The 500 - #374 - Siren - Roxy Music

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Album # 374

Album Title: Siren
Artist: Roxy Music

Genre: Art Rock, Glam Rock, Art Pop
Recorded: AIR Studios, London
Released: October, 1975
My age at release: 10 (Guest blogger, Doug Hampson, was 16)
How familiar was I with it before this week: One Song
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Love Is The Drug

Last November, posted about album #396 on The 500, For Your Pleasure, by British Art Rock band Roxy Music. The post included a contribution from my long-time friend Bill Gudgeon who worked as an FM Radio disc jockey and band manager in the 1970s. Within minutes of the blog hitting my social media feed, I received a call from Doug, a friend I met 20 years ago through Bill.

Doug Hampson enjoying his favourite pasttime.

"I just read your Roxy Music post," Doug began, "I have a great story about that band." As he shared his tale with me, I quickly looked at The 500 List to discover that Roxy Music had another record, Siren, their fifth release, at position #374.

"Would you be willing to share that story next April, Doug?" I asked.

"Absolutely," he replied enthusiastically and, even through the phone line, I could imagine his face with the familiar grin my friends and I have all come to love from the guy we call "Dougie".  

Doug plying the waters of Ontario

From Doug:

On February 8, 1975, at the tender age of 16, I went to my first real concert. It was Roxy Music at the London Arena in London, Ontario. The only thing I knew about the group was the song Mother of Pearl from their third record, 1973's Stranded.

Album Cover for Stranded by Roxy Music (1973)

During the winter of 1975 I was a member of a local Boy Scout troop. Our fearless leader, Scout Master Larry, announced he was working security for the upcoming Roxy Music concert. He suggested that the concert would be an excellent outing for our troop and he would be able to monitor our safety while working at the show.

London Arena (1920) from The Western Archives

We couldn’t believe we were going to have this opportunity. We had to make preparations and began saving money in earnest. As luck would have it, we ended up with enough cash for our tickets, with money to spare. 

A partial ticket stub from the London show 

So, we did what most teenagers in the 1970s would do; we bought a bag of marijuana. One of the more experienced members of our group rolled the entire contents into doobies (marijuana cigarettes) and, after sneaking it past security, we each received three joints. 

With the passage of time, and perhaps those three joints, my memory about the event is a bit of a blur. However, I vividly remember the start of the show. The house lights dimmed and Roxy Music took the stage. The first five members were long-haired and freaky-looking. They went to their respective instruments and began playing. After a minute or two, out strolled a dashing man in a tuxedo. All I could think was, "Who the hell is this guy?"

Roxy Music (1975)

Then he started singing. What a voice! I later learned this was Bryan Ferry, founder, lead singer and principal songwriter for Roxy Music. But, I wasn't interested in details at the time; I was too busy having the time of my life on this "scout-sanctioned" outing. That feeling of excitement about live performances has never gone away. I still experience the same anticipation and electric delight when I attend a concert to this day.  Thanks, Larry.

More from me:

Roxy Music went on to release this week's album, Siren, eight months after the London performance. It featured one of their biggest hits, Love Is The Drug, which peaked at #2 in the UK and #3 in Canada. The video features Ferry dressed in a British air pilot's uniform, while sporting a gold and black eye-patch. This wasn't a fashion choice. Ferry had injured the eye a few days before the scheduled video shoot. Regardless, it created a buzz among Roxy Music devotees and many began to arrive at their concerts wearing the eye-patch as an accessory. 

Bryan Ferry in the Love Is A Drug video

Roxy Music released eight records between 1972 and 1982 before disbanding. Ferry continued with a successful solo career, while the other members found success with other bands. The group would reunite multiple times between 2001 and 2011 before declaring that they were disbanding permanently.

Roxy Music inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

In 2014, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by John Taylor and Simon Le Bon of the group Duran Duran, who, like dozens of other artists, cite Roxy Music as a formative influence. 

The 500 - #462 - R.E.M. - Document

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

My plan (amended). 

• 1 or 2 records per week & at least 2 complete listens.
• A quick blog post for each, highlighting the important details and a quick background story.
• No rating scale - just an effort to expand my appreciation.

Album # 463

Album Title: Document
Artist: R.E.M
Released: August, 1987
My age at release: 22
How familiar am I with it: Very Familiar
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: Oddfellows Local 151
Great Lyric:
Vested interest, united ties
Landed gentry, rationalize
Look who bought the myth
By Jingo, buy America
It's a sign of the times
You're sharpening stones
Walking on coals
To improve your business acumen
(Exhuming McCarthy)

Another 1987 release has appeared on Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. A few weeks ago, I wrote about Album #472, Def Leppard's Hysteria and a month ago I penned a post about #475, Tunnel of Love by Bruce Springsteen. I'll check the statistics but can confidently say that 1987 was a great year for albums.

This album is terrific. There are three versions of this record available on Spotify:

• The Original 1987 release
• The 1993 I.R.S. vintage release with bonus tracks
• The Remastered release with live tracks from1999 

I played every one of them multiple times.

I was a casual R.E.M. fan in the early 80s. Songs such as Radio Free Europe, Don't go Back to Rockville, Can't get There from Here and Fall on Me from their first four records were played regularly on our local university radio station CHRW - Radio Western (where I would later DJ) and Much Music (Canada's MTV).

However, I went through a heavy R.E.M. phase in 1992 when the commercially successful juggernaut Automatic for the People was released. 

