Medialoper

Certain Songs #2120: Roxy Music – “Mother of Pearl”

June 5, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Stranded
Year: 1973

. . .

I’ve mostly stayed away from the long artier cuts, mostly because I think Roxy Music as an all-time great singles band — at least partially because until the end, all of their singles were absolute bangers — and because most of the long artier cuts were also slow, which I just don’t think they pulled off as convincingly as the fast ones.

There were exceptions, of course: the spooky “In Every Dream Home a Heartache,” the trippy “For Your Pleasure” and the anthemic “A Song For Europe” all had their moments, but for me, the tie they well and truly nailed it was “Mother of Pearl,” which with 40+ years of hindsight seems like a fractal of their entire career, going from gloriously crazy to gloriously beautiful in the space of 6:53.

Certain Songs #2119: Roxy Music – “Street Life”

June 4, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Stranded
Year: 1973

. . .

Even though Stranded was Roxy Music’s second album in 1973 and third in an eighteen month period, things had changed pretty radically in the Roxy camp since For Your Pleasure came out eight months prior. The main thing of course, was the sacking of ol’ sourpuss himself (or maybe given his reputation at the time, ol’ pussy hunter) Brian Eno, whose popularity was rivaling if not overshadowing that of Bryan Ferry.

And so in a classic act of passive-aggressiveness, Ferry had his manager do the actual firing, and poor Brian Eno was never heard from again.

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.

Certain Songs #2115: Roxy Music – “Re-Make/Re-Model”

May 27, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Roxy Music
Year: 1972

. . .

I was a few years too young to discover Roxy Music in real time, but it seems to me “Re-Make/Re-Model” was probably the most striking side one track one declaration of intent since “Good Times, Bad Times”

Which was only three years prior, I know, but still. That said, the songs stated entirely different things: “Good Times, Bad Times” was “hey, look at what we can do,” displaying Zeppelins virtuosity from the opening section. But “Re-Make/Re-Model” was more like “hey, look at what you can do,” displaying their amateurishness — not to mention weirdness — the second Phil Manzanera’s guitar, Graham Simpson’s bass and Paul Thompson’s drums come driving in over Bryan Ferry’s opening piano.

Certain Songs #2114: Rose Royce – “Car Wash”

May 26, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Car Wash: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Year: 1976

. . .

Doing the soundtrack for Car Wash was definitely a money gig for Norman Whitfield, the famed producer best-known for shepharding the Temptations into their amazing psychedelic soul phase, but he still took it seriously enough to come up with a stone classic in “Car Wash,” which he used to launch the career of a funk band he’d recently signed, Rose Royce.

Certain Songs #2113: The Rose of Avalanche – “Velveteen”

May 25, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Single, 1986

. . .

The Rose of Avalanche’s website calls them “the legendary alt/goth/rock band from Leeds, England” and since I really don’t remember anything at all about them, let’s go with that.

I do seem to recall that “Velveteen” was part of a self-titled compilation that we had at the radio station, and that I didn’t like any of the other songs on that compilation, but I could totally be making that up. Wikipedia tells me they had a spate of top ten indie singles in the U.K. in the mid-1980s and that they had the balls, temerity and sense of humour to name an album In Rock, and their website helpfully adds that they broke up in 1992 only to re-form 27 years later, only to lose a year to COVID, to which I can totally relate.

Certain Songs #2112: Rush – “2112”

May 24, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: 2112
Year: 1976

. . .

Sorry, but if you know me at all, you’d know that there was literally no way I could resist doing “2112” as the 2112st Certain Song post. Especially since we’re only a month or so from Rush, anyways.

So let me start with this: right now, there is at least one kid in the world who will get to listen to “2112” in the year 2112. Mind. Blown.

Certain Songs #2111: Rosanne Cash – “50,000 Watts”

May 22, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: The River and the Thread
Year: 2014

. . .

Despite liking “Seven Year Ache” and seeing and enjoying Rosanne Cash when Tim & I saw her at the Big Fresno Fair in 1982, I’ll admit that I didn’t closely follow her career. I would occasionally read about an album that got critical acclaim: Kings Record Shop or Black Cadillac are two that I remember at least reading about, and I gather that over the years, her music mutated from country to more of an singer-songwriter who ended up being bunched in the Americana bucket.