Bryan Ferry’s favourite singer: “Soulful and just so cool”
When Roxy Music first emerged in 1972, many people were not entirely sure what to make of the band, both audibly and visually. The elegantly clothed 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 blossoming 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. They reawakened the ‘art pop’ outlook of the 1960s in a groovy new way, offering songs of great purpose without the wailing solos.
With this outlook, Roxy Music planted a flag in a unique position that, bridging the gap between glam and punk, also bordered the rich territories of soul, prog-rock and psychedelia. Whether it was the fruity, experimental material of their early albums or the suave pop of the ‘Oh Yeah’ latter years, there’s a Roxy era for everyone.
As such a diverse art-rock group, it is no surprise that Ferry and his Roxy Music bandmates have a broad taste in music – ears unlocked by many keys. In a 2013 interview feature with Pitchfork, Ferry discussed some of his musical heroes while picking out some of the albums that shaped his life – one that took him from bonking onto buses to Newcastle’s city centre to leaf through the vinyl racks to floating in a swimming pool in the South of France with Nick Cave knocking on the door to pay homage.
At the heart of this journey from the North East to the heights of musical iconography was a passion for a particular tenet of music. With folk picks from Bob Dylan and Neil Young, late ‘70s pop from Sister Sledge and Prince, and contemporary indie from Eels and Arcade Fire, Ferry flexed the full breadth of his passion. At each stop, he explained how the artist grabbed his attention or inspired his own musical journey.
They might, on the surface, seem like disparate names, but they’re all bound by an artfulness that Ferry himself embodied. Whether it was Motown or four-chord folk , Ferry liked music that, in some imperceptible way, belonged on gallery walls.
This is why a vast proportion of Ferry’s endorsement was saved for the American jazz and swing music singer Billie Holiday. Selecting her posthumous collection, The Golden Years Volume Three, as a particular favourite.
“There are certain voices that, as soon as you hear them, you’re hooked,” Ferry commented. “Leadbelly was one for me, and Shirley of the Shirelles, and Ronnie Spector. I love women’s voices, actually – I haven’t got much time for men’s voices, except for a few: Elvis, Sinatra, Lennon, Otis Redding.”
“But Billie Holiday is probably my favourite singer ever because she was so inventive, and soulful, and just so cool,” he continued, revealing his love for Holiday. “The album I listened to all the time was The Golden Years III. It had all these really well-crafted songs: ‘Summer Other Spring’, ‘The Man I Love’, ‘Body and Soul’, ‘God Bless the Child’. And the band she had on this record was fantastic, especially Teddy Wilson, the piano player. I play piano, though I’m quite basic – I use it for songwriting more than playing onstage. But my piano player for the last 12 years, Colin Good, plays just like Teddy Wilson when he wants to. He’s a proper jiver.”
Holiday, like Ferry, sang music or the masses, but in a manner that somehow assured a rare sense of elevation. Both stars were supreme, serene, and stood out among the same swathe of the proletariat with which they happily mingled.