Soon, the entire R.E.M. catalogue was in my collection - even more obscure releases, such as the live acoustic record Blue. I only managed to see the band perform live once...but I almost didn't

It was June 13, 1995 and I drove from London to Toronto with my future brother-in-law Danny and a couple fellow bartenders (Tim & Marcelo) to attend the show at the Molson Ampitheatre. 

We had booked hotel rooms in The Big Smoke and were going to make "a weekend" of it. The show was on a Tuesday night and, in the restaurant world, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are the weekends.

We left the hotel and piled into a taxi to take us to the outdoor venue. Driving in Toronto is always unpleasant - doing it near the waterfront area on the day of a concert and a Blue Jays game is downright masochistic. 

As we approached the entry gate, I reached into my back-pocket to find ... you guessed it...nothing. My ticket was gone. I checked my wallet and my pockets ... multiple times (I've never understood why I always repeat fruitless searches). Did I leave it in the room? Did I drop it in the cab? Was I pickpocketed? 

Regardless, I was sans ticket. The choices were few:

• Flag down a cab back to the hotel, then get another cab...(even as this scenario raced through my head, I knew it was ridiculous)
• Try to find the box office and see if there was another ticket available for a show already billed as "Sold Out".
• Find a scalper.

I chose the last option with a few advantages in mind.

• It was close to showtime - so any scalper would a motivated seller.
• We were in the General Admission section on the lawn - so I would remain with my friends and those were the least expensive tickets.
• I had a great pitch... I said "Hey, I left my ticket up the street at the hotel...can you sell me one for a good price so I don't have to walk back?"

It worked, I got a ticket for a little above face value.

The show was superb, promoting their latest release Monster. The set list can be found here. 

It was good to have seen them before the announcement of their break-up in 2011. Hopefully, they will reunite and tour again - when I will keep a tight grip on my ticket.

Influential Album Day 6

Day 6

This is the sixth post in a series of ten documenting the albums I consider influential. My first post, found here, provides some insight into the rationale behind this journey. The first album I selected was the Soundtrack to Oliver, which I discovered in 1973 at about age 8. My second choice can be found here and was The Cars Debut album. The third selection was All the World's A Stage from Canadian band Rush (found here). The fourth, Duran Duran's Rio is (here) and the firth, Pink Floyd's Wish you were Here is (here).

When I first learned of this challenge, I knew that a record from this group of musicians needed to be selected. As I am typing the opening sentences to this composition, I have still not settled on the single LP I will select. The story today covers about 6 years, culminating in 1986.

In 1980, I discovered the band Genesis through the album Duke. I loved everything about the sound on this album - the lyrics (the fictional story of Albert), the drumming, the keys. In particular, it seemed to bridge a gap between both progressive rock and the pop music. It was high level musicianship fused with catchy melodies.

About the same time, I heard Games Without Frontiers from Peter Gabriel’s third album (Sometimes called Melt). My buddy “Cease” was the first person to tell me that Peter Gabriel used to be in Genesis. Thus, my journey to discover everything that these two bands had to offer began. I made weekly trips to both the library and Dr. Disc (a used record store) buying or borrowing everything in the catalogue.

The most interesting discovery was the album A Trick of the Tail (1978). The cover of the LP had been painted by a student at my first high school (Kingsville) and was displayed, without the title, in the cafeteria. I had looked at it for a year - loving it, but not knowing what it was.

Between about 1981 and 1986, I was Genesis obsessed. I eventually owned everything in their standard discography as well as a few bootleg, UK and rare releases. My favourite was my Spot the Pigeon EP on blue vinyl. It now goes for over $50 on EBay, so I regret letting that one go.

I still like everything (in varying degrees) by Gabriel, Banks, Rutherford, Hackett & Collins - even No Jacket Required - it’s those horns! These LPs (from 1969 - 1986) are a deeply ingrained soundtrack to my life from age 15 - 21. The releases after were equally important - particularly the Secret World Live release from the tour I saw in 1993. It was video cassette that was really the start (genesis) to the phenomenon of “Hodgyvision”.

"Hodgyvision is the nickname my friends and I give to shared video watching - usually over cocktails. It began in the days of VHS and we would bring our cassettes cued-up with videos of live performances, comedians or any strange television fodder. It eventually morphed into DVD's & PVR recordings and now we all use our SmartPhones to cast YouTube clips through Smart TV's. Technology making our lives immeasurably easier!" 

In the summer of 1996, one week apart, Peter Gabriel’s So & Genesis’ Invisible Touch were at #1 on the charts. It was one of the few times that an artist that I loved was commercially popular - and I had mixed feelings about it.

On my 22nd birthday, July 11, 1997, my buddy Cease and I saw Peter Gabriel play live at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. I remember meeting a guy in the beer tent with a Genesis Nursery Crime concert shirt on. He seemed old - but was probably only in his early 30’s.  When you are 22 - everyone over 30 seems old. He had seen multiple incarnations of the all the bands we loved and he regaled us with stories. Ironically, I realize that I am doing the same right now! 

This concert was also one of the last times that Peter would perform his "Faith Fall" backwards in to the audience so he could be passed around by fans during the climax of Lay Your Hands on Me. I was in the throng near the front and that moment was the closest thing I had to an evangelical experience. See it from the same tour in Athens here (at about the 6:00 mark). In the end, I didn't get close enough - the crowd bowed and swayed and he was carried off to my right surprisingly quickly. Regardless, it was a surreal experience that punctuated the powerful energy a determined group of humanity can achieve.

With so much to choose from, it is tough to narrow this down - but that moment felt like a summit, so, I guess I am settling on So - to summarize a 38 year relationship with all things Genesis!