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Former Roxy Music front man Bryan Ferry has weathered it all.
In those dusty proverbial musical history books, Bryan Ferry historically pulls off a lot, but that's frankly okay with us. Who else gets away with releasing endless albums of just cover songs and makes it (for the most part) sound elegant, occasionally tongue-in-cheek, but rarely the lounge-act cheesy extreme it could end up being? Why Ferry, of course. And we love him for it. Naturally, there were a lot of lowlights that came with the matching highlights along the road. We'll take the bad with the good when he's involved in masterpieces like Roxy's Siren (complete with the evergreen "Love Is The Drug" and two of the greatest breakup songs ever, "End Of The Line" and "Just Another High"). And while Ferry's solo albums were hit or miss (These Foolish Things' title track is excellent, but the cover of Lesley Gore's "It's My Party" is baffling, and the genteel Ferry covering "Sympathy For The Devil" is strange, to put it mildly), his delivery is like no one else's. One of his most overlooked solo albums is 1977's In Your Mind, a set of almost all self-penned tracks. The excellent "This is Tomorrow" and the title track bookend the album, which includes classics like "Love Me Madly Again" and the don't-ask-just-dance beats of "Tokyo Joe." Boys and Girls also deserves the usual accolades -- no one's immune to "Slave To Love," after all. Ferry's personal life was nearly as dramatic as his songs; famously, he was formerly involved with ex-Mick Jagger Texas gal Jerry Hall (who appeared on the cover of Siren). But if it took the personal drama to create the aural art, we'll take it. Check out these sites to delve more deeply into Ferry's world:
The copyright of the article Bryan Ferry in Rock Music is owned by Stephanie R. Myers. Permission to republish Bryan Ferry in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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