Customer Reviews

Flesh & Blood

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Sadly, FLESH & BLOOD is considered to be one of the lesser Roxy Music albums. While it is clearly not as chaotic and amazing as, say, FOR YOUR PLEASURE and COUNTRY LIFE, or as expertly crafted as the later AVALON, it is a collection of amazingly well-written, well-played songs that come together quite nicely. Furthermore, if one listens to many of the songs on FLESH & BLOOD, they will realize why Roxy Music was so far ahead of their time. Songs on this disc look forward to not only AVALON, but also works by other bands of that era such as DURAN DURAN and BLONDIE, to name just two.
IF you can get past the mediocre, at best, covers of EIGHT MILES HIGH and THE MIDNIGHT HOUR, you will be in for a treat. OVER YOU, OH YEAH, SAME OLD SCENE, MY ONLY LOVE, and RUNNING WILD rank as some of the finest Ferry-penned songs of the 1980's. Give it a listen. You won't be disappointed!

In 1980 Roxy Music released Flesh & Blood. The beginning of the Ferry Lounge Lizard phase, it was less than favourably received by the critics who continued to expect ground breaking progressive rock from Bry & the Boys. For me this is the least dated sounding of all the albums and probably the most influential in terms of the New Wave thing that occured with OMD, Simple Minds, Human League, ABC et al. Highlights are the Byrd`s Eight Miles High with the Funky brilliant, ending. Over You a great pop tune. My Only Love, Ferry`s ode to whoever he was involved with at the time. Oh Yeah another poignant moment with great vocal delivery. I just wonder what McKay did whilst waiting for his sax pieces which are few & far between. It appears Roxy were pretty much Ferry, Manzanera, McKay at this time with lots of session superstars, Andy Newmark, Paul Carrick ex Squeeze & other mid 70 British pop bands, Neil Hubbard & Garry Tibbs on bass of Adam & the Ants became Roxy`s touring bassist. Realistically there are no weak moments on the album. A step up from Manifesto & certainly Siren.

Of Roxy Music's eight studio releases, "Flesh + Blood" tends to be the most overlooked. While probably not the best (the usual nod for that goes to either "Siren" or "Avalon") or filled with the jaded ennui of their first four albums, "Flesh + Blood" marks the transition that was fully realized in "Avalon" to a quieter, less threatening (and Brian Eno-less) Roxy Music. The opening track, a cover of Wilson Pickett's "In The Midnight Hour" paves the way for a more tuneful, less quirky album, filled with sentimental gems such as "Oh Yeah" (one outstanding make-out track) and "My Only Love" and the brooding "Flesh And Blood." It's a fine collection of tunes, and serves as an excellent starting point for people interesting in checking out one of the most underrated bands of the '70's and early '80's.

When I was in college, I went to England already an avid fan of Avalon and Boys and Girls. I was visiting an English boy who I thought was going to be the love of my life, and he said, "Oh, you must get Flesh and Blood." It was the one great thing he gave me, and I thank him for it. The title and the cover reeled me in, but then when I heard it, phew! that was enough for me. The Same Old Scene, My Only Love, and yes, I loved the cover of Eight Miles High! Of course, Running Wild suited me perfectly as I was a young lady who thought being in love was all that mattered in the world. But, I listened to it again recently, and now I'm 33; it still hit me the same way, now with a hint of nostalgia that made me remember all those wonderful emotions and beautiful places I'd been to. Do yourself a favor and get it.

This is a good but not great album, though the best tunes (Same Old Scene, F&B) very much preface the sound and vibe of Avalon. Funky rhythms, amazing production, sweet guitar sounds, and lots of excellent tunes from Ferry's pen are here as usual, but also a few clunkers, unlike the flawless Avalon. Still...Oh Yeah, Rain Rain Rain, My Only Love and the crisp Byrds cover Eight Miles High are all very musical and still sound good thirty years later.

The original Eno Roxy feel is long gone by this point; F&B heralds the arrival of Ferry as a real popsmith without the early weirdness (no one will ever touch Virginia Plain for what it is, though). Yes, the early Roxy sound was superb and unique, but so is this at moments, and it's the clear halfway point between early Roxy, where Ferry played the lounge lizard with full irony, and his later solo career, where he became the best real lizard of all. Dance Away from Manifesto started the transition, this got halfway there, and Avalon completed the weird triumphal march/schmooze into Ferry's very own weird Valhalla of smooooth pop/rock that actually works on every level.

The reformed Roxy Music of the late seventies still released great singles, but somehow lost the knack for making great albums. Flesh and Blood, the band's second full-length from this period and their seventh total, is mostly comprised of worthwhile material, but has a few wretched fillers that drag the overall album down. Banal covers of The Byrds' Eight Miles High and Wilson Pickett's Midnight Hour are superfluous at best, while Rain Rain Rain stinks stinks stinks. The remainder of Flesh and Blood gracefully advances the maturation of Roxy's experimental glam rock into stylish, New-Romantic pop. Roxy were beginning to sound more like their imitators (Ultravox, Japan, Associates) by this time, but beneath the veneer of tousled, continental elegance lay that same aura of mystery, estrangement, and decay that characterized their pivotal earlier recordings. Avalon, the band's eighth and final studio album, may have been a more graceful, cohesive affair, but this often overlooked record has a higher concentration of truly great songs.

