, their album “Manifesto” would be a strange mix of new-wave experimentation that didn’t quite work, and sentimental songs that opened up a whole new demographic they’d pursue to the bitter end via the weak “Flesh + Blood” and the cocaine avarice of “Avalon”. “Whirlwind“, then, is the last great Roxy Music rocker, a little bit unloved and under-appreciated, despite having such impressive seafaring legs.
The album holds a bounty of highlights including the lead singles ‘Avalon’ and ‘More Than This’, but also holds so much to be explored in its underbelly with the wonderfully textured ‘True To Life’ always having served as a personal favourite. The fantastic production and mastering on the album make it a must-have for any budding record collectors out there.
Roxy Music (1972)
Roxy Music’s debut album is full of ideas – Andy Mackay later said “we certainly didn’t invent eclecticism but we did say and prove that rock ‘n’ roll could accommodate – well, anything really.” The first side, especially on editions that include the early single ‘Virginia Plain’, is amazing.
What a difference a couple of months can make. The first album unexpectedly climbed as high as No 10 in the UK charts, and then out of nowhere appeared the single “Virginia Plain“, fully formed and swaggering, peacock-like, somehow sounding light years ahead of its nine predecessors. If the first album is a triumph of will and dilettantism, then “Virginia Plain” is a genuine slab of pop alchemy: cool, catchy and cutting-edge as hell, with an undercurrent of exoticism and sexual adventure. With its staccato keys, thrilling stop/start motion and noises from the future, it is suave to the point of decadent, sweeping you off your feet and flying you down to Rio. “We haven’t got any further than this; it’s a disgrace,” Brian Eno commented in reference to the Walker Brothers’ 1978 album Nite Flights, when filmed for the Scott Walker: 30 Century Man documentary in 2006, and it’s hard not to feel similar sentiments about “VirginiaPlain”, released a whole six years earlier. Mine the annals of music history if you will, but you’ll be hard pressed to find another compact three minutes of pop more perfect than Roxy’s first single proper.
Roxy Music deliver twisted country on ‘If There Is Something’ and deconstruct pop music on ‘Remake/Remodel’, quoting Wagner and The Beatles. The production, by King Crimson lyricist Peter Sinfield, is a weakness, and the second side can be a rough listen, but most of the group’s ideas originate here.
Roxy’s Music’s 1972 debut opened with ‘Remake/Remodel’, with the band at their most futuristic. The song featured a brief solo from each of the six member. Aside from steady rhythm powerhouse PaulThompson, it’s fair to say the Roxy of 1972 were musicians finding their way, and Brian Eno on the VCS3 synth notoriously couldn’t really play a note (he still can’t, not that that’s hurt his career any). The gloriously egalitarian nature of pop means ability can come in a variety of different guises, and County Durham’s Bryan Ferry, with his trembling voice, turned apparent shortcomings into strengths. He also approached the serious art of song writing with a dadaist playfulness, in opposition to the prevailing trend in the early 70s of earnest confessional singer/songwriters. Bryan also had a lovely head of hair, and still does. “Re-make/Re-model” is a relentless, pulverising, sonic car crash of a song, and one of the cars in the pile up bears the number plate “CPL 593H” (sung repeatedly as the song’s only chorus), apparently driven by a beautiful woman Ferry noticed in the rear-view mirror on the way to the studio.
The highlight, however, is ‘If There Is Something’ which begins as a modernised pastiche of country music that later melts away into a new, slightly darker and more intense phase of the track thanks to Eno’s work on the synthesiser. All in all, the album is fantastic as a starting point for the band, but by its very nature as a drawing board, it is a tad unbalanced.
Siren (1975)
“Siren“, the last album from Roxy Music’s original tenure, is a divisive record because it blends the band’s art-rock with dance and pop textures. But Roxy Music’s daring creativity is still intact, especially on rockers like ‘Whirlwind’ and ‘Both Ends Burning’, and the lengthy epic ‘Sentimental Fool’. The single ‘Love Is The Drug’ was Roxy Music’s biggest hit to date, and John Gustafson’s bass-line influenced Chic’s ‘Good Times’. The album, after all, holds the band’s greatest dance track, ‘Love is the Drug’, which to this day remains the groups biggest hit.
Roxy Music started dabbling with disco on 1975’s “Siren“, but it didn’t affect the quality of their music, with highlights like ‘Sentimental Fool’. The album’s a great showcase for drummer Paul Thompson. The band broke up after this album, reconvening for 1979’s “Manifesto“.
