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 Post subject: GREAT QUOTES !
PostPosted: Fri Aug 28, 2015 7:23 am 
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Posts: 1568
Hedonistic Hipsters,

Over the years, much has been written about Roxy and The Bonny Lad, often by great music journalists.

W2 came across a piece the other day that he finds fabulous and he thought it might be fun to devote a thread to 'Great Quotes' that Taste Tarantulas can comment on, add to, or ignore!

This one is from 1978 and comes from the great American journo, Greil Marcus. It concerns 'The Bride Stripped Bare' and he says:

"Already a certified commercial stiff after only a couple of months on the racks, this stunning personal album - comparable in its way to Van Morrison's 'Astral Weeks', Jesse Winchester, John Cale's 'Vintage Violence' or Bob Dylan's 'Blood on the Tracks' - continues to deepen the Don-Juan-in-Hell type persona this English eccentric has explored throughout the decades. Backed by American session men, Ferry acts out The Revenge Of Lust, a tale that leaves all parties free to indulge their cruelest, most self-pitying instincts, and then pay for them. From "Can't Let Go", an extraordinarily dramatic account of a lover in exile, to "Hold On I'm Coming," the last in a string of unlikely and successful covers, the record is glamorous, bitter, effete and passionate. As always, Ferry sings in the voice of Dracula risen from the grave- risen to tell us how much he cares."

Mes amis, is this not truly brilliant and doesn't it sum up this fabulous album in a completely peerless fashion?

W2 particularly likes the reference to "the Don-Juan-in-Hell type persona" and his appreciation that "the record is glamorous ...Dracula risen...etc..."

A great review of a truly great album n'est-ce-pas?

Salutations,
W2


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 Post subject: Re: GREAT QUOTES !
PostPosted: Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:01 pm 
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Marvellous.


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 Post subject: Re: GREAT QUOTES !
PostPosted: Sat Aug 29, 2015 5:49 pm 
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I listened to "In Your Mind" and " The Bride Stripped Bare" , back to back, having read this review.
Both are very different albums and can lay claims to being amongst Ferry's finest solo albums ( Ed: there are so many Finest Ferry albums, how would you know?)

PS .. I am amused by the Dracula reference and I feel privileged to have " gotten" Ferry from a young age.


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 Post subject: Re: GREAT QUOTES !
PostPosted: Sun Aug 30, 2015 7:20 am 
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avalon_eyes wrote:
I listened to "In Your Mind" and " The Bride Stripped Bare" , back to back, having read this review.
Both are very different albums and can lay claims to being amongst Ferry's finest solo albums ( Ed: there are so many Finest Ferry albums, how would you know?)

PS .. I am amused by the Dracula reference and I feel privileged to have " gotten" Ferry from a young age.


Cher avalon_eyes,

W2 listened to 'TBSB' in its entirety yesterday and can only concur that it's an absolute stunner.

It resonates for as one of the most personal albums from a great artist and IWNSHO, Marcus nails it when he compares it Dylan's 'Blood On The Tracks'.

Every great artist has a 'personal' album in them. It may not be their best LP but it is their most 'personal'. For Joni Mitchel it is 'Songs From Laurel Canyon'. For Robert Palmer it was 'Pressure Drop' and for our hero, it's definitely TBSB.

As with so many of his records, there are no dud tracks, but for W2, 'Carrickfurgus' and 'When She Walks In The Room' are just so hauntingly beautiful (barely a week goes by when he doesn't play them) and the interpretations of other people's songs that rest on this album are a unique example of a great artist's capacity to make them their own and to incorporate them into a personal statement.

The "What Bryan says..." notes in this great site go some way to describing the roller coaster that the album was but it would be great to have the whole thing stripped bare in his biography (come on Bonny Lad).

When Marcus describes the record as; " glamorous, bitter, effete and passionate" it shows that he really got it and the Dracula reference is just so cool because there was something particularly chilling about Ferry's voice at that time.