This might be the least respected of the Roxy Music discs. Not because it isn't good music but because there isn't any substantial ground being broken nor for that matter much substance on these songs. However, there are some very attractive to the ear songs here that sound great if your expectations are in the right place. "Over You" is a ballad that will please any discerning listener. The covers are fun "Eight Miles High" and "Midnight Hour" though they don't do anything extraordinarily exciting with those songs, just lend them the Roxy Music(c.1980) treatment. Ferry's voice and the musicianship of this band was always extraordinary and although it doesn't compare well with Roxy Musics more avante-garde sounding records(first three) nor Roxy's rock record(Country Life) it fits in with Siren and Manifesto and the later Avalon. Siren has the advantage of still having some rock on it("Whirlwind" and "Both Ends Burning")and the later Avalon features a more matured and confident sound that once again allows the band to take a new and intriguing direction. Manifesto and Flesh and Blood lack the strong and unique personalities of other Roxy discs but there are some good songs that should not be missed. Flesh and Blood especially will appeal to Avalon fans and people who kind of like the late seventies,early eighties softer sounds.

Bryan Ferry's evolutionary molding of Roxy Music hit a creative path that started with Manifesto and peaked with Avalon, and "Flesh and Blood" was the bridge between the two. He maintained the artiness of the music and removed the quirks, allowing the sound to become as smooth as silk. By now, Roxy was essentially a vehicle for Ferry, who had reduced the band to himself, Phil Manzanera and Andy Mackay.

There's a show of slick soul/disco/lounge here, bridging the poppier "Manifesto" to the sophisticated arrangements of "Avalon." Ferry's old lounge instincts appear via F+B's two covers, "Eight Miles High" and "In The Midnight Hour." I have often thought these were included as a last stab at an American hit, while in England, both the soulful "Over You" and "Same Old Scene" became hits. ("Same Old Scene" also found its way onto the cult movie Times Square Soundtrack.)

While not as brilliant as their "Avalon" swan song, "Flesh and Blood" at least compare to such later Ferry solo albums as Bête Noire or Mamouna. If that's the Bryan Ferry you prefer, "Flesh + Blood" will suit you fine.

I never understood why the critics hated this so. Sure, the glam posturing is fading, and the remakes of 8 Miles High and the Midnight Hour are campy. But Ferry's unique crooning and songcraft are starting to supplant the fashionista gimmicks of Roxy's 70's art-rock schtick with work that sticks in your head because of its beauty and content, not its image. Oh Yeah is a beautiful, wistful song of lost love that that doesn't sound dated after 24 years. My Only Love is heartache in melody, and Flesh + Blood is still hard to figure out but impossible to resist. Running Wild is a melodic musing on self-destruction, and if you've seen someone else crash-and-burn, it becomes all the more interesting. Overall, this album is better than its precursor Manifesto, and a great prelude to the classic, unforgettable Avalon. Buy it, put on your pyjamaramas,play it in a dark room with a good bottle of wine, and let it wash over you. Then see what's in your Dreamhome...

For their first album of the 80's Roxy Music took a cue from their previous album (and closer of their first decade) Manifesto. Now that didn't mean by any stretch that they cloned their previous album. Roxy Music were never much on that sort of thing. What they did were mix the rockier,funkier and more sophisticated elements of the sound they had on the previous albums together with a lot of pop craft and a lot of soul. This mixture of slick pop/rock and soul-funk instrumental approch would be hugely influential on the New Romantic spectrum of the new wave movement yet to come-everyone from Duran Duran to Culture Club. And it all began with albums such as this at the very beginning of the decade. And there's a lot individually to be appreciated within it's own context.

This album contains two cover sings in "The Midnight Hour" which,with Ferry's OG styled soulboy image and attitude makes complete sense and a very non psychedelic "Eight Miles High". Both are done in a slinky early 80's sophisticated funky soul style with some prominant bass popping. "Oh Yeah" and "Running Wild" have a prominant George Martin styled pop ballad production flavor to them. 'Same Old Scene",the title song and "No Strange Delight" are wonderful proto New Romantic style funk/pop-rock jams and excellent songs as well. "My Only On Love","Over You" and "Rain Rain Rain" have that slick,heavily reverbed slower funk/reggae-pop vibe (well slick,reverb and echo are qualities this album has in spades" that are highly indicative of the influence Roxy had on people such as Grace Jones at the time (she covered their "Love Is The Drug" after all) and there was a bit of a "giving it up/taking it back" spirit behind the sound.

It's kind of strange how based laregly upon my own listening I would up starting my Roxy Music collection with what are considered their least notable albums. But while previewing them their sound really excited me a lot and really got me interested in their sound. There's a feeling that whatever Roxy Music album one gets first they'll have a similar reaction;it'll get people interested in more depending on whatever genre variation suits their fancy. So this album and the previous album would be excellent first Roxy Music albums for those whose musical interests are R&B and funk first. No matter how you cut it they really are just excellent artist releases that I don't think time has given them credit for.