Roxy Music

Roxy

Jim and Greg dig into Roxy Music's influential 1972 self-titled debut album. They get the inside story of the recording of Roxy Music with former Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera, and discuss the album's lasting impact.

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Roxy Music

Roxy Music

This week, Jim and Greg tackle Roxy Music's 1972 self-titled debut album. Fronted by songwriter and vocalist Bryan Ferry, the English glam rock band combined the talents of bassist Graham Simpson, multi-reedist Andy Mackay, synth player Brian Eno, drummer Paul Thompson, and guitarist Phil Manzanera. Phil joined Jim and Greg to talk about Roxy's early years.

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Reaping from sources as varied as avant-garde electronic composition, jazz, Berlin cabaret, glam rock, and American crooners, Roxy's hyper-eclectic style "didn't sound like anything else" in popular music in 1972, according to Greg. Ferry has cited the work of his mentor, pop collage artist Richard Hamilton, as an inspiration for his own catch-all musical aesthetic. As Greg observes, Roxy Music marked a new era in which "rock was a wide-open playing field, and you could do anything with it."

Critics took notice - the record was well-received upon its release and is frequently included on Best Album lists. Though the group went its separate ways in 1983, Roxy Music profoundly influenced musical genres to come, from post-punk and the New Romantic movement to Britpop—and it can all be traced back to the group's delightfully wacky debut album.

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