Windswept2 wrote:
Oberon wrote:
Bonjour, mes amis!
‘Olympia’ is a terrific example.
Originally trailered as a ‘Roxy’ project.
Windswept.
I have seen and heard this so many times and is simply not true that Olympia was Roxy's 9th album hijacked by Bryan Ferry as a solo record.
I wrote this post in a previous thread a while back showing that Olympia is not and never was the Roxy album:
Olympia - A BF album
I have often heard the Olympia album being accused of being the Roxy album that was hijacked to become a Ferry solo album, I wrote the following on a similar thread on another forum.:
I think you may find that very little of Olympia began as a potential Roxy song.
Roxy were in the studio around 2006-2007
1 You Can Dance (began in the mid 90s completed for Olympia)
2 Alphaville (began in the mid 90s completed for Olympia)
3 Heartache By Numbers (co-written with Scissor Sisters)
4 Me Oh My (No Roxy member plays on this)
5 Shameless (Co-write with Groove Armada)
6 Song To The Siren (Cover, began before the Roxy project)
7 No Face, No Name, No Number (Cover)
8 BF Bass (Manznaera co-write and also Eno on this track)
9 Reason Or Rhyme (Has Manzanera on guitar)
10 Tender Is The Night (Working title was 'Frantic' began pre 2002 and unfinished at the time of the 'Frantic' album
11 Whatever Gets You Through The Night (cover that began in mid 90's
12 One Night (leftover demo from Taxi that was then completed for Olympia)
The question is: What constitutes what would have been a 9th Roxy Music album song? For me it would be material that began for this album as a fresh idea and not something half written/sketched taken off Bryan, Phil or Andy's shelf dusted down and worked into a Roxy song. I would also say that covers are out even though RM did record 3 in their career.
From what I observed track by track above, the closest we can derive from the limited information we have is that 'BF Bass' and 'Reason Or Rhyme' may have began during the Roxy sessions. Having said this please note that Paul Thompson was on the Roxy sessions and is completely absent on this album so the Olympia is 'Roxy Music IX' argument is wearing thinner.
In my opinion, I think that if you were played Olympia for the first time with no sleeve notes or other information and were told one of the 8 original songs is a Ferry/Manzanera co-write I think BF Bass doesn't jump out as that very song.
To quote Andy Mackay from the Metaphors website in reference to some of the material being used on the Roxy album: <<"However I could not feel the commitment and passion that would get me through what would undoubtedly be be a long and difficult road to a finished album on tracks that I had not been involved with from the start>>"
I would deduce from this that there may be some of Olympia (and also any potential new Manzanera solo material) that was worked on during the Roxy IX sessions but was eventually returned to where it was originally intended, solo work.
J.O'B.