Bryan Ferry’s favourite Roxy Music song
When Roxy Music first emerged in 1972, many people were not entirely sure what to make of the band, both audibly and visually. The flamboyantly garbed collective was difficult to pigeonhole. They certainly shared much of their DNA with the burgeoning prog-rock movement, but their style, thanks to that seductive Bryan Ferry croon, also pointed towards the burgeoning glam-rock craze by the likes of David Bowie and Marc Bolan.
Where prog-rock took a route of fastidious experimentation through the mid-70s – in stark contrast to the punk movement – acts like Roxy Music and David Bowie were punk progenitors, with Sex Pistols among countless subsequent acts citing them as prime influences.
In Roxy Music’s case, the band grew through eight progressive studio albums over ten years, split into two distinct eras. Between their 1972 eponymous debut album and 1975’s Siren, the band introduced an unprecedented art rock sound with the initial involvement of synth master Brian Eno.
In 1976, Roxy Music disbanded while Ferry worked on several solo projects. When they reunited in 1978, the band’s sound had fallen on pastures new. This unexplored territory focussed less on experimentation, boasting smoother, more polished compositions that would inform the 1980s new romantic era. This second chapter for the band reached both its conclusion and zenith with 1982’s Avalon.
In a 2022 interview feature with Vulture, Ferry reflected on his career with Roxy Music and discussed his proudest moments. Revealing an immense pride for his early work, he picked out For Your Pleasure, the band’s second studio album, as a personal favourite but explained that a track on the third LP, Stranded, was his all-time favourite.
“‘Mother of Pearl’ always comes up as a favourite for me because it’s very wordy, and I feel that it has very interesting lyrics,” Ferry opined. “It’s emotional, and yet it jumps around from one structure to another, which I like. It was on the third album, Stranded, and I felt I was on a bit of a roll with my writing at that point.”
“It’s the only song I didn’t write on the keyboard,” he continued on the song’s genesis. “I took a bass guitar away with me for a couple of weeks to do some writing. I had a small keyboard and a cassette, and I recorded it. I wrote the song out in Greece, and my friend Simon Puxley was with me, who was Roxy’s press agent in the early days. He wrote the sleeve notes on the first Roxy album. ‘Mother of Pearl’ is a song I very rarely play live because it’s such a long song. It’s one of those songs where I felt I got it right for myself”.
He added: “It took some great playing on the actual record as well. Great drumming from Paul Thompson. John Gustafson, the bass player, was outstanding. Yeah, I think it worked very well. It’s one of the highlights of Roxy. The album before it was For Your Pleasure; that’s probably my favourite album overall. But after For Your Pleasure, I did my first solo album, which was full of covers. It was like being on holiday away from my own writing. When I came back to writing a few weeks later with ‘Mother of Pearl’, it was nice to write something new again. It worked.”
Listen to Roxy Music’s early classic and Bryan Ferry’s favourite below.