Devotees of Rolling Stone will recognize “Siren” as the most lauded of Roxy’s career. Ferry doesn’t “oversing.” The band’s affection for R&B (“She Sells” and “Could It Happen to Me?” are Stax songs given a lacquer) is pronounced. But I don’t want restraint from Roxy, even when it produces a twosome as bleak as “Nightingale” and “Just Another High,” in which, on the former, Ferry accepts he’s been for years hearing bird calls instead of women’s voices; and on the latter he admits to playing himself for a sucker. Many American listeners consider these attitudes — consider how the direction in which his career unfurled contexualized these moves — shows of maturity. These people never understood how irony deepens shows of feeling.
Stranded (1973)
Roxy Music’s first album without Brian Eno sacrifices some of their experimental edge, instead focusing on lush textures. “Stranded” also features some of Ferry’s most dramatic vocals – his foray into French on ‘A Song for Europe’ is surprisingly effective. The multi-part ‘Mother of Pearl’ is one of Roxy Music’s best-loved songs, with Ferry’s campy vocals delivering lines like “Thus: even Zarathustra/Another-time-loser/Could believe in you”.
This is the first album to show a lack of experimentalism which can definitely be attributed to the absence of Eno. Fortunately, with the recruitment of Eddie Jobson, the album still oozes with experimental synthesiser elements; for instance, the groovy little number ‘Amazona’ works its way into an interstellar transcendence somewhere in the middle of the track that I personally can’t get enough of.
The Roxy Music song, ‘Mother of Pearl’, is taken from “Stranded”, Roxy Music’s second full length album of 1973. It was the first to be released without Brian Eno, who left after tensions with frontman Bryan Ferry; reportedly Eno was having more success with the ladies.
With the dandyish Eno deposed and Ferry’s concomitant solo career looking ever backwards, it was somewhat inevitable that Roxy Music would plough a more traditional furrow going forward, though the change between “For Your Pleasure” and “Stranded” isn’t as radical as some like to think. Even Eno somewhat magnanimously claimed the latter was the better album (though not many other people think that, and he might not either). It was a severed alliance as significant to the 70s as Morrissey and Marr’s was to the 80s and Anderson and Butler’s was to the 90s, with the latter offering up often spooky parallels: both Roxy Music and Suede were perceived by many to have lost an irreplaceable creative member after the cult favourite second album; both shared a similar creative trajectory over the first five albums, scoring their mightiest commercial success with their third album; both had a song called “Trash” and an album cover designed by Peter Saville. You suspect some of this might have been deliberate on Suede’s part, who also recorded their own Street Life on their underpar A New Morning album. It couldn’t lay a glove on the Ferry song, a swashbuckling paean to walking the mean streets to avoid nuisance phone calls. The rambunctious “Stranded” opener immediately told us three things about Roxy 2.0: first, that they were a band that now cooked (especially guitarist Phil Manzanera); second, that new keyboardist and auxiliary musician Eddie Jobson would be a worthy and capable – if very different – replacement for Brian Eno; and third, that Bryan Ferry had plenty left up his beautifully tailored shirt sleeve yet.
Eno called Roxy’s third album his favourite, and he was right, as he was in most things for the first twenty years of a peripatetic career. Dispensing with experiments like “The Bogus Man” meant a farewell to a certain looseness of approach that benefited Manzanera and Mackay, but “Stranded” compensates with Ferry’s most ludicrous vocalizing and breathless compositions. Roxy found a way to turn a night out into a narcissist’s lament and a devastating valentine in “Mother of Pearl”; such is the band’s artistry that it’s not clear whether the valentine is to the lustrous lady or to Ferry himself. Meanwhile Manzanera plays Guitar Hero on “Amazona” and new kid in town Eddie Jobson plays organ like Sunday morning on “Psalm.” All this, and “Serenade” too: my favourite Roxy song that nobody talks about.
Country Life (1974)
Famous for its titillating cover (I’m a prude, so I’ve shown the censored version here), “Country Life” continued Roxy Music’s classy, textured art-rock. Opener ‘The Thrill Of It All’ is one of the best arranged and produced songs in classic rock – there’s so much going on in the mix, with Eddie Jobson’s violin and Manzanera’s guitar competing for attention. Jobson’s violin is also prominent in the psychedelic ‘Out of the Blue’, while Ferry reportedly played the organ solo on the seething ‘Casanova’.
Whenever I award “Country Life” top honours I remember “Triptych” and “Bitter-Sweet,” a pair of dirges whose hints of lightness rely on a fully committed Ferry but they’re heavy lifts. And “A Really Good Time” leans on the adverb. But “Prairie Rose” is, like “Serenade,” a terrific example of how Ferry could churn happy love songs so long as the band adapted to his mien.
‘The Thrill Of It All’, from 1974’s “Country Life“, is among my favourite production jobs ever. It’s so lush, and there’s so much sonic detail, with Manzanera’s guitars and new recruit Eddie Jobson’s violin.
