Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

New Musical Express NOVEMBER 5, 1977 - by Julie Burchill

BETTER BADGERS THAN ANOTHER NIGHT WITH THE BOYS

Proof that he should have given birth to a chain of cinemas on his earnings, Bry presents us with this crumby Golden Disc sleeve - the easiest alternative to actually coming back to the island and spitting in each fan's eye.

"Don't want to learn about etiquette / From glossy magazines / Why should I try to talk correct?"

Trouble is, Ferry DID want desperately to talk correct, dress correct, go to the correct nightclubs, and have the correct (Kari Ann, Amanda, Jerry) girlfriends and live in correct Los Angeles.

"Canadian Club love / A place in the country / Everyone's ideal."

Your ideal, Bry, not mine - badgers wouldn't compensate at twice the price for just another night with the boys.

Let it then be said that this is the best compilation EVER. The tracks include the jaded naivete of Virginia Plain and the saxophone-shrouded, ratpack-romp yearning of Pyjamarama. From the albums there's the vicious, inimitable Editions Of You and the iced camaraderie of Do The Strand from the frozen fire of For Your Pleasure.

Also present are the terrified, contemptuous Street Life, the over-wrought irony of Song For Europe, and the once-in-nine-lifetimes casting-couch routine of Mother Of Pearl from the claustrophobic heat of Stranded, the off-hand drama of The Thrill Of It All, the obsessional fumbling of All I Want Is You, the delicate fey-wry Out Of The Blue from the bitter fling of Country Life and the addictive disco disease of Love Is The Drug from the white flag of Siren.

Casanova, Prairie Rose and Both Ends Burning might have replaced Out Of The Blue, A Song For Europe and The Thrill Of It All, but then the Koh-i-nor always seemed like just another bit of broken glass to me.

As a Warhol acolyte, obsessed with IMAGES and HOW MUCH PEOPLE WILL SWALLOW WITHOUT CHOKING, Ferry's main unpleasantness was that of most essentially worthless people - making the assumption that therefore all others are worthless and treating them as such. Dragging down as opposed to aspiring to. Thus Ferry's constant devaluation of everything he handles:

"You're so sheer/ You're so chic / Teenage rebel of the week"... "Love me / Leave me / Do what you will..." "I say go / She say yes / Dim the lights / You can guess the rest"... "Don't want to hear about one-night stands / Cut-price souvenirs".

Glib superficiality is a very tempting quagmire in which to wallow (I do it more than most) but finally it must be rejected if any improvement in individuals/society is to come about.

In Modern Times the Modern Way - the songs Ferry sings are for the fashion crowd posthumously portrayed by Ritz newspaper, a set of people who so need to prove they're having fun that they take pictures of each other talking/laughing/smiling and sell it on the streets.

Even paranoids are pathetic. Not so long ago I believed that these were the greatest songs that could be written in the world as it is, but now I see how much they indulged themselves. Despair. Things were different in 1973.

This music is a precious relic, not relevant anymore. But at their best Roxy Music were better than David Bowie, than The Supremes, than The Doors, than The Sex Pistols, than anyone I imagine I will ever hear.

As the last thought of the record goes:

"You may be stranded if you stick around / And that's really something..."