A couple of days ago someone posted a photo of Bryan at a restaurant in Chelsea.
Seems to look well and is probably just enjoying his retirement like you say - although I hope it’s just an extended break!

https://x.com/artyshowboy/status/172579 ... 41732?s=46

Chers amis!

Merci Scott, nice to see a photo of our hero looking fine, enjoying a glass or two! (Taken by le grand W2?)
Still waiting for my copy of Mamouna deluxe&delightful.
Salutations à tous!

This set is a fascinating listen from what seems to have been a confused period for Bryan. For me when he started on Boys and Girls and the cast of thousands of session musicians his work became more centred on groove and rhythm and less on melody, and Horoscope bears that out. It can't be coincidence that the songs he added before it was released as Mamouna are more melodic (Don't Want To Know, Your Painted Smile and Which Way To Turn, for example). I still can't believe that Which Way To Turn has never been played live apparently - I see it as a forerunner of Reason Or Rhyme and surely would have been great in concert.

I think legend has it that Virgin rejected Horoscope as well as Bryan not being happy with it? Seemingly because they didn't hear any hit singles on it. I'm still not sure what the Mother of Pearl remake is doing on it, curio as it might be.

I see Horoscope as released here is mixed by Sven Taits, and not by Bob Clearmountain who was Bryan's mixer-of-choice from Avalon onwards so I wonder how seriously they thought this version of Horoscope was ready for release?

I hope that this set does sufficiently well sales-wise to persuade them to open the vaults on other albums, Roxy ones included of course. A reasonably-priced clamshell box like this would surely sell well for albums such as Stranded - the coffee table books are all very well and good but they tend to require us to rob the bank in order to afford them.

I agree with everything you say - I think 'Which Way To Turn' and 'A Chain Reaction'.. even 'Don't Want To Know' all added later, are some of the strongest moments ... it crossed my mind that WWTT could be a Fleetwood Mac song .. maybe on Tusk .. I can hear Stevie Nicks singing it. ( I suppose that depends on whether you like Fleetwood Mac - I've always liked the harmonies )

I completely agree with True2Life: Boys And Girls was the first album where Bryan Ferry on the one hand indulged in the luxury of having the best guitarists and musicians at that time (Gilmour, Knopfler etc.), but on the other hand his own voice began to disappear in a choir of backing singers. The melodies and chords weren't very catchy or varying. Bete Noire was better than that, but Mamouna was like an album consisting of only one song in certain variations.

IMHO that's the reason why there are very few posts treating his Mamouna/Horoscope deluxe set. Mamouna is a mood album, you can listen to it as if it was a very long piece of music. But I couldn't remember the melody of one single song (apart from the title track).

A really good idea to publish a 3-CD-box for 23 Euros. Go on like that, dear team Bryan Ferry - with For Your Pleasure, The Bride Stripped Bare, As Time Goes By etc. - thank you!

Mes Amis,
Although it’s always great to see our hero en plein forme. Il est vraiment le Cary Grant du rock.
That said, W2 does wonder at the mentality of somebody who would invade his privacy in this way. Have they no manners ?
By all means have the maitre d’ send him a cocktail with your compliments but to surreptitiously take his photo - Quel mauvais gout!
There again, you probably wouldn’t expect anything else from the twitterati .
Salutations a tous.
W2

Elegantly Ageing Hipsters,
Despite its torturous gustation period, W2 has always considered ‘Mamouna’ to be Bryan’s meisterwurk and would politely but violently disagree with the normally tasteful ‘Pianoman’s’ assertion that it doesn’t have any memorable tunes !
OK, it is the consummate concept album with each composition coming together seamlessly but when stripped bare (excuse the pun) it contains some of our hero’s greatest compositions.
Who could ever forget ‘The Only Face’, ‘WTWT’, ‘NYC’ or ‘Mamouna’ - not to mention the driving force that is John Buchan’s favourite’The 39 Steps’. Surely classics one and all ?
Obviously this was an interesting creative period for Ferry with the album in the melting pot for so long and with him breaking off to make Taxi - it would be great to hear his version of events. Perhaps he will reveal all in his forthcoming biography?
Salutations a tous,
W2

I'm a little perplexed at some of the ambivalence shown towards 'Mamouna' and this Special Edition. For me, it's one of those Ferry albums made special by not having any tracks I'm remotely inclined to skip - a rather wonderful whole that lives up to the sum of its parts. The only thing that distinguishes individual tracks is their varying degrees of greatness.

There's a great groove through much of it, with 'DWTK' and the frequently maligned 'N.Y.C.' kicking that aspect off rather wonderfully and 'The 39 Steps', 'WD' and 'GM' picking up the baton later. Inbetween there are a couple of songwriting career highlights in the shape of 'The Only Face', 'WWTT' and 'CR', all of which (well, especially the first two) give an insight to the more mature Ferry songwriting style that would surface again a mere 17 years later!

I have a greater appreciation of 'YPS' all these years later. That's not to say I didn't like it before, more that it seems to have appreciated with time. There's no doubt that the commercial failure of the album rests in the choice of singles, especially the opener. That begs the question, great though the album is, does it contain any hit material? Maybe not, or maybe a radio edit / remix of '39' or the surely radio-friendly 'WWTT'/'CR' might have rescued the album. We'll never know but we can be reasonably confident the actual choices were flawed.

This release is a great prompt to revisit the album which I'm enjoying greatly, almost to the exclusion of the 'bonus' material, but I look forward to becoming more familiar with this over time.

In the UK, the release hasn't troubled the Official Top 100 Album Chart but it's clear from looking at some of the underlying charts that that's a reflection of the largely non-streaming/downloading nature of BF's core audience. Without those factors, we see the album is at 18 on both the Official Album Sales and Physical Album charts and 23 on the Official Vinyl album chart. In the Official Record Store chart it's no. 7.

Fanatical Ferryistas,
What a fabulous summation from UKRichard.
He completely nails it ….. Our hero is fortunate to have such tasteful fans.
Quel bon gout!
Salutations a tous.
W2

Cher W2,
Sorry that you took it that way. I was just pleased to see BF looking healthy. Besides, I don´t think the photo was taken with any bad intention - au contraire!
Still waiting for the deluxe/delightful to arrive. I can´t understand the bad comments about Mamouna and that noire era in general. For me it´s far more interesting that the early, noisy RM material that almost go on my nerves these days. Anyway, more that anything else, it shows the magnitude of our hero´s genius. His music is so diverse.
Salutations!