Can any other band or artist in history lay claim to having as many exhilarating tracks opening their albums? Roxy Music’s first five introductory numbers are surely unassailable, and out of these magnificent starters, there’s a case for The Thrill of It All from Country Life: The Fourth Roxy Music Album, being the most exhilarating of all. The production packs the power of a jet engine. It is enormous in the way so much British rock was in 1974, six-and-a-half minutes long and ripe for the US market. It was no secret Ferry was interested in breaking America – Rod and Elton had just had No 1’s and Bowie and the Bee Gees were making inroads – but it would be a territory where sustained success would ultimately elude him as both singer in Roxy Music and as a solo artist. The song was even released as a single across the Atlantic and nowhere else, and while it failed to chart, “Country Life” did crack the Billboard top 40 for the first time. It was the kind of well-structured, straight-ahead rock leviathan that arch critic Bob Harris (who’d been so sniffy when the band had played “Ladytron” on The Old Grey WhistleTest two years previous) might have found himself tapping his foot along to despite himself. The best thing about the song, though, is Ferry’s debonair delivery: languorous and elastic, playful and cute; he slides in and out of the blue notes and compels you to hang on to his every word.
Written with Roxy oboe/sax stalwart Andy Mackay, “Bitter Sweet” is a startling show tune that finds Ferry remodelling Brechtian cabaret with such panache that one wishes he’d attempted it more often. Delicate vibes and gentle piano strokes at the outset are violently cast aside by a thunderous, portentous bass sound, denoting that there may be trouble ahead. The titular oxymoron is appropriate, with Bryan bitterly berating the hard hearted subject of the song over the sweetest of verses: “Lovers you consume my friend,” he complains, “as others their wine.” Then, just as we’re settling in, the Weimarian oompah of the chorus kicks in, with stabs of disorientating, spiky guitar; when the chorus comes around a second time and we’re prepared for it, Ferry delivers yet another surprise by switching to abrasive German. According to David Buckley, author of The Thrill of It All: The Story of Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music, the “Country Life” tour wasn’t without controversy, with Ferry taking to the stage in “riding breeches and what looked like jackboots”, as well as “raven hair parted to the side”, and all in front of an “RM” logo emblazoned on velvet drapes set into eagle’s wings. While the visuals were almost certainly for aesthetic reasons only, one can only imagine how Twitter might react were a band of Roxy Music’s stature to settle upon such style choices now.
The music within served as a continuity of the effortlessly classy take on glam-rock that they had mastered with the previous two albums. With the first track, they set the bar insurmountably high with likely my favourite on the record.
‘The Thrill Of It All’ is the most technically impressive track on the album thanks to its complex tempo changes, and it’s a fine example of John Punter’s masterful production skills. There really isn’t a weak song on the album and the only reason it’s not in second place is that there are a small number of songs on the next two albums to be revealed that just have more of a catchy quality to them that ranks them among my favourites; those aside, this is the most consistent Roxy release bar one.
For Your Pleasure (1975)
Roxy Music peaked with their second album, “For Your Pleasure“. With more time in the studio, their experimental tendencies are channelled into stronger material. The long tracks are the most memorable – the lengthy groove of ‘The Bogus Man’, while the inflatable doll tale of ‘In Every Dream Home A Heartache’ culminates in a dramatic Manzanera solo. “For Your Pleasure” is more energetic than most Roxy Music albums – the opener ‘Do The Strand’, the frenetic ‘Editions of You’ (with a great Eno VCS3 synth solo), and ‘Grey Lagoons’ are all punchy, while the shimmering ‘Beauty Queen’ is marvellous. When asked by the British music press, Morrissey could ‘only think of one truly great British album: “For Your Pleasure.”
Roxy Music’s second album, “For Your Pleasure“, is at the top of the pile. The album is without a doubt up there with the greatest of the glam rock era. Morrissey, the ex-frontman of The Smiths, once cited the album as the “one truly great British album” – one of the few things he and I almost see eye to eye on. The band had taken all the strengths of the first, self-titled, album and tailored them into something so classy and vibrant that one finds it difficult to find a boring second in the LP. There is a fine balance between energetic and slower moments throughout, all the while complimented by Brian Eno’s synth prowess.
I find it hard to choose a favourite track on the album, but a personal highlight is ‘Beauty Queen’, where Ferry displays a fantastic vocal performance amongst exotic and, somehow, glimmering soundscapes mastered in the instrumentals.