Salutations,
W2


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 Post subject: Re: GREAT QUOTES !
PostPosted: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:20 am 
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Joined: Fri Jun 26, 2009 6:27 pm
Posts: 231
TBSB is a great title suggesting turmoil, loss and it takes us directly back to Richard Hamilton, Pop and Dada/Surrealism. I think it's 3/4 a great album - there are some pieces which lack colour .. 'That's how strong my love is' and 'The same old blues' come to mind. I can also understand why , for some people, the LA / USA guitar sound took a bit of getting used to - almost the antithesis to art rock or glamour. For me it is still an important album - probably the first real experience I had of waiting for a Roxy/Ferry album to be released. I remember , months before it was released, holding an earlier different promotional album sleeve in my hands ... One which used the dot letter font associated with Duchamp. In my opinion the cover art on this sleeve of a bearded Ferry silhouetted against a snowy mountain was more suited to the overall vibe ....the eventual cover art work seems dated and contrived now. There was a different track list which if, my memory serves me , included 'Four letter love' ( which i've always liked ) and Broken wings ( which I've always find dull). Apart from the obvious contenders WSWITR and CLG ..The highlight of this album and a song which i play over and over again is 'Take me to the river'


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 Post subject: Re: GREAT QUOTES !
PostPosted: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:44 pm 
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Gardner wrote:
....I remember , months before it was released, holding an earlier different promotional album sleeve in my hands ... One which used the dot letter font associated with Duchamp. In my opinion the cover art on this sleeve of a bearded Ferry silhouetted against a snowy mountain was more suited to the overall vibe .... ..The highlight of this album and a song which i play over and over again is 'Take me to the river'


Cher Gardner,

Tres interessant.

Windswept seems to remember seeing such a visual. Does anybody know what happened to it ?

As for 'Take Me To The River', how right you are, a fabulous version.

Salutations,
W2


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 Post subject: Re: GREAT QUOTES !
PostPosted: Mon Aug 31, 2015 12:13 am 
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I remember , months before it was released, holding an earlier different promotional album sleeve in my hands ... One which used the dot letter font associated with Duchamp. In my opinion the cover art on this sleeve of a bearded Ferry silhouetted against a snowy mountain was more suited to the overall vibe ....the eventual cover art work seems dated and contrived now. There was a different track list which if, my memory serves me , included 'Four letter love' ( which i've always liked ) and Broken wings ( which I've always find dull).

Do tell us more about the circumstances, Gardner! Did the sleeve belong to you or did you have the opportunity to buy it?


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 Post subject: Re: GREAT QUOTES !
PostPosted: Mon Aug 31, 2015 11:25 am 
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Posts: 231
In retrospect it all seems quite mundane... It was in a small record store in Livingston New Town shopping centre ! I worked Saturdays in a shop around the corner which sold tents and jeans .. Anyway !! I remember walking in on a break and hearing what I now know to be 'Can't let go' playing then the beginning of 'Hold on' they had the sleeve in a stand on the counter and were using it as a promotional image / copy for the soon to be released New Album . I presume the whole package was re thought because 'What goes on' bombed and there was doubt about his image in the musical climate at the time. For some other good quotes it would be interesting to find the Tony Parsons NME review of Sign of the times - I remember that it was v positive.


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 Post subject: Re: GREAT QUOTES !
PostPosted: Mon Aug 31, 2015 4:34 pm 
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Gardner wrote:
they had the sleeve in a stand on the counter and were using it as a promotional image / copy for the soon to be released New Album .


Mes Amis,
@ Gardner is quite correct. The visual in question was the artwork for the demo version that was circulated to record stores and DJs in advance of the release.
Halcyon days when you could actually touch, feel, read and even smell LPs.
Salutations,
W2


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 Post subject: Re: GREAT QUOTES !
PostPosted: Mon Aug 31, 2015 5:39 pm 
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Posts: 1177
Apologies, I have seen a better version of this cover but I can't find it now!

Image

8-)


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