Why Bryan Ferry rarely performs his favourite Roxy Music song
Perhaps just behind David Bowie, Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry stands out as one of the glam-rock era’s suavest proponents. From his glitter-clad years in the early 1970s to the besuited days beyond, Ferry always matched a classy exterior with a unique vocal command of sensual croons and colourful vibrato.
Through its ten-year run in the studio, Roxy Music evolved through eight studio albums, each bringing something new to the table. What began with quirky art rock propelled by Brian Eno’s experimental synth treatments crossed the finish line in 1982, a refined and polished synth-pop gem. The bookending album Avalon has its endorsers for understandable reasons, but for most longtime Roxy fans, the early albums are due the most praise.
Like his most devoted fans, Ferry enjoys moments in each album, but his fondest memories hail from the early 1970s. In a 2022 interview feature with Vulture, Ferry reflected on his career with Roxy Music, discussing his proudest moments. He picked out 1973’s For Your Pleasure, the band’s second studio album and final with Eno as a personal favourite.
“That’s probably my favourite album overall,” he said. “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 Ferry returned from his “holiday”, he felt refreshed and ready to follow up For Your Pleasure with equally compelling compositions. Among his early songs for 1973’s Stranded was the vibrant and multifaceted ‘Mother of Pearl’. “When I came back to writing a few weeks later with ‘Mother of Pearl’, it was nice to write something new again. It worked,” Ferry remembered.
Although For Your Pleasure dazzled with consistency and stand-out moments like ‘Editions of You’ and ‘In Every Dream Home A Heartache’, ‘Mother of Pearl’ stands proud amid the entire Roxy Music catalogue in Ferry’s eyes. “‘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 explained. “It’s emotional, and yet it jumps around from one structure to another, which I like. […] I felt I was on a bit of a roll with my writing at that point.”
While Ferry usually writes using a keyboard or piano, ‘Mother of Pearl’ was something of an anomaly. “It’s the only song I didn’t write on the keyboard,” he revealed. “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.”
At nearly seven minutes long, ‘Mother of Pearl’ proves difficult to squeeze into setlists. Instead of truncating the song, Ferry prefers to leave it untouched with an “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” attitude. “‘Mother of Pearl’ is a song I very rarely play live because it’s such a long song,” Ferry explained. “It’s one of those songs where I felt I got it right for myself. 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.”
Listen to Bryan Ferry’s favourite Roxy Music song below.