‘In Every Dream Home a Heartache’ was from the group’s sophomore album “For Your Pleasure“, a societal critique centered around a blowup doll. “I blew up your body/But you blew my mind,” Ferry sings before Phil Manzanera launches into an epic guitar solo:
Roxy Music kicked off their masterly “For Your Pleasure” album with the ebullient “Do the Strand“, a song about a made-up dance craze that tipped a chapeau to the fashionable London thoroughfare of the same name. Ferry’s words are daringly dandyish and frivolous, as he throws references aplenty from La Goulue (the French Can-can dancer) to Nijinsky (the Russian ballet dancer), artworks such as Guernica and the Mona Lisa, and even a witty play on words involving King Louis XVI (“Louis Seize he prefer laissez-faire le Strand”). His confidence as a lyricist was exploding as he became ever more tongue-tied and shifty in interviews, a problem compounded by Eno’s charisma and genius gift for the soundbite. There’s little doubt that Ferry was also cheekily referencing the “you’re never alone with a Strand” cigarette slogan. The black-and-white advert featured a companionless chap taking succour from a fag on a wet London street; famously the Lonely Man Theme by Cliff Adams charted, while sales of Strand cigarettes plummeted and the brand was soon taken off the market. Themes of desolation are explored throughout “For Your Pleasure“, as well as companionship of a more risque nature, as we’ll see from our next song.
Roxy’s influence is wide-ranging, It’s been argued that they were second only to The Beatles in terms of shaping the direction of British music in the latter half of the twentieth century. However, outside of the musical acts who looked up to them, Roxy Music are generally forgotten about or at least overlooked in favor of more popular bands of the era.
Finally, I couldn’t end this list without a mention for ‘In Every Dream HomeA Heartache’, the track is a unique art-rock masterclass, the poetic lyrics tell a most obscure and slightly creepy story of an inflatable doll.
We are delighted to share the news with you that Fleet Foxes, Bright Eyes and Khruangbin will be joining PIXIES at End of the Road 2022. Plus avant-pop legends The Magnetic Fields, indie-pop oddball Aldous Harding, the uncompromising and otherworldly Perfume Genius poet-guitarist soul rebels from Mali Tinariwen.
Since we can, once again, cast our gaze across the Atlantic, we’re thrilled to welcome back our Americana friends from across the pond – Kurt Vile & The Violators, The Weather Station, Cassandra Jenkins, KevinMorby, and more
We’re also thrilled to have the likes of black midi, Lucy Dacus, Greentea Peng, Gabriels, and many many more.
Toronto duo Ducks Ltd — Tom McGreevy and Evan Lewis have a new song! It’s called “Sheets of Grey” and you simply must listen to it immediately! We recorded it when we were doing the “Modern Fiction” sessions and always liked it, but it didn’t quite fit on that record. It’s actually one of our earliest songs though and I’m very excited we get to release it! Come for the part at the beginning where I use my high school latin (thanks Mr. Bigger!) but stay for the bit in the middle where Evan plays two guitar solos layered on top of each other!.
In less fun news we have unfortunately had to reschedule our upcoming UK dates to September. We’ve added a Dublin date though and we’re trying to find a way to come over between now and then. Thank you for your support and patience UK folks!!
“Sheets of Grey” is a single from Ducks Ltd. — out now on Carpark Records.
Gold Sounds Festival returns to Leeds on Saturday 30th April 2022, now bigger than ever, the event will take place at both Leeds University Union Stylus as well as the familiar surroundings of Leeds’ famous Brudenell Social Club. Hosting some of the most exciting current acts from the world of post-punk, noise, garage rock and outsider indie, for an all day event across three stages to kick start the 2022 festival season.
DINKED EDITION 174: Tess Parks – ‘And Those Who Were Seen Dancing’
Tess Parks’ first solo album in just under ten years is getting released as an incredible looking Dinked Edition. Having collaborated with the venerable Anton Newcombe of The Brian Jonestown Massacre on many occasions in recent years, Tess Parks releases her first entirely solo album in nearly a decade. Droning, hypnotic guitars and stately rhythms characterise ‘And Those Who Were Seen Dancing’, making it a perfect showcase for her death’s head, dream pop vocals.
The extras-loaded set includes an exclusive heavyweight colour vinyl, poster, and flexi housed in a gatefold, hand-numbered sleeve with printed inners. ‘And Those Who Were Seen Dancing’ follows a pair of collaborations with The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Anton Newcombe, and hears Parks sounding refreshed and optimistic after a period spent away from making music.
Limited to 400 copies worldwide through Fuzz Club.
Mute / BMGRecords announce “Surrender: A Collection” by influential electronic-punk duo Suicide on 18th March 2022.This brand new, remastered collection spans Alan Vega & Marty Rev’s forty year career and serves as an introduction to their raw, eclectic and inspiring catalogue. Although the band barely received any credit during their career, Suicide are cited as one of the most inspirational bands of the 1970s, influencing the likes Soft Cell, Depeche Mode and The Jesus And Mary Chain, whilst garnering fans in Nick Cave, Jim Thirlwell, M.I.A., Spiritualized, Lydia Lunch, Bobby Gillespie and Savages to name a few.
