Roxy At 50

Roxy Music's debut album was released on the same day as The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. What a monumental day. Out of the two, this is my favourite.

Prog pop at it's finest - they say more on the first two tracks of this album than most bands manage in their entire career.

Looking at the band photos on the gatefold sleeve you can see why Graham Simpson didn't make it to album number 2.

Roxy Music

This the true Glamorous Rock - the perfect melding of pop, rock, prog and (plastic) soul, there's very few bands that can match the run of albums that Roxy Music put out. They look and sound in equal parts stunning and ridiculous, from their learning-on-the-job debut through to the sonic perfection of Avalon, they rarely put a foot wrong. I love every one of these albums.

I've always claimed that, with Remake/Remodel, the opening track from Roxy Music, the band said more in 5 minutes than most bands say in their entire career. They could've quit then and the music world would already have been in a better place, but then we wouldn't have the (to choose a song from each subsequent album) In Every Dream Home a Heartache, Mother of Pearl, Out of The Blue, Love is the Drug, Dance Away, The Same of Scene or More Than This. And especially, we wouldn't have Virginia Plain.

Mother of Pearl

My favourite Roxy Music tune - sonically and lyrically a masterpiece, proving that Eno and Roxy Music were perhaps both better off for going their separate ways.

Listening to this on headphones I could lose myself forever, endlessly dissecting all that is going on in this tune.

Turn the lights dow
(Way down low)

Turn up the music
(Hi as Fi can go)
All the gang's here
(Everyone you know)
It's a crazy scene
(Hey there just look over your shoulder)
Get the picture?
(No no no no) Yes
Walk a tightrope
(Your life-sign-line)

Such a bright hope
(Right place, right time)
What's your number?
(Never you mind)
Take a powder
(But hang on a minute, what's coming round the corner?)
Have you a future?
(No no no no)  Yes

Well, I've been up all night again
Party time wasting is too much fun
Then I step back thinking
Of life's inner meaning and my latest fling

It's the same old story
All love and glory, it's a pantomime
If you're looking for love
In a looking glass world
It's pretty hard to find

Oh, mother of pearl
I wouldn't trade you
For another girl

Divine intervention
Always my intention
So I take my time

I've been looking for something
I've always wanted but was never mine
But now I've seen that something
Just out of reach glowing very Holy grail

Oh, mother of pearl
Lustrous lady of a sacred world

Thus even Zarathustra
Another time loser
Could believe in you

With every Goddess a let down
Every idol a bring down, it gets you down
But the search for perfection
Your own predilection
Goes on and on and on and on

Canadian Club love
A place in the Country
Everyone's ideal
But you are my Favorita
And a place in your heart, dear
Makes me feel more real

Oh, Mother of Pearl
I wouldn't change you
For the whole world

You're highbrow, holy
With lots of soul
Melancholy shimmering

Serpentine sleekness
Was always my weakness
Like a simple tune
But no dilettante, filigree fancy
Beats the plastic you

Career girl cover
Exposed and another
Slips right into view
Oh, looking for love
In a looking glass world
Is pretty hard for you

Few throwaway kisses
The boomerang misses
Spin round and round
Fall on featherbed quilted
Faced with silk
Softly stuffed eider down

Take refuge in pleasure
Just give me your future
We'll forget your past

Oh, Mother of Pearl
Submarine lover
In a shrinking world

Oh, lonely dreamer
Your choker provokes
A picture cameo

Oh, Mother of Pearl
So so semi precious
In your detached world

Oh, Mother of Pearl
I wouldn't trade you
For another girl