Re: Roxy Music, and Punk.. school of rock..
> Well, probably discovered Roxy about 1989 (;-))!! Did you ever see em in
> their prime?
The first gig I ever went to was Roxy at the tail-end of 75, Ruff. Their fifth album, 'Siren',had just been released.
Got the double live album recently (a demo version) and they
> still rock.. Song for europe, Mother of Pearl, out of the blue,
> pyjamarama, street life.. what great songs.. and I just lurve the manic
> bits of 'Ladytron' (which I admit was before my time, that was recent
> discovery)
> What's your favourite proper Roxy album.. I always thought they were
> patchy.. like 2-3 magnificent songs and the rest were a bit 'filler-esque'
> for me. Wild extremes.
I can't choose between the first two, 'Roxy Music' and 'For Your Pleasure'. But all first five albums do it for me. In those dark days, there was little else for lovers of catchy, intelligent pop. I was never into the 'rock' stuff.
Lou Reed's 'walk.....' blew me away in 73. Worth remembering that people like myself had never heard of him, so when I started reading up on him and found out about The Velvets, I chased up their stuff too. Which wasn't easy at the time. Having to deal with saturday workers in wee record shops (no know-it-all students behind the counter in megastores in those days, kids) could drive one of those buddhist chaps to...well, you get the general idea.
Back to Roxy - when they reformed after Ferry's wee solo stint , I think they came to a calculated, conscious decision to get as far away from punk as possible and go for the 'smug couples' market.
Hence the post-77 mush like 'more than this', which is praised at the beginning of the thread (this board never ceases to amaze me).
But anyway, it worked for them. Worth remembering that the vast majority of our, well okay - MY age group were anti-punk at the time. They might have liked the front-page notoriety of the pistols, and the stranglers songs on totp, but it didn't go any further than that. No early hits for the Clash or The Damned or The Buzzcocks, among others.
> I may have some punk cred for you.. my local paper (see post above about
> aliens(!)) is collecting people's experiences that went with the punk
> crowd from Bromley/Sidcup into town, including luminaries such as Billy
> Idol and Siouxsie sioux.. You'd be surpirsed at the movement in Suburbia
here. There was a lot of anger (if our Mums let us!).
That reminds me of the novelty song from 1978, "I want to be a punk rocker but my mammy won't let me" by Andy Cameron.
I know it's from 1978 because it's the b-side of the Scotland world-cup squad song "We're on the march with Ally's army" !!!
A bloke I went to
> school with used to go to the gigs (unlike me) with his cool uncle who
> also managed the Slits.. which I though was pretty cool.
> Can you see the real me??
> Ruffian
> PS, the Only Ones.. Got hold of the Immortal Story.. I'd only give it a
> 6.5 out of 10 though.. or a 3 stars out of 5! Not as good as the
> stranglers, or arguably, Wire. 'No solution' is great song though.. (now I
> am being retro again as you know!!)
> PPS, and seriously dude (in keeping with the film), Go see 'School of
> Rock' if you want a heavy metal laugh.. all my mates are like Jack Black!
I would advise you to get the first two Only Ones albums, Ruff, but you might not like them as much as I do. Each to their own. (I'm very liberal, y'know.)
I don't even know what's on 'The Immortal Story', though I would guess 90% of it will be from those two. Since I suffered the ignorance of shop staff on a regular basis throughout the punk era, there's no need for me to buy compilations, best ofs, etc.
One question - that handsign that the heavy mob do with their pinkie (that's 'little finger' to my English readers) and their forefinger. What does that mean, if anything? I think it's really twattish, but I'm curious just the same.
Oh,one more question. Did you ever put your thumbs in your belt loops and do that bend-from-side-to-side-and-let-my-hair-fly-about-all-over-the-place dance?? Be honest now.
