Archives for June 2021

Certain Songs #2118: Roxy Music – “Editions of You”

June 3, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: For Your Pleasure
Year: 1973

. . .

You know how when you’re checking out an artist new to you, and you can’t quite wrap your head around them, and then there’s one song that suddenly floors you, opening the door for the rest of their songs? For me and Roxy Music, that song is “Editions of You,” which is at least part of why it’s my favorite of their songs.

That’s part of it, but mostly it’s because “Editions of You” is pure, uncut adrenaline wrapped up in a shit ton of wit.

Certain Songs #2117: Roxy Music – “Do The Strand”

June 2, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: For Your Pleasure
Year: 1973

. . .

There was only a nine-month gap between Roxy Music’s debut album and their sophomore effort, 1973’s For Your Pleasure, cos bands worked fast back then. It’s also possible that the falling out between Bryan Ferry and ol’ sourpuss himself, Brian Eno, was already beginning to happen, and they wanted to get something out before it all blew up. Which luckily, had no effect at all on the music, as For Your Pleasure was a definite step forward from their debut, featuring songs like the haunting ode to a blow-up doll (no, really!), “In Every Dream Home a Heartache” and ending with the tripped-out Enotronics of the title track.

Certain Songs #2116: Roxy Music – “Virginia Plain”

June 1, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Roxy Music (U.S.)
Year: 1972

. . .

Outside of “Love is The Drug,” which I heard on the A.M. radio a lot in 1975, “Virginia Plain” is the first Roxy Music song I ever heard. At some point in 1979, I went out and got a copy of their now-defunct 1977 Greatest Hits album, an absolutely dynamite collection of songs that took me a bit to fully to understand.

But it was actually the key document in my love for Roxy Music — because once I got them, I loved them — and nearly all of their songs I’m writing about are on that record. Which isn’t surprising, because Roxy Music was an incredible singles band, and that all started with “Virginia Plain,” which in typically perverse fashion, was released two full months after Roxy Music, because they initially wanted to keep their singles separate from their albums, a plan that lasted all of two records.