#396 - Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure (1973)

MUSIC HISTORY WRITTEN BY HEAD WRITER DJ MORTY COYLE:

Released on March 23rd of 1973 on Island and Warner Brothers Records and produced by the group, Chris Thomas, and John Anthony this is the second album by the British Art, Glam, and Prog Rock band.

Some of this bio will sound familiar because one of the founding members of Roxy music was Brian Eno and we’ve done two of his albums.
Singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Bryan Ferry was influenced by Jazz at a young age until he heard Rock and Roll. By his teenage years he was in various bands and while studying Art in college he formed an R&B band that included two future Roxy Music bassists, Graham Simpson and John Porter.

By the late ‘60s Bryan was getting his degrees and having art exhibits and then started teaching ceramics at a girls’ school but was fired in 1970 for playing records in class rather than teaching.

So he put an ad out for a keyboardist to join him and bassist Graham Simpson but he got contacted by music teacher Andy Mackay, a multi-instrumentalist who specialized in saxophone and oboe. However Andy also owned a VSC 3 which was the first portable, commercially-available, modular, synthesizer…

…and he had an experimental, non-musician, college friend who could operate the VSC 3, owned a reel-to-reel tape machine, and was interested in avant-garde and electronic music.

Of course that was Brian Eno who originally joined as an offstage technical adviser before becoming a member.
We’ll refer to him as Eno to avoid confusion with two Bryans.

They got a drummer and a guitarist and Bryan named the band Roxy as a tribute to the old British theaters and dance halls until they found out about an American band with the same name and added Music.

They made demos and played shows and after losing their drummer they placed another ad and got Paul Thompson.

And after unsuccessfully auditioning to be their guitarist, Phil Manzanera, joined as their roadie. However he secretly learned all of their songs and when the guitarist they chose quit Phil stepped right in to become a member.

With the band in place they signed with a management company who financed their debut which was recorded in a week.

The cover art originally impressed Island Records more than the music but they were signed anyway and their debut was a critical and popular success reaching #10 on the UK album chart.

Then they recorded and released a standalone single called, “Virginia Plain” which went to #4 and renewed interest in the album.

Their eclectic visual style which was a mix of classic film debonair, Rockabilly throwback, and outrageously quirky androgyny blew minds and made them vanguards of the nascent Glam Rock scene. They were retro and futuristic at the same time.

Bassist Graham Simpson left after their debut and after an interim bassist came and went Bryan’s old bandmate, John Porter guested for this album. He would later go on to produce Bryan as well as many other artists including The Smiths and the band would rarely have a permanent bassist again.

Like their debut Bryan once again wrote all the songs for the follow up and they spent more time exploring elaborate production techniques.

Also like their debut despite neglecting to release any album tracks as singles it did great.

It went to #4 on the U.K. charts and stayed on for twenty-seven weeks further cementing their reputation as influencers not just to musicians but to fashion designers, visual artists, writers, and entire movements like Glam and Punk Rock.

Despite it often being considered the best of their albums it would be Brian Eno’s last record with the band as he left after the tour to pursue a solo career due to acrimony and creative differences with Bryan Ferry.

While other members felt similarly they toughed it out.

Eno was replaced and Bryan allowed other members to contribute to the songwriting for the next albums.

Their popularity and success grew with each new release and even Eno recognized and acknowledged the quality of the records after he left.

Bryan would go on to epitomize suave Euro-sophistication with Roxy Music and on concurrent solo albums that showcased his flair for reinterpretation of classic songs.

In fact his first solo album came out seven months after this.

Roxy Music would continue to make six more studio albums and have several breaks ups until their live festival reunions in 2005 which led to them recording new material that included Eno.

But after a 40th anniversary tour the band essentially disbanded and the new music has so far been abandoned.

In 2019 they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and most of the post-Eno classic version of the band performed so perhaps there might be another chapter to the Roxy Music saga.