YMMV / Roxy Music

• Americans Hate Tingle: Like a lot of Glam Rock bands, Roxy Music had a tough time cracking the American market despite favorable critical reviews until "Love is the Drug" became a hit in 1975. Even then, they always had a smaller cult following stateside despite being huge in their native U.K. Still, the band managed to influence many Punk Rock, New Wave, and Alternative Rock bands on the other side of The Pond as much as they did back home.
• Awesome Music: Most fans won't dispute that the first five albums count, and Avalon is hailed as a return to form as well.
  • Even though Manifesto and Flesh + Blood are less liked, songs like "Angel Eyes", "Dance Away", "Oh Yeah", "Same Old Scene" and "Over You" definitely count as awesome. In fact, critical consensus is that neither Manifesto nor Flesh + Blood are outright bad, they just fall short compared to the other six Roxy Music albums.
• Broken Base: Inevitable with a band whose sound continuously evolved over the course of their career. Some fans only like the band's 1971-1972 "art glam" period, when Brian Eno was in it and dominating the band's sound (a view taken by a biography of the band). Some prefer the band's 1973-1975 output, when the band shifted more overtly to glam rock (for what it's worth, Eno seems to prefer this period, particularly singling out Stranded as his favorite Roxy Music album). Some fans still like the band from 1978-1980, when they smoothed out the rougher edges but were still somewhat of a glam rock band. Another group of fans prefer the sophistipop sound of the 1982-1983 Avalon era, when the band's music was dominated by Bryan Ferry's love of pop and jazz.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • With — rather obviously, after Brian Eno confessed to be a fan of them — Ladytron.
  • Thanks to Eno's prolific nature as a collaborator in the music industry, a lot of Roxy Music fans end up getting into the works of other artists Eno worked with (e.g. David Bowie, Talking Heads, Genesis, etc.), and vice-versa.
  • Also with Pink Floyd, due to Phil Manzanera's collaborations and personal friendship with David Gilmour. Furthering the Floyd-Roxy connection, original guitarist Davy O'List of The Nice filled in for Syd Barrett for one gig when he was unable to play.
  • There's a noticeable overlap between fans of Roxy Music and fans of EG labelmates King Crimson thanks to the two being closely affiliated with one another. Among other things, Bryan Ferry auditioned to be King Crimson's vocalist, Peter Sinfield produced Roxy Music's debut album, and John Wetton served as Roxy Music's touring bassist in 1974.
• Ho Yay: Ferry's solo version of Lesley Gore's "It's My Party" uses the original lyrics, referring to a boyfriend Johnny. In interviews, Ferry said he did it primarily to appeal to the band's gay fans.
• Memetic Mutation: Their performance of "Virginia Plain" on Top of the Pops in 1972 has spawned parodies.
• Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales: Bryan Ferry's solo track "Tokyo Joe" is in fact his Signature Song in Japan. This is despite it being written in broken English and having stereotypical Japanese string motifs. There are two likely reasons— in these pre-anime days the Japanese were flattered by the positive reference to their country in songs, and the song makes reference to a glamorous young Japanese lady (the usual audience for Western pop music in Japan at the time).
• Older Than They Think: There are a few examples:
  • "Psalm", which wouldn't be recorded until 1973's album Stranded, is supposedly the first song Bryan Ferry ever wrote as a teenager back in the 1960s, years prior to joining the band.
  • "Grey Lagoons", under the original name "The Bogus Man Part 2", predates the first Roxy Music album and was played on its tour and on some TV appearances. However, it wasn't included on it. Whilst logic would imply that "The Bogus Man" was written back then too, there have been no recordings.
  • "The Pride And The Pain" (The B-Side of "Pyjamarama") was an outtake from the group's first album, which bears a striking resemblance to the intro of "Ladytron".
  • The Bryan Ferry solo version of "Casanova" is an outtake from the Another Time Another Place sessions, evident from the identical clavinet sound and mix to "The In-Crowd". Not wanting to use two original songs on the (mostly cover) album, the track was saved for Roxy Music's forthcoming Country Life LP and rocked up somewhat. The outtake recording was unearthed used as filler on the Let's Stick Together compilation in 1976, and later included as the B-Side to "What Goes On" in 1978. The group did not perform "Casanova" live until after their 1979 reunion, and tend to play the arrangement from Ferry's solo version.
  • "Dance Away" and "To Turn You On" were originally outtakes from Bryan's solo album The Bride Stripped Bare at the time it was going to be a double. When Roxy reformed, Bryan and the group both felt "Dance Away" could be a hit, so they recorded it for Manifesto, where it subsequently became their comeback hit. Flesh + Blood followed, but in late 1980, Ferry had been remixing some of the outtakes for the planned follow up to "Bride" when the news of John Lennon's death broke. After adding a cover of Lennon's "Jealous Guy" to their live set (which Ferry had wanted to cover for years anyway), they studio recorded it as a one off single. Not having any new Roxy Music tracks to hand, they simply repurposed the mastered solo recording of "To Turn You On" as its B-Side. The track was later released on Avalon with some drum machine overdubbed, and despite being 4 years old and featuring a different band, fits quite well.
  • In addition to the above two tracks, "Crazy Love", "Broken Wings", "Feel The Need" and "He'll Have To Go" were also recorded in 1978 for The Bride Stripped Bare, mixed in 1981, but released on the Windswept EP in 1985 except for "He'll Have To Go" on The Ultimate Collection in 1988.
  • Ferry's 1986 solo track "Is Your Love Strong Enough" is based on an unfinished Avalon outtake called "Circles", which leaked.
  • Ferry's solo track "San Simeon" from Frantic was based on a part of "In Every Dream Home A Heartache" that was cut for making it too long.
  • Three tracks on Ferry's solo album Avonmore were from older songs - "Lost" is based on an unfinished Avalon outtake leaked as "Unreleased #1", "Loop De Li" is based on the outtake "Your Love Has Died" from the Horoscope sessions of 1990, and "Midnight Train" was also rerecorded from the Horoscope sessions.
  • "You Can Dance" and "Alphaville" from Bryan Ferry's Olympia were rerecordings of outtakes from the late '90s Alphaville sessions.
• Signature Song: "Love Is The Drug" and "More Than This" are their most recognized songs. Other notable examples are "Virginia Plain", "Do The Strand", "Dance Away", "Jealous Guy" and "Avalon".
• Vindicated by History: The group's 1979 comeback single "Trash" was such a flop at the time that many forget it even was a single. It was also seen as an unsuccessful imitation of the then-popular punk and new wave genres. These days, with those genres having fallen out of cultural significance (though retaining a substantial following), it's simply seen as what it is, a fast-paced party song that is still blatantly Roxy.

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