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(TV) This one's for Leo......



ROXY MUSIC: FOR YOUR PLEASURE
Dont want to re-open this particular can-o-worms butI will anyway : )



BBC JULY 12, 2003 - by Mick Fitzsimmons

Many great albums and bands thrive on creative tension. This is particularly
true of For
Your Pleasure, where the conflict between Brian Eno and Bryan Ferry resulted
in some truly
amazing music but eventually led to Eno's split.

Eno's fondness for experimentalism and randomness jarred with Ferry's
perfectionist
streak. The fact that the band had very little written or rehearsed prior to
recording the
album only fuelled Eno's avant-garde methods. Also, Ferry was beginning to
tire of Eno's
limelight grabbing stage antics.

Eno was no virtuoso, but he came into his own in the studio. He was able to
stretch out his
ideas into foreboding electronic textures of In Every Dream Home a
Heartache, matched by
Ferry's creepy lyrics about an inflatable doll. Eno's synthesizer textures
frame the tight
playing of Phil Manzanera and Andy McKay throughout. The band's formidable
sonic
assault is much in evidence on the powerful Editions of You, predating punk
by three
years.

Ferry, still the sole songwriter in the band at this point, further
demonstrated his ear for a
memorable pop hook on Do The Strand, eulogizing a new dance without actually
telling us
what it is. Instead, he merely hints at its exclusivity by telling us who's
danced it so far,
further consolidating his icily cool persona.

For Your Pleasure established Roxy as one of the most innovative rock bands
of their time.
It's marriage of synthesizer experimentalism, glam rock and pop melody
created a template for much of what would later be called New Wave -
significantly, Roxy
would regularly be cited as an influence by punks. Subsequent solo albums by
Eno and
Ferry would make the creative differences at the heart of
their partnership all too plain - Ferry would mutate into the quintessential
lounge lizard,
crooning quirky cover versions, while Eno would throw himself into the world
of studio
trickery and ambient sound, as well as becoming rock's most celebrated
diarist and egg
head.
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