{"id":1366,"date":"2008-05-04T23:41:42","date_gmt":"2008-05-05T03:41:42","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2008-12-15T17:02:00","modified_gmt":"2008-12-15T17:02:00","slug":"ferry-interesting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/ferry-interesting\/","title":{"rendered":"Ferry Interesting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What is it that allows me to like <strong>Bryan Ferry<\/strong>&#8216;s unleashed solo side almost as much as I do <strong>Roxy Music<\/strong>? And that would be a lot. Compared with my general anti-camp stance on rock, my longtime enjoyment of Roxy Music and solo Bryan Ferry (up to a point  &#8211; his solo albums past the band&#8217;s breakup circa 1982 are of no interest to me &#8211; and maybe this is significant) surprises me and makes me question myself.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a song and performance that encapsulates much of what I love about Roxy Music: The Power and Glory of Rock, the introspection, the self-effacing humor, the strong rhythm section&#8230; <\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/S4J6Uyv0JDY?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>The clip also features Ferry wearing clothes and a mustache that I have found off putting on artists like Bowie and that <strong>Sparks<\/strong> guy. Why don&#8217;t I simply want to give this guy a wedgie and possibly turn my ears off to his supposedly great music, as I&#8217;ve done with some of his contemporaries?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Did the work of early Roxy Music buy him (and what the band would become) a free pass? <\/li>\n<li>Is it the fact that he seems to have a sense of humor about his persona?<\/li>\n<li>Is it the fact that the rhythm section is both tough and fluid?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In short, why do I dig Ferry but recoil at similar impulses in the music and performance of <strong>David Bowie<\/strong> and other &#8217;70s camp-rockers?<br \/>\n<!--nextpage--><br \/>\nHere&#8217;s a solo Ferry cover version of an oldie-but-goodie that I sincerely love in its well-known version by <strong>The Platters<\/strong>. <\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AAp2NmSDg8s?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>In Ferry&#8217;s hands &#8211; and in this stylized, &#8217;40s movie treatment of a promotional film &#8211; the song takes on a different tone. In Bowie&#8217;s hands, for instance, I&#8221;d be horrified at this treatment. <strong>Freddie Mercury<\/strong> could do this exact same version and promo clip and screw it up just as badly. Why? Why do <em>I<\/em> feel this way?<\/p>\n<p>Still working the white dinner jacket, here&#8217;s Bryan and Roxy Music performing another epic, melodramatic song from <em>Country Life<\/em> that I have no business liking &#8211; <em>but do!<\/em><\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IS8Sa2HDxcc?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>Back to Bryan in his solo covers mode, this time appearing on a variety show to sing a duet of an already campy song with <strong>Lulu<\/strong>. <\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/G0z5vGmhwHo?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>Unlike <strong>&#8220;Smoke Gets in Your Eyes&#8221;<\/strong>, I&#8217;m nothing more than a very casual fan of the original version of this song. Does the degree of my Anglophile leanings run deeper than I&#8217;m aware, or is Ferry simply my would-be <em>type<\/em>, as much as I can assess the affect of someone of the same sex? Is it the fact that he&#8217;s got those big, broad shoulders and therefore comes off as a man&#8217;s man, just having fun playing the camp game?<br \/>\n<!--nextpage--><br \/>\nAt the risk of offending anyone, <strong>let&#8217;s get real<\/strong> here. I know some of you are uncomfortable dealing with issues of your natural sexual leanings let alone speculation and examination of the role that a broader range of sexual perspectives might bring into play, but I&#8217;m willing to take the lead here. The hope is that I&#8217;ll learn a little more about myself and maybe be able to hear other artists in new ways.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t mean to offend anyone by stating that one of my hang-ups with Bowie, when I was younger and to an extent today, is that he strikes me as representing a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/2007\/04\/06\/bowie_aamp_balls_if_he_can_t_them_no_one\">&#8220;pussy&#8221;<\/a> point of view, in the way that vague notions of homosexuality and lack of &#8220;manliness&#8221; is called into question beginning in early adolescence, if not earlier. I honestly am put off by the fact that I usually don&#8217;t have a clue what the hell Bowie is singing about, and just as honestly I think of him as being &#8220;less a man&#8221; for &#8220;hiding&#8221; behind his characters and &#8220;cut-up&#8221; lyrics. Ferry, on the other hand, goes over the top in his late-19th century aesthete persona, but he makes no bones about the fact that he&#8217;s thinking about life&#8217;s inner meanings and his latest fling. What the hell is my problem when I judge one man as being somehow more &#8220;gay&#8221; than the other, even when I know, from scant biographical details, that both men have probably been as &#8220;straight&#8221; or straighter than myself? In other words, I&#8217;m fairly confident that each of these artists has gotten more female tail than I will if I live 300 years.<\/p>\n<p>As I&#8217;ve stated before, there&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/2007\/11\/29\/mr_mod_releases_the_list_of_30_bowie_son\">no artist who&#8217;s put out so many individual songs I love (and even a couple of albums I like a lot) whom I refuse to rank in my personal &#8220;Favorites&#8221; category as Bowie<\/a>. In fact, I probably love as many individual Bowie songs as I do Roxy Music\/Bryan Ferry songs, but Ferry&#8217;s the man for me. I&#8217;m certain that the more identifiable lyrical point of view and the humor play as much a part in my preference for Ferry\/Roxy Music as does the tough, fluid rhythm section, but can I separate the more confusing, possibly depressing aspects regarding gender roles out of the equation? Or by acknowledging these issues, have I finally outgrown the homophobic dynamic of my youth and finally worked through all this in terms of a more mature, deeper set of <em>values<\/em>?<\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZRHm-Jt5o1k?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><nav class=\"page-links\"><strong>Pages:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/ferry-interesting\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">1<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/ferry-interesting\/2\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">2<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/ferry-interesting\/3\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">3<\/span><\/a><\/nav>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is it that allows me to like Bryan Ferry&#8216;s unleashed solo side almost as much as I do Roxy Music? And that would be a lot. Compared with my general anti-camp stance on rock, my longtime enjoyment of Roxy Music and solo Bryan Ferry (up to a point &#8211; his solo albums past the <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/ferry-interesting\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[20],"tags":[1014],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1366"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1366\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}