“Suicide made some of the coolest, Most uncomprising music ever inflicted. This gathering of songs is not a best of or is it a definative all you need to know compilation. It is an introduction that will hopefully compel you to explore their albums. “Surrender”. Presented as a limited edition double album, on 140g Blood Red Vinyl in an embossed outer and mirror board inner gatefold, this unique package also contains a set of brand new, extensive and extraordinary liner notes by long serving fan/collaborator and NYC stalwart Henry Rollins.
Suicide have shared “Frankie Teardrop (First Version),” which features different lyrics than the original 1977 song, and an accompanying short film directed by the Jesus and Mary Chain’s Douglas Hart. Check it out below.
The tracklisting, collated by Marty Rev, Liz Lamere, and Henry Rollins, includes tracks from their classic debut album, “Suicide” (1977), to their final outing, “American Supreme” (2002). The LP also features two brand new, unheard tracks “Girl (Unreleased Version)” and “Frankie Teardrop (First Version)“. The package has been full remastered by Denis Blackham at Skye Mastering and is also available as a 1CD digipack and digitally.
In 2016, Alan Vega died at the age of 78. The following year, his posthumous album It came out and Martin Rev released his solo album “Demolition 9”. In 2021, the lost Vega record “Mutator” and the full-length Alan Vega After Dark, a previously unreleased late-night session with Pink Slip Daddy members Ben Vaughn, Barb Dwyer, and Palmyra Delran, were also released. Sacred Bones will release Vega’s posthumous “Invasion” b/w ”Murder One” 12″ on February 25th, too.
Suicide – Surrender : A Collection (Blood Red Vinyl) £33.99 (March 18th)
The Smile have shared their second-ever single. “The Smoke” follows Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, and Tom Skinner’s debut track “You Will Never Work in Television Again.” Listen to the Smile’s “TheSmoke” below.
“The Smoke” is produced by Nigel Godrich and features contributions from Sons of Kemet tuba player Theon Cross and British jazz trumpeter Byron Wallen, who contributed greatly to Greenwood’s score for the film Spencer. Additional contributors include saxophonists Chelsea Carmichael and Jason Yarde, trombonist Nathaniel Cross (brother of Theon), and multi-instrumentalist Robert Stillman.
The Smile will perform three consecutive live shows at Magazine London on January 29 (at 3 p.m. Eastern and 8 p.m. Eastern) and January 30 (at 6 a.m. Eastern). The trio will perform to a seated audience in the round, and the shows will broadcast on a livestream. Paul Dugdale will direct, and Driift will produce.
“As you get older, you realize that rock & roll is an attitude. These days, everybody’s mom has tattoos and a piercing just to be dangerous. But being honest is more dangerous, and that’s one thing I saw with Lucinda Williams. As a writer she’s fearless. She has more swagger and attitude than most rock & rollers I know.” Jesse Malin
Lucinda Williams is one of the most celebrated singer/songwriters of her generation, She is celebrating her 69th birthday today. Williams has released a string of albums that have earned her critical acclaim and commercial success. Among her various accolades, she has won three Grammy Awards, from 17 nominations, and has received two Americana Awards from 11 nominations.
Williams is ranked No. 97 on VH1’s 100 Greatest Women in Rock & Roll in 1999, and was named “America’s best songwriter” by Time Magazine. In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked her as the 79th greatest songwriter of all time. Tom Petty was a huge fan of hers, covering her song “Change The Locks” on his 1996 album with the Heartbreakers, Music and Songs from “She’s The One”. She enjoyed a lifelong friendship with Tom, from opening for him in 1999 through opening for him again the last 3 nights of his final tour in 2017. She paid tribute to Tom in her recent album “Running Down A Dream”, the first from her “Lu’s Jukebox” series of cover records.
Lucinda Williams, (1988)
“The kind of album that makes me happy to get out of bed in the morning. It gives me happiness as it plays out of my radio while I pump gas, which is too expensive. The album comes from my world, the one that describes happiness as being able to have a beer at night and getting paid alright at an office job. It’s a world where as long as you have a comfortable bed, food to fill you up, and warm clothes, you can get by. I live in the middle of nowhere in rural Georgia, I eat beans and cornbread, and I listen to Lucinda and John Coltrane. This album speaks to the part of my soul that believes that this life is enough.”
Born in Lake Charles, Louisiana in 1953 Lucinda Williams was raised in an academic environment where her father Miller, a poet and professor, was her mentor. She wanted to be a cultural anthropologist but music got in the way and she grew up loving Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Hank Williams and Peter, Paul andMary.
Once deemed too rock and roll for Nashville, too country for LA (heard that one before?), LucindaWilliams is a stickler for her own style and doesn’t let a whole lot get in her way. If she was once considered too much of a perfectionist, why should she care? “You can’t praise the work and then criticise the process” is her response to that and the results of her labours are there for all to hear. After a few years of struggle, without compromise, but also without much commercial success, this doyenne of literary country music was determined to ensure her songs of the South would get through and they did on the break out disc, the long-awaited “Car Wheels On A Gravel Road” (1998), which is akin to a guide book on her chosen terrain – emotional and geographical. Williams has a magnetic appeal and while her surname is coincidental you can be sure that when Lucinda does it her way the outcome is utter conviction: stories tumble out and tunes chase those stories down. Real people seem to leap `off her lips.
Happy Woman Blues (1980)
It is difficult to discern the folk singer-songwriter behind this simplistic Dylan style riff from the fully realized country rocker Lucinda established with her 1988 self-titled release.
A little late for the folk revival that swept the late 60s and 70s, this rambling cry to the ether reflects an early innocence. Simple, and vulnerable, the early tune uncovers the roots that run deep beneath the decades of musical evolution that followed.
A gifted creative writer and a budding guitarist who rapidly developed her own voice, Williams graduated from the University of Arkansas and then moved to Texas. Her early recorded forays, “Ramblin’ On MyMind” and “Happy Woman Blues” are both excellent but received little notice in the US and it was the English alternative label Rough Trade who snapped her third album up. The self-titled “LucindaWilliams” (1986) now began to shape her sound. Recording with producer Gurf Morlix, another Austin resident, she honed her lyrics and blossomed.
Car Wheels On A Gravel Road, (1998)
After two decades of navigating the perilous industry, Lucinda finally hit her stride on the title track of her fifth studio album,“Car Wheels On A Gravel Road”. Vivid lyrical imagery uncovers the shallow roots of her transient childhood. Poignant details – “Set of keys and a dusty suitcase” – perpetuate the turbulence of her masterpiece album. In terms of sales she’s been Gold standard since “Car Wheels…” She recorded her first albums in 1978 and 1980 in a traditional country and blues style and received very little attention from radio, the media, or the public. In 1988, she released her self-titled album, Lucinda Williams which screeched up and she has the Grammy for Mary Chapin Carpenter’s version of her lovely song “Passionate Kisses”
But “Wheels…” itself won as best contemporary folk album (also topping various Best of Year polls) and causing Emmylou Harris to venture that “Lucinda should be at the centre of the country music world, she is the very best the music can offer.” We’d echo that but Williams is more concerned with her musical palette. “I like to pay homage, it’s like a respect thing almost, like being proud of where you’re from and proud of your roots. I think everybody should be proud of where they’re from.” Let’s see where she’s coming from.
Nearly 20 years later, Lucinda revisited “Happy Woman Blues”, re-shaping a central track with her industry-hardened edge. The newfangled ‘I Lost It’ unplugs the mainlined fiddle, swapping out the folk foundation for percussion.
Checking in on her past work from a sturdier sense of self, Lucinda emboldens the younger artist behind the original song to come undone. Yet, the steady two-step—present in both forms—is an undoubted nod to her Cajun roots.
Most artists are lucky to have one artistry-defining song per career, but Lucinda released two on her 1988 LP. Alongside the title track, this freight train of a track set the standard for her rowdy, radical records.
The stop-and-go production structure evokes the almost rhythmic rough-and-tumble of the relationship with slick lyricism.
“This is one of the few country albums – certainly one of the few ’90s country albums, anyway – that’s unlikely to ruffle any feathers if you decide to play it aloud in a social situation. A rock or soul fan can get down with this music, or at least abide it painlessly. And the embarrassing-ness of loving this album so much comes from exactly that: it’s almost too easy. It’s an album so easy to like that there’s a temptation to suspect that it’s secretly ‘not even real country’ somehow.”
“Sweet Old World” (1992)
“Sweet Old World” cemented her reputation and was graced with guests like Benmont Tench, Byron Berline and Duane Jarvis, Morlix handling most of the stringed stuff.
The rave reviews began to flood in, not before time, and her fifth disc – “Car Wheels On A Gravel Road“– set her on the smart side of main street. Steve Earle, Morlix and Williams herself worked on producing this album, many months in the making. The gestation was troubled but the outcome was magnificent. Travelogues around the South, broken love affairs and superb observational stories abound. This is a total classic and is the ideal place to discover Williams.
Emmylou appears on “Greenville” and the backing cast is exemplary: Earle, Charlie Sexton, Buddy Miller, Greg Leisz all specialists in their own right. They willingly provided their services and boy was it worth the wait. Look for the Deluxe Edition where you can hear gems like “Metal Firecracker” and “Right in Time” in the studio and live on the boards in Philadelphia. A true coming of age disc that was accompanied by significant tours supporting Dylan, The Allman Brothers and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
Essence, (2001)
Too good to deny, they said: and she was and is. “Essence” lands in 2001 with Sexton and bassist TonyGarner (from Dylan’s band), Jim Keltner, Reese Wynans and Ryan Adams involved. The souped-up “CarWheels..” tone hasn’t gone but the tone is more intimate and Williams sounds like she is inside the listener’s head during “I Envy the Wind”, “Are You Down” and “Out of Touch”.
