The Glam Rock Icon and Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry celebrates 79
The lead singer for Roxy Music was born on this day in 1945
The Glam Rock Icon and Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry celebrates 79
Bryan Ferry was born on September 26th, 1945, in Durham, England, he formed Roxy Music with Graham Simpson in November 1970 together with Brian Eno, Andy Mackay, Paul Thompson and Phil Manzanera. The band became one of the earliest Glam and Art Rock expressions of the 1970’s. Roxy Music’s first hit, “Virginia Plain”, made the UK Top 5 in 1972, and was followed up with several hit singles such as “Ladytron,” “Do the Strand” and “Street Life” among others. Their second album “For Your Pleasure” was released in 1973 and features the iconic cover with Bryan Ferry’s girlfriend at the time, the model Amanda Lear, the mysterious Dali and (later) David Bowie protégé that dated some of Rock’s most famous musicians including Brian Jones from The Rolling Stones and David Bowie. The cover of “For Your Pleasure” is just one of the many iconic Roxy Music albums covers featuring models. The band continued to enjoy a wave of success during the 70’s with albums such as “Country Life” and the 1975 “Siren” which again featured another famous model on the cover, Jerry Hall, that was dating Bryan Ferry at the time (they split around that time when she met Mick Jagger at Ferry’s house). As Glam Rock reached an end, Roxy Music switched their musical direction and the 1980’s saw the band’s final albums approaching a more polished commercial Pop sound as their 1970’s wave of Glam Rock hit singles had come to an end with the coming of a new decade. Their first and only UK number one single was John Lennon’s cover “Jealous Guy,” released in 1981 as a posthumous tribute to Lennon who had been murdered some months earlier. It was the only one of their singles not to be written or co-written by Ferry. The band’s final album “Avalon” from 1982 that brought Roxy Music back to the charts with the hit singles “More Than This” and “Avalon” however, soon after the bad broke up and Bryan Ferry pursued his solo career that earned him some of his most memorable songs such as “Kiss and Tell,” “Slave to Love” and “Don’t Stop the Dance.” During the 90’s the singer remained active experimenting with other musical styles such as jazz standards rather than Rock and Pop, though getting back to the genre occasionally, however without the same chart success he had in the 70’s and 80’s. Ferry also worked as an actor on 2005 film Breakfast on Pluto as the character ‘Mr. Silky String’. Bryan Ferry turns 79 today.
Listen to some of Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry best songs compiled by Pop Expresso on Spotify
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