The toxic elixir of a no-good partner seeps through this dark and delirious grunge tune. Completely overtaken by this person, Lucinda ideates their presence with palpable yearning; their absence seems to result in a potentially lethal chemical imbalance. She likens the wanting to an overdue drug dosage from an addict: “Whisper my name / Shoot your love into my vein.”
“This is quite simply a beautiful album , in many ways a superior album to “Car Wheels” . Its a mellow record full of melancholy that describes female longing and sexuality in a deeply passionate way .”
Her brand of therapy and honesty strikes so many chords that it can’t be filed away under Americana.
World Without Tears, (2003)
“World Without Tears” strips the arrangements right back and leaves Lucinda out front. Once again she won unanimously euphoric plaudits. Grooves, riffs and smoking hot words are everywhere and some writers will assert that she is now the key album maker of the age. We can only echo that sentiment and still pull out “American Dream”, “Atonement” and “Ventura” for sustenance. There’s anger and bloodletting here and tunes that stick in the teeth and Doug Pettibone looms large on electric.
“Those Three Days” In a conversation with two versions of her slowly healing self, Lucinda rotates between deep sorrow and the maddening confusion that occasionally combusts into fits of anger after a relationship halts unexpectedly. The multi-dimensional track conveys an inescapable pain, as it resides within her. “You built a nest inside my soul,” she sings accusingly. “You managed to crawl inside my brain.”
Lucinda’s storytelling strength shines through the dark well of emotions discussed in the 2003 psych-infused album opener. Velvet curtains distance Lucinda from the world outside her window as she dives deeper into her past. Like a pile of polaroids scattered across her bed, each verse wields poetic detail to re-construct nearly tangible, bittersweet memories.
“World Without Tears’ is possibly Lucinda Williams deepest album, and its subject matter is fairly intense in places. So the tough nature of what we have here, doesn’t really make for an album that represents an easy listen. It’s certainly more gritty many of her other albums.”
Sweet Old World, 1992
“To use a cliche, Lucinda Williams’ music really speaks to me, man. It just and this is probably a less cliched description – stabs me in the heart sometimes. For example, someone very close to me died a few years back and may or may not had taken her own life. Every time I hear the song “Sweet Old World”, I think of her and suddenly there’s that proverbial blade heading for my chest. It’s no doubt a song about suicide, but from the point of view of those left behind, those who knew and cared about the deceased. Very angry too. well, more weary and sad I guess.
For anyone who has experienced the shock that swallows you whole in the wake of suicide, this simplistic account returns the listener to that shattered, forsaken place.
The genius of Lucinda’s song writing lies within the almost mundane detail with which she masterfully constructs a tangible memory—one capable of penetrating a seemingly airtight fortress of defences and coping mechanisms intended to lock away the pain forever.
This comfortingly country ballad is Lucinda’s best attempt to describe the tantalizing effects of exchanging words with a particular person. She is unapologetic in her sexually charged search for meaningful conversation. Lush vocals convey her regrets over spare arrangements, kicking herself for never having crossed the line from making conversation to making love.
“I could not speak a single word / No tears streamed down my face,” she sings. “I just sat there on the living room couch / Starin’ off into space.”
An ethereal entrance aptly introduces this meditation on life and the components of our humanity that make death impossible to accept. Lofty vocals interrupted by a fiddle-driven interlude capture what’s lost upon the inevitable passing from earthly life to the beyond – “The breath from your own lips, the touch of fingertips / A sweet and tender kiss”
The rest of the album is pure trademark Williams’ storytelling, like the tale of the messed up guy who kills someone in “He Never Got Enough Love”, or the pining and yearning of the guy who has a lost love living close by on “Six Blocks Away”.
West, (2007)
Four years on Lucinda Williams goes “West” with the legendary Hal Willner shaping another masterpiece whose thirteen cuts etch themselves into the listener’s cranium. The opening heart breaker “Are You Alright?” is a crushing intro that was used in True Detective (episode 4) and just grows more telling in the aftermath. Williams has also never sung better than she does here and on “What If” and “Wrap My Head Around That”. The melodies are powerful, the words resonate – soulful country doesn’t really get much better. Essential and recommended for discovery this is an emotional rescue disc.
Against an almost metal layer bedrock, Lucinda exhibits one of her strongest examples of the poetic lyrical structure that elucidates her artistry.
Tactfully, she collages fragments of thought or emotion, attempting to convey the weight of the world she feels buried beneath. Undertones of unquenched desire and lost love saturate the sorrowful lines for a lingering sense of seduction. “Are You Alright?” The exploratory empathy Lucinda expresses throughout this track is a hallmark of the artist’s career spent identifying with the marginalized.
Like a lullaby, this melodic sees Lucinda once again directing the lost, offering a hand to the lonely. Sincerity resounds from the repetitive chorus line as she genuinely asks “Are you alright?”
“West’ is definitely one of my favourite Lucinda Williams albums, and perhaps an album which best illustrates what is at the very heart of this extraordinary song writing talent. ‘West’ is a good place to start if you have not yet been seduced in to the world of this brilliant alt-country star.”
Little Honey (2008)
With the world awoken to Williams’ worth the balm of “Little Honey” can prop us up again. Flocking to her cause are Elvis Costello (“Jailhouse Tears”) Matthew Sweet and Susannah Hoffs, while Charlie Louvin and Jim Lauderdale keep it on a pure country track during “Well Well Well”. Whatever the secret, it was out now and this becomes her first Billboard Top Ten disc with a little AC/DC in the shape of “It’s a LongWay to the Top” closing out an album of enormous clarity.
Blessed, (2011)
Lucinda’s tenth studio disc is “Blessed”, in every sense. Don Was, husband Tom Overby and Eric Liljestrand sit in the booth, Costello adds electric guitar, Sweet lives up to his name on backing vocals and Leisz slips in his trademark and excellent Pedal Steel. Stand out cuts are – well, the whole lot – but try “Seeing Black (dedicated to the late Vic Chesnutt) and the sinuous “I Don’t Know How You’re Living” for their visceral charm. The Deluxe Edition adds demo versions known as The Kitchen Tapes and these bolster a brilliant venture. To kick off the Grammy Award-winning Americana album, Lucinda offered the much-needed reprieve of a – somewhat – playful love song. Once again, the artist has distanced herself from a deceitful lover.
Her pride beams with moments of “I told you so”, but her empathic nature forces, her to consider the brokenness behind the subject’s wrongdoings.
This is no doubt the most elegant sophisticated album she’s brought to the table, full of alternative country images, ringing guitars, gentle blues, and one bone-numbing shiver after another. Much of that is in part due to Don Was, who has a knack for finding the essence [no pun intended], and allowing it to flower with a richness unimagined … though, to her credit, I would contend that this is just how Lucinda heard it in her head.”
Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone, (2014)
“Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone“. If grief and raw fury have pervaded her work on occasion she now sounds more circumspect and yet no less incisive when it comes to exploring the human condition. A songwriter at the peak of her powers Williams is unmatched when it comes to telling a home truth and on “Stowaway in Your Heart” and “Wrong Number” she nails the pitfalls and paradise of love like no other artist in her field. Again the music is sublime: Tony Joe White, Jakob Dylan, Bill Frisell and the late lamented keyboard player Ian McLagan are on hand but it’s Lucinda’s songs that carry all before her. “Compassion” is based around a poem by her father Miller, and his phrase gives her the album title. Lucinda Williams did this in the knowledge that her father was in his last months and he passed away in January 2015.
The Ghosts Of Highway 20, (2016)
“I remember a radio broadcast around the release date of “The Ghosts Of Highway 20“, where Lucinda got a bit deeper into a couple of songs from the album. She talked so vividly about her dad’s poor health and his ultimate death, while very openly about herself aging and coping with everyday blues, and it sounded so honest and real. That makes her music something to treasure.”
Good Souls Better Angels, (2020)
Lucinda does punk rock!’ “Good Souls Better Angels” is full of emotion, rage, and bile – Lucinda literally spits out her dissatisfaction. This is her anti-establishment punk rock album and includes some great song titles ‘Bone Of Contention’, ‘Man Without Soul’, ‘Bad News Blues’, ‘Pray The Devil Back To Hell’ etc etc!”
“Yeah, man, I got a right / To talk about what I see,” Lucinda sings. “Way too much is going wrong / It’s right in front of me.”
If Lucinda’s whole career has been in rebellion, then this lead track from her latest LP marks the pinnacle. Her keen ability to cut through the bullshit arrived just in time to stomp her proverbial foot down on the socio-political trash fire of 2020 and beyond.
Time magazine called Lucinda Williams “America’s best songwriter” and her devotees will say amen to that. Discover that fact for yourself and look forward to what she does next. Given that her fans include David Byrne, Chuck Prophet, Yo La Tengo, Allison Moorer, Mike Campbell, Greg Dulli and the great Shelby Lynne you’ll be joining some illustrious company. The woman is simply a legend, but don’t take our word for it: discover Lucinda Williams for yourself